I am not a "tacticool" guy. On my AR and M1 Carbine I prefer irons, as rear peep and post and wing front sight with a long sight radius are optimum. With that said, however, AK sights are not optimum. Not that they are terrible, but the sight radius is too short, and the rear notch hard to find quickly. I got familiar with the Tasco red dot in Southern Illinois where everyone hunts deer with shotgun slugs. The ones I knew almost all use the vintage Tasco Accudot or newer Pro-point, or the Bushnell version of it. They are made to handle 3 1/2" magnum slug recoil, terrible weather, and are all metal. With the Tasco, I can quickly snapshot a pie plate sized target off hand, all day long. It does add half a pound, but it is well worth it.
Ah ha! Atlantic is now out of stock, and do not expect to get anymore. I am glad I snagged mine when I did.
The only change I made to it is to put a Tactical Tri-Delta brake on it from Custom muzzle brakes. As much as I want it totally Stock like it came from "the Sandbox," they work so well, I have to put it on. I had one on my Saiga and on my 5.56 and 300 BLK M4geries, and they work AWESOME! Between that and a Damage Industries black buffer, it really tames the AK for subsequent follow-up shots.
Pulled the trigger on an empty chamber and it recoiled! This is why I very rarely trust manufacturers test results or videos.
Haha! Very true. I have been using these brakes on my weapons for several. ON my 300 BLK M4gery and 5.56 M4gery, it worked VERY well, but on the Saiga (that I sold to buy this) it was phenomenal! The difference with it and a Damage Industries "black" recoil buffer, tamed it to 5.56 recoil or less. REALLY sweet to shoot.!
By the way: I couldn't find a Century applied SN on the receiver on mine. The gun dealer used the romanian trunnion serial number, including the date. "1983NM8902"
How many of the others with the Iraqi Contractor WASRs have only the trunnion numbers for serial number?
Here's a photo of my Romanians, including my SOC Afghanistan/Iraq "Ugandan Contractor" rifle, which is the second rifle in the photo. Click on the photo for larger version
When you consider your only other option for an AK that actually served in a war zone/conflict area is a papered Vietnam bringback that will run, what, $35,000 to $50,000?, these are a pretty sweet deal.
Even if they didn't fight pitched gun battles with Hadji in the streets of Fallujah and weren't picked up off the bullet riddled carcass of Osama Bin Laden, they "were there" in Afghanistan and Iraq, and are the closest thing to an AK with a combat history that most of us will ever be able to see and handle, much less own. Hell, we can even have them here in California as long as we either play the "featureless" game with grip condoms or mag locks and 10 round magazines.
The photo I posted was taken in Free Arizona, which is why some of the rifles don't have mag locks or have it moved back out of the way.
As far as serial numbers, all WASR rifles including, including these SOC issue ones, use the original markings on the trunnion for the serial number - there is no added serial number on the receiver like you see on something like a NDS receiver.
Last edited by Marcus von W.; 07-14-2015 at 06:49 PM.
UPDATE: Finally got a chance to shoot her. Took it to Spenceville with a couple other rifles on Monday. I sighted it in at 25 yards, POI/POA the same at 25, with the sight on the 200 meter setting. (my personal preference from years of having AKs) It was centered perfectly already, and I just had to raise the front sight 3/4 turn and I was done.
Typical fabulous G2 trigger pull at about 3 pounds. It loved Tulammo 122 FMJs, with a quarter sized group at 25.
Then I sighted it in with my vintage Tasco Accu-dot 1X shotgun red dot on a knock off of a Midwest Industries low rise side mount. Made it about 3/4" to 1" below POA at 25 just to dial in. With initial sight in, I started shooting at 100 and 200 yards, both with and without the red dot.
At 100 with irons and with the red dot, I pounced some cans with monotonous regularity. It was dead nuts on. At 200, I actually did better with the red dot than the irons. With the red dot, I bounced a milk jug around with every shot. With irons, I was about 75%.
I shot about 300 rounds of FMJ and about 50 of the Tulammo 124 HPs (a lot that was loaded with Ulyanovsk Sapsan 8M3 "fragtastic" bullets). Function was 100%, with zero FTEs or FTFs. With the Damage Industries recoil buffer and the CustomMuzzlebrakes.com Tactical (short) Tri-delta Brake, the recoil was about in .223 class. Very nice to shoot.
BTW: when I was cleaning it after, I noticed that : Bolt, Bolt carrier, gas tube, trunnion, and recoil spring guide/top cover catch all have the matching number. Only the top cover has a different number (probably from a barracks cleaning party).
Last edited by imarangemaster; 08-06-2015 at 11:18 AM.
Carbine I prefer irons, as rear peep and post and wing front sight with a long sight radius are optimum. With that said, however, AK sights are not optimum. Not that they are terrible, but the sight radius is too short, and the rear notch hard to find quickly. I got familiar with the Tasco red dot in Southern Illinois where everyone hunts deer with shotgun slugs. The ones I knew almost all use the vintage Tasco Accudot or newer Pro-point, or the Bushnell version of it. They are made to handle 3 1/2" magnum slug recoil, terrible weather, and are all metal. With the Tasco, I can quickly snapshot a pie plate sized target off hand, all day long. It does add half a pound, but it is well worth it.
PM
Originally Posted by Bill Hollinger
