AK front sight range of adjustment

Hey guys,

Just wondering what's the range of elevation and windage adjustment for the typical AK's front sight. Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance!

The reason I ask is because my Waffen Werks AK74 is shooting about 4 inches to the right at 50 yards with the front sight centered. I'm getting the front sight tool, but was wondering whether the sights would be adjustable to that range. Thanks in advance!

You're good, no worries there.

like dskeet said, also if you really like your front post being centered, look into an RPK adjustable rear site.

It doesn't bother me all that much. The AK isn't really meant to be a precision rifle, so the notion of the sights being a bit off center yet still functional is okay with me. I know there isn't an MOA click or anything like that with the AK sight, but do you guys know about how far in terms of millimeters I'd have to drift the sight to the right to have it zeroed?

trial and error my friend. I bench it, get my POA and shoot. Unload, put tool on, bench it, get my POA, and adjust to POI. Usually only takes a 1 or 2 tries.

I always like to go by how many "turns" of the tool it seems like it's taking.

So if it's shooting off by four inches, and I use the sight tool to push the sight one full rotation of the tool, and this gets me a result on the next firing of about two inches off, then I will do one more turn, and try that. Repeat as necessary all the way down to quarter of a turn or so per adjustment.

Perfect! Thanks so much for your help guys!

By the way, is that at 100 yards or 50 yards?

The rifle was assembled with parts twisted on the barrel. You may not be able to compensate for it and still have a decent sight picture without the ear getting in the way. I had a similar situation with an AMD65. I beat the rear sight over to the left, which allowed the front sight to be just a little off to the right. The rear sight remains where I put it, and you would not notice it unless you scrutinize the rear sight/sight block alignment.

How would I go about "beating" it to the right (in my case)? Just take a hammer and start pounding away?

Wherever you feel like zeroing.

I like to start at about 25 or so, get on paper, then move out further. I never go beyond 100m (110yards) though really. Just set the sight at 100m, target at 100m, zero and it's good enough.

You're shooting 4" right according to your original post. The front sight would move to the right to correct that, but the rear sight has to move left.
I secured the rifle and put a wood block against the sight and hit that with the hammer. Try to correct it with the front sight first, using the correct tool, before doing something that could break your sight off (easily replaced, though). There are ways to do things and not everyone has the experience to take a hammer to a $500 gun.

If the sight assy is canted its no biggie to pop the pins and mallet it straight. That'll help keep the post centered. It really is a piece of cake to do

Took it to the range yesterday with the front sight tool. Here's where it ended up. Sorry for crappy picture:




It didn't really affect my shooting, it's just weird to look at. Anybody else have theirs pushed so far to either side?

I had one like that. Like I said before, if it really bugs you, get an RPK rear site. IMO, it's not uncommon, but defeats the purpose of the shape of the front site if you have to push it to the side like that.

Update: carefully checked my front sight using a level, and it is slightly canted to the left. This would make sense, given where my sights have to be adjusted. Guess I have to bang it over to the right a bit. I've seen videos of people drilling the pins out and redrilling or simply placing the rifle in a vice and carefully whacking it with a hammer. Which do you guys recommend?

Use a drift and pop the pins out. Then mallet the assembly over.

Will I have to redrill the hole and put larger pins in? If I do I'd rather take it to a gunsmith instead of performing major surgery like that myself.

Na it's not surgery at all, more like popping a zit. If I can do it, anyone can, you'll see. Once you drift those pins out you can bang on it with a mallet and then eventually it'll move this way and that until you have it centered. You can get it really close by eyeballing it with other parts of the rifle and different angles, like from the rear and looking down from the muzzle side. Then the pins will go right back in but make sure you put them back in the same holes they came from. I have a suspicion they may be a bit different. I have no skin in the game except to help when I can. This is doable

i hate it when the front sight is over that much to one side. it happened on my wasr and i did beat it over so the post is now centered. i've done 5 saiga conversions at this point and use a laser bore sighter just to make sure i reistall the fsb so the post is centered....even if the sight itself may be now slightly canted.
i wonder if all those who complain about canted sights end up pushing the post off center to compensate for the now straight sight.

Talked to Waffen Werks, they said to either send it in or place it on the ground and give it a couple of good whacks with a rubber mallet. I decided to try the latter first. Took it to the range today, and the front sight is now much more centered than before and shooting right on.

I like it anytime something can be fixed with a hammer. Especially a gun. :)

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