Is it a bird, is it a plane, no, its VZ58 brass!
Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2016 11:45 am
Hello all,
I will (hopefully) shortly be testing some reloads in my VZ58 MARS rifle which aside from getting a loading that groups well, works in the 16" barrel and will operate the mechanism, I also need to worry about retrieving/retaining the brass!
The gun ejects cases quite violently, upwards and to the front;
They land between 1 and 5 metres away and can be anywhere in an 120 degree arc in front. Finding them at the range at Ponteland is a nightmare as they rarely cut the grass to the front of the firing points. As I've previously been using steel cased ammo this hasn't really been an issue for cleaning up as I've just been taking a shotgun case magnet and getting them that way.
As well as retrieving the cases for further reloading, when I initially start testing the loads I want to inspect the cases immediately after firing to check for signs of excessive pressure for each case. Our club operates a procedure of free firing for a detail of about 20mins then after guns have been proved clear everyone goes forward to patch their targets. Its during this time I pick up cases. Firing one round per 20 min detail (when there may only be 5-6 details in the morning) isn't really an option, so I need to come up with a way of preventing the cases going bye-bye.
Had the gun ejected in the more conventional sideways manner this would have been a simple case of buying and attaching a rigid brass catcher, but that simply wouldn't work for the VZ58.
For the initial testing I was thinking of removing the gas piston from the gun which would effectively render it a straight pull. However, this would mean the gas being channeled to operate the mechanism is just left to blast into the handguard. If this is to unpleasant levels then its obviously not going to be practical. Further, could this lead to a greater loss of velocity of the rounds had the gun being operating normally and thus skew any accuracy results down range?
The other option is to deflect the cases either with something mounted to the gun (it has multiple picatinny rails), or have something as simple as an umbrella above it to prevent the brass going into orbit??
Any other ideas??
I will (hopefully) shortly be testing some reloads in my VZ58 MARS rifle which aside from getting a loading that groups well, works in the 16" barrel and will operate the mechanism, I also need to worry about retrieving/retaining the brass!
The gun ejects cases quite violently, upwards and to the front;
They land between 1 and 5 metres away and can be anywhere in an 120 degree arc in front. Finding them at the range at Ponteland is a nightmare as they rarely cut the grass to the front of the firing points. As I've previously been using steel cased ammo this hasn't really been an issue for cleaning up as I've just been taking a shotgun case magnet and getting them that way.
As well as retrieving the cases for further reloading, when I initially start testing the loads I want to inspect the cases immediately after firing to check for signs of excessive pressure for each case. Our club operates a procedure of free firing for a detail of about 20mins then after guns have been proved clear everyone goes forward to patch their targets. Its during this time I pick up cases. Firing one round per 20 min detail (when there may only be 5-6 details in the morning) isn't really an option, so I need to come up with a way of preventing the cases going bye-bye.
Had the gun ejected in the more conventional sideways manner this would have been a simple case of buying and attaching a rigid brass catcher, but that simply wouldn't work for the VZ58.
For the initial testing I was thinking of removing the gas piston from the gun which would effectively render it a straight pull. However, this would mean the gas being channeled to operate the mechanism is just left to blast into the handguard. If this is to unpleasant levels then its obviously not going to be practical. Further, could this lead to a greater loss of velocity of the rounds had the gun being operating normally and thus skew any accuracy results down range?
The other option is to deflect the cases either with something mounted to the gun (it has multiple picatinny rails), or have something as simple as an umbrella above it to prevent the brass going into orbit??
Any other ideas??
