How to sight in AK?

[mnop308]

O.K., AK's are new to me. I am very impressed in the simple pressed beer can construction vs functional rugedness of the design of this thing. My question is what is the proper way to sight this thing in. I have heard a couple of recomendations, but I am thinking to sight in dead on at the 100 meter setting, and the battle sight setting will put me on somewhere between 2 and 300 meters. It seems logical to me. Then the 200 meter setting will be about on at 200 meters and so on. My sight tool will be here in a few days, and yes I know how to move the sight to zero. Any thoughts would be helpful.

 

[Wolfgang1952]

First which type, model, country do you have? Yougo, Romania, Russian? If I remember right the Romanians have a canted frount sight. The Romanian wear mostly spray and pray. 100 yds is pretty good for an AK.

 

[c10seven]

When we sited mine( a century wasr) we set it dead on at 25 yds and I adjust my rear site for distances out from there. I usually shoot at 100-110ish yards, I set ether clays or 20oz/2liter plastic bottles on the berm at sherburn. My rifle is as accurate as my eye balls let it be, but like I said I can play with 20oz water bottles at 100ish yds.

 

[#1bambam]

First which type, model, country do you have? Yougo, Romania, Russian? If I remember right the Romanians have a canted frount sight. The Romanian wear mostly spray and pray. 100 yds is pretty good for an AK.

LOL yea right.From your statement it sounds like you havent shot many AKs or you just cant shoot.

 

[Pale Horse]

LOL yea right.From your statement it sounds like you havent shot many AKs or you just cant shoot.

I second that. When I had my WASR, I could keep 5 round groups inside 3.5" at 100 yards.

As for sightin, I set mine 3-4 inches high at 100 yards using the battle setting. That puts it about dead on at 200, and about 7-8" low at 300. You don't have to adjust your aim from center of mass till past 250 yards. This is assuming you're talking about the 7.62 and not th 5.45

 

[Yrdawg]

If yours looks like a beer can you aren't on a Nodak...

Accuracy @ 100 yds is very good on mine...I zero @ 100 , I'm NOT a good shot and don't really set a rest still get 2 in groups @ 100

 

[mnop308]

It is a 7.62 WASR, and the sights are straight. I was able to check several of them over, and I picked the best looking of the bunch.

Pale Horse, if I go 3-4 inches high at 100 with the battle sight setting, where does that it put the group on the 100 meter setting?

 

[SpeedRacer]

AKs are much more accurate than people realize. They get a bad rep because most people are shoot shitty ammo out of them, and some versions are indeed less accurate than others. Run some good ammo through a well made AK and you'd be surprised.

I typically zero at 50yds, simply because that keeps me on target throughout what I consider realistic defensive range of 25-100yds.

 

[Yrdawg]

http://www.federalpremium.com/products/rifle.aspx

I was a little surprised, better than I thought...and using 158 SP and 121 FMJ was no different @ 100 when I compared them

 

[machinedrummer]

I didn't know you could sight in an ak. Just point it in the bad guys direction (sideways and they will run away.

 

[Sin-ster]

If yours looks like a beer can you aren't on a Nodak...

Accuracy @ 100 yds is very good on mine...I zero @ 100 , I'm NOT a good shot and don't really set a rest still get 2 in groups @ 100

Picture evidence, or GTFO.

AK's are indeed more accurate than most believe. Using the ammo Yrdawg listed, it's not surprising to get solid groups. For that matter, my (well built) Romy-G shocked me with Silver Bear the first few times I shot it.

 

[Pale Horse]

It is a 7.62 WASR, and the sights are straight. I was able to check several of them over, and I picked the best looking of the bunch.

Pale Horse, if I go 3-4 inches high at 100 with the battle sight setting, where does that it put the group on the 100 meter setting?

Generally a couple of inches low at 100. I honestly never changed mine once I got the battle sight zeroed, just adjusted point of aim.

 

[mnop308]

Thanks Pale Horse. This goes along with what I have heard. I will probably sight dead on top of the front sight at 100, and then see how it looks on the 2 and 300 settings. I look at this as a 2 to 300 yard gun anyway. Most of my use I would expect to be in the 25 to 150 yard range anyway, and I want it to hit point of aim-point of impact. Will see how it works out, just looking to save myself some chasing the holes around to get it figured out.

 

[SVT Bansheeman]

I shoot a 15" ish plate at 100-200 yards with my scoped mak90. Shoots very well for using cheap ammo. I just wish the trigger pull was lighter.

 

[Jed]

If I remember right, Mr Kalashnikov designed the weapon to achieve 8" groups at 150 yds.

 

[Sin-ster]

If I remember right, Mr Kalashnikov designed the weapon to achieve 8" groups at 150 yds.

Heh, that's kinda funny when you read it that way.

He designed it to feed the widest possible range of cartridge dimensions that would still fit the 7.62 x 39 distinction. The goal was to have a gun that's cheap and easy to build by unskilled laborers, and be able to feed it cheap and easy to make (with questionable specs and components) ammo with near 100% reliability.

Thanks to the necessary tolerances, the end result was a rifle that shot less-than-stellar groups. 8" at 150 yards is either a "lemon" rifle or shooter error, these days. And I don't think anyone in the history of firearms ever set out to design a rifle that wasn't accurate.

 

[Jed]

Heh, that's kinda funny when you read it that way.

He designed it to feed the widest possible range of cartridge dimensions that would still fit the 7.62 x 39 distinction. The goal was to have a gun that's cheap and easy to build by unskilled laborers, and be able to feed it cheap and easy to make (with questionable specs and components) ammo with near 100% reliability.

Thanks to the necessary tolerances, the end result was a rifle that shot less-than-stellar groups. 8" at 150 yards is either a "lemon" rifle or shooter error, these days. And I don't think anyone in the history of firearms ever set out to design a rifle that wasn't accurate.

An 8" group at 150 yds will cover the span of an enemies chest which is what he set out to achieve.
"These days" ....wtf mentioned these days?? the rifle first went into production in 1945.

As for "He designed it to feed the widest possible range of cartridge dimensions that would still fit the 7.62 x 39 distinction. The goal was to have a gun that's cheap and easy to build by unskilled laborers, and be able to feed it cheap and easy to make (with questionable specs and components) ammo with near 100% reliability.....these may have been desired requirements but were not "goals".
Read up on the design and concept, the tactics of the Russian infantry, and the 8" group at 150 yds which is widely quoted as being a main componentl.
Maybe shooter error and lemon are more resonant with you.....being so edjumacated.

 

[Sin-ster]

These days-- as in the days of mostly commercial ammo, which is a lot more consistent than some of the crap being turned out back when the rifle was designed. The lowest price stuff you can find may not punch clover leaves, but it'll hold a lot better than 8" in all but the most shot out or poorly installed barrel you can find. Back when MK designed it, that level of accuracy may very well have been the norm. But no longer. I wasn't trying to question the numbers-- only the notion of design intent.

As for me-- I can't shoot quoted MOA from ANY rifle at 100 yards, and I still squeeze far better groups than that with my AKM. As bad as I am, if you're doing worse, you've got real issues-- with your equipment or your technique. It wasn't intended as a personal slight-- you might be Carlos Hathcock reincarnated, for all I know. But the gun itself will shoot better than that, unless you've got a really crummy or out-of-the-ordinary example.

There's no way an explicitly stated goal of MK was to build a rifle that shot exactly 8" at 150 yards. Until I can find a direct quote to that effect, I'll never believe it. I find the entire notion pretty comical-- whether it's just something you've come to believe, an instance of poor wording, or the actual "mission statement". Leave it to the Russians to make inaccuracy an intentional design feature, I guess?

"Desired requirements". That's a pretty confusing piece of language, at the very least-- "wants" and "needs" being so drastically different. I'd say something like "reliability with questionable materials and manufacturing" would be a goal, and "a minimum of 8 inch groups at 150 yards" is more of a "desired requirement"-- or just plain ol' requirement. But I can't say for sure. I'm not Russian, and not the biggest fan of the AK. Built by peasants, for peasants. I pass.

I wasn't really questioning the details of your statement-- only the way in which it was worded. If exactly 8" at 150 yards was the design intent-- LMFAO, for eternity.