I broke down and bought one of the IO Sports Hellhounds, which is a US made AK, with stamped receiver. It came with a quad rail installed, and they claim, a match barrel. I chose to go stamped receiver rather than milled, partly due to cost, but also to a greater number of accessories available for the stamped guns. I also tried to keep my money in the US, rather than buy a Rooskie made rifle.

I added a Midwest Industries scope adaptor, which mounts to the receiver, rather than the top rail. Also a Hogue grip, and an adaptor that allows it to take any M4 Mil-Spec carbine stock. Finally I added a Magpul ACS, which I have on several rifles.

I tried a Leupold Prismatic first. While it was hard to get it sighted in, I did eventually get the scope on target at 100 yards. Factory Win 123 gr softpoint ammo did about a 2.5"-3" group at 100 yards, which is better than some AR's I've seen. I will be curious to see how it does with handloads, and perhaps a little larger scope. The Midwest mount is the lowest one I know of for AK's. I will probably try a little larger scope, and get it mounted as low as I can. Texas Weapon systems does have a replacement dust cover with Picatinny rail, but folks tell me it is not the equal of the side scope mount for accuracy.

The gun has a fairly smooth, if creepy trigger, and functioned reliably, so far. It is indeed crude in design compared to finely machined AR's, but it is still interesting from a purely mechanical point of view.

yea, stay away from dust cover scope mounts held in place by springs....I have the RS Regulate AKM mount, don't know if the AKS has been released. The AKM is solid and co witnesses with iron sights. In speaking to the owner/designer I asked him what RS was about...he said if one of his mounts was on your gun and you were shooting at something, that something would be Royally Screwed...

Oh and don't buy anything from "Leepers".

http://www.rsregulate.com/products.php

How much did you lay out for the gun?

one day I would like one of the Krebs custom carbines with the fixed brake on it, the $1250 holds me back..

2-3 inches better than some ARs youv'e seen? What ARs and what ammo. Right ammo I've rarely EVER seen an AR that wouldn't shoot 1.5 inches or less at 100. And 90% or more probably will shoot MOA at 100 or less.
Never ever seen an AK shoot MOA. Even with reloads....

IIRC the AK was $819

My Armalite AR15A4 carbine would only do 3-4 MOA, no matter what I fed it in the way of factory ammo, including Federal Match ammo. It had a 16" chrome lined barrel. I swapped it for one of their 20" bull barrels and a free float handguard, and it turned into a sub-MOA shooter.

A CMMG upper in .300 Blackout would likewise only do 3-4 inches with 220 gr factory ammo. It would do about half that much with handloads, and possibly even better with supersonic loads, but I have just begun testing them.

Here is the scope mount I am using:

http://www.midwestindustriesinc.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_ID=433

The TWS dust cover:

http://texasweaponsystems.com/id1.html

my cheap and inferior pencil barreled Colt shoots SMA with hand loads it likes. Again the dog leg is held in place by springs, good luck with return to zero and holding zero. Gabe Suarez on Warrior Talk promotes that along with the SIG rifles, and as PT Barnum used to say "there is sucker born every minute".

And FAL owners commonly refer to AR's as "range toys"

As Sherman Bell would say, "guess I'll find out for myself"

your not serious about the dog leg are you?

Scoping an AK is best done the way the Russians intended it to be done. Top cover mounts just don�t hold their zero. Even look at the Galil which had a stabilized top cover; they still used a side mount for optics.

Logically, I agree the dust covers seem unlikely to return to zero as well as one would like - but if we're talking a dot sight intended for short ranges, it may not matter so much. And if your practical accuracy improves via a better cheek weld, it may offset any inconsistency in the mount.

But the first thing to me is to see how accurate it is with the side mount.

TNC, the RS mount JimmpP mentioned probably sits lower than a cover with a picatinny rail. I have the one with the full size aimpoint dot and you couldn't get it any lower. I honestly couldn't imagine getting a better cheek weld.

one of the first ones, I received a new top for it and the green tape is no longer necessary. The first ones were a few thou too big for the Comp ML. Rugged, holds zero, remove the dust cover, very well built.

Thanks, I have not seen those before. Not an Aimpoint user, but I see they also have scope mounts, and that may be a good option for me as far as getting a lower mount. I have a Loopey VX-R 1.25x4 which should work pretty well on the 7.62x39, for general use.

Here is the MI mount, with some random rings I stuck on it:



here's the rifle, sans scope.



Do I think it's better than an AR? Not even close But it should be an interesting exercise, working with it. Maybe I'll even try to knock over some pigs with it, this year.

I keep changing my opinion on them. When I am hunting and shooting in general accuracy and precision are very important, but then just standing, kneeling or sitting there at 25-30 and shooting at "stuff" the AK is a lot of fun.

I had one similar to the one you have, my head was straight up when I had a scope mounted on it.