Upgrading The AK Rifle: A Critical View (Part 2)

In Part 1 of this article, I wrote about procedures I developed for upgrading AKs after working as an armorer in various Middle Eastern countries and evaluating many AK modernization projects. I divided all AK upgrades into three categories: Ergonomics (I), Technical Capabilities (II), and Sighting Systems (III). The first two were already covered in Part 1, and this article is dedicated to Category III — Sighting Systems.

This category includes sights: red dots, LPVOs, IR and visible lasers, and additional equipment that helps to see the target – magnifiers and lights as well as sight mounts/rail systems. Let’s look at those upgrades in more detail.

Lights on AKs

Unfortunately, some people still have certain misconceptions about a light on the rifle. In my opinion, the main purpose of the white light is not to increase your hit probability at night. The red dot, in most cases, would do a better job improving your accuracy in low-light conditions.

The main purpose of the light is to identify the target before you shoot it in order to make the right decision. By using the light, you’re exposing yourself to potential danger, but the reason you’re doing that is to avoid harming innocent people.

So having a light on a home defense/police rifle is pretty much mandatory. Tactical light can be mounted on any rail system, the question is just finding the right setup for you. Two things to keep in mind.

1. Barrel shadow.

If your light is too far behind, a shadow of a barrel (or suppressor) will obstruct a large part of the light beam. Even if you don’t currently use a suppressor, it makes sense to mount a light as far forward as possible to avoid barrel shadow in case you start using a suppressor in the future.

2. Light activation and cable management.

If you’re taught to switch shoulders, pressure pads that are located “in the middle” of the handguard make a lot of sense. But there are at least two scenarios when ditching the whole pressure pad also makes sense. First, if you only shoot from your “strong” shoulder, like many people trained under IDF doctrine, having an ambidextrous light switch isn’t really necessary. Also, many special units primarily use night vision for low-light missions, pressure pads are utilized to activate IR illuminators/lasers, and white light is just an emergency tool with no pressure pad in order to avoid accidental activation.

Lasers on AKs

Mounting a laser on an AK is a struggle. Most AK handguards do not hold zero of a laser, because they were never designed to mount a laser.

The reason is simple – while the US Army started using handguard mounted AN/PAQ-4 IR lasers in the late 80s, the Russian army, the main drive behind the development of this weapon system, to this day does not have a standard IR laser/illuminator device that is mounted on a handguard. Zenitco and SOT lasers are not standard issues for the Russian army and are only procured by special units.

Thankfully, the private sector developed a lot of good solutions for AK owners, so most modern rail systems available in the US would hold zero of a laser. Just don’t waste your time and mount a laser on the plastic upper handguard expecting to hit anything consistently.

Sight mounts on AKs

So many things can go wrong here. Cheap red dots and expensive knock-offs of EOTechs that fall apart after a few bursts. Shifting zero, dying batteries, unreliable mounts – some modern electronic sights should simply never be used.

I covered a lot of issues related to mounting sights on AKs in the previous article about red dots. Here I am just gonna talk about additional considerations.

When choosing a mount, think about a scenario when you have to deal with a nonstandard malfunction. I had a few of those and every time I had to remove the dust cover to deal with it.

If your optics mount prevents you from disassembling the rifle, you might end up in a situation where you can’t fix the stoppage quickly enough. There were plenty of examples of that in the current war in Ukraine.

Procedures for Category III upgrades

For this category of AK upgrades, I suggest that the sighting system be checked and installed by the armorer. After that, the contractor/soldier who uses the weapon must successfully pass a standard shooting qualification in order to be cleared to use the upgraded weapon.

In most companies and agencies, a shooting qualification course is quite easy. But if someone passes it with a new sight, at least it guarantees that the new sighting system did not decrease his shooting performance.

If you’re upgrading your personal rifle, you don’t need a gunsmith to install the sight for you. But it is a good idea to shoot some standard courses of fire before and after the optic is installed in order to compare your speed and accuracy and see how much it improved after you installed an optic.