sighting in a new ak

[NC_DAVE]

After searching and reading several schools of thought i still feel alittle confused. In the fighting carbine thread I read you can zero at 100 or 50. My question was if zeroing to 100 would you place the rear sight to the 100m mark or just pull it all the back?

I was also wondering if the rear sight was pulled all the back and zeroed at 25y was the correct way? I was told this would allow use of the rear sight as intented.

I also read on another site that said to place rear sight at 100 and zero @ 25y. It was explained that doing this put you closer to 200y when rear sight is set to 200 or closer to 300 when set at 300.

The last one realy sounds crazy to me?

[KalashniKEV]

I was also wondering if the rear sight was pulled all the back and zeroed at 25y was the correct way? I was told this would allow use of the rear sight as intented.

Typically you would set the rear sight on "P" (the staple) and zero at 25m.

A 100m "zero" would be more like "shot cluster adjusted" I'm afraid.

[ForTehNguyen]

go to the free target pack here, one of the targets is an AK specific target that tells you the windage and elevation adjustments. Ive seen some trajectory charts of 7.62x39 and 25 yards looked the flattest. Yes put the rear sight at 100 yards.

http://www.haleystrategic.com/blog.php

[HalliganJoel]

The 7.62x39mm AK round does have quite a lot of "arc". The farther out you set your zero you lessen the amount of hold-overs to account for the arc's "upswing" but the bullet drop past your zero will be much more extreme.

A 25-yd zero will give you "torso sized" hits out to 300yd's. This is where the term "minute-of-man" comes from. Meaning Point of aim=point of impact @25yds. Hits from there to 100yds will creep up above the clavicles into the neck. From 100-200yds the arc starts to creep back down but above the 25yd POI. The bullet continues its arc and 300 yds will get you a shot right around the navel. The bullet continues to drop with 400-yd's being at the knees and 500 being just below the feet.

To achieve this "Battle Zero" Set the rear sight to 100 and zero your rifle @ 25 yds. When done move your rear sight back to the "P" (all the way back)

I have a build at Rifle Dynamics right now. Part of their process is zeroing the rifle before sending it back. I asked Jim what zero they recommend/use. His answer was the 25 yd Battle Zero.

[NC_DAVE]

The 7.62x39mm AK round does have quite a lot of "arc". The farther out you set your zero you lessen the amount of hold-overs to account for the arc's "upswing" but the bullet drop past your zero will be much more extreme.

A 25-yd zero will give you "torso sized" hits out to 300yd's. This is where the term "minute-of-man" comes from. Meaning Point of aim=point of impact @25yds. Hits from there to 100yds will creep up above the clavicles into the neck. From 100-200yds the arc starts to creep back down but above the 25yd POI. The bullet continues its arc and 300 yds will get you a shot right around the navel. The bullet continues to drop with 400-yd's being at the knees and 500 being just below the feet.

To achieve this "Battle Zero" Set the rear sight to 100 and zero your rifle @ 25 yds. When done move your rear sight back to the "P" (all the way back)

I have a build at Rifle Dynamics right now. Part of their process is zeroing the rifle before sending it back. I asked Jim what zero they recommend/use. His answer was the 25 yd Battle Zero.

If you sight in like this do you just leave the rear sight alone after zeroing or do you still adjust per range? And at anypoint is your point of aim really your point of impact?

[HalliganJoel]

If you sight in like this do you just leave the rear sight alone after zeroing or do you still adjust per range? And at anypoint is your point of aim really your point of impact?

Yes, when using the BZO you simply leave the rear sight @ the "P" (or "O" or "U" or whatever it says). Then you have the holdovers mentioned before. I assume that this is why it's called a Battle Zero. It's intended for gunfighting ranges.

Your second question is a good one. To be honest I can't remember. I can tell you this though, I ran a 7.62x39 AK in the inaugural Ronin Strategies AK class using this zero. Throughout the courses of fire, mostly close to intermediate range, I never missed steel nor did I have any problems doing a balance of speed and accuracy drill at different ranges. I didn't use any holdovers in the class (but I think the longest we shot was 100yds).

[Belloc]

Edit.

[HalliganJoel]

Considering the growing number of people adopting the TWS rail system, what would you recommend the best distance to sight an AK with a non-adjustable rear sight? Thanks.

IMHO I would still use the 25 yard zero. The TWS is a cool system but it doesn't change anything about the 7.62x39 and its path of travel. I think the best way to describe it would be "lobbing" rounds. Though it probably does make it easier to see.

The 25 yard zero gets you the most hits on the torso without holdovers.
A benefit of the TWS is that one would likely be better able to see their target in the zeroing process better. One of the problems with the 25 yard zero is that if one's group isn't SUPER tight its easy to fool yourself into thinking your zeroed only to have problems at longer distance. The TWS would appear to make the zeroing process more accurate and consistent.

I'd like to note that I am no expert, these are things that I've learned in the last year or two. I had to spend a lot of time searching the web and asking experts in person to figure this stuff out. I'm just trying to help answer the same questions that I once had.

[halmbarte]

I shot my 7.62x39 AK at the local rifle match for about 3 years.

The problem with 7.62x39 is there really isn't a 'best' battlesight zero, the ballistic arc is too high. This ain't 556 NATO where you can zero at 50 and gets your hits out to 250 w/o holdover or hold under.

What I did is zero at 200 yards. That puts you ~5-6" high at 100, which is pretty easy to compensate for. For 300 yard shots and further out, set your sights to '3' or the nearest setting.

H

[HalliganJoel]

That's a good point.
Is the rifle being set up for competition or "tactical" type shooting? (classes, etc)