Long-range fun with the AK

D

Dave R

New member
Took the AK (A SAR-3 in .223) out this morning for some Labor Day fun.

I have it sighted in for 50 yards, with a low hold on a standard (3" black?) target. Got bored with the 50 yard paper stuff and tin cans. This was at an informal range. Someone had left a shot-up propane tank....hmmmm. So I decided to try shooting it at long range. I set the tank up the hill a few feet, so it would be easy to see. Then I drove back a way to the next convenient stop and loaded up.

I had not shot it at over 100 yards before. This looked about twice that. I set the (standard) rear sight at the 100-yard setting, because i have never had a low hit. I squatted by the car, used the sling on my front arm to steady the aim, and rested the elbow of my rear arm on the bumper of the car. Held right at the base of the tank, held slightly left cuz the windage is not perfect, and squeezed one off. CRACK...ting. No way!

I adjusted point of aim to a center hold. CRACK...pft. The dirt was high and right. Back to a hold at the base and slightly left. CRACK...ting.

Then firing for effect, I hit 9 out of 10. My bad on the flyer. I was amazed! So I stepped off the distance. I practice stepping distance when I'm at the formal range, so I feel pretty accurate about this. I measured it at 220 yards. WOW!

Based on the fact that I was shooting at 220 with the rear sight set at 100, and I was still using a low hold, I would bet that the rear sight on a SAR-3 is NOT regulated for .223. Maybe not even for 5.45X39? Maybe for 7.62X39?

Now I need to get/make some metal silhouette targets. This is a lotta fun!
 
Hey Dave, I hope you don't mind me asking but, what range were you at with a propane tank laying around, nobody caring that you shot at it and...up against your car? Was this out in the desert? Was this an actual shooting range or out in the middle of nowhere? Just wondering. If you live in Utah we may have shot at the same tank - that's why I ask.
 
This isn't a bad thing to practice. if the S ever hits the F, you can take out a few enemy troops before they are close to having you inside of their effective range.
 
Sacco, yes, this was an "informal range", i.e. out in the desert (in Idaho). A place where lots of people come to shoot , and then leave their trash lying around. I always try to leave with more stuff than I brought in a futile effort to clean up the place.

Preserve, yes it is fun to know I could make a 220 yard shot with the AK. If I hadn't tried it, I never would've known.

I'm a big believer that plinking is better practice that punching paper at an official range. Bench resting shows what the rifle is capable of. Plinking shows what the rifleman is capable of under somewhat more realistic conditions--i.e. improvised rest, ungroomed terrain, targets that might blend in with the backgroudn a little better, etc.

Anybody know a source for steel silhouette targets?
 
I shoot my SKS and AKs at fairly long ranges. My favorite targets are old fire extinguishers. I can easily hit a 10lb co2 bottle with my semi custom SKS, at 200 yards, and the SAR1 will hit it most of the time with Barnaul ammo. Check in the phone book for an extinguisher service company, and chances they will give you some of their condemmed shells just to have you haul them away for them.
The ones with powder still in them will "puff" all day when you hit them giving you some instant feed back.
One other thing. A lazer range finder makes things real interesting as they are accurate to +/- 1 yard. It's amazing how far you can actually hit things with those commie rifles.
 
There was a public range in Iowa that had 50, 100 and 200 yard ranges that I used to shoot my AK at.

One time I set up a paper plate on the 200 yard range and shot from the hip with my AK. You could see by where the dirt was flying up where you were hitting.

After about 6 or 7 shots I could hit the paper plate about one out of five times, shooting from the hip. But once I got the feel of where it was hitting you could hit within one to three feet of the plate every time, easy.

If you ever had to clear an approaching group, that AK is a competent tool to do it with.
 
Anybody know a source for steel silhouette targets?
Click to expand...
Dave, Last time I was at Shapels' they had some out front of the shop. You can always make your own. I've got a welder you can borrow :).
 
Flying Dirt and hip-fired AK's

Boy, if that don't make a person cringe.

I was range officer two weekends ago at our local 100 yard range, when a person arrived with his new MAK-90 and several boxes of Wolf 7.62x39. After getting him safely set up with a bench and target at 50 yards, I proceeded to call the range hot. I was leery and had no desire to walk away from his position, but I had to walk up and down the entire firing line, keeping folks safe.

My first clue was on my return trip down the line towards his position, he had set up his shooting chair at the very rear of his bench, with the sandbags at the back edge, resting the barrel on them and firing. This meant that his muzzle was way behind the heads of his fellow shooters on adjacent benches. A firm but polite discussion with him corrected this problem, his muzzle was now properly forward of the muzzle line, and his fellow shooters resumed their firing. All was good, or so I thought.

Not more than about fifteen minutes later, as I was walking the line again, I heard a triple-tap, followed by a faster burst of fire. I turned and ran down the line, to see folks either running back towards their cars or making themselves real small. Our hero was firing his MAK-90 from the hip as he was walking backwards from the firing line towards the benches at the back of the covered range house, kicking up dirt clods and sending rounds over the 100 yard berm, big grin on his face. My first thought was whether I could get my Kahr K9 out of my hip-side Mexican carry fast enough to be of use against a grinning AK lead-hoser. My second thought came automatically as I screamed "CEASE FIRE, CEASE FIRE, DAMNIT!" at the top of my lungs.

God must've smiled at me then, because he actually heard me and did cease fire, nobody got ventilated that day.

The range rules are quite specific, nobody gets kicked off the range without a warning first. I'm sure it would have been justifiable to kick him off the range that day had the range committee inquired my reasons. But he got one hell of a warning, basically if he couldn't handle and fire the AK in a safe manner he need not be at my range endangering all present.

He did catch the subtle clue, and shortly packed up his smoking AK and remaining ammo, enroute to his car and whatever part of Cape Canaveral, Cocoa, Cocoa Beach, Titusville, Melbourne, Satellite Beach, or Rockledge he came from.

Now, I have my own AK variant, a Bulgarian SLR-95, and I love to shoot it, I have a steel swinging owl silhouette that is a favorite target at 100 yards, albeit in a controlled, aimed-fire fashion. But why is it that cetain folks consider owning an AK a license to go stupid with regards to gun safety? Eesh! :eek:
 
For what it's worth, I met Dave a couple weeks ago at a TFL meet. He struck me as a good, safe guy. He also was out in the desert, not on a set firing line. Although he didn't say one way or another, I think it's safe to say there wasn't anyone in his general FOF/area when he let loose.

Now I'll agree with you Gewehr98 that a formal firing line, especially a crowded one, is no place for that kind of behavior. But out in the desert, after you've assured there's noone in or near your FOF, I think it's okay to just let loose and play now and again. Besides, the thing's a combat weapon, and not meant to be fired from the bench in the first place... so long as ya can do so safely, it makes sense to me to practice in an ..er.... unconventional manner now and again.

-K


PS -- Dave -- I've been thinking of driving down to Parma this weekend to talk to 'em about their practical carbine competion/practices.. sounds like you might be interested as well?
 
I think Gewehr98 was replying to Coltdriver's post on hip-firing at a paper plate at 200 yards. Scary story! Gives us responsible AK owners a bad name!

Yeah, I was aiming as carefully as I could at that propane tank. Out in the boonies. Bein' safe.

I have tried "bump firing" (sounds like that's what the lout at Gewehrs' range was doing) but can see no practical value. "You can't miss fast enough..."
 
Sure did not mean to scare anybody

At this range there was about a twenty foot berm the full length of the range on both sides

The back wall was about thirty feet high and was all dirt

There was nobody on either side of me and there was nothing more than a line in the dirt which you stood behind and there was no bench or stand.

There was no range officer and I was there on a weekday so there were no other shooters to endanger.

I was not doing any rambo impressions, just hip firing the weapon. An AK does not kick that much and is very easy to control in this mode.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top