Tight Headspace and a Good Barrel

[Elk River]

We tightened the headspace on some 7.62 Saigas for a customer to see if it did any good. One had a serious flyer with a 3 MOA another was shooting 3.5 MOA the last was from what the customer said. Once the changes where made he took them out again and the first one the flyer was tamed way down and the MOA was cut by 1/2" with 10rnd groups the second brought down to 2.5 MOA also. We did change the triggers also.

Was it worth it?

Even though the customer was happy with the improvment he didn't feel the it was cost effective. It's funny because I've had AK (vs AKM) barreled rifles that were shooting 1.25MOA and some AKM barreled rifles shoot close.

We assembled some 5.56 rifles in 2008 on milled receivers one 24" and one 20" with heavy custom "cut" barrels. The 24" gun shot 1/2 MOA and the 20" shot 3/4 MOA at 100 yards. The 24" shot 3/4 MOA at 1000 at the Blackwater range.

Just a comment.

[imanaknut]

Those are some amazing numbers with your custom barrels, but that would be expected since the standard AK/AKM barrels aren't made for tight groups.

For someone to want 1 MOA out of a factory AK, they have the wrong rifle. Personally I have been able to achieve good results with just a good muzzle crown and trigger work. I have also found the .223/5.56x45 variants to be much more accurate than their heavier 7.62x39.

I have a Norinco 84S-1 that I recrowned, and did some trigger work to. I can pick off a 12GA shotgun hull at 50 yards using the iron sights, and have had a couple members of this site play with it and varify that it is amazingly accurate.

As for cost effectiveness, that is purely subjective. When you consider that Mr. K. developed his rifle to shoot approximately an 8 inch group at 150 yards, getting 4 inches at 100 yards is pretty good. Like horsepower in a race car, you get what you pay for, and taking an AK/AKM down to 2MOA or less is really good, but can be really expensive.

[Guns Network Staff]

Wow the accuracy is awesome Hector. What rifle are you getting 1/2 MOA out fo a 24" barrel. What caliber and what model rifle is this.

GNS

[Elk River]

I used a Arsenal Inc. milled receiver and a custom "Ballard" or "Single Point" cut heavy barrel in 5.56. The shooter was a Marine Sniper then went SF who instructed at Blackwater.

The 5.56/.223 is a more accurate round to begin with and I credit that also.

[robert]

I agree but it seems funny that one of the most accurate benchrest rounds in the world the 6mm ppc comes from one of the least accurate the 7.62 by39. well thats not allways the case about 4 years ago in the world sniper comp in finland the finish teams main rifle malfunctioned the spotter had A sako m90 which is based on south african r4 which is based on ak in7.62 by 39 using finnish ammo the last shots at 600meters they finished 2nd 2 places over the m40 using us marine team and as an old usmc grunt thats hard to admit .