Zeroing The AK Rifles

[Gabe Suarez]

I've gotten many emails on this.

To zero the Kalashnikov Rifle. Set the rear sight to the "1", or 100 meter marking. Go out to 25 meters. Pace it or measure it. Measuring is better right.

Shoot to point of aim/point of impact at 25 meters. Do this from a sandbagged rest. I know we can all hold like a rock at 25, but for sake of uniformity...use a sandbag.

To move the point of impact use an AK sight tool. At $15-20 bucks its a bargain. OST may be carrying these soon (Russian ones).

To raise the point of impact, rotate the front sight post clockwise
To lower the point of impact, rotate the front sight post counter-clockwise.

Once set at 25 meters, verify it and fine tune it at 100 meters. Once zeroed, keep the sight set at the Battle sight zero...or the bottom last setting marked with a letter (mine say "P") and not a number. This will allow you to hit MOH (minute of hadji) out to about 300 or so.

It also allows you to use the calibration on the rear sight for the distances marked. For example, you want to hit at 400? raise the ladder to "4" or 400 meters.

In reality, I think iron sights are useful to about 250-300 meters. After that, you will likely not see the adversary, or not be able to hit with the limits of iron sights. I am referring to actual field situations and not firng at a fixed un-moving target in a shooting range environment.

OK...

[EyEsopen]

Conversion Table


Meters to Feet


m - Feet
25 - 82

50 - 164

75 - 246

100 - 328

125 - 410

150 - 492

175 - 574

200 - 656

225 - 738

250 - 820

275 - 902

300 - 984

325 - 1066

350 - 1148

375 - 1220

400 - 1302

I hope this helps

[t18man]

The fuller rear sight is shorter than the sight on my WASR rifle. The sliding elevation drum does not engage the cam(sight base) for the battle field zero. At its furthest rearward position(battle field zero) it is sitting in the 100 meter part of the cam(sight base). Do you place the drum at 100 meters and zero resulting in the front sight being much higher? Or is there a better way?

Thanks
T18man

[Gabe Suarez]

The fuller rear sight is shorter than the sight on my WASR rifle. The sliding elevation drum does not engage the cam(sight base) for the battle field zero. At its furthest rearward position(battle field zero) it is sitting in the 100 meter part of the cam(sight base). Do you place the drum at 100 meter and zero resulting in the front sight being much higher? Or is there a better way?

Thanks
T18man

Fuller sights are in the 800 meter length which are less prome to snag on things than the 1000 meter length. Place the slider on 100 and zero at 25 meters. Then go to 100 meters and make sure your windage is correct.

With the rifle set this way, you can move the slider to the farthest rea position which should have a letter (A in some P in others) and be minute of man zeroed out to 250-300 meters.

If your slider is stiff, try putting a drop of oil on it. I know Jim checks all the sights for function before sending them out. I f that doesn't work send me an email and we will debug it.

[TacticalSquirrel]

Since the Kobra sits higher over bore, has anyone found the proper distance to sight in the Kobra? Anyone looked into what possibilities the reticles have as rangefinders and BDC's for use at extended distances of 300-400 yards? How about what amount of movement occurs at distances with the 7 clicks or so of windage and elevation adjustment available?

[Karl Kasarda]

Since the Kobra sits higher over bore, has anyone found the proper distance to sight in the Kobra? Anyone looked into what possibilities the reticles have as rangefinders and BDC's for use at extended distances of 300-400 yards? How about what amount of movement occurs at distances with the 7 clicks or so of windage and elevation adjustment available?

You can do this yourself wih a ballistic calculator like at this url:

http://www.handloads.com/calc/

If you're talking about a normal 7.62x39 AK:

2300 FPS
Bullet Ballistic Coefficient of .299
Bullet diameter: .311
Bullet weight: 122-124 grains

Measure the sight height from the center of the bore to the center of the optic - with a side mounted Kobra I'd guess it's around 3", but measure for yourself. (I know that a PK-AS-V is 4.75 and a PK-23-01 is 3.5")

Then play with the different 'zero distances' and check the bullet impact field. Sight height makes a big difference!

For example, I zero my irons at 25 yards, but with my PK-AS-V I zero at 50 yards due to the sight height. This keeps the irons at minute of man to 300 yards as well as the PK-AS-V.

[xj0hnx]

When I zero at 25m on the 0 mark, and I go out to 300 I hit below the target, I have to move up to 4 to be fairly on a 300m torso size target, and then it's fairly consistant. Shooting at 200 is about the same story.

What is the distance per turn that the point of impact moves on the front sight? And at what distance?

[Guantes]

The information I have indicates that for an AK sighted for and shooting at 100 meters a full turn of the front sight (up or down) will change the POI, 20 cm or 7.8".

The methodology is complicated. The correction factor for an AK set at 100 meters is .0378 (based on the sighting line of 378mm/distance between the front and rear sight). A shot 10cm (4") low would require lowering the front sight 0.0378 times 10 equaling 0.378mm/approx 0.4mm or .015". As the distance at which the rear sight is set increases, the sighting line (distance between the front and rear sight) decreases, decreasing the correction factor and thereby the actual sight correction.

[bae]

Hijacked from another thread:

Most folks take 60-100 (Yes they actually do!) to BZO an AK and the time spent can run into a few hours for some.

100 rounds and several hours seems....excessive to me. What are they doing wrong?

[DavePAL84]

I can personally recommend these AK zero targets:
http://www.ak-47.net/store/target.php

Simply shoot a group at 25m and adjust the sights as the target indicates. I've used them several times and they have been great. I never found zeroing an AK to be too terribly difficult but these targets make it even easier.


I also second Gabe's recommendation of a front sight tool. Without it, it's very difficult to adjust your front sight with any kind of accuracy.