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Izhmash Tigr Hunting Rifle Range Reports

Tigr in Russia

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.

Tiger rifle ammo

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.

Tiger ammo target

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.

Tiger with Wolf ammo

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.

Tiger range report Barnaul ammo

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

Alfajim's Tiger

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."

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