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Earlier this year I acquired a Zastava M77 PAP in .308 Win / 7.62 NATO. Yes, that's right, I finally managed to get a semi-automatic rifle in .308, and didn't have to shell out a ridiculous amount of money to do it ($600 AFTER tax)! So much for all the AR-10 manufacturer's claims about how they have to use so much more steel of such a higher quality being the reason why an AR-10 has to be 2x as expensive (or more) than an otherwise identical AR-15. Anyway, now nobody has to listen to me complain about not being able to find a .308! Hooray!
My question though: when I was picking the rifle up, someone at the store made the claim that since it's an AK-based platform, and since the ballistics between 7.62 Russian and 7.62 NATO are supposedly "close enough", I could apparently use a Russian PO-3 scope and still get good, reliable accuracy, while potentially saving some money over other, new or more modern scope designs.
Does anyone have any experience with this, or any knowledge that would allow them to comment constructively? I did a basic sighting-in with a laser bore-sight, and put 20 rounds down-range, but the rifle lane at the neighborhood range was a mere 50' (yes, 50 FEET), and at that distance I put 10 rounds through the same hole on iron-sights from a standing position, which tells me the rifle is almost certainly more accurate than I am. The rifle does have a side-rail, and I'd need to pick up a mount, but even though the Russian scopes aren't TERRIBLY pricey, that's still more money than I want to risk if it doesn't work, and while I can't justify spending money on the more expensive, quality scopes, I don't want to put anything on it that would make it less accurate than it can be, either.
So, if I can save money and still get good accuracy with a Russian-made AK-scope, I'm for it, I just don't want to find out the hard way that the guy at the store didn't know what he was talking about. I'm not looking for this thing to be a CQB rifle (.308 recoils too heavily for that to be ideal for CQB), nor am I expecting to bit competing in 1000m shoots, but I do want to be able to be reasonably able to shoot 1 - 1.5 MOA groups at 100 meters with match-grade ammo, and all my reading thus far indicates the rifle should do it easily, even if I can't.
My question though: when I was picking the rifle up, someone at the store made the claim that since it's an AK-based platform, and since the ballistics between 7.62 Russian and 7.62 NATO are supposedly "close enough", I could apparently use a Russian PO-3 scope and still get good, reliable accuracy, while potentially saving some money over other, new or more modern scope designs.
Does anyone have any experience with this, or any knowledge that would allow them to comment constructively? I did a basic sighting-in with a laser bore-sight, and put 20 rounds down-range, but the rifle lane at the neighborhood range was a mere 50' (yes, 50 FEET), and at that distance I put 10 rounds through the same hole on iron-sights from a standing position, which tells me the rifle is almost certainly more accurate than I am. The rifle does have a side-rail, and I'd need to pick up a mount, but even though the Russian scopes aren't TERRIBLY pricey, that's still more money than I want to risk if it doesn't work, and while I can't justify spending money on the more expensive, quality scopes, I don't want to put anything on it that would make it less accurate than it can be, either.
So, if I can save money and still get good accuracy with a Russian-made AK-scope, I'm for it, I just don't want to find out the hard way that the guy at the store didn't know what he was talking about. I'm not looking for this thing to be a CQB rifle (.308 recoils too heavily for that to be ideal for CQB), nor am I expecting to bit competing in 1000m shoots, but I do want to be able to be reasonably able to shoot 1 - 1.5 MOA groups at 100 meters with match-grade ammo, and all my reading thus far indicates the rifle should do it easily, even if I can't.
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