remy1492

Figured Id give Pl9 some gunpron.

I own a 2004 PSL made by TNG from a parts kit that is a nice rifle.
That cost me $500 in 2004 with no scope.

These new PSLs are made in Romania and put together very well.
It seems they were from older 70's era rifles, taken down to the barreled trunion, put in a new receiver then reparked a deep black. As such, the bolt, carrier and small parts dont match. The barrel, flash hider and rear sight are all serial'd the same.

The scope is serialed to the rifle, but this is moot as the original receiver was replaced, so scope alligment is off anyways.

The rifle at AIM is $530 with two mags, scope and scope cover. Expect $15 shipping to your local FFL. Subtracting the cost of the scope ($99) you are looking at $430 for a PSL now, adjusted for inflation and time, that means its almost free.

The scope is the standard LPS 4X scope, and is a LOT better than Russian optics so think twice before using something else.

As you can see, the wood is pristine, the scope in great condition and the rifle in good shape.
The rifle is dated 1975, the scope is 1976.

The_Dunedan

Very nice. How's she shoot? What's the best loading in yours?

remy1492

Have not shot this exact one yet, my older model shoots 2-4" groups at 100yards with Czech light ball, any light ball, the Russian or Bulgarian will do ok

150gr is optimal. NEVER shoot heavy ball in semi autos. That is for MGs or Bolts only.

I have one more PSL coming in a few days (this one was so pretty, I ordered another the minute I took this one out of the box). At this price, I dont see them ever getting cheaper, and since the stock of 1970s era rifles will eventually get used up, either supply will fall or price will go up.

The biggest issue on these is mag feed (almost hand fitted to each rifle) with jamming rounds, and a crappy gritty trigger.

check out this vid. Its a lightweight barrel but you can see the limits of a combat rifle that is lightweight
that barrel whips!

Fire

I have heard those are reliable and good for what they are, ie a designated marksmans rifle for reaching out and incapacitating a bad guy at about 600 or so meters.... that said, I also hear people confusing them with a sniper rifle, which they are not....but then they supposedly do what they are intended to do very well, so yeah to that....

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The_Dunedan

Mine will do 1" or so with the Czech silvertip DP light ball if I do my part, around 3/4" with Hotshot 180gr SP commercial hunting ammo. None of the other surplus ball (any weight) will do much better than 2.5". One of our customers actually has a PSL which -prefers- the Heavy Ball; only time I've ever heard of that, but it'll do about 1.25-1.5" if he's nice to it.

As for stock...well, this is where stuff gets fun. All of the PSLs out there now, except for the last few from AIM, are being assembled in the US. Nothing more's coming out of Romania as completed guns; apparently none of the importers has applied to renew their import permits for a lot of this stuff. Once AIM runs out, the PSLs will all be US-built until/unless Century Arms gets their shit together. Same situation's developed with most of the ComBloc surplus stuff; the "Bulgarian" AK-74s showing up now are all built on Nodak Spud receivers. Great guns, but not true bulgies.

And yeah, not a true sniper. That's what the SPS Tactical is for. The PSL/SVD/SASS etc. are built to fill an entirely different, larger, and much more versatile niche.

remy1492

Yeah I heard the same thing about imports. The PSLs seem to sell well, but with ever decreasing prices to lure peeps in.

I mean, for $700 you can get a good accurate hunting rifle, this thing is not accurate, its a combloc collectible beast.

Given this MAY be one of the last, I might order one more. ClassicArms always noted "this is the LAST of romy AKs" to beef up sales, so who knows.

It doesnt take a genius to know that 70s era parts will run out though.

I got tons of 74s and the new non-chrome barrels are just a sad thing. Lets hope the current legislation to un-do the barrel ban, passes.

Ilow

A friend of mine bought two of these for around $700 each last year. They are supposedly sighted in for 300 yards out of the box, and with only minor adjustments easily shot palm sized groups at that distance. Even not being familiar with shooting it I did respectably. I'm pretty sure that the Czech silver tip ammo is considered the most accurate. They do require a good deal of cooling time between shots if you are really testing the accuracy, as the barrel is pretty thin. i think they are called "sniper" rifles because the comm bloc views the role of snipers somewhat differently than we do. I think they just wanted what is essentially a designated marksman rifle that could engage in the 3-700 yd range, well beyond the realistic capabilities of the AKs. If I had an extra $700 i would think about getting one.

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The_Dunedan

Have you had a chance to wring out the Yugoslav M76? The ones we had puked on all the surplus we could find, every single country and factory, but liked commercial hunting ammo allright. About .9 or so. Have you been able to find a surplus loading those things can shoot well? I know the Yugos had a specialized sniper's load for it that was supposed to be pretty hot, but it's basically nonexistent in the States.

Plan9

Awwh, Remy cares about my needs. Thanks, bro.

Yeah, it's been my experience that the PSL and the SVD-pattern rifle as a whole... great collector's pieces but I wouldn't want one for cool guy bang-bang stuff. As a DMR, you can do a million times better today with a similar budget if you're willing to wade through used rifles or play the trading game. I've got a M1A if I need an autoloader, and a turnbolt for that really crazy long range stuff where I'm the issue and the gun isn't. Which would be 98% of guns. Heh, this post reminds me that I had this crazy buddy who ran all over northern Iraq in '03 looking for SVD parts to complete his project at home.

If I was crazy wealthy and had room in the safe, I'd buy one of these. Right now I'm actually looking at downsizing my toy pile.

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remy1492

Sure it wasn't ME?

Cant bring a whole rifle home but small keychain souvenirs or wood ornaments are great for an arts and crafts project at home. Yud be surprised how hard it is to find an SVD sight/flash hider in the states.

Like that guy in band of brothers "gotta get me that luger!"


Yeah, thePSL is no magic gun, its just the whole combloc warsaw pact thing about it I like

Plan9

Nah. Guy was a gun nut but like 4 feet tall and constantly grinning like a gremlin. He used to sleep on kitchen counters in the barracks.

Turns out you can bring home whatever you can hide in the milvan. We didn't bring the Zodiacs to the desert to get them wet, if you catch my drift.

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Whatever you can carry.

"You should not drink... and bake."

Englfreak

I just picked mine up today got mine for about 680 with all the acessories. overall i'm impressed. there was a small gouge on the wood forhandle or whatever its called. i think i can fix that with some wood putty i mean its not that big but noticible. i have not taken it out to shoot yet. I have NEVER used a scoped rifle before. I have a collection of ww2 german k98's and i've only shot 3 out of the 4 for a reason. and i cannot bring myself to alter them by adding a scope. so i bought this rifle. my brother has a mosin nagant with the same round and its got quite a kick so i figured why the hell not get a semi-auto with the same round for some nice defense! i'm one of those conspiracy guys about zombies but i dont believe the living dead will be dead, more like controlled by a chemical in the brain like an advanced case of rabies. the stuff they're making with bio-chemicals is pretty freaky and i'd like to be able to mow some people down a few hundred yards ahead instead of relying on a close quarters combat situation. i love the rifle. the pictures that have been posted make mine look like sh*t compared to that one tho.

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remy1492

The PSL is a great rifle for the money.

However for zombies, I would not trust it until youve ran a few hundred rounds down it with EACH mag.

The mags are serialed for a reason, they are handfitted to the guns. In this day and age, only Romania could do this retarded process. Your mags may misfeed or jam, especially if the springs are backwards. So shoot that rifle a lot and see how it works.