AK Review???

[Mortblanc]

I will do this last section and work on getting the thread turned into a presentable Word Document. This last portion is all I intend to present due to my desire for this to NOT become a heavy technical presentation and just enough for safe operation/security.

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USE AND CAPABILITIES

Let us imagine that one has found an AK with some ammo, and the situation is such that one feels compelled to put the firearm into use. Just what are the capabilities of this weapon/cartridge combination?

Without going into technical details of ballistics, be assured that the AK47 is capable of killing any big game in the UK. The AK74 is capable of killing most large game, but would be marginal for some of the critters roaming the Scot highlands. We will stop at saying that the AK47 is a 30 caliber round and the AK74 is a hi-performance 21 caliber round (Nope it is a .21 not a .22).

Accuracy capabilities? We should start that discussion by saying that the AK was not developed in the western tactical mold. The AK is not a "downsized rifle with a low powered rifle cartridge", as the west views it.

The AK was not designed as a target rifle. It is renowned for "lack of accuracy" by the western trainers. Accuracy is a subjective term, and I have found that their difference between acceptable accuracy and unacceptable often changes depending on what weapon they are holding.

Yesterday afternoon I decided to go to the range and "fine tune" the scope I had installed on my AK. The entire afternoon consisted of 15 shots. Three shots were fired using open sights, as a control. Keep in mind that I have 65 year old eyes with plastic corneas and year old prescription glasses!

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The group was fired from a measured 100 yards at the public range. Bright sunlight, temp was 25C, no wind. This is a box stock AK with no modifications, shooting surplus Russian ammo using the standard sights.

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Since my mission was to zero the scope I slipped it onto the military side mount and fired a group, then adjusted the scope. It took only 4 tries to get exactly what I wished, or nearly so.

This is probably better indication of what the AK platform is capable of doing. The scope eliminates a multitude of personal shortcomings. As I said, the AK was never intended to be a target rifle, but it is capable of giving better performance than most shooters expect.

The final group is the 3 shot cluster in the rectangle centered and 2 inches above the X. The string is only 1.75" center to center. The largest group is only 3" CTC. None of the sots are outside the 9" paper plate that is roughly the size of a human head. (the open sight group was well inside that size definition)

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From this we can ascertain that the AK is adequate for game, using open sights, out to 100M, capable of keeping shots in the kill zone of medium game.

Defensive use is not as demanding! Your target is going to be 18 inches wide and 3 feet tall from head to belly button.

So guess what the Soviets did? They engineered a rifle that used a cartridge having 33" drop at 300M!!!

If you have the rifle sighted for 200M, and aim at the top of the head at 300M you will hit the bad guy in the belly! If he is inside 200M, aim center of mass and don't worry about exactly where you hit. In a post-event situation, if he is not dead now he will be by tomorrow.