Accurate AK?

[Badbunny]

Hey all.

I know AK's aren't the most accurate thing around, but I'm sure there's something that can be done to accurize them a bit. My Bulgarian SAR-M1 shoots about 20cm at 150m. I've loosened the gas piston tube a bit and removed the cleaning rod to remove some tensions around the barrel. And I've noticed that it shoots much better without the flash suppressor, for some odd reason. Now, my question is, what more can I do?

 

[dfariswheel]

Short of making really major alterations to the rifle the following may help:

Improve the trigger, or replace it with one that's adjustable to give a better trigger pull.

Replace the sights with better ones, or install a scope.

Improve the ammo to true Match grade. This means doing accuracy reloading with selected components, using techniques to produce Match ammo.

I assume your rifle is a milled receiver model. If not, buy a milled receiver rifle, which typically offers better accuracy.

In major changes, you could:
Replace the barrel with a longer, heavier, better quality Match barrel.

Do standard Match conditioning to the rifle, like "blueprinting" the bolt and action, and tightening up the bolt and bolt carrier assemble's fit with each other and the action.

Modify the fore end to free-float the barrel. This would require figuring out how to bond the fore end assembly to the action, and insuring it and the fore end ferrule did not touch the barrel.

Needless to say, you're not going to be able to alter an AK into a Match-grade rifle, but you can improve things somewhat by using standard rifle accuracy techniques.

I'd suggest starting with the sights, trigger, and ammo, and see where that takes you.

 

[Badbunny]

Thanks for the informative reply. I think the trigger in my SAR-M1 is probably the worst I've come across, I seriously need to have that fixed. I've tried the mojo aperture sight, but didn't like it too much. The aperture sight in SAKO rifles I used in the Army were much better. Now I have a windage-adjustable leaf-type rear sight from gunaccessories. Anyway, I have used a scope and it doesn't make much difference.

I know I'm not going to turn the thing into a sniper rifle, but I like shooting it and would like to get the most out of it. I'd like to get a bushnell holosight on it, but with this kind of accuracy, it would be kind of pointless.

I hope I don't have to change the barrel, my budget wouldn't like it one little bit. Maybe I need to recrown it.

What do you mean with "blueprinting"?

 

[dfariswheel]

"Blueprinting" or "In-lining" a rifle means to go through the action and insure that everything is in blueprint specifications.

In other words, the blueprints say the bolt face is supposed to be at 90 degrees to the bore of the barrel.
Often times it isn't perfectly at 90 degrees, and for best accuracy a gunsmith will rework the bolt face to insure that it is.

The bolt's locking lugs SHOULD, by the blueprints, make full and even contact with the locking lugs in the receiver. Usually they don't, and the gunsmith will lap the bolt to correct the fit.

Receiver threads are trued up and receiver ring faces are turned to insure they are at 90 degrees to the threads.

There is a whole process to this that is done to rifles intended for maximum accuracy, and what's actually being done is insuring that the rifle is as close to "perfect" as possible as far as being exactly as called for by the design specs and blueprints.

Most of this is done to high-accuracy bolt action rifles, but some of it works on most rifles.

However, much of this work must be done on UN-barreled actions, since lapping the bolt and truing up the bolt face alters the head space, and a barrel must be fitted to the action.

In your case, most of this isn't going to be possible, so I'd concentrate on the trigger and on the quality of ammo.
Most 7.62x39 ammo is military-grade ammo and just isn't designed for maximum accuracy.

Reloading to Match specs should offer at least some improvement, but this is time-consuming, and expensive.

 

[9mmepiphany]

i remember seeing a post somewhere...maybe on TFL...about a company who was willing to "accurize" the AK-47. i can't remember the name of the company, but they were mostly "blueprinting" the action.

they would only work with a milled receiver which they
1. "trued up"
2. redrilled the barrel mount
3. new over sized barrel, again "trued" to the frame
4. "trued" bolt guides
5. squared bolt face

this would leave you with a spec'd barreled action, to which you would add the trigger linkage and optical sight of your choice. i believed it would hold MOA

 

[Badbunny]

Before the yesterday's range trip, I removed the heat shield from the front lower handguard. It was touching the barrel. Now there's ample space between the barrel and the handguard. I believe that should be enough to keep the handguard from overheating.

The initial results were disappointing. I got something like 40cm groups from 150m, shooting prone and using the mag as a support. I used a bushnell 4x32 scope, mounted on a weaver rail. When I removed the scope and used iron sights, however, the groups shrank to about 10cm at best and 15cm at worst. I believe there's something wrong with the scope's mount or the rings. The scope itself performs just fine on a .22LR Russian TOZ rifle from the 1960's...

After the trip a friend of mine, who is a manic dremeller, took some material off the gas piston tube to make it's fit a bit looser. I'm going to get the trigger adjusted and the barrel recrowned, but I have a strong feeling I may be onto something good here.

Thanks again for all the tips. After my SAR-M1 grows up to it's final form, if there is such a thing, I'll post some pics.