AK rear sight base mod: sight off, rail in

One thing I've never liked in AKs (besides the shepherd's hook... ) is the sights. Already sub-par when you've got good eyes, they become nearly useless when your eyes start losing close focus capability, becoming such a blurred affair that you're doing more guess work than actually sighting. Eyes-wise, don't worry: either you're already there, or you're on your way there...

I love aperture sights and one is in the works, but a red dot is truly the cat's meow. The catch is that the AK was designed a few generations before these became a thing, and lacks any sensible place to affix one. Though... There is one place that is rock solid, at a red-dot-usable distance from your eyes: the rear sight base...

Got me thinking. I rummaged through my boxes of gun bits and parts, and scrounged a short Magpul M-lok rail, and a leftover from an 8" rail that I had cut to install on a big bore rifle. Measured, had a coffee, thought a bit, had some more coffee, and in the end I figured out something workable.

I removed the rear sight, filed the sight ramp flat, and cut a M-lok slot in the RSB web. Then cut and filed a piece of my leftover rail to fit, took a screw off the Magpul mini-rail, et voilà. Got me a base for a red dot, that can serve as a rear sight in an emergency (the rail has a V groove down the middle).

I'll get a red dot on it and check that everything is squared and properly lined up, then I'll drill the front of the rail and drive a roll pin through the rear sight hinge holes.




Slot cut to M-lok width. I had to relieve under the web so that the nut and screw did not rub on the carrier.





The piece of rail, filed to fit and ready to install.





Ready...

RevolvingGarbage said:

First of all, good on you for taking the D.I.Y route. As mentioned above there are for sure various aftermarket solutions that accomplish the same thing, and most people would have waited for a truck to deliver something they could bolt on and not think twice about it. There’s something special about taking a look at the tools and materials you have on hand and making a workable solution yourself instead of taking the easy way. I always find the assistance of one or several cups of coffee makes a project more enjoyable as well.

All that being said, I would hate to have deleted the rear sight base the way you did, even though I totally understand the reasoning and necessity based on your goal. That’s the part where I would have begrudgingly ordered a part that just fit the base is, but that wouldn’t have made for much of a forum post.

All in all, very cool! I would be interested to see how it looks when you put an RDS on it. Also I’m kind of curious to see what your sight picture is like using the notch in the rail as you stated.

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I'll take a pic of the sight view tomorrow and post it.

The rear sight still fits, there is enough of a notch left to hold the spring, only that it will be limited to the 100m low setting. I can't use the thing except in the best of lights anyway, so that was not my concern. The coffee-fueled creative process had more iterations, at first I had only the short Magpul rail, flat on top. Fitting problems led to find the other rail, which happened to have a V notch: had I started with that one, I'd have made sure to line up the top with the 100 or D position of the original sight...

Fully agree with you that the RSB is the only good position for a RDS on an AK. A rail on the rear cover implies complicated solutions with hinges and added weight, or tightening the cover to the tube à la Galil. A railed tube is either not stable enough, or needs brackets and adds mass to the barrel while the piston shakes it around at every shot - and the tube gets bloody hot to boot.

I've been into guns for fifty years, and the more I look at the AK, the more I love the simplicity and ruggedness of the design and the solutions used, seeing the purpose of everything behind it. Complicating it is going against its essence.

There are no trucks delivering coveted boxes here, and getting anything gun-related shipped from the US involves almost the same paperwork as trying to purchase an aircraft carrier, while charges and taxes multiply the purchase price by 3 or 4... By necessity, there is a lot of DIY going on in the neighborhood!

HankC said:

They make a rear sight rail mount for AK similar to the one for mauser, AK version is pricy but should be pretty easy to make one yourself. I guess you don't like it and decided to modify the factory rear sight block! There are also dust cover mounted scope rails as well. I have a mauser rear sight cantilever scope rail, never bothered to install it but I'm not going to chop my rear sight either, I'm happy just shoot the iron sight and keep it original. But since you are in East Africa, AK probably everywhere and cheaper than water.
https://www.brownells.com/rifle-par...ht-bases/ak-47-rear-sight-rail-prod41209.aspx

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Yes, AKs are all over the place... A bit more expensive than water, though! A new Chinese Type 56 (semi for licensed civilians) will set you back about the same amount as a SKS in the States. Everybody is using AKs here, good guys, bad guys, military, police, wildlife services, mall guards, you name it. You can't walk half a mile without seeing one or a dozen of them...

"Collector value" and "Keeping things original" have no translation in local dialects... Modifying a sight that I don't use and nobody else will ever use is a non-issue. It allows to make a mount as simply and efficiently as possible, without adding bulk and complications just trying to get around some unneeded steel standing in the way.

Purists have been turning pale when they saw that I had chopped the spiker bayonet off mine, they can't get their heads around the fact that what is precious gold in the US due to a stupid ban, is just one pound of useless metal somewhere else.

RevolvingGarbage said:

Also I’m kind of curious to see what your sight picture is like using the notch in the rail as you stated.

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Here you go...