I finally got to take my VZ2008 out for it's maiden voyage. I was using Red Army Standard ammo. I couldn't get on the 200 yard range and had to settle for the 50 yard. I set up at 25 yards to start. The First 3 shot group was 4" high centered on the target with them all touching. Without making any adjustments to the sights I tried a 6 o'clock hold and kept adjusting my sight picture until I was hitting the bullseye. Which ended up being putting the bullseye even with the top of the front sight ears.
I then tried the 50 yard line and was barely nipping the top of the target - 6-7" high! I adjusted the front sight for elevation (2 complete counter clockwise turns). I was now hitting black, but about 4" high. I did not want to adjust anymore until I can use the longer range. Trying again at 25 yards I was 2" high. This rifle was just simply amazing at these shorter distances with how well it shot! As long I did my part this rifle was up to the task at hand.
Any suggestions on where I can access some trajectory charts to see where I should be at using this sight in information?
The rifle functioned flawlessly, no issues at all. I do have to say that my support hand was very dirty from the gasses being vented out. The cleaning of the rifle showed the ammo to be very dirty overall. My only concern was the amount of patches I used down the bore and it still seemed to pull some green residue from I assume was the copper jacketed bullets. I wasn't confident that it was as clean as I normally get my rifles after a trip to the range or field.
Overall I was very impressed with the rifle and it proved to be more accurate at the shorter ranges right out of the box for all but 1 of my 3 ARs.
I zero in my 7.62x39 rifles by putting the rear sight on the universal notch in back and aiming center of mass (COM) at 25 yards. At that distance, COM will provide a quick and reliable hit.
Then for 100 yards, I set the sight to the 100 meter notch, but instead of COM, I use "6 o'clock hold" or "pumpkin on the post". This works well for two reasons: First, the front sights on these rifles are so fat that at 100 yards they obliterate anything smaller than a 10" plate. Lowering the sight and placing the target right on top enables the target to be seen -- it "emerges" from the sight. Secondly, the 7.62x39 trajectory has quite an arc to it; shooting to 100 yards by using a 25 yard zero, the point of impact will be too high. By going from a COM to 6 o'clock hold, not only is the target now visible, but the rifle and therefore the point of impact is lowered. I've found that it takes lowering the sight to the 100 meter notch to fully compensate for the bullet's arc as just going from a COM to a 6 o'clock hold is not quite enough.
Set up like this, I can consistently hit a target both at 25 and 100 yards. At 25 yards, COM is instinctive as that's they way I learned with handguns. At 100 yards, 6 o'clock hold is instinctive for no other reason than that's the only way I can actually see the target. At 50 yards, it's just an estimation in between which is also instinctive since that's when the front sight starts to obliterate the target and the sight is lowered just enough to see. The trajectory will follow.
I don't have the opportunity to shoot past 100 yards, but I suspect that moving the rear sight ladder to correspond to the target's distance and using 6 o'clock hold will work well.
Keep in mind this is not 1 MOA shooting, especially with iron sights. This will, however, enable you to consistently hit pie-plate sized targets, and definitely man-sized ones.
