[1BIGGUN]

I think whoever started this thread was interested in certain tweaks, mods, replacement parts, etc. that could be accomplished by more typical, "standard" AK owners.

I'd love to hear something on that level.

well if were talking about a standard stock barreld AK 47 in 7,62x39, then you are limited to a few things. the big three IMOO are trigger, sights/optics, and ammo.

I recomend the Red Star adjustable trigger as a decent drop in a set up. with out a decent trigger there is no way to shot a really good group unless your really good and spend a lot of time shooting that gun. the AK trigger or the tapco or other aftermarket trigger that are made to meet 922 compliance laws not really improve any thing are pretty bad. they can be worked but its a balancing act and it takes a lot of trial and error. polishing the the mating parts on any of them will help. you got to get a decent scope on it that is powerful enough to take the guess work out of things. I use a 18x or 25X for target work and load development. Its way to big for any thing else but once I gat loads developed I go back to what ever is aproperate to shooting conditions. but for shooting groups bigger is better. A 3x9 will work out pretty well and is a good compermise. on my deer stand pistol I have a weaver 3x its alll I need. the scope mount is a tough call most of them contact the reciver in some way the reciver flexes and kills accuracy by affecting the point of aim. If you go with a side mount get one of the good ones not the $25 dollar ones. skip the dust cover mounts. ther are some that go from the RSB to the stock tang that are said to be decent.


ammo is critiacl I load as close as I can get the bullet to the rifeling and still fit in the mag. in most/likely all AKs you are still a mile from the rifleing. there might be some advantages to loading longer and feeding by hand like I do with the 77 grain 223 loads I use for long range.

I hand load I am hoping to get some 220 russian brass and blow it out to 7.62 this is pretty extream and expensive. the heavier bullets some times shoot better. there are some 150 grain stuff out there try Graff and Sons. they also have a .310 125 grain Vmax that shoots pretty well. the chamber of the ak is really loose some have over .013 neck clearance and the rest is pretty bad. thicker necks or a tighter chamber would really help. If you rebarreling get a reamer that is made with tighter specs.

remove the cleaning rod, mess with gas tube tension try shooting it with the fore grip removed. my most accurate stock barreld x39 is a 12.5" barreld AMD 65. it has a super tight gas tube fit it takes plyers to lock it in. I suspect the short barrel and the tube supporting it is not getting a lot of whip. I have no proof of it but it does shoot better. I have seen the video were the AR is the suber weapon and the AK is total junk suported by BS facts but the slow motion video does show a tremendous amount of barrel movement from the GB forward. Ive tried various muzzel attachments and the AMD brake seems to be as good as any.

if you really want to gain much with a longer barrel then you need to get a heavier profile barrel . krebs sells a GB that will take a barrel just over .750 for around $50 a slower twist would work better. the 30 bench rest run much slower than the 1-10 or so that the AK has. really dont need a twist rate that will stabelize a 180 grain bullet in a AK. a 1-12 0r 1-14 or even slower might work with the 125 grain bullets. might pick up some speed and loose some pressure as well. going to a .308 bore is a good idea but a reamer with a throat made for the smaller throat OD. if you set the neck clearance tight say around .004 on factory .310 ammo it will be about .006 on a round with a .308 bullet seated in it. you can shoot .310 ammo in a .308 bore but will raise the pressure up. loading with 308 bullets give you many choices.

a rebarrel can be done for under $200 or if you do the work your self.
I have done a few with bolt action take off barrels like from a model 700.
30-06 barrels are pretty cheap just cut the of and rechamber. Of course there is not much treally great about a remington barrel. i have a Dougless barrel on one that shoots pretty good. pricy but it accuracy is not cheap. the savage barrels seem to be the better choice of the take off barrels you st Im doing a build on a Howa barrel currently.

[diggsbakes]

Good stuff. How did you get all the knowledge necessary to figure all this stuff out? Did you have someone teach you or are there books available that would aid someone that has less experience in making some of these modifications. I have all the standard full disassembly /reassembly stuff and and overall grasp of the mechanics, but I'd hate to screw up a rifle and show up at the gunsmiths w/ a bag full of parts after a failed re-barreling. I would love to learn more and have decided to try and deviate my next AK to be a more finely tuned rifle. So any references, visual aids, etc. that you could point out to me to get me going on the right path?

Also while were at it. I've read from several sources that the 5.45 provides better accuracy, wounding and flatter trajectory than the standard 7.62, however I've noticed that you seem to only work with the 7.62 and .223. What do you think of the 5.45 as a whole?

D

[1BIGGUN]

Also while were at it. I've read from several sources that the 5.45 provides better accuracy, wounding and flatter trajectory than the standard 7.62, however I've noticed that you seem to only work with the 7.62 and .223. What do you think of the 5.45 as a whole?

I have a polish tantal in 5.45 is got a pretty rough barrel so the accuracy is not that good. the problem with the 5.45 is that there is no brass with boxer primers avalaible and the bullet selection is slim to non. brass can be made from 222 Im told but the base will smaller. bullets can be swedged down in a swedging die as well. the 5.45 is likely more accurate than the
7.62x39 and at longer ranges the faster bullet wins. part of this might be the lighter recoil allows one to shoot it better. If brass were avaliable or better factory ammo it wold make a good varmit round or a fun target round. the 223 / 5.56 has about a 40 year head start on it in accuraacy development, and is possably one of the top three most developed and researced calibures out there. Americans have been shooting varmits and target with them in bolt actions almost from the day the round was developed for the m16.

Pac-nor sells a 5.45 barrel blank and I have no doubt that the round could be as good if the componets were avaliable. If im going to have to form brass and mess with bullets Im going to be doing it to try to get some thing that dosent already exist. the 223 is just to cheap and avaliable to spend a
bunch of money to try to duplicate the performace with no real gain.

Good stuff. How did you get all the knowledge necessary to figure all this stuff out? Did you have someone teach you or are there books available that would aid someone that has less experience in making some of these modifications. I have all the standard full disassembly /reassembly stuff and and overall grasp of the mechanics, but I'd hate to screw up a rifle and show up at the gunsmiths w/ a bag full of parts after a failed re-barreling. I would love to learn more and have decided to try and deviate my next AK to be a more finely tuned rifle. So any references, visual aids, etc. that you could point out to me to get me going on the right path?

If you want to learn more about building and modifying AKs there are several sights with really good tutorials and librarys.

Gunco is the one I hang out the most on and there are some very very talanted guys there. the Ak forum is another site that has good info. both have the ins and outs and legalitys of building these and other guns.

I started building Aks about 6 years ago because I wanted to build a hunting pistol. rifle actions cant be used to convert to pistols by law but i ran into guys making virgin recivers that had never been a rifle and relized that A AK pistol would work on deer if it was accurate enough. i built one and kept messing with it untill It would work. once you start building them it gets addictive. back then kits could be had for under $60 and ammo was $60 for a1000 rounds. I got bored with stock builds pretty quick and they were dirt cheap back then to build and modify. I have a lathe and mill so it was not a big deal to make up barrels cheap for them.