Zastava M91 at the Range
Semiauto Rifles
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12m
Today I am out at the range with a new M91 from Zastava USA. This is the civilian version of the Serbian M91 sniper’s rifle, which was developed in the 1990s to replace the M76 in Serbian Army service. The M76 was chambered for 8mm Mauser, while the M91 uses 7.62x54R. Aside from a 3-position adjustable gas system, the M91 is functionally the same as the Romanian PSL; essentially an AK action scaled up to a full-size cartridge.
The rifle was comfortable to shoot even on the highest gas setting (recommended by the user manual for the first 200 rounds fired, presumably to break in the action). Getting a good sight picture was a little bit awkward as a lefty, since the scope is offset slightly to the left of the barrel, and I found it preferable to not use the cheek rest because of this. The scope is a POSP 4×24 that came with the rifle, which seems nice enough, although I do have some concerns about parallax with it – moving my head within the eye box seemed to cause significant movement in the reticle. I was using PPU Match 7.62x54R ammunition, and shooting at 100 yards I got very consistent 4″ groups of 10 shots each. Whether this was the rifle or the optic or me, I cannot say.
Thanks to Zastava USA for providing the rifle!
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