Best AK-47 Ammo for Defense and Performance

While the AR is still America's rifle, many still own and enjoy the AK platform. Here are some of the best cartridges for defense, performance and function available in the U.S.



By James Tarr for FIREARMS NEWS


While the AR is still America's rifle, many still own and enjoy the AK platform. Here are some of the best cartridges for defense, performance and function available in the U.S.

While the 7.62x39 is considered the “intermediate assault rifle cartridge against which all others are judged,” few people actually know what kind of performance they can expect from the cartridge out of an AK. For this article, I decided to test seven 7.62x39mm loads, some similar, several very different. I chose them based on a number of factors — availability, price, and (advertised) performance. My ammo list included American Eagle FMJ, premium defensive ammo from Winchester and Hornady, and steel-­cased Russian-­made ammo from Wolf and Barnaul. My plan was to measure velocity, accuracy, and terminal performance using ballistic gel blocks.

The AR-­15 is an inherently more accurate design than the AK. The average accuracy across the board for commercial ARs currently being made in this country is 1.2 MOA, which is outstanding. When it comes to AKs, most guns will do 3–­4 MOA, depending on ammo, which is more than acceptable accuracy for both defensive and hunting use at the distances you should be using this cartridge. However, it is shooting up to that accuracy potential of the AK which is the challenging part — if you’re just using the iron sights. The sight radius on the AK is short, about the same as on an old-­school CAR-­15 … but nobody is running iron sights on their ARs any more. Heck, most ARs don’t even come with iron sights, whereas every AK does. However, more and more AKs are set up from the factory with the ability to mount optics. A number of aftermarket companies offer optic-­mounting options for AKs as well, either on the handguard or on the rear sight base, if your gun doesn’t have a scope mount rail.

While I own three AKs, only one of them is even set up from the factory to accept a scope, and I wasn’t convinced of its accuracy potential — and I wanted to use a scope, as shooting groups with iron sights would be more of a referendum on my aging eyes than it would be a test of the ammo. Luckily, I live close to RS Regulate, makers of the best AK scope mounts in the world, and borrowed one of their AKs to do accuracy testing. I had my choice of several different rifles, and chose a “standard” AK that should show typical accuracy potential. In this case, the AK was made in 1969 in Poland, which at the time was a Warsaw Pact country, which makes it a true Commie AK. It currently sports laminated wood furniture as well as an RS Regulate scope mount, onto which was attached a Vortex Viper 2.5-­10X scope. 10X is more than enough for the accuracy part of this testing.

Unlike with .223/5.56 loads, there isn’t a wide variation in bullet weights in 7.62x39. The lightest bullet tested was the Winchester PDX1 at 120 grains, and the heaviest were the 125-­grain softpoint loads from Wolf and Barnaul. To measure the velocity of the ammunition I used my Oehler Model 35P chronograph. This chrono takes a few minutes to set up, but then it is an absolute tank and provides consistent accurate results.

If you check out the accompanying table you’ll see that except for the historically slow Hornady load, all the remaining loads tested ran within 100 fps or so of each other. The standard deviation for most of the loads was single digits, which is outstanding. Assume your 7.62x39mm load will throw a 123–­125-­grain bullet downrange around 2,400 fps, and you’ll be right almost every time. The Barnaul HP, the Hornady SST, and the American Eagle FMJ provided the best accuracy, all producing 2.5 MOA groups or less, but there was not a widespread disparity. The “worst” groups were still right around 4 MOA, which is perfectly acceptable for an AK. The single best group I fired was a 1.50" smoker with American Eagle FMJ, which I could not replicate. And a reminder — your gun may shoot far differently with the same ammunition.


Both the Winchester PDX1 and Hornady SST loads (top right) are purpose-built defensive loads with bonded cores. The front of the Winchester bullet is built to fragment, and the Hornady is built to expand like a traditional handgun hollowpoint. A lot of people like buying new manufacture Russian-made steel-cased ammo, as it is inexpensive, and Tarr tested SP and HP loads from Wolf and Barnaul (bottom right). FMJ ammo is the old standby, and this 124-grain offering from American Eagle (bottom left) penetrated at least 31 inches while barely deforming, whether fired into a bare ballistic block or through the FBI’s “Heavy Clothing” barrier first. (Firearms News photo)

Empirically, you could argue that the best way to test the terminal performance of ammunition was to shoot various people with it and observe the results. This has actually happened (we learned a lot about the effectiveness of the 5.7x28 cartridge on people after the Fort Hood terrorist attack for example), but generally here in America we frown on fatal human testing. Animals are a decent substitute, pigs especially, but you run into the same problem you do with people — neither people nor animals have the same construction throughout their bodies. One bullet may hit a rib and get deflected. Another may miss the ribs but hit the liver. One may go through a lot of muscle before hitting bone. Muscle, intestines, organs, all have different densities and resistance to bullets.

In the 1980s, the idea of using ballistic gel as a tissue simulant became popular. Ballistic gel is just that; edible gelatin, however mixed in a ratio to make it much thicker than regular  Jell-­O dessert. The FBI standardized 10% ballistic gel as a good tissue simulant, which you make by adding one pound of powdered gel to nine pounds of water. The FBI even came up with a procedure to determine if the gel met the proper spec; shoot a steel BB into it from an airgun, travelling at a certain average velocity (590 fps +/-­ 30 fps), and if that BB penetrated the gel block a certain distance (8.5 cm), it was a properly calibrated gel block. Gel blocks allow you to compare apples to apples; the block is the same every time, so the only variable is the bullet performance. No artificial simulant is going to provide you an exact match to people, but 10% ballistic gel is generally considered a good “rough guess” at human flesh.

When it comes to bullet performance in gel blocks, the FBI designed a specific protocol around testing bullets, but they were originally only concerned with handgun bullets, as few FBI Special Agents at the time were issued rifles, and nobody was concerned about the “stopping power” of rifles. However, their penetration recommendations for handgun bullets are worth keeping in mind — you want a minimum twelve inches of penetration to reliably hit the bad guy’s organs from any angle, and any penetration over eighteen inches generally increases your chances of the bullet going through the bad guy and hitting an innocent bystander.

For this article, I used Clear Ballstics blocks. These blocks are actually polymer, not gelatin, but formulated to provide similar performance to FBI-­spec gel blocks. Extensive testing has shown that bullets fired into these blocks expand the same as they do standard gel blocks, but on average penetrate 10% more deeply. Keep that in mind as you look at my results.

For testing I first fired bullets from each of the seven chosen loads into bare blocks. If a bullet doesn’t perform well in bare blocks it won’t perform well, period. After that I fired bullets into blocks covered with the FBI’s “heavy clothing” barrier, which consists of a layer of denim...CONTINUE READING HERE.

Great Thread!

I love my PSA 103. Out of a sea of Ar 15’s it’s one of my most favorite rifles to shoot.   A while back I bought a 500rd case of the Barnaul SP’s just for hunting.  It absolutely sucks russian ammo imports are done. Welcome to .40-.50rd x39 ammo being the new normal.  

I did see today that Winchester has 7.62x39 now.. not exactly what I’d call blaster ammo at .74rd.

Nice! They do a great job on the 103. Did you use the SP for deer hunting or hog hunting? How did work?

I bought Winchester HP over ten years ago - it was accurate and would be good for hunting (clean powder too). (I saved the brass even though I will never reload it.) I may go over the border one day to WV and do a deer hunt with one of my AKs. If I lived there that is what I would hunt with as it's like my part of Ohio, all hills and thick woods. Its a perfect deer round for 150 and under with iron sights.


Maybe when the war is over you can get some cheap Ukrainian ammo! ;)

@Honda4828

They did knock it out of the park with the 103. I’ve owned a few arsenals and I like this PSA over all the others I’ve owned.

I bought that case, sighted it in and never took it hunting. I actually didn’t shoot a deer this past season. I got a late start and only went a few times (even though it’s literally in my back yard). We had our 5th child in September so things were hectic. I will be hunting with it this year. My land is all woods so the AK will be perfect.

Are there ammunition factories in Ukraine? Specifically ones that produce 7.62x39.

Congrats on your 5th! You must be busy - mine are in collage - don't know which time was more stressful! I hunt on my property also - came up short last year - using a .450 Bushmaster AR. We can hunt anything else (except game birds) with any gun so hogs are good to go with AKs (just none of them are near me - further south).

There are more than a few ammo factories in Ukraine. Two others were taken over in the eastern part (Century used them for Red Army Standard ammo).

They also have a large AK manufacturer, FORT. Nice Soviet style AKs (both calibers although 7.62x39 is phased out for the most part). Their semi-autos are all sold out at shops and they are still making them but everything goes to the army these days. AR-15s are still being brought in for civilian sales:

LINKS TO UKRAINIAN GUN STORES (SOME ARE MSR PAGES)

   https://ibis.net.ua/en/products/poluavtomaticheskoe/search/taktika-i-samozaschita/offset20/
   https://armelit.com.ua/en/oruzhie/nareznoe/
   https://risshunter.com/weapons/threaded/semi-automatic-rifled/
   https://arms.in.ua/index.php/zbroya-i-komplektuyuchi/zbroya/narizna
   http://latek.com.ua/
   https://safari-ukraina.com/oruzhie-nareznoe/c166283/
   http://www.schmeisser-service.com.ua/
   https://shopgun.com.ua/cupit-ruzhe/nareznoe-oruzhie/
   http://svit-zbroi.com.ua/
   https://kulya.com.ua/oruzhie/nareznoe-oruzhie/poluavtomaticheskoe-nareznoe

Appreciate all the information!!

nice article but I was disappointed to see the two domestic loads you tested are discontinued.  Also you should have added a bolt action for some accuracy testing.

Yup, this article is a rehash as none of these rounds are available.   Maybe you can find Hornady Black in brass case. I’m waiting for the typical AK knuckledragger to step in and say that nothing more than FMJ is needed.🙄