About AK Accuracy..

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7.62x51NATO

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So I was out at my 1000 yard range the other day and decided to take a break from my Savage .308 after the scope mounts came loose and pull out my AK. I took a few shots at 100 yards offhand for fun and got a decent 4.5 MOA 10 shot group which I thought wasn't that bad considering I don't practice much off hand. But then, I had 2 boxes of ammo left and decided to take a swing down at the 600 yard targets. Unfortunately, the steel was taken down this weekend to be replaced so all there was out there was a tire which was about 2 feet across and some clay targets people set up to shoot at due to the lack of steel gongs. It was too hard for me to see the clay birds clearly with my eyes so I decided to put some rounds down on the tire. Boy was I surprised when about every single round of the 40 I shot at the tire landed right inside of it! It really got me to thinking about how accurate the AK really is and if most of the bad rap it gets is from people who either got a bad rifle or have not shot the rifle enough. Next time I will try to get some video of the shooting.
 
When I was deciding AK vs AR, a very kind member of the forum took the time to PM me when I had questions. The best bit of advice he gave was the accuracy of the AK is understated and the unreliability of the AR operating system is overstated. Nice to prove the Internet wrong every once in a while!
 
Considering that the round doesn't perform well at 600-1000 yards I would say you got a little lucky. Most AK's don't perform well that far out.
 
The AK was engineered to do two things reliably:

1. Fire each and every time the trigger is pulled.
2. Hit a man in the chest at 300 meters.

Unless defective, all military versions and most commercial versions will do that.
 
This particular range allows you to setup paper at 100,200, and 300 yards so I will also try to shoot some paper next time I go as well. I have to say I LOVE the Tapco G2 trigger on the rifle. The ammo used was simple Wolf 123gr Polyformance but the rifle seems to like all wolf ammo I run through it. I thought about reloading for the rifle but I'm not sure there's much of a gain to be had in terms of accuracy from reloading. If anyone has experience handloading for the AK, I would love to hear it.
 
I have had similar results with an SKS. The trajectory is hard to deal with, but at a known distance, that comes out of the equation. Boat tailed bullets at low to moderate velocity seem to "mellow out" past about 400yds for some reason. The .303 British MKVII ammo behaves the same way- mediocre accuracy at 100-200 yds, but will run hand in hand with the 06 out at 600 or more.
 
I'm not into mounting scout scopes way up front in an AK or in need tactical bling but...I've heard that installing an Ultimak front scope rail helps improve the accuracy of the AK platform.
If you're using iron sights, you might want to check out the rear peep sight set up from Texas Weapon Systems.
I had an AK with a Krebs rear peep sight on it, replaces the original rear sight, and greatly improved MY accuracy with the weapon.
 
Ah, I forgot to mention, I am using a 4x POSP scope on my AK mounted to the side rail. it hangs far enough over the iron sights so that I can still use them which I like. The POSP scope seems to work really well for me as far as improving the accuracy I get over the irons. I just dialed the elevation up to 6 and started shooting down at the 600 yard tire. Wind was not blowing much at that time so I did not have to worry much at all about that. Shots were landing consistently inside the tire which made me eager to get more ammo and try shooting an actual target at that range.
 
7.62x39 or 5.45? I've had extremely good luck with my AK74, on a cold bore it'll shot around 1.5 MOA, as it heats up it opens up to 3-4 MOA. Not shabby for a mass produced rifle using surplus ammo.

-Jenrick
 
Jenrick said:
7.62x39 or 5.45? I've had extremely good luck with my AK74, on a cold bore it'll shot around 1.5 MOA, as it heats up it opens up to 3-4 MOA. Not shabby for a mass produced rifle using surplus ammo.

-Jenrick
Click to expand...
It's a 7.62x39. It is usually an honest 2.5-3 moa gun with the wolf I run through it possibly even slightly better if I really take my time. Mine does also tend to walk the rounds high right as the barrel heats up.
 
AK in the hands of marksman can take out mansized targets even up to 400 yds.

Of course most engagements takes place within 100 yds or less.
 
I can hit a steel torso silhouette at 300m reliably firing at about 90 rounds per minute with iron sights standing with a sling support. I swapped on a Midwest industries front end with a small red dot and can get close to 120 rds/min on target. The accuracy was a definite surprise to me when I first acquired it.
 
AK in the hands of marksman can take out mansized targets even up to 400 yds.
Click to expand...

The 5.45 versions were typically zeroed at 400 meters (437 yards) and soldiers were taught to aim at the enemy's belt buckle. With the trajectory of that round you would hit somewhere between the enemy's shoulders and their waste depending on the exact range to target.

The 7.62 versions like the OP was shooting had the same thing but a 300 meter (328 yard) zero was used instead to account for the different trajectory of that round.

Anything beyond those ranges was usually left up to the guys with the SVDs. :D
 
There is one modification that can aid AK accuracy and that is to make sure that gas tube does not tightly touch both receiver and gas block. Also use quality ammo which you either must reload or buy lapua at ~3.00 dollars a shot. also if you have a slanted flash hider it will throw of the shot especially if it indexes with looseness. A well make AK is supposed to be capable of less than 3 MOA which is good enough for head shots with optics at 200 yards.
 
I was unaware of the slant brake throwing off the accuracy! I will have to remove mine and try shooting again. The crown on my rifle does look a little rough though. Would recrowning possibly help or is it impossible due to the threading on the muzzle?
 
It can still be recrowned? Also, consider one of the many A2 style flash hiders for the ak platform. They don't hurt accuracy and they aren't one the obnoxious muzzle brakes that hurt your ears and those of your neighbors on the range.
 
I was unaware of the slant brake throwing off the accuracy!
Click to expand...

The Russians supposedly discovered that which was one of the reasons behind the new muzzle brake design for the AK-74. I've also seen a thread on another board where a member tested accuracy on his 47 using both a slant brake and a muzzle nut. The slant brake increased group sizes by about 30% if I remember it correctly.
 
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