Hi all, my name is Cameron and I'm starting in on trying to find an Ak-47 that fits my needs the best.  I own several guns, but I'm NOWHERE near as knowledgeable as I need to be to understand what the hell you guys are talking about half the time! LOL

I hope I am not out of line popping up unexpected and asking stupid "newbie" questions but most of this is another language to me.  Milled receivers, different models, years, countries and what not.

I looked into M-14s and AR15s but I cannot make myself justify the higher price.  The AKs appeal to me because of the cost and reliability.  

I am trying to figure out what combo would be best suited for long distance accuracy, I really like the looks and features of the Dragunov, but the cost is just too steep for me right now.

What my plans are (as of now) is to get a bipod with a long barrel and a 100rd drum with some sort scope.  I have a VERY large population of ground hogs and .22's worked at first...but the little critters wise up pretty fast and are now down in their holes laughing at me.  So I'm not holding back anymore, I'm wanting to take this to the next step and win the gold medal in ground hog killing! :D

If anyone can point me toward an FAQ site or offer some assistance I would appreciate it!


I don't normally try to sound this corny but I thought I'd make a formal introduction :D

I am a huge fan of AKs, but I dont believe there is one made that is accurate enough for what you are wanting to do.  No kidding.  I have done a lot of work trying to make an accurate AK.  The fundamental design features wont support the kind of accuracy needed for long range varmint hunting.  Almost any rifle ever made can be made accurate easier than an AK can.  Now, if you were expecting to be attacked by an army of groundhogs, that would be a different story.  The AK is an assault rifle, designed to be fired off hand and most likely on the move.  It's primary design objectives were reliability and volume of fire.  And for that, it excels.

If you can find yourself a PSL/Romak3/SSG-97 you can get an AK type action that is pretty darn accurate.  The only other alternative would be one of the YUGO AK's that are popular right now, the underfolders (UF) being offered are one version and the fixed stock models would probably be a little more accurate if they had new barrels on them like the UF's do.  These AK's have thicker barrels on them than other Ak's do plus most use a heavier receiver than a normal AK does and they are darned accurate because of these two items.  

Like others have stated, trying to make a normal bought AK accurate enough to do what you want is almost a waste of time.  The receivers being stamped are made of rather thin metal and they do warp a bit when fired plus your normal AK barrels are sort of on the thin side too and these two combinations do not bring forth dead eye accuracy when you add the fact that it is a semi-auto type action.

You may want to look into some other sort of semi-auto like a Browning BAR; does not have the magazine capacity of an AK, but is way more accurate.  Remington makes some good semi-auto accurate rifles too.  These rifles have "milled" receivers from a solid block of steel which does make a difference in accuracy.  Even if you get a "milled" AK, you generally do not get the thicker barrel along with it so there goes one aspect of it being accurate.

Just some stuff to think about, as always, your mileage may vary and these are just my opinions derived from 30+ years of shooting.  Damn I'm getting old!

Welcome    You might consider an AR with an aimpoint red dot sight on it or something similar.  I think an AR will suit you better for them critters.  You can always get the AK that you want too, cause you can't always stop with just one.

Quoted: Welcome    You might consider an AR with an aimpoint red dot sight on it or something similar.  I think an AR will suit you better for them critters.  You can always get the AK that you want too, cause you can't always stop with just one.

Yup.  and you can build and AR for what you can easily sink into an AK.