Yugo M-72

I picked up my Yugo I ordered from JG Sales on Thursday. The wood looked brand new, no scratches at all. The barrel looked like it could be new as well. The front sight was straight and the finish on the metal looks great with the exception of the top cover which was parkerized colored.
I took it out to sight in using some steel core stuff from the eighties I have. My first 50 yard group(5 shot) was was 1&1/4 inch with four shots touching. My next five groups were all five inch groups...what happened?
I took it home and it took four applications of foaming bore cleaner to get the patches to come out clean.
This is my first AK. Do I have to break in the barrel or do you have any ideas why the change in group size? I'm fairly sure it wasn't me since after the first five inch group I really took my time. Any ideas?
Thanks.

hunner,
If everything remained the same, the only possible explaination I can think of is that you may have been chasing the bullseye.
That is where you keep changing your focus from the front sigh, to the target, to the front sight, and back and forth.
This will make your eye do funky things that you may not even be aware of.

Also, if it is sunny out, rest your eyes on a darker color, like maybe the grass when you get the chance (between shots if you have someone else spotting for you).
Other than this I can't think of what else could have caused you groups to deviate so.

Sounds like you have a good set of young eyes and a decent technique.
You can work through it, I'm sure.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the advice. I believe I was chasing the bullseye.It was very bright with lots of white sand around. Also, I wore glasses that are for distance viewing which cause the front sight to blur so I was constantly trying to refocus my eyes on the sight.
Can't wait to get out and try again.
I ordered a sight adjustment tool since my groups were seven inches high. Is this just a matter of unscrewing the front sight and raising it? I noticed a small hinged plate on the back of the sight that flips up. What is that for, do I need to be concerned about that when adjusting the sight?
Thanks for your help.
Dave

Hunnerbk,
I think you are talking about the night sights, which flip up and that puts the little vial of RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL in line with (in the place of) your front sight. So the night sight should be left down when you adjust the height of the front sight post. If you can't see the little glass vial you probably still have cosmoline and dirt in there.

I don't know if you could google "the B.R.A.S.S. system" and have the Marine Corps's shooting method come up or not. That is the only other help I can offer .

Just try to maintain a clear front sight, and put that clear front sight on the fuzzy bullseye. I wish I could find a pair of glasses that would help me with that. My old eyes aren't what they used to be.
In my day, though, (Boot Camp, 71) I beat the Range Record using an M14. Got two witnesses to that, and one lives in town with me. He is the one that heard the range officers talking about it and he told me later.
I thought I messed up somehow because there were 5 DIs around me, plus my rifle coach. Of course they didn't let on and didn't give me the correct score. An officer had the record so they weren't going to give a worthless maggot an even break. In Division we used M16s for qualification and it was a struggle to get high marksman. What a pieced of shit that weapon is. I don't care who's listening.

Sorry, just had to brag before. Resting on my laurels, so to speak.
I guess when your hair turns white you have a few of those psychotic moments here and there.

Best of luck and lots of fun at the range.

Anybody who can shoot that good must have grown up with guns. I can't believe you learned to shoot like that in boot camp. When I went thru basic training (Air Force) I don't think we shot more then fourty rounds thru an M-16.

When I was 14 years old in 1968 my dad was stationed at Travis AFB California. My friend and I would strap our .22 rifles on our handlebars and ride out thru the base gate to go shoot jack rabbits off base. The security guards would smile and wave us thru. Can't imagine that happening today.Could also buy .22 ammo at the base exchange.

After the gun control act of 1968 we needed a note from our parents to buy the ammo.

Dave

You are right about how things have changed.
Our friends were up visiting from Columbus, OH.
The kids related a story that pretty much sums it up.

These little kids were playing "ARMY" in a field not very far from the Air Force Base there in Columbus. Needless to say they were surrounded by military personel with rifles trained on them, a helicopter overhead, and were ordered to lay down and not move. One of the kids decided he would try to explain again to the friendly troops that they are only toy guns. The other kids said that the guys with rifles acted like they were going to shoot him.

These guys should be put on border patrol seeing as how efficient they are.
But that's just my opinion.

Yeah, things have changed.
When Border Officers shoot an illegal who is running drugs they are incarcerated.
Go figure.
Of course that is another matter completely.
International relations, you know.

A m
M oving
E conomics
R etrograde
for
I llegals
C oming
A cross.

No kidding. It kills me when the Gov. says a fence on the border won't solve the problem. It worked for Israel. They don't have suicide bombings anymore.

Our Border Patrol Agents do what they are told.My guess is they are told to not be too efficient at their job.

We used to go deer hunting in southern New Mexico a few miles north of the border. It is scary how many people we would see in a single day heading north thru the desert. Maybe 10 to 15 and we weren't looking for them.
It got to where we were afraid to leave our camper unattended.

My friend went javalina hunting down there in January and although he didn't see any illegals a Border Patrol Agent stopped his truck and asked if he had seen anything. Apparently he was on the trail of a dozen or so that had crossed that night. He was confident he would find them so maybe they are working at it now, I don't know.