Gun Review: The M76 Sporter, Century Arms’ Updated Yugo 8x57mm AK

By Jay Langston

What does a government do when it has hundreds of millions of rounds of surplus ammunition? A logical choice is to build a weapon to shoot that ammo. After Yugoslavia had built 1.2 million Zastava M48 bolt-action rifles from the late 1940s to the mid-1960s, the Yugoslav army needed a modern rifle to put its hoard of 8x57mm Mauser ammo to use. Specifically, the Yugoslavs wanted a semi-automatic squad DMR, and the M76 was born.

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When the Soviets designed the SVD, or Dragunov, they chambered it for the powerful 7.62x54mm rimmed cartridge. That helped the Soviets use their stores of ammunition and manufacturing capabilities to create more rounds originally designed for the 1891 Mosin-Nagant bolt-action rifle. Faced with similar circumstances, the independent-minded Yugoslavs went another route.

Several years ago, Zastava Arms began exporting M76s, which the company had been building for years. Based on the AK-47, the M76 …Read the Rest

Source:: Tactical Life