Worst day at the range.

[breid1970 327]

Today, was quite possibly one of my worst days at the range i have had in a long time.

1. Im a lefty, and i don't have a ton of time on my AK..First round i fired, got bolt bit. Yep, that commie charging handle got my right hand. I spent so many damn years shooting the A1/and then the A2 I still make the mistake of keeping my off and near the magazine.

2. The metal bulgarian magazine i was using kept failing to feed. Over and over until i swapped it out and then it ran fine.

3. I have a pretty generic side scope mount, and have a red dot BSA on it. I adjusted the elevation down till the dot hovered just over the front sight post. Wham, wham, wham, nothing on paper. This at fifty yards. So, i adjusted it again..Still nothing. So i pulled off the mount and went to iron sights. Perfect tight shot group. So I am guessing I just need a damn table with a sand bag and some time to get that sight where it needs to be, or its just a giant pile of shit.

4. Broke out the new Mossberg 500. Its a sweet shottie, with a tri-rail on the forearm, and collapsible stock. I had my sure fire mounted to the tri-rail. First shot, the flashlight and mount falls right off. For fucks sake, i could not believe it. So, i swallowed my pride, and just shoved it into my back pocket and ran a few boxes of target load through it with no malfunctions what so ever.

 

I should have just stayed in bed and called it a day. On the plus side the weather was nice, the wife enjoyed shooting the shotgun and her Walther PK380 and I put two boxes of shitty blazer .45 through my XD.

 

If anyone can recommend a different side scope rail and not expensive optic I would be pleased to hear about it. To everyone else who shoots this weekend, i hope your range experience is much more pleasant then mine was.

 

My only saving grace today where no critical malfunctions. For that i thank God.

Edited August 4, 2013 by breid

[thebuns1 4,323]

First off, dont ever say a day at the range is bad bro. its ok though. ive had days like this as well. For your sight, what I did for my Trijicon reflex, I had to step down to about 25 yds and get it on paper, zero it at 25 or so yds, then move it up on to my 100 yd mark. It worked wonders for that. Try that. If the optic is on at a certain distance, then you should be able to figure out the rest.

 

Im running a Kvar mount, the KV04s, with a 12 MOA reflex from Trijicon. Its been a damn good setup so far, but still a bit pricey. I still have days like you did, so its part of it. I hope this helps, but I have no experience with the optic your running, so I cant really chime in on pointers for that bud.

[breid1970 327]

It's your standard side rail. Bought it at fleet farm for twenty bucks. The scope is a forty dollar bsa. Pm me pics of your setup. I could use some pointers. I'm using a tapco folder. The angle is annoying and I hate Warsaw length stocks. I'm going to go with a t6 stock. I may make some alluminum heat shields to go with my tapco tri-rail. Anyway thanks for the encouragement.

[thebuns1 4,323]

Done.

[Big John! 2,062]

I've done it too and regretted it so I gotta ask. Why do so many people go with cheap optics? You have guys like me that shoot just fine with the iron sites and get some BS optic that does nothing but give you headache's. I bought one shitty optic then decided the Eotech was the bare minimum or I'll just stay with iron's. Yeah it's the price of (what used to be) a new gun but we may very soon be trusting our lives to these optics. As far as expense goes, there are very few on this forum that have only one gun so don't bother saying that you can't go to Sportsmans Warehouse and afford a genuine Eotech for $399.

 

I'm far from being well off yet put off the purchase of another gun to put the Eotech on my AR and have never looked back.

[DrThunder88 912]

I may be misreading your post, but I think you've gotten your elevation way too low. If the scope is on a "generic" side mount, it should not be hovering just above the front sight. Use whatever you can to brace or rest the rifle in such a way that the iron sights are lined up with a moderately distant target. See where the red dot ends up in relation to the aiming point and roughly adjust it to coincide. You should be on paper at 25 yards by doing that. Then it's just a matter of fine tuning.

[breid1970 327]

True. I need a sand bag and a table.

And I need to pay off the wife's 140k student loans. So no I can't afford a eotech. I'm looking at a bariska 4 power.

[psl sniper 963]

on the plus side. its better to have shit like this happen at the range. than it is to have it happen when you need it

[Yugopap4me 29]

I used to have a Kobra reddot that worked really well and it came with a good solid mount..I think it cost a little over 100 for the package. Other than I don't have anything else to say because capt. Heroes and big johns avatars are distracting me too much haha

[breid1970 327]

No worries, I will keep an eye out for the kobra. Now Im in the market for solid affordable magazines. What do you guys know about Promag?

[Yugopap4me 29]

Ya I've been out of the rifle scene for awhile and have been more into pistols lately. But from what I can remember from the kobra it was the best bang for your buck at the time. (about 6 year ago) it had multi-recticles v-notch, post, x, dot, etc. It came with a glare shade too and was milspec. Only downside was that aimpoint and eotech killed it in the battery life department

[breid1970 327]

Dear God. They are four hundred bucks now .

[Lone Eagle 839]

At least you weren't like a guy at the range a few months ago. First round out of his WASR, and the barrel and front trunnion went downrange.

[gunfun 3,931]

Hey. That's not a bad day so much as it is a shakedown run.

 

Now you know what works, what needs locktite, and that you want a better magazine. you also know that the idea that AKs never fail is BS.

 

That's OK though because next time, you will know that your magazine will be tested 100%, your flash light will have a solid mount made for something with more recoil than a 22 and locktited down solid, you will bring a big sheet of paper, and some allen wrenches and some strips of pop can to shim your scope mount until it is right. (or you will warranty out that red dot then trade the replacement for a better one.)

 

If you think of every firearm as an individual that needs to be verified and maintained as an ongoing process rather than something that happens over the purchase counter, then you can look at this as progress rather than a failure.

At least you weren't like a guy at the range a few months ago. First round out of his WASR, and the barrel and front trunnion went downrange.

 

Bad rivets and bad headspacing? RJF build? We needs details man!

[DrThunder88 912]

I've heard of kit builds that used drive rivets blowing their front ends out, but not factory guns.

 

bried, you don't need too elaborate a sandbag setup. It doesn't even necessarily need to be done at the range. So long as you can get the rifle aimed at a specific point in such a way that it doesn't move, you should be able to get close enough to get on paper. A cheap and dirty method I would do at home would go like this:

 

On a far wall, put a sticky note on the wall with a spot to aim at.

Set the rifle up on a pile of towels so the iron sights are aimed at the spot.

Look through the red dot and gauge how far from the spot the reticule is.

Make some rough (and progressively finer) adjustments to the red dot.

Re align the iron sights and repeat until the red dot is on the spot.

 

Take all necessary safety precautions, obviously, but that should at least get you on paper at 25 yards. Depending on the distance to the wall and the diameter of the reticule, the spot on the paper should probably be on the lower half of the reticule dot.

[Lone Eagle 839]

It was a kit build that monkeyboy tried to drill/tap the trunnions and use machine screws instead of rivets. Might have worked if he'd used Grade 5 or better. He used the cheap zinc-plated Chinese garbage from Home Depot. He'd never built an AK before and figured it would work.

[breid1970 327]

My next trip will be far better. I will go old school and just do some presight work and once at the "range" just get down to zeroing the rifle back in and making sure the red dot is on track. Shake down is right. I didn't use locktight on the flashlight retainer since I wanted to be able to remove it as needed. I may do that now though and just call it good. On the plus side I did locktight all the screws on the tapco tri-rail and they didnt come loose at all. I was ashamed to admit I had left my allen wrenches at home. Hell I've got four sets of them. Sheesh. All in a days work I suppose. I also believe I may have cranked my sight way way down. Time will tell. I backed the elevation screws all the way out and then counted the clicks untill it bottomed out going back in. 425 clicks. That seemed a little excessive. So now its backed out flush, should bake it a lot easier to sight it in next time.

[BigChongus 765]

It was a kit build that monkeyboy tried to drill/tap the trunnions and use machine screws instead of rivets. Might have worked if he'd used Grade 5 or better. He used the cheap zinc-plated Chinese garbage from Home Depot. He'd never built an AK before and figured it would work.

The very idea of screw builds make me cringe.

[gunfun 3,931]

I am not against screws per-se but what made that guy think he could safely build a gun?

[psl sniper 963]

I am not against screws per-se but what made that guy think he could safely build a gun?

he saw it on youtube and said "why the fuck not!" lol

Edited August 6, 2013 by Guest