Ak 47 Accuracy

On 'Top Shot,' Medina sharpshooter Gary Quesenberry is at home on the range

Before he was sent into a remote corner of Northern California to shoot off AK-47 rifles and Gatling guns on a cable reality show, agent Gary Quesenberry and his pal Jarrett Grimes used to give shooting demonstrations to dignitaries visiting the U.S. Department of Homeland Security academy in Atlantic City.

The firearms instructors were under intense pressure to perform. But more importantly, they had a standing bet: Every bullet that missed its target cost the shooter a pizza.

"So," says Quesenberry, now a DHS supervisor living in Medina, "if you miss three times, you're buyin' three pizzas. That kept everybody fed and happy and that kept you honest in your marksmanship. You really took your time because you wanted to do well in front of these people and because you're cheap!"

Still, any performance anxiety he might have felt on the range in New Jersey was nothing compared to the idea of 2 million people watching his every trigger pull as one of 16 crack marksmen (and women) on the third season of "Top Shot" on the History channel.

"It's one thing to shoot demos in front of a handful of people, but to know that everybody is gonna see every little thing you do wrong?" Quesenberry trails off, shaking his head.

Deadeye sharpshooters in seasons 1 and 2 faced off using throwing knives, slingshots, "the legendary crossbow," the tomahawk and blowgun. Competitors have had to shoot at targets backward with a mirror a la Buffalo Bill or hanging from a 125-foot crane or from the bed of a moving jeep. High-speed cameras capture extreme-slow-motion shots of spent cartridges hanging suspended in the air as though bewitched, bullets traversing the air like the ones Keanu Reeves dodged in "The Matrix" and rounds shattering giant brown jugs and other hapless objects, creating little supernovas of glass.

On Tuesday, the first episode delivered even more fun for historic-weaponry buffs, with an elimination round featuring challengers firing away at targets with a Winchester '73 repeating rifle from the seat of a bouncing stagecoach.

What is ak-47′s accuracy like at 100 yards?

Its paper plate accurate…… Meaning == I shoot steel plate targets…. With a 12 inch steel plate I can put most all bullets on the metal target to 100 yards and occasionally have a flier that misses……. Of course they are all over the place but generally within a 6 to 7 inch circle…. They were designed as a weapon against people and are plenty accurate doing that…. It would be unfair to compare an AK47 rifle with a bolt action rifle with a scope — They don’t have that kind of accuracy……

Use for hunting? — Not really — Its perfect for keeping the 2nd amendment intact, also because of its large capacity box magazine and cheap ammo its excellent for target practice to hone your hunting skills……

Josh,

The Automat Kalashnikov rifle is THE most prevalent military-pattern rifle in existance today. It is easy and cheap to manufacture and easy for the simplest of conscripts to learn to maintain. It has also proven itself time and again in combat in the worst of conditions as reliable. Its reliability is in part due to its simple design and excellent engineering, which includes parts being fitted with a wide margin of tolerance…which means that parts fit together ‘loosely’ if you will, so that battlefield muck and built-up fouling from abuse will not cause it to fail. This wide margin of tolerance is what makes it reliable, but it doesn’t do anything for accuracy. The tighter the tolerances, the more temperamental the firearm can be, but the temperament is offset by far greater accuracy.

That is not to say that the AK system is not capable of accuracy acceptable enough to take to the hunting camp. Some have speculated that the AK’s reputation for less than stellar accuracy had a lot to do with the shoddy manufacture of com-bloc ammunition, as well as the AK’s design.

Given a ‘typical’ AK pattern rifle, the AVERAGE accuracy I’ve seen is between 2.5 – 4 Minute of Angle. The best accuracy I’ve gotten is with reloadable, brass-cased, boxer primed ammo made by Sellier and Bellot. The crappiest ammo is the surplus com-bloc crap that you see everywhere for WAAY cheap. Steel-cased Wolf ammo comes somewhere in between.

You get what you pay for, in this case.

You need to look at the regulations for your state to make sure it is legal to use it for game. You will probably have to get a 5rd magazine for it because I don’t think there are any states that allow hunting with a high cap magazine.

The Gun Digest Book of Personal Protection & Home Defense

Kalashnikov AK47

Weapon, a visual history of arms and armor

The Gun Digest Book of Assault Weapons

The Gun