Izhmash Tigr Hunting Rifle Range Reports
08-07-2009 I finally got to the 100 yard range today to test out some ammunition types in my 1993 Izhmash Tiger. I had Wolf 154gr FMJ, Barnaul 185gr FMJ, Unknown Russian 204gr Soft Point, my reloads.
My reloads were 7.62x54R Prvi Partizan boxer brass, IMR4895 powder (40 grains) and Lapua D166 200 grain HPBT .311 bullet. That's 10 shots with two fliers. The bottom one was the first round and caught me off guard.
The Wolf was generally not bad but after the barrel heated up I was getting groups that clustered oddly. It may have been the barrel was running hot by that point. This ammo shot very well in another Tigr.
The real surprise was this Russian hunting ammo I've had for about 10 years and never shot. It's a green lacquered steel case with a 204 grain soft point bullet. First two shots were touching and the third landed 3/4 of an inch away. I never thought such a heavy bullet would do this well. The 185 grain Barnaul was not spectacular at all in my Tiger.
Czech
silver tip surplus
1)Tried out some of the 480 rounds I bought the other day. Accuracy left
a little to be desired compaired to WOLF 147. The ammo was rather inconsistant
also. I'm gonna stick with wolf
2)Want to be a little more specific? Ive used the Czech stuff for awhile
now and find it to be only moderately (.5" or less) accurate than
the Wolfie stuff.
1)Well, with Wolf I can usually run my groups around an inch or so, but
like I said with the silver tip I was getting between 2-3. The first thing
I noticed with the czech silver tip was that compared to the wolf it felt
underpowered, but then every few rounds or so it would kick as hard as
the wolf stuff
3)I have the same result with that ammo! Shooting
from a Tiger, 100 meter grouping, I would rate the Hungarian Factory 21
LPS 148 grain ammo to 1 to 1.5" group, same with the WOlf 148 grain
ammo.Yugoslav milsurps ammo comes close to 1.5" but the POI is different
from the Wolf and Hungarian LPS! Bad results with Silver tips Czech which
opens up to 3 " and worse comes from the Albanian surplus ammo. 4)I
agree with (3), Hungarian LPS gets about 2MOA, Hungarian "Etalon"
gets 1.25MOA, still working on my zen!
Czech and Albanian are for machine guns, not for hitting a distant target
on 1st shot.
I have noticed that the Etalon has a bit of a firmer recoil to it. Aside
from when I spaz and sling one outta there, Hungarian cant be beat, especially
the price from AIM.
With etalon, 5rds fired in 20 seconds, 1-1/4" group. My best so far.
Hope the info helps.
5)I shoot the Czech Silver 148 out of the Mosin-Nagant 91/30's and the
m-44's........also the SSG-97........I have tried the Wolf, but not enough
to compare,also the Albanian........I get 1' to 1 1/2 at 100 yrds with
10 rnds in about 10 seconds out of the SSG with the Silver Tip ..........May
have to play around with the Wolf some more..........I like the lighter
bullet in the m-44 and 91/30............wont give the old shoulder tenderizer
treatment........I have tried soda cans at 200 yrds with 10 out of 10
hits with the SSG........but need to punch paper at this yardage and beyond
to see really what works the best.............like anything else I own,
certain weapons work better with this grain of ammo and so fourth............try
different stuff till you find the "one" and stock pile it...................
..........I am not light on the trigger finger so I go for the deals on
ammo........ accuracy by volume!!!!!.kiddin...........I am more of an
assaulter then a sniper
Posted by Alfajim of Portland:
I
have had my Tiger for about 9 years now and have only shot surplus ammo
through it but with some of the early silver tip I have shot a 5 shot
group at about 1.25 inches. This was with the original 4x scope. Since
then I have put an 8x scope on it but have only sighted it in and have
not shot for groups yet. My next step will be to get set up to load some
match grade ammo for it and see what I can get. When I first bought the
rifle it was hard to shoot accurately because of the flinch factor, these
are light rifles and do a good job of pounding the shoulder.
I found that the recoil pad from my French MAS 49/56 fits perfectly and
I use it for shooting from the bench. The rifle is definitely not a 1000
yard "sniper rifle" by any means but it gets more attention
at the range than most anything I own. The only mods I have done are the
military hand guards (huge cool factor) and the 8x scope. This should
help me to be more accurate since at 200 yards the 4x PSO chevron had
covered the bullseye.
PeeWee
near Mexican border
I bought my Tigr new in 1994. So far my best 5 shot group at 100yd is
1.25 w/Hungarian silver tip(168gr). Group size will open up as the barrel
heats up. Over the years I have shot just about every type of ammo. It
does not like the 203sp Russian at all(huge recoil and inaccurate). I
have recently acquired some Russian 7n1 sniper loads and hope to do better.
My upgrades include an 8x42d scope, Russian military wood stock, Bulgarian
buttpad, SVD style flash hider, and svd sight hood. I love my Tigr!
mack8384
of New Hampshire
All I can report now is that the Tiger does not like the heavier bullets
(180grn and up). The recoil is very heavy with these and it almost seems
that the action is being battered too much even with a Dragunov Parts
USA muzzle brake. Perhaps adding an adjustable gas regulator will help
this out.
Mine also does not like brass cased ammo. I've tried a some Norma brass
cased rounds and the ectractor really does a job on the case rim, actually
had a few that the rim was almost torn off. Although I was getting 1 1/2"
groups with these, I decided to stop before I had the loads dialed in.
Mine came with a military wood butt stock and I've added the wood handguards
and a SVD Bi-pod (Bi-pod works OK but is rather clumsy and awkward)
- Mack
M.
From Don B:
"I have a
Russian Tigr bought back in the mid 90's as they were being closed out.
Paid $695 plus shipping & dealer fees. It was about a 2 MOA rifle with
handloads. For reasons unknown even to me I decided to rebarrel it. I
put a 27" Lilja carbon steel match barrel of .300/.308" bore groove. I
then modified an AR15 tubular handguard (aluminum) to fit allowing the
barrel to fully float. I modified the buttstock by skeletonizing it more
than it was and adding a cheek piece. The results? It is now a 1.5 MOA
rifle using Lapua brass, Varget powder, and a 190 Sierra match King. There
are, I believe, two reasons it is not more accurate: The receiver is simply
too flimsy to allow true sub MOA accuracy and when I had it chambered
I gave no thought to the amount of freebore the original Russian chamber
specs incorporate. It appears that the 7.62x54R chamber specs are still
those of the original design for heavy round nose bullets. I should have
bought a custom reamer with a shorter throat. Even using a Sierra 220
grain Match King seated as far out as practical (so it won't fall out
of the cartridge case) I cannot get contact with the lands.
It has been a fun project but otherwise a waste of money. However it always draws stares when I take it out at the range."