Need some help with my WASR
 

I was trying to dial in my iron sights on my wasr and it was shooting low, i have the front sight screwed all the way down and its still hitting very low.

This has me looking at some type of red dot or scope and i've googled and searched/read about a million sights (give or take) and am having trouble understanding alot of the terminology so i figured i'd just ask my own question(s).

Can I just move the rear sight up to 1 or 2 mark to compensate for the low shot?

If i go with a scope i was wanting a quick detach side mount. If i get one with a picatinny rail, will most red dots work on it? I like the Midwest Ind. one, but would prefer to spend a little less, more in the Kalinka BP-02 range. Any advice on these two?

I also read about getting some after market iron sights somewhere. Would anyone recommend this set up?

This is basically my only big rifle. other than this i have glocks and .22 rifles. This is also my SHTF gun (as most others) so i want something simple, tough, and versatile.

Any advice/info will be appreciated. Also, if i haven't provided enough info to give sound advice just let me know what else you need to know.

Thanks in advance.

How low from point of aim? Can you post a picture of your sight from the back of the rifle, front sight? Is the rear sight set to 1? Take a look at the barrel - is it bent?

it was a good 3-4 inch low at about 25 yards. I know, dialing in at 25 yards isn't typical, but it was so far off that I wanted to get it hitting pretty close there before i stepped it out.
I will take/post a pic tomorrow, getting ready to hit the sack right now.

I didn't notice it being bent, but I didn't specifically check. Would i be able to tell just from looking from the side? Should I lay it down on a table or something to compare it to?

I knew to check for canted front sight and mag wobble before i bought it but didn't read anything about barrel straightness as a problem. I did have to push the front pin about as far as I could to the right when sighting it in, so I may have failed at ensuring i didn't get a canted sight one as well.

I'll try to check the barrel straightness, and will get the pic taken tomorrow when i get home from work

thanks for the quick reply

edit: I had the rear sight on the lowest setting. I've never sighted a rifle before and didn't think about raising POI by moving the rear sight until I had already left

I always zero my AKs at the battle zero setting at 25m and then verify at 100m. This allows easy hits on man sized targets out to 300m(with 7.62x39, further with 5.56 and 5.45) just by aiming at center mass.

I think it would be beneficial to test the rifle at a longer range and on the battle zero setting. The difference may simply be the height over bore of the sights, combined with the rear leaf being at its lowest setting, and the target being so close.

Hmm...usually the front sight cant is the biggest issue. If its not canted...I'm not sure..what sort of ammo are you using?

There's a lot of paralax in the AK setup. The sights are atop the gas tube, which is atop the barrel.

You cannot sight an AK in at 25 yards for this reason. It's not the ballistics that make this impossible, but rather the paralax of the system.

Move out to 100 yards for any serious sight setting activities.

I'm not trying to be a smart-a** here, I'm asking seriously. How would there be paralax with the irons on an AK?

i have it ok from right to left, i just had to have the post pushed all the way over... but i shot mil surp and silver bear HP

If need be, raise your rear sight.

Stretch it out to 100 yds to get a better idea of where you are actually hitting.

The sights are way above bore axis, so they shoot low at shorter ranges.

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This just is not the case. I have sighted in numerous AKs at 25m(pretty darn close to 25y) and have not had issue.
There is actually some pretty good video in Travis Haley's Adaptive Kalash about zeroing the AK at 25m

Maybe I misunderstand parallax, but I don't see it being a factor with iron sights, only red dots.

I don't understand it with irons either but it can be an issue with red dots & scopes (usually at < 100m)

If the post is all the way down, you should still have plenty of post left to file it down some. You may gain enough to get it zeroed. Posts are cheap enough if it doesnt work out.

Id use HWI's method and take it slow, with a couple of passes with the file and shoot and see.

That's true, I should have mentioned scopes. I only have 1 scoped rifle atm and never really use it at less than 75m, so never experienced any parallax issues with it. I also find it to generally be an issue on lower quality optics. For instance, I have never noticed parallax on my Aimpoint H-1 even at really close ranges.

/Thread hijack