**Note: This is Part II of the PGO-7V series, I HIGHLY recommend reading Part I first for technical information such as the magnification level of the optic. https://www.outofbattery.org/post/pgo-7v-the-ak-1980-s-soviet-anti-tank-optic-turned-anti-personnel **





Historical Shooting





First of all, what is “historical shooting”? Historical shooting is a new term that has come about and there is not one solid agreed upon definition. The definition I agree with most is this - Historical shooting is target shooting with the following key components: 1.) Original or good quality reproduction firearms and ammunition, 2.) Functionally accurate historical equipment, & 3.) Period manuals, documentation and/or reliable anecdotal evidence.

I have the following components of this:

1.) A 1988 AK74(N) kit build by Two River Arms using a ReCreator receiver, Bulgarian CHFCL barrel, surplus “plum” magazines, the RMP-3 side rail replica for the production year of the gun, a trigger with the same geometry as seen on the service rifle, and a tin of 7N6 5.45x39 Russian ammunition.

2.) A 1970 dated PGO-7V RPG optic, 1980’s mustard sling, and AK74 cleaning kit.

3.) Photographs of the Soviet Afghan War depicting use of the PGO-7V on AK rifles with side rails by some soldiers.





Extensive photos of the mentioned equipment can be seen in Part I, linked above.









Sadly, I have no VDV kit nor a 2-way ticket to Afghanistan but I have everything I need to learn about the use of this ridiculously unorthodox optic on this rifle. Since the last article I have removed 2 cosmetic screws from the PGO-7V so that the optic will fit on the rifle with the dust cover on as this is where the optic was catching on the dust cover when sliding it on.





It may not look like it, but there is clearance between the optic and dust cover

Zeroing the optic





Without further ado, let’s zero this thing at… 100 yards! But let’s get on paper at 25 first. At the range I slid this optic onto the rail, threw the lever forward, and was happily surprised that it fit like a glove with no bend or wobble. I popped off the lens and zeroing turret covers, loaded a mag, and aimed with the 100m line at the center of the 25 yard target. My shot went straight into the dirt in front of it and way left. I took my screwdriver and clicked the windage turret over about 15 clicks… fired again… still a bit left and very low. After repeatedly firing and checking I finally got this thing zero'd in the dirt in front of the 25 yard target. Now for the hard part – elevation.





Windage turret was quite conventional





Elevation turret had no "clicks" to speak of

There are no markings suggesting which way is left or right on these turrets, so everything is a guess. However, it’s even more of a guess with the elevation turret as there are no “clicks” when adjusting this, it’s just smooth rotation. I just picked a direction and started turning the turret a few times. It turned out to be the right direction as I got on the bottom of the paper at 25. Curious to see if I could get on paper by using the “+” crosshair at the top of the optic, I adjusted elevation higher again… and again… and again… and finally maxed it out. I could not even get on paper using that cross hair. I tried aiming with the 100m line… still low on paper. Then I tried the 200m line and barely got center at 25 yards. My optic was zeroed at 25 yards but we want to do 100 yards! There’s no way I can hit center using the 200m line at 100 yards as the turret will turn no further, so it looks like we’ll use the top double line at 300m.

Adjusting elevation accordingly to get centered at 100 yards aiming with the 300m wasn’t too bad but I had to adjust windage again. Why? Well, because the optic is off center, so shooting beyond or closer than your set zero will show a serious windage shift. It was about 10 inches of shift going from a 25 yard zero to a 100 yard zero. I screwed the windage cap back in place and re-tightened the 3 set screws for the elevation turret.

Images above show just how offset the optic really from the barrel





Notes on Aiming, Recoil and POA/POI shifting





It is not easy to get a conventional American cheek weld with the rifle at the shoulder, unless you are prone. If you are sitting, standing, kneeling or supine you will essentially have to hold this gun like an RPG-7 with a sort of “neck weld” in order to get a routine sight picture. Due to the lack of support when firing this way it’s difficult to get the same sight picture every time.





This leads to low precision by the shooter, as there’s also some parallax, maybe 1-2 MOA at 100 yards. Even though 5.45 has little to no recoil, your shoulder will likely not be supporting any of the recoil. With the 0.75 in eye relief of this optic you will feel that optic come into your face every time you shoot, however, since there is a rubber eye cup and a forehead rest on this optic you will not be getting any sort of cuts or bruising on your face.

Knowing your zero on this optic is essential for shooting at any range other than the range you zeroed the optic at. I did not have time to test the exact amount of windage and elevation shift firing at distances other than 100 yards, but from the small experimentation I did after zeroing: Aiming at the 50 yard target I had a POI shift of about 5 inches to the right and a couple of inches downward shift with the same center POA, and aiming at a 10 inch gong at 225 yards I had to hold one target size to the right and half a target high in order to score a hit. So you’ll be hitting low and right at targets closer than you zero, and you’ll be hitting high and left on targets beyond your zero; this is due to the optic offset and periscope nature.

Top 2 pics above are of the range, showing the 25, 50, 100, 200, 225 gong and 300 yard targets. Bottom pics show the grouping I achieved after zeroing, and the gong mentioned earlier.





What historical shooting taught me





After playing around with this optic for some time I discovered that you can achieve a passable sight picture with my left eye while shooting right handed. Keeping both eyes open, the left eye makes the optic act as a sort of spotting scope, while the right eye is free to use the irons.





An attempt to show the eye picure you'd see shooting with both eyes open

I’m convinced that this is the most effective way to use this optic. It is not ergonomic to use this as the main means of hitting a target, and it’s dubious to use this at ranges other than what it’s zeroed for. The parallax and lack of repetitive strong sight pictures make the standard irons more precise than the optic. Using this as a spotting scope, though, is highly intuitive and felt natural, and I really like it as a spotting scope. It’s great for checking your hits at the range after shooting at 25, 50 and even 100 yards with the irons.

I will attempt to use this optic again in the future, right-handed, but left-eyed and see if a consistent sight picture is more repeatable, and therefore higher precision hits. I’m almost certain that this optic will exist to serve as a spotting scope for me as it did for the VDV. After all, if the VDV took these scopes off their RPG-7’s and tried to zero these on their AKs, how would they have had any chance of hitting armor when swapping the scope back to their RPG? They’d have to re-zero all over again, and Soviet doctrine at the time was to sight in a weapon at training and then never adjust the sights again (unless it was a DMR like the SVD with its set range adjustment turrets or an AK rear sight leaf). Stay tuned for part 3 of this optic, where I practice with the optic, get my best groupings and determine the exact POA/POI shift!





UPDATE Aug 2020: NEW SOURCE PHOTO FOUND!

I have only found 1 Russian soldier (many photos of him) brandishing a PGO-7V on his AK, and finally, here is a 2nd soldier. From the uniform and rifle, it appears to be in Chechnya.