ghjkl
Barrel and ammo have been known to be the central real issue with commonly found AK variants’ precision potential.
This is true for pretty much every rifle.
I have some sectioned AK barrels and the chambers are surprising. The throat begins right at the end of the case mouth, that is, there’s no step in the chamber at the end of the case mouth, where normally it would step down to the freebore. This too must be part of the reason AK’s are not seen at Camp Perry 
.
My 'X39 bolt gun is barreled with a Sabre stainless AR barrel and has a more traditional chamber. It will shoot 1 1/2" at 100 yards but only with Lapua ammo, military ammo being a huge accuracy limiter.
Had a pal in the war zone in charge of making riflemen out of local soldiers-- which, he was having enough success that the local AK’s started to become the limit to accuracy. He asked me about rebarreling AK’s and what else might be done to increase accuracy. They had to stick with AK’s of course. I said “get the Finnish ammo and if cost and bureaucracy are no stumbling block, get some Finnish AK’s…”. Too many stumbling blocks, of course, and he could not make this happen.
I used to have several AK’s until I bought my M4, and it is no myth that AK accuracy is the pits. I finally gave up on the AK as a platform when my so-called “cream of the crop” milled Arsenal wouldn’t even hold minute-of-coffee-can when shot side-by-side with my M4 that had no trouble turning in good groups. My AK’s got sold off after that.
It’s good news that there may be a “fix” in terms of better barrels, and better ammo. I have always thought ammo to be the culprit, but I’m not surprised that ComBloc barrels are crappy either. I had more than one Romanian AK where the makes had allowed the drill for the gas port hole in the barrel to damage the rifling opposite the gas port. That does not instill confidence in manufacturing competence to say the least.
While poor barrel construction and inconsistent ammunition definitely contribute to poor mechanical accuracy, terrible sights, large carrier mass propelled by an overabundance of gas, and the entire gun flexing like a Thai stripper when firing contribute to the rest.
Interesting.
The only AK I kept was an AK-101 clone.
The 7.62 Soviet round is kind of pointless now with the advent of newer, better more accurate intermediate cartridges (6.8, 300 blk).
The 5.45 is like a bizarre, steampunk alternate reality 5.56.
It beats a Mini 14 any day while still being as fun and “evil” to shoot as an AK. Without carcinogenic, corrosive ammo being your only option.
The unholy triad of mediocre barrels, 5 moa ammo, and crappy sights is where the typical AK starts out.
Finnish AKs are pretty much impossible to find outside of Finland…
But, yeah, I imagine any AK with a SAKO barrel and Lapua ammo should shoot quite well. And anything else is basically going to be intended to throw lots of small rocks very rapidly in the general direction of the enemy. (Although I imagine an East German AK with East German ammo would be respectably accurate.)
No doubt that a modern cartridge fired out of a modern self loading rifle will have better results in the accuracy department than a gun and cartridge that was designed almost seventy years ago. BUT 6.8, .300BLK, etc. cannot be found in abundance on American store shelves much less battlefields afar.
Quantity (and availability) has a quality all of its own.
I think the AK posed as functionally inaccurate and pretty outmoded is slightly hyperbolic. The sights, barrel, chamber manufacturing in the third world (the whole combloc was there to be blunt), combined with ammunition that is a bit crude does earn a rep. But, I go with LAV - the AK is more accurate and the AR more reliable than most people think. I LIKE the ergos of the AK - with wooden or combloc plastic. It shoulders easily, points naturally, etc. It also just feels so solid, and i just know I’ll never have a double-feed. My ‘new’ MAK 90 did 10 rounds in 2" at 50 yards, and that is fine with me for a start. If one is clearing a house or fighting in an urban environment, it has all the accuracy normally needed - and it hits with authority out to 200 meters. Sure… mag changes and bolt manipulation are NOT as fast as an AR, but its plenty useable.
Of course, it is quite dissapointing to have a ‘topotheline’ AK not provide reasonable accuracy, so I can understand the response! But, there are plenty of Romanian, Egyptian, Chinese, and other AKs out there that deliver decent combat accruacy.
I used to have a CAI Yugo that would do 10 rounds in 1.5" at 50 yards - VERY acceptable. But that was a US non-CL, GM barrel. MAYBE someone will put out a consistent US AK in 7.62 that will put out 3" at 100 yards because of good barrels and chambers. Maybe. It would be nice.
How is the accuracy of 7.62x39 AR variants?
Significantly better when you can get them to feed?
Presumably a US made barrel of good quality and the proven AR action leave only ammunition quality as the major factor to good accuracy with x39.
Not to derail, but I read on another AK centered forum that PSA is to start producing CHF AK barrels in the future. Apparently they will be made by FN, and chrome mollied if I remember correctly.
I’m not saying this is true, and my statement does lack any true credibility. Just speculating though, if it was true then we might finally see some truly quality domestic AK’s.
The thing is we ALWAYS HAD the potential to produce a very high quality 100% U.S. made AK. There’s just always been a perfect storm of low priced (but well made quality) foreign AK’s, and a very penny pinching majority customer base.
Now that imports keep getting cut off more and more, combined with rising prices on whatever is still being imported - it’s making more sense to actually start producing AK’s domestically with quality being a priority vs low cost.
If that were true you wouldn’t see similarly designed Galils turning out respectable performance.
The primary detriments to AK accuracy are (in order):
- The shooter (and the type of shooter that commonly runs AK pattern guns)
- The wobbly tangent sight (find some high speed film and watch it jump and resettle every time the trigger is pulled)
- The ammo (SCHV is more consistent, and all polycoat Wolf is garbage)
- The barrel (here and abroad AK shooters love mag dumps, drum dumps, etc… it’s not a SAW. Bi metal jacket doesn’t help)
Mount an optic on a proper East Bloc optics rail, find some decent ammo (Silver Bear “Match Effect” was good stuff… not sure I ever believed in the bullet design though), and train.
Groups will shrink quickly with any standard pattern AK.
(Perhaps still not as small as you’d like)
AK has only “so much accuracy potential”. But good barrel, chambered for round with accuracy potential and good ammo and you can get quite good results. Polish wz. 96 Beryl provides 2 of those factors: cold hammer forged barrel (that is not match grade, but very good quality) chambered in 5.56. Then when I throw Hornady Match ammo (plus decent trigger) I got consistent 1.2-1.7MOA groups, with occasional sub-MOA (I use 5 shot groups when I zero rifle, and those groups were obtained with zeroing). Good scope mount does on harm as well (Beryl has this nice mount called POPC4).
Some Beryls (disguised as “Archer”) come to US. Those have original Polish made, chf barrels, so you can check. BTW Minimum accuracy that rifle must met to be accepted by Polish military for those is 15cm@100m (roughly 5MOA) with issue ammo (from MESKO plant) up to at least 10,000 rounds. But it is not a goal, it is rejection threshold.
I don’t think it is news to anyone that an AK is merely combat accurate due to loose tolerances, receiver flex, com bloc barrels, short sight radius, inconsistent ammo, etc. I have tried to turn one or two into a DM rifle and only wound up frustrated. As it stands, my old eyes can’t use irons past 150 yds or so, or a red dot past 250 yds. And that’s a perfect envelope for the AKM. I have learned to love them for what they are and stop hanging all sorts of crap off 'em that doesn’t really help me within that 250 yd envelope. A mini red dot, light, and a simple sling. No muss no fuss. 
ghjkl
ghjkl
Kalashnikov’s avtomat is unquestionably obsolescent.
But so is the M1 Carbine, FAL, G3, M14, SG550-series, FAMAS, FNC, Beretta 92-series, SiG P220-series, Gen 2 (and earlier) Glocks, FN/Browning Hi-Power, every 1911 ever made, every revolver ever made… Countless firearms that have killed people for decades, will continue to be used to great effect killing people for decades to come, or are likely strapped to the hip/ankle or in the pocket of many of the people reading this thread.
It’s interesting to live in a time when modern combat rifles have become almost stratospherically expensive, while handguns continue to trend toward the more affordable end of the spectrum. (How many - agencies, militaries, private individuals - are buying PPQs, VP9s, Glocks, M&Ps, P320s instead of BHPs, 92s, P220-series pistols, USPs, P30s, P2000s, HK45s instead of P210s, Wilsons, Nighthawks?)
This.^^ I guess I have owned dozens over the years… with military ball, most were 4-5moa rifles, with some 545 rifles easily doing 1.5-2moa with 7n6. It’s all relative to your AO.