Cleaning your PSL

I have two questions since you all are very knowledgeable about the PSL.

1st: Do you clean your magazines after shooting at the range? If so what do you use since I was told by many not to clean them with solvent and to only wipe them and put gun oil on them.

2nd: I am currently using a .30 cal brush to clean my barrel and was curious is this ok since I cannot find any 7.62 brushes to clean with? The reason I ask is the brush is much smaller then the barrel so I have to get at it from every angle and with my .22LR and .40 pistol they are snug to the barrel.....help please.

thanks
;)

I've cleaned my mags when I first got them with my PSL. Since my gun was unfired the mags were somewhat caked with grease or something inside.

Its also advised to look to see if your magazine's spring is placed backwards which could cause feeding problems. Anyway I say clean them and oil them, though I used Gun Scrubber on my mags I coated them with some oil since it dried out rather quick.

the most imporant thing is if you are using mil suplus ammo,it is mostly corrosive.when you get home run windex and then warm soapy water down the barrel and take off the gas tube and do the same thing.this is a must.do not put the rifle away and say i will clean it later.if you do this every time you come home from the range the corrosive ammo is not a problem.

Yes a .30 cal brush is perfect as 7.62 roughly equals .30 cal.
As far as cleaning is concerned I also use soapy water or Windex but only on the gas tube, the gas block, and inner receiver area all of witch get a fair dusting of the corrosive gasses while in use. The barrel is chrome lined, I simply run the bore cleaning brush several times and oil as any other barrel.
After I have knocked off the most of this black crap I clean the whole rifle as I would any other rifle. So far this has worked great.

I am not sure if any corrosive residue makes it down into the magazine, but I wipe mine down to be on the safe side.

I do have a mag or two that had some rust on the front top inside mag wall. I speculated that it may have been due to corrosive residue, but again I don't know for sure.

I threw my magazines on the barby.

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q224/Bounce19712/lite-baked.jpg

and the cosmo adds great flavor to the chicken!

PSLs have chrome lined barrels?

PSLs have chrome lined barrels?
YUP.

Cool. How are the Century made PSLs?

Cool. How are the Century made PSLs?

The Century PSL-54C's are built in Romania and imported by Century. I think the only US-made PSL's from kits are the ones offered by Tennessee Guns and Inter-Ordnance.

Any particular problems with them? I'm just curious because they have a few up at the gun shop near me.

Any particular problems with them? I'm just curious because they have a few up at the gun shop near me.

PSL's will be hit-or-miss on quality. Whether its built in Romania and brought over here or assembled in the USA from parts kits and resold under a new name; there will be some lemons.

Its usually the Romanian built guns that have the preference because of the whole notion of "Hey how can it be faulty from the country/guys who created the gun?" idea. Fact is and not to bash on Romania, but they don't have the fit and finish in products like other gun producing countries. That being said you're not buying a PSL for looks, you're buying for function. You can fix the looks later by refinishing and what not.

If you're interested in buying a PSL do the following when you check them out at your local gun shops.

1.) Find out who the importer is. Some are built here in the US and to correct a mistake I believe 2 versions are Romanian built-then imported. Here's the list and names.

*PSL-54C or Romak III = Century Arms (Romanian built/imported)
*SSG-97 = Inter-Ordnance (Romanian built/imported)
*FPK/Dragunov/Paratrooper = Tennessee Guns (US built from parts kits)

2.) Check for canted front sights. This is something that somewhat plagues rifles from both sides.

3.) Check if the magazine(s) lock properly; if they're tight or loose. A tight fit is desired.

4.) If its a US built gun, inspect the rivets and such along with your standard firearm inspection to-do's.

5.) Last but most importantly, see if the shop offers a return policy or if the gun still has a warranty from the importer.


The good thing about the Century guns is that you usually can return them to Century if you have a faulty rifle. I think they repair it or send you a new rifle, I'm not sure which cause I've heard of both happening from other owners on different forums.

Hope this helps.

Thanks! That helps a lot. Still not sure what my next gun will be, but I have been interesting in the PSL for a while now.

Thanks! That helps a lot. Still not sure what my next gun will be, but I have been interesting in the PSL for a while now.
I just bought a Century PSL from Gunbroker a couple of months ago.I paid a little more than the going rate ,but I got a real nice one.I was like you ,could'nt decide what I wanted and went with the PSL because I have plenty of 54r ammo( I own a coupla Mosins) and I'm glad I did.Take your time and get something that works for you.