The 7.62×39 cartridge, sometimes known as the “Russian Short .30,” is interesting. It puts a 123-grain bullet out at around 2300 fps, and it is effective for what it does. Chambered in the legendary AK-47, SKS, and later rifles, this intermediary number has proven useful.

A couple of years ago, I used my BCA 7.62×39 AR and a soft-point round to take a nice doe at 149 yards. She took three steps and went down. 

BCA sent me an interesting item the other day. It is a 4.5-inch barrel, 7.62×39 AR upper. When I opened the box, my first thought was, “Wow, that’s gonna be loud!” I was right…

 Let’s take a quick look at it.

Why A Pistol In This Caliber?

Well, why not? I’ve seen .223 and .308 chambered in AR pistols before, so why not this caliber? I had some milsurp 7.62 laying around so we took it outside and shot it.

Out of my full-length AR, it generates around 2300 fps. Yeah, I hear you say, you’ll lose a thousand fps in this short barrel… maybe. Let’s see…

Sixteen hundred fps equals 699 ft./lbs of energy. That’s about the equivalent of a .357 Magnum or a downloaded .44 Magnum. I’m not sure you would want to head to the deer woods with this setup, but it would be fine for around-the-homestead duties. Or it would excel as a really cool range toy. The blast and fireball alone would single you out as a dude to be reckoned with. It is truly atomic, or as Dubya Bush called it “noo’-kul-ler”. 

Uses

What on earth would you use this for? I just mentioned a couple of reasons to own it. For those of us who live in the boonies, a rifle-caliber AR pistol makes sense. As I have mentioned in several other reviews, we have chickens and we never know what sort of predator is waiting around the oak tree to try to get into the coop.

I’ve shot possums and raccoons, and have chased or removed owls, juvenile bald eagles, and hawks from the premises. (No, I don’t shoot those!). It’s amazing what a flock of chickens will attract. So, something like this little guy with a red dot or a laser and a light would be in order.

We shot it with iron sights, just to have something on it but the sky’s the limit as to what you could mount on it since it includes a nice Pic rail on top and Magpul slots at other clock stations.  

This would make a decent truck gun. Since it comes sans an arm brace, the thing is tiny. That helps both for storage and for shooting – it’s easily maneuvered. My friend Ed is a former deputy so he has all sorts of interesting AR gadgets. He attached a one-point sling/strap and used that to help steady his shots. He also stuck a set of Daniel Defense open sights on it. More on that below.

Lastly, I could see someone employing this gun as a backup to a hunting rifle. The cartridge is legal for deer, here in the Hoosier state (on private land) and, even with the velocity hit, the 7.62×39 would be a great gun in reserve for around the camp. I’ve killed my share of deer with my mid-range hard-cast .44 Magnum loads in my 8 ⅜” S&W 629 – how much more effective would this cartridge be?

The gun has the standard AR controls. Here it’s shown with a 20-round 7.62×39 magazine. That is just about the right size for this pistol.

The full-length rail allows whatever optic you want to run, while the Magpul slots allow you to stick more Picatinny rail on the sides or bottom of the hand guard. I could go on and on, but let’s just say that it’s a normal (if shorter) upper. 

The flash hider is pure Bear Creek Arsenal – I’ve had this spiral-pattern piece on other rifles they make. It works as much as it can with this flame thrower.

Shooting This Blaster

I dug out what 7.62×39 I had and we loaded the 20-round magazine a time or two. We shot FMJ loads and saved the soft points for hunting.

Ed did the honors as he is younger, is better with iron sights, and is familiar with a one-point sling… he said they were trained to use them, pushing against the strap to steady the sights. That makes sense. 

Anyway, we shot some targets and then shot just for fun. The target was at 25 yards and the iron sights had not been zeroed. We didn’t worry about doing that for this quick review. At any rate, the gun could be coaxed into putting its bullets fairly close together as we see above (minus the flyer).

I could see figuring the sights out or putting a red dot on it as it showed some accuracy potential. We didn’t need 100-yard MOA groups with this short barrel, but we were pleased to see it be at least moderately accurate. For its intended across-the-chicken-coop range, it would suffice very well. Of course, you could stick an arm brace on it where legal and do better but that’s not how it came, nor was it the purpose of this report. It is what it is.

Final Thoughts

If you like AR pistols minus a brace and are into larger calibers, you might want to give this one a look.

For about $250, you can have a heavy-hitting pistol that could go many places with you. I guarantee that if you would have to fire it, it would command respect from all around you. This is one gun that goes off with a major ka-boom and accompanying pressure wave and fireball.

It’s not quite .50BMG-esque, but it does alright. If you get one, be sure to think out your magazine choice(s). I mentioned above that the one we used was a 20-rounder and it seems to balance OK with this short gun.

The longer 30-round mags may overbalance the gun, not to mention that they are curved like a mutated banana. This little guy is an attention-getter on both sides of the muzzle – why not try it out?

Where To Buy