I think I missed something in the conversation. My WASR shoots at 100 yards what @trackskippy gets at 200 yards! I am going to claim, the Soviet's expectations for the AK47 were that it could hit someone at 300 yards, and not necessarily a head shot.
I posted a section on Soviet sub machine guns. The primary sidearm of Soviet troops were sub machine guns, followed by Mosin Nagant rifles of various lengths. Those sub machine guns were at best 300 yard weapons, but at extreme range, the 7.62x25mm Tokarev round was running out of gas.
Neat stories about a couple of these sub machine guns here:
Gun Review: The Soviet PPSh-41 Submachine Gun
PPS-43 Submachine Gun: Budget Soviet Firepower
With the number of people the Soviets had lost by 1944, and their experience of war, the Soviets did not want, and did not build the AK 47 into a target rifle. You know, 77 years after the end of the war, people today have no conception of the death and destruction that the US had to endure, never mind the orders of magnitude greater slaughter the Soviets under went. The Soviets did not have time to train anyone to any level of marksmanship. I recently finished reading the book Notes of a Russian Sniper: Vassili Zaitsev and the Battle of Stalingrad If Vassili's grandfather had not taught him how to hunt and shoot, he would never had the marksmanship abilities he used in the war.
Any by the time the requirements for the AK47 were put down, the Soviets were far more interested in reliable, simple to make, easy to maintain, and something that was more effective than a sub machine gun round at 300 yards. Their accuracy expectations of their soldiers at range were minimal.
The US came out of WW2 still convinced that the American soldier should be a rifleman. I heard the term gravel belly soldier, someone who control a 1000 yard radius around himself, with his rifle. And the M14 was designed with this concept in mind. The M14 kept the target grade iron sights of the M1 Garand, it was long, had a fantastic trigger, and the forend sling swivel was positioned so the rifle could be shot prone with a sling. That is all target shooting stuff. And had the rifle weighed as much as a Garand, it might have made a very accurate service rifle. At it was, the lightening of the M14 that took place to satisfy the user, and the hard recoiling round it fired, took away much of the inherent accuracy that was available with beefy stocks and heavy barrels.
This is the post War military target. The 5V target. All you had to do to shoot a perfect score was hit the ten inch black at 200 yards and 300 yards.
That is not stressing at all with a match rifle. I shot on the 5V target, at the end of the day, the winner was decided by V's. If you dropped a point, you could still win. If you dropped two points you were well out of contention. This target was matched to the accuracy of the M1903/M1 Garand/M14 service rifles. My best rack grade Garand will hold the black at 200 yards, it is a rebuild, and the barrel is new. Only rounds down the tube were during acceptance testing. This is prone with a sling.
I have a number of new, and new rebuild Garands that I hand picked at the CMP that won't hold the black.
Can you beat Lee Harvey Oswald with a Garand? This is a page from his shooters book.
The class of 64 considers it took supernatural marksmanship skills to hit JFK in Dealey plaza. I have been there, on the sidewalk, under the window. Pretty easy shots in my opinion. It would be fun to try it with a 1911, don't know if I would have got three hits, but I think I would have got at least one, and a good probability of two.
Based on my experience, I am very skeptical of all the MOA and sub MOA reports I read of AK47's, SKS's, M1 Carbines, M1 Garands, and issue M14's.
Even so, the issue M14 was a more accurate weapon than the AK47. But survival of the fittest can be very unfair, and there were 100 million AK47's built, and based on the pictures I see, they are still around in massive quantities. The M14, Bill Clinton demilled almost the entire stock of military M14's. I saw an inventory report, something under 10,000 M14's were left in military inventory when George Bush was in office. The rest had been scrapped, and that is how I got so many new M14 parts out of the CMP.
When the US went to Afghanistan/Iraq, the military called back the Police loaner M14's, and of all things, the M14's still in the hands of DCM clubs. There were just not enough 7.62 Nato rifles in military inventory to meet the combat needs in that theater.
Ok..ok…, I actually still do like AK47’s. Not like I did when I built them in ‘05-‘07. I loved them back then. But as a shooter, the idea is one is meant to grow. Grow in knowledge, grow in accuracy. Sure, I had a ton of fun with my AKs. My favorite was a Hungarian FEG SA-85 that I built on a 1.6mm Receiver. I’ve posted about it before. (Picture below). It was a beautiful build. And I was so very proud of it, ad a younger man. It shot well.. VERY well! Most accurate AK I ever built anyway. Never properly grouped, but it may have been between an 2-3MOA rifle. It actually stands the ONLY gun I regret getting rid of. But I did sell it to expand on AR’s. Didn’t have much money then. Also, I had grown as a shooter! I was more accurate than my AK. It could not keep up with me. When that happened, it was quite frustrating. Last year I was contemplating building another though, as building firearms is my most loved pass time. Found a decent 80% Receiver, although parts kits are harder & harder to find! Though at that time last year, I could still find FEG under folders. But then I came to my senses & built another Top Tier AR with a Billet Lower. Also, I’m milling yet another AR Billet Lower currently. My last 80% supplier became, untrustworthy, so I set out looking for another supplier. Glad I did. Found the nicest 80% Enhanced Billet I’ve come across yet. So I ordered 1 to see how they are. I love being right about things. 
