Zastava M91 at the Range
Forgotten Weapons
•
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!
Up Next in Forgotten Weapons
-
Zastava M91: Serbia Modernizes its DM...
After World War Two, Yugoslavia was left with a tremendous amount of German war material - enough that it cost to adopt the 8x57mm Mauser cartridge as its standard. The M76 precision rifle was developed for that cartridge, and saw substantial military use. By the 1980s, however, the decision was ...
-
Zastava's Heavy Hitter: The Yugoslav ...
In the 1970s, the Yugoslav Army decided that it wanted a semiautomatic marksman's rifle, something akin to the Romanian PSL or Soviet Dragunov. Not having the technical data package to manufacture the SVD, the Zastava factory set about scaling up its M70 Kalashnikov to meet this requirement. The ...
-
The FAL for British Troop Trials in 1...
The NATO rifle trials of the early 1950s eventually chose the 7.62mm x 51mm cartridge, and the British and Belgians agreed on the FAL rifle to shoot it (and they thought the US would as well, but that's another story). The British government formally accepted the FAL for troop trials, and in 1954...
