Here is a pic of my AK and targets shot at 50 and 200 yrds. I did not include my 100 yrd target as I was making zero adjustments at that range and had a wider dispersion of shots on it.
I have had several AK’s in the past, somewhere between 13-16, many of which were milled receivers. I’ve always considered the milled guns to be more accurate and overall still do. This one is an Arsenal/Saiga, stamped receiver, 7.62. I felt the 50 yrd grouping to be somewhat typical for an AK, and I probably could have done a better job on my end. But after shooting a 200 yrd group, and looking throuh my spotting scope, I was amazed at this group. This was the best 200 yrd group I could ever remember getting from an AK, and a stamped receiver as well. I’ve not done a lot at 200 yrds with an AK, but my opinion was that it was capable of getting upper body hits 80-90% of the time. Now I’m getting good chest hits with this one. This may not be much to you guys with a lot of AK trigger time but I was suprised. What is your guys thought and opinions on this level of accuracy at 200 with an AK?
Anyone who has taken a Vickers Tactical AK Operators course is well aware of what the gun is capable of doing. I have been in several walk-back drills where shooters were getting good hits on a reduced IPSC steel target at 170 - 180 yards offhand… with a four second par time. This is with both optics and iron sights.
I’ve taken three classes with my stamped Arsenal AK; Randy Cain AK Operators, Louis Awerbuck Carbine, Pat Rogers Carbine. In Randy’s class I was using irons and we shot out to 200 with the guns. From what I saw of my own use and that of the other students the iron sights were the limiting factor in the accuracy, and at least 50% of that limiting factor was the inability to reliably or accurately adjust the goddamn things. I say this because shooters running red dots at that class were able to get centered much more easily, but group sizes between iron-sight shooters and optics shooters weren’t too much different.
The other limitation appears to be one of ammunition as well, since most shooters report tightened groups with commercial brass-cased ammo than the typical Wolf or other steel cased or surplus.
A pal of mine making riflemen out of some ANA guys wanted to know how he could provide improved AK accuracy to the guys in his group that became good enough to benefit from it. I said get the least clapped-out guns and some American ammo and start grouping. Of course in a sea of AK ammo over there nobody was gonna authorize funds to purchase US commercial ammo. I don’t know what came of this if anything, bit it got me thinking and I spent an afternoon grouping an 18X-scoped 7.62 Yugo AK. East Bloc/ Chinese fodder indeed is less accurate. My two best groups at 100 from bags were in the 2" range, with Federal and Lapua. Remington, Fiocchi, Winchester, were a little looser; import military-type stuff was lucky to do 4", some was more like 6-plus.
I shot a perfect score last week with a 5.45 AK/iron sights on the 300M pop-up (RETS) range. I MAY have fired more than once at some targets though :eek:
I’ve never used commerical ammo because of the price. I was shooting Wolf. I didn’t mention this in my first post, I guess I should have, which is probably the biggest reason I was suprised.
I had owned three different 5.45 AK’s in the past as well and found them to be nearly equal to a service grade AR. Thanks for the replies.
