Originally Posted by
JRB
(Puts on AK geek hat)
I love the 7.62x39 as a jack-of-all-trades round, but be careful about ammo selection for a 7.5in x39 gun that you may use defensively. Lots of flavors of x39 ammo will have consistent or intermittent watermelon-sized fireballs out of a barrel that length regardless of the muzzle device used. It is also valuable to chrono your chosen loads because in sub 10in barrels some x39 ammo loses a lot of velocity, while others only lose a little bit. Tula in particular is very dirty and loves to throw huge fireballs.
I'd try the Hornady SST black and Federal offerings and pick one that works best in your gun as the 'working' load.