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Practically Shooting

Saiga 7.62x39


RLH70

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The 12 ga Saigas (which, I know, is almost an apples and oranges comparison) show up in 3-gun matches around here some. They usually start off with fits, but then run like crazy. Everybody makes jokes about them ("You brought your Saiga today? Great. What did you bring for a spare?") but I think it's pretty impressive when they get them working, and that they come so close to start with. I seriously doubt General Kalashnikov had the 12 gauge shell in mind when he designed that gun. I doubt a Saiga in the original caliber would have any trouble at all.

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Well, I put 300 rounds through it today, will finish off the rest of the can tomorrow. I was really surprised at how solid this gun felt, going in I was really expecting it to be loose and sloppy like all the Romanian AK's I've fired before.

Accuracy is acceptable for a WTSHTF gun at around 4" @ 100 yards, didn't measure it, just estimated. Didn't have one failure of any kind, worked flawlessly. I am seriously considering buying another one of these.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So anyway, after ordering the mags and drooling over the furniture conversion ( need front plate thingie( AKBOR1) $85 and AK gas tube (AKGT1) $35), plus the $110 furniture (but nice wood it is) I can have a real AK-47.......just kinda kidding smile

Seriously - I'm finally taking the Saiga out today. I have four varieties of ammo. Pretty excited, because I'll be shooting the Camp 45 for the first time as well. I cleaned all the sticky cosmojuice - (WD-40 works great for this). Then I blew it all down with Amsoil MP and wiped it well. Seems like a rifle ready for action. I could barely figure out the Russian manual, so I went on logic....so far so good. I expected the action to be more crunchy and nasty, but it's pretty smooth. Is the spring really strong enough? Seems a tad weak just by human feel, but that's probably meaningless.

Will report in later.

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The operating rod springs on any AK I've had did feel a little weak, come to think about it. I guess they don't need much.

Oven cleaner works on cosmoline too, if you ever need it again.

I was thinking about making a post defending AKs in general, after I shot mine for groups again last week. I shot it on paper once before and got a group that was so good I was afraid to shoot it again from the bench for fear of being let down.

It took a lot of concentration, but I was getting a little over 3" at 100. It took everything I had to get that though. The short sight radius is not much longer than a pistol, the sight picture itself is hard to keep consistent, and the trigger is best described as "vague". So it takes a lot of work, but mechanically, decent accuracy is there.

And if anyone thinks that is not decent and they think groups should be one third that size or less, I am doing especially well to hit anything under 3" with open sights (not peep, but open) on anything. I'd have to think that a scope in a decent mount or a solid peep sight mounted at the rear of the dust cover would get 2". Not bad for ammo that comes from a stapled paper wrapper and smells weird.

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Just an FYI for anyone using one of those sight tools:

Here is what I found the adjustment amounts to be with my tool and my rifle-

Elevation: 1 turn equals 8" at 100 yards.

Windage: 1 turn equals 10" at 100 yards.

This is approximate, but close, and of course another tool might be threaded differently. I have no idea who really made my tool. It came from a catch-all box at a gun shop. I doubt there is much difference in them. The threads on mine appear to be 25 per inch, which determines windage adjustment. Each rifle's front sight threads will determine elevation adjustment.

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The operating rod springs on any AK I've had did feel a little weak, come to think about it. I guess they don't need much.

Oven cleaner works on cosmoline too, if you ever need it again.

I was thinking about making a post defending AKs in general, after I shot mine for groups again last week. I shot it on paper once before and got a group that was so good I was afraid to shoot it again from the bench for fear of being let down.

It took a lot of concentration, but I was getting a little over 3" at 100. It took everything I had to get that though. The short sight radius is not much longer than a pistol, the sight picture itself is hard to keep consistent, and the trigger is best described as "vague". So it takes a lot of work, but mechanically, decent accuracy is there.

And if anyone thinks that is not decent and they think groups should be one third that size or less, I am doing especially well to hit anything under 3" with open sights (not peep, but open) on anything. I'd have to think that a scope in a decent mount or a solid peep sight mounted at the rear of the dust cover would get 2". Not bad for ammo that comes from a stapled paper wrapper and smells weird.

What AK variant were you using? Model, manufacturer?

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Yes it is a G2. It's an improvement over many, but it would be a stretch for me to put it in the category of "good".

I'd like to see how well one could shoot with a truly good trigger and sights or scope.

I'd get another (Krebs would be nice) for that because I want to keep a low grade one around since I think it's a good idea to stay at least somewhat familiar with them in our current world. I sometimes wish my WASR had a regular finger-kicking trigger for that reason.

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