Sons of Guns episode featuring "1,000 yd accurate AK-47

[trbii]

Did anyone see this episode last week on History channel? Will Hayden and his gunsmiths at Red Jacket Firearms in Louisiana built a long heavy barrel, improved lock time triggered AK that they had an ex-US army sniper fire at 100- 1,000 yds. No mention at all about the ammunition used. Really? 7.62X39MM, 2,400 FPS, 123 gr. fired out to 1,000 yards. I've seen match reloads keyhole, tumbling at 600 yds, when loaded a bit too light on the powder charge, striving for better accuracy, repeatability. Can any long range shooter out there tell me how a 7.62 comblock round that I've found to be quite erratic past 300 meters, could be fired accurately on a man sized silhouette at 1,000 yards?

 

[davek]

I suspect they used a Saiga .308 as the base to build on.

 

[Buddhaman]

I suspect they used a Saiga .308 as the base to build on.

That's my guess. They always have "AK-47"s but they all look like modified Saigas. Even from the start you can tell they used a Saiga.

 

[Shadowrider]

He used a Kreiger barrel too, that's gonna make a bit of a difference. The old .45/70 will go 1000 yards in a good barrel and load for it. I see no reason the 7.62x39 couldn't do it. It's just that the normal AK barrel and ammo ain't usually gonna get that job done.

Edit to add: I meant with good handloads with premium bullets too. Seriously doubt they used Russian mil-surp to do that, but if the twist was right for the bullet weight and velocity it could be done.

 

[WTJ]

AHHHHHHHHH. Television. Many retakes.

 

[Grendel]

Yes, they used a .308 Saiga, I think they mentioned it briefly at the very beginning of the project. Barrel looked like 24" or so.

 

[Huckelberry75]

Just plain silly.

 

[AKguy1985]

Yes, they used a .308 Saiga, I think they mentioned it briefly at the very beginning of the project. Barrel looked like 24" or so.

thats what i thought they'd use

 

[z06man]

Krebs built a 6.5 Grendel AK. It should be able to reach that far.

 

[MoBoost]

Watched the show for the first time - Arisaka was very nice (midway has ammo in stock BTW) - everything else in it just made my brain cells die Looks like bubba's home garage - not a gunsmithing shop.