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Kalinka Optics - Any experience?


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The scope being offset is intentional so you can still use the iron sights.

 

I read elsewhere that once you zero the scope for your rifle, you can take it off and mount it back on and it will still be zeroed. Is that true?

 

I can't wait to get mine. I'm gonna have it and a krebs ghost ring rear on my x39 and set it up so the scope is zeroed at 100 and the irons at 25 or 50, can't decide which yet but either way little difference between them. It should be here monday.

 

But then I keep reminding myself that the gun is away being refinished for a couple more weeks. :(

Edited by Klassy Kalashnikov
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The scope is high enough that you could use the irons under it even if it was centered, but I think the offset is actually so you can still pull the reciever cover and field strip the weapon without unmounting the scope. Kalinka does state that the mount will hold zero, and it seats and locks up pretty solidly on the receiver rail, so I don't doubt that claim.

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Nailoth, are there any US manufacturers that work with the side mounts worth looking at?

If you're asking about mounts that fit the side rail, nobody makes'em like the commies.

 

I'm not aware of any US made mounts for the commie side rail, but there are quite a few POS airsoft mounts floating around out there. .

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I just received my POSP 4x24 fixed 400m ranging optic from Kalinka yesterday. Only took 4 days to arrive Priority Mail. Fits well, although it is offset a bit left of the centerline of the rifle, iron sights are clearly usable with scope attached. It's bigger than I thought it would be and weighs 3 pounds. Optics are clear and the reticle looks etched. There are no batteries supplied for the LED illuminator. The manual that is supplied is only in cyrillic. I went online and there are broken links in the manual information, so don't expect any immediate help there. I hope to get out to the range tomorrow and get it sighted in and see how well my little Saiga can perform.

 

A typical POSP 4x24 weighs 700 g, which is a little under 1.5 pounds. As far as the left offset, the POSP scopes are based on the PSO scope, which was designed specifically for the Soviet "sniper" (designated marksmen) rifle design competition in the early 60's, which resulted in the adaption of the SVD. Apparently, one or more of the early competing designs were loaded via stripper clips from the top (SKS and Garand style) and thus, came the requirement for the scope to sit offset to the left. I am not sure why it stuck. In the short term, it could've been because the scope swere already put in production and it would have been too difficult and costly to change. In the long term, the Soviet troops probably did like being able to field-strip and clean their weapons without having to remove the scope.

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Mount comes loose, you need to fit it to your rail. There are instructions on the Kalinka site, but basically, you pry the little dimpled "keyhole" tab away from the big tab. Using a small screwdriver, pry the dimpled end of the small tab away from the vertical portion of the large lever-tab until it rotates 90 degrees. It's dished for spring tension, so it will be easy to slide and remove via the keyhole once it's off the big lever. The big lever fits onto a splined hub on the shaft. I put my mount onto the rail and tensioned the clamp shaft just "snug" and then set the lever at about 3/4 "off" and relatched the lever. This gave good tension when locked down and left just a bit of resistance when released and slid off.

 

Here's the information:

 

http://www.kalinkaoptics.com/manual/KOAKClampAdjustment.pdf

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Spent 3 hours at the range and burned a couple hundred rounds of ammo this afternoon. The optic is clear and only required a little tweaking to get zeroed at 100 m. (It would have gone faster if I knew what was "left" and "right" in Russian!). The optic performed very well and I was pleased with the improvement in accuracy over my previous session with iron sights. After zeroing, I shot several 10 round mags of 7n6 and 70 grain Wolf at 100 m with both gouping very similiarly, the Wolf's hitting a couple of inches lower. I then moved out to several clay pigeons set on the 200 yard berm and found very quickly that I needed to use the 100 m "zero" chevron or it would shoot high! This puzzled me, but I was able to pop the clays 3 out of 5 shots with just a little bit of holdover on the 100m reticle. Either the bullet is still rising at 100 m or shoots pretty darn flat, because the 5.45x39 does not line up with the 7.62x39 BDC marks in the POSP. It seemed to be more accurate at 200 yds, because I had some windage drift at 100 m that I didn't seem to suffer at 200 yds. I then moved to a steel gong at 200 m and proceeded to whack it with impunity (once again using the 100 m "baseline" reticle). It was great fun and I shot most of my ammo at it because the gun would settle from recoil and I could actually see the strikes through the 4x optic! I then capped the optic and shot another mag of hits on the gong using the iron sights at the 200 m setting. A really good session on the range and I'm very happy with the performance of the Saiga and the POSP!

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Sounds like an awesome day at the range! I'm envious. Thanks for the report on the POSP scope, you reminded me i need to download the english version of the manual before i take mine to the range.... if i can find that link. Also, if i understood your comment correctly, bullets don't actually rise. People tend to think that because of the arc shown on bullet trajectories though :) They should really show the gun angled up in those things :killer:

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Sounds like an awesome day at the range! I'm envious. Thanks for the report on the POSP scope, you reminded me i need to download the english version of the manual before i take mine to the range.... if i can find that link. Also, if i understood your comment correctly, bullets don't actually rise. People tend to think that because of the arc shown on bullet trajectories though smile.gif They should really show the gun angled up in those things 022.gif

 

Thanks, but a ballistic arc is an arc - it has a midrange high point before beginning to drop because the sights put an upward launch angle on the barrel which is not parallel to the ground at firing. That's why a 25 yard zero for .308 equates to a 200 yard zero, because the bullet hasn't reached midrange at 25 and then peaks and drops back to POA at 200. So the bullet is "rising" before midrange and will strike targets at higher and higher points at increasing distances from a fixed position until it reaches midrange.

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Sounds like an awesome day at the range! I'm envious. Thanks for the report on the POSP scope, you reminded me i need to download the english version of the manual before i take mine to the range.... if i can find that link. Also, if i understood your comment correctly, bullets don't actually rise. People tend to think that because of the arc shown on bullet trajectories though smile.gif They should really show the gun angled up in those things 022.gif

 

Thanks, but a ballistic arc is an arc - it has a midrange high point before beginning to drop because the sights put an upward launch angle on the barrel which is not parallel to the ground at firing. That's why a 25 yard zero for .308 equates to a 200 yard zero, because the bullet hasn't reached midrange at 25 and then peaks and drops back to POA at 200. So the bullet is "rising" before midrange and will strike targets at higher and higher points at increasing distances from a fixed position until it reaches midrange.

 

Correct. I've just seen people that use the word "rise" because they think their bullet (even if the barrel is parallel with the ground)travels the arc from the end of the barrel out to the target. The bullet never "rises" above the plane of the barrel, it just arcs due to the angle. My bad ;)

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No bad, we are in violent agreement!018.gifrolleyes.gif

 

You are correct that bullet doesn't rise above the launch axis of the bore and I was talking about "pre-midrange."

 

It was a great day at the range, and the high mounting of the POSP just made it very easy to strip down and clean the gun since I shot over a hundred corrosive milsurps.027.gif

 

 

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I just received my POSP 4x24 fixed 400m ranging optic from Kalinka yesterday. Only took 4 days to arrive Priority Mail. Fits well, although it is offset a bit left of the centerline of the rifle, iron sights are clearly usable with scope attached. It's bigger than I thought it would be and weighs 3 pounds. Optics are clear and the reticle looks etched. There are no batteries supplied for the LED illuminator. The manual that is supplied is only in cyrillic. I went online and there are broken links in the manual information, so don't expect any immediate help there. I hope to get out to the range tomorrow and get it sighted in and see how well my little Saiga can perform.

 

3 lbs? I would have guessed about 1.3 lbs. maximum, which is apparently a pretty good guess. Listed weight is 1.2 lbs. which sounds exactly right.

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The scope being offset is intentional so you can still use the iron sights.

 

I read elsewhere that once you zero the scope for your rifle, you can take it off and mount it back on and it will still be zeroed. Is that true?

 

I can't wait to get mine. I'm gonna have it and a krebs ghost ring rear on my x39 and set it up so the scope is zeroed at 100 and the irons at 25 or 50, can't decide which yet but either way little difference between them. It should be here monday.

 

But then I keep reminding myself that the gun is away being refinished for a couple more weeks. :(

 

I had always understood that AK x39 ballistics are essentially flat from 100 to 300 yards with very little distinction. As such, an AK zero'd at 100 yards is pretty much zero'd at 300 yards and eveything in between. It's going past 300 yards where the AK has problems... I just want a good scope because my vision isn't all that good past about 80 yards. :eek:

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The scope being offset is intentional so you can still use the iron sights.

 

I read elsewhere that once you zero the scope for your rifle, you can take it off and mount it back on and it will still be zeroed. Is that true?

 

I can't wait to get mine. I'm gonna have it and a krebs ghost ring rear on my x39 and set it up so the scope is zeroed at 100 and the irons at 25 or 50, can't decide which yet but either way little difference between them. It should be here monday.

 

But then I keep reminding myself that the gun is away being refinished for a couple more weeks. :(

 

I had always understood that AK x39 ballistics are essentially flat from 100 to 300 yards with very little distinction. As such, an AK zero'd at 100 yards is pretty much zero'd at 300 yards and eveything in between. It's going past 300 yards where the AK has problems... I just want a good scope because my vision isn't all that good past about 80 yards. :eek:

 

That would be true for 5.45x39 mm ballistics only. According to this (http://zombiehunters.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=56803), the drop at 300 m is almost 1 m. In my experience, even 7.62x54R heavy ball drops almost 0.5 m at 300 yards.

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