Forums.NitroExpress.com

I bought one of the OU's from CDNN just to try and figure out their regulation process. When I got my rifle and first tried shooting it, it was a disaster! The gun's trigger pulls were heavier than the gun's weight! I decided to have a look at them before trying to regulate it and sight it in. They were easy to work on but were very poorly finished. I gently filed off some burrs and stoned them down carefully. That brought them down to a useable 3.5 to 4 pounds. If your gun has terrible trigger pulls, you will not be able to do good work with it.
Next I tried to figure out their regulation system, What they have done is to put a barrel spacer inside the barrel gap at the back sight. It LOOKS like you should be able to rotate it and get more or less spread in between the barrels but nothing could be further from the truth! All it is, is a cylindrical spacer with another end dovetailed to it, that is removeable by depressing an internal spring loaded keeper by inseting a small pin punch or some other device through the hole in the dovetailed piece. Before you do that though, you must rotate the barrel spacer so the slot is up and down, so that the dovetail end can slide off into a milled out depression in the spacer block. It all sounds very complicated, and it was to begin with. Because they didn't send any directions with it to expalin this to the new owner.

After going through all this to get the barrel spacer out, you will find out that it is paralell sided. It is only a spacer! It is in no way an adjustible spacer! I called CDNN about this and they referred me to the importer in Florida, European American Armory Corp. I got ahold of one of their trouble shooters and he gave me nothing but more trouble. He told me that in order to get the gun regulated the spacer would have to be changed by a "qualified gunsmith". He really didn't want to help me at all but after much prodding and taunting on my part, he finally revealed his closely held secret. He told me that the company had other spacers that were available but that I
had to know exactly what I needed. I had already figured out the amount spread needed for the regulation of this gun. The barrel spacer needed to be reduced in diameter by about .100 of an inch to bring the points of impact together. Rather than deal with this Jackass that their company choose to employ as a "trouble shooter", I decide to just fix it myself and be done with it.

I took the material off in two stages, shooting it in between machine operations. I got it to put an upper and a lower together vertically on the same plain, but then they were spread apart right and left about 10 inches on that plain. I needed to figure out a way to adjust the points of impact for left and right. I noticed that the front spacer, which also holds the front sight, was pinned to the top barrel. I drove out that pin and then by holding the barreled action in the vise, I drove the front spacer off the ends of the barrels. The lower barrel is just a slip fit so as to be able to expand and contract seperately from the top barrel. What I found underneath the spacer was that the Russian makers had milled a half circle groove in the top barrel where the crosspin goes! That means that all you have to do to adjust the barrels for line up right and left is to put a flat pry bar between the barrels at the front spacer and pry them over! The crosspin is fitted tight enough to hold them where you stop. This may seem crude to us, but it is simple and it works well. I was concerned at first that the adjustment wouldn't hold after firing it, but it has held up just fine.
A word of caution here is important. Before you clamp the action between your padded vice jaws, the extractors need to be removed. They are easily removed by unscewing the holding screw in the left side of the extractor. Then you have a nice flat sided action to hold on to.

After all this, I mounted a scope on it and proceeded to shoot 2 inch fifty yard, two barrel groups with it. About the only useful info in the booklet that came with the rifle was the fact that the factory had used 9 gram bullets to regulate it with. That figures out about 140 grains. Lacking any 140 grain 30 caliber bullets, I called a friend and he gave me some 150 grain bullets he had bought to load in his 30-30. I made up some moderate loads with those and used them to kill three deer with the gun last winter. One shot apiece and only one moved much after the shot.

These guns look a little crude to our way of thinking, I know I thought so at first, but they are well machined and work out well once you get them regulated. My only complaint is that they are heavy and they have narrow sling swivels on them. I bought an SKS woven and leather sling for mine and it has worked out well. I just wish the companies that are making and selling these would furnish the buyers with more information on how to regulate them and the fact that exrta spacers are Supposed to be available though EAA in Florida! It would have saved me alot of headaches! I predict there will be some of these for sale at bargain prices from guys who can't get them to shoot! Bob H.