Well, my AK is now know as the "Destroyer of Optics". First victim = cheap NCStar Panaoramic. Second victim, well see below.

- Evidence Article 1: A normal looking Kobra. An earlier revision, but still a decent item.


- Evidence Article 2: After mounting, sighting in, and ~1000 rounds.


- Evidence Article 3: Here you can see the bottom of the attach point is has been scraping for some time. I THOUGHT it was moving around a bit. You can also see why it was losing power (see story below).


- Evidence Article 4: Same as above, but showing the attach point of the rail arm (what's left after cracking.


- The Story:

I bought this Kobra second hand through the EE. All in all it arrived with all parts, and looked good. I put it on the ol' Romanian WASR-10, sighted it in and shot about 200 rounds. Went out blasting for a Saturday and spent about 400 rounds.

The good part comes as I'm tweaking it out on the Friday before our Practical Rifle Match. I had tweaked the sight-in and was doing some 50-yard groups. After a while, after each shot, the Kobra would "turn-off". I.e., the swtich was on, but the dot disappeared. I tapped it, and it came back on. I figured it was the batteries or spring in the compartment. I'd just fix it later.

BANG. tap. BANG. tap. Hmmm...WTH? BANG. Clank. The Kobra fell off.

Basically, as you can see from the pics above, the mount arm just cracked right at the weak point. I guess this is why they reinforced it there on later models huh? The power connection was due to the contact point through the arm being intermittent. You can see the copper connector in one of the shots above.


So yes, the AK is the most powerful battle rifle made. It can destroy "military grade" optics in 1000 rounds!

All joking aside, while I do not know the Kobra's past life, when I got it, it was not abused, run over, stepped on, etc.

 A well done post, thanks.  Did you fire the match over the irons?
Are you planning on getting another optic for your WASR?  If so, what type.

Yep, I went irons for the match. It was my first one and I had some technical difficulties, but I did okay. Although shooting gray targets against a brown background with irons on an overcast dreary day got difficult. I started loosing the sights.

The switch is basically just a pin on the underside of the red-dot. The "knob" is basically just a cam. Rotate it, and it depresses (and holds) the switch.