AK47 Accuracy?

M

Milsurplover

Inactive
Decided to take my rommy AK47 out of the safe on Saturday for some fun shooting at the range. Put a 4x POSP scope on it loaded up a mag and set up a 12 inch steel target at 150 yards. Using wolf steel case ammo, I hit that plate every single time. I then noticed a 6 inch plate at 200 yards a fellow was using to shoot at with his Rem 700 so I asked him if I could take a few shots with my AK. After 5 shots I got 2 hits on it. I understand a 12 inch plate at 150 yards is nothing to be proud about but I was kind of happy with the hits at 200 yards having not shot my AK in a long time and using cheap ammo. So, it got me thinking, are AK's really as innacurate as people say? or are those just Urban Legends? How far have you guys shot with your AK47? with what ammo? I really want to shoot longer ranges with my AK because it is just such a fun gun to shoot and it eats anything!
 
The AK-47 was engineered to hit a man in the chest at 300 meters.
Most of them are capable of doing that, but the trigger and sights make it difficult.

If you're going to shoot at longer ranges, you need to have good eyes for the sights and really pay attention to the fundamentals.
 
I honestly think that with a good scope or maybe even better iron sights the AK would be more accurate than it is. I dont have anything to back this up, just an observation.
 
all guns are accurate if a robot shot them. its just that we the sucky humans have shakey hands and what not
 
200 yards with the irons. no problems hitting a 12" plate, once i got dailed in.

i think a large part of the inaccurate myth comes from the enemies we face, that field the ak, are not big believers in marksmanship.
 
With my Arsenal Sam 7, I have no problem hitting bowling pins at 100 yards using the cheap Wolf ammo. My choice is the 154 grain. At 200 yards, using 12 inch steel plates, my AK is on the money. Factory sights at a bench rest.
 
"The AK-47 was engineered to hit a man in the chest at 300 meters."

I know that mine will do that. We routinely shoot at metal targets at 300 yards and are rewarded with the PING noise on most shoots.
 
the ak gets a bad rep for accuracy because of the people that were fielding them, the iron sight quality, and the 7.62x39 bullet design and its comparison to the 5.56x45

most of the people using the AK in combat are not apt to take care of their weapon well, which is fine for the ak, but not fine for its accuracy. plus, many of these people are poorly trained. which leads to my next point:

the iron sights. the front sight post is particularly thick, and the sights are difficult to use without extensive practice in comparison with, say, ar-15 style sights.

finally, the 7.62x39 round is not a super long range round. compared with the .223, it has significantly more drop, plus, the bullet design most manufacturers use has a tendency to destabilize outside of 250-300 meters, whereas the .223 can be shot up to 500 meters with factory ammo.

this stems from a need to have the bullet yaw/destabilize in tissue, which was a problem in the initial tests of the round. It was fixed by shifting weight to the rear and decreasing the size of the boat tail. of course, with its ability to destabilize inside people came the destabilization in flight at a shorter range.

basically, it is not as good of a round, long range, as the .223, so it is labelled as "less accurate". this has carried into the common belief that ak's are "less accurate" in general.
 
with AK's (and any guns) it comes down to how well the gun was put together and how well the optics (if any) are mounted.

I have had some AK's that were minute of barn accurate and I have a couple that are minute of squirrel at 100 yards with iron sights and get around 2 MOA with a quality mount and optic.

If you pay the cash for a properly built AK you will usually get an accurate gun. Or if you build one with quality receiver and barrel and other parts you will get a good quality gun that is accurate. for optics, you need to make sure that the side mount and the scope mount mate up properly (i like them a little on the tight side and even if I have to use a mallet to get them to mate the first few times that is even better to ensure a snug fit with no wobble when firing).

A recently acquired bulgarian AK-74 built off an unfired numbers matching kit with the original numbers matching chrome lined barrel and even the original side mount for the receiver combined with a NODAK spud receiver, arsenal trigger parts and a combination of KVAR/ARSENAL stock/foreend and tapco SAW pistol grip produces the minute of squirrel accuracy with iron sights at 100 meters and mate that up with a KVO-95 scope mount and rings and then a vortex viper 2-7 scope and it is holding 1.5 to 2 MOA at 100 meters off the bags with factory russian ammo.
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Sames as the Mosin Nagant. Made to be rugged and hit a man at 2-300yards. The iron sights that come with them are just barely adequate enough for that. People give them a bad rap probably because its hard to be precise when you got like 6 MOA worth of play on the irons.
 
Have you guys looked at "The Gun", by CJ Chivers?
It might be rewarding to stop by a Borders, Barnes & Noble etc.

Chivers is a former Marine (Desert Storm), who became a journalist for the New York Times.
The latest issue of Military History features an article with excerpts from the book.
 
I can easily the 400 meter metal target at my range using iron sights. Just move the little thingy to 400 and you're there. I've shot Prairie dogs with it, but it sure wasn't easy. It's plenty accurate for what it was designed for. If you're interested in pretty little patterns, then maybe its not for you.
 
I agree with the other posters here. The AK's biggest problem is its lousy iron sights.

However once I put a dot on my AK I could get 3 inch groups all day long at 100 yards. The best groups can get as small as 1.5-2 inches.
 
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