My first AK

[Cortland]

Santa done right by me this year -- I got an Arsenal, Inc. SAM-7 Classic, 4 Bulgarian 30-rnd mags in cosmo, and 200 rnds of Wolf FMJ

Click here to enbiggen

I was able to pop out to the range Saturday afternoon and fire off 100 rounds. Rifle shot about 6 inches high at 50 yards; it turns out I had the rear elevation set to П (looks like a capital Pi) -- which apparently is equivalent to 300 meters. Duh! Anyhoo, I left the sight adjustment tool at home, but after compensating I was toppling bowling pins at 50 yards with ease

I shot a paper target, too. Now it was darn cold, windy, and I didn't have my rest with me (if I can think of another excuse I'll let you know) and I was getting ~2.5" 50 yd groups with Wolf FMJ. Under better conditions with a proper rest this would naturally be better -- but I'm wondering what kind of accuracy improvement I could expect with handloads? I can get the Wolf stuff locally for about $83/1K rnds, and I figure I can handload (assuming reused cases) for about $90/1K rnds.

 

[Bullet]

Not sure about the answer to your question but a real nice looking AK.

 

[RevDisk]

I can get the Wolf stuff locally for about $83/1K rnds, and I figure I can handload (assuming reused cases) for about $90/1K rnds

With the steel cased, berdan primed pseudo milsurp Wolf rounds, you can't easily reload. You can buy regular brass that can be reloaded. Why bother with an AK, though? I imagine your grouping would likely close up somewhat, but probably not enough to justify the expense and effort.

 

[dfaugh]

I use Wolf in my SKSs

And its not very accurate...I'm lucky to get 2.5" off a rest at the bench...But with better commercial ammo (Win) they'll do signifcantly better(around 1" at 50 yards). Haven't tried handloading, yet (with Wolf and others so cheap, don't know that I ever will)...MOST of the AKs I've seen won't do much better than 2" or so anyway, but I've seen exceptions, so its worth trying.

 

[Tomac]

The most accurate 7.62x39 AKs I've ever owned were my SLR-95's. With a scope from a bench shooting Wolf they would do honest 2" groups all day at 100yds.
Tomac

 

[benEzra]

Cortland,

It has been my experience that benchresting an AK is a bit of an art. Because of the heavy, asymmetrical gas piston assembly, there are a lot of rotational and vibrational moments generated during cycling, and the forend tends to want to bounce itself off the rest, hurting accuracy and making it shoot a bit higher than from offhand.

I've gotten best results by supporting the gun as far back as possible, but it's still rather inconsistent from the bench. I can't try prone at our range, but it is possible you'd get better results from prone rather than a rest since your arm won't bounce the gun like a rest will. Also try supporting the gun with a sandbag behind the magazine instead of in front of it, and see if that changes POI or group size.

My best 5-shot group so far (from my SAR-1) has been 1.25" at 50 yards with Wolf 122-gr JHP, off a sandbag filled with corncob, from a cold barrel.

BTW, you are correct that the "capital pi" symbol is a 300-meter setting. If you use the "1" setting instead (100 m), you'll not have to compensate as much.

 

[Gewehr98]

You're doing just fine.

That's a milled-receiver AK (nice-looking, btw) and with decent ammo you can produce 2" 100-yard groups without much trouble.

With the prices of surplus, steel-cased 7.62x39 ammo being so cheap, handloading for the round is purely a labor of love. Having said that, handloads are all I feed my AK variants, but I have a Dillon that's usually set up for it.