In case there are some that don't know, I'll tell you how to zero in a scope quickly and not have to fire a bunch of ammunition chasing after the bull's eye. You'll need a good quality gun vise that can be mounted to something that the gun's recoil won't move. Mount your gun vise and then set your target down-range to your preferred distance. Then mount your gun in the vise. Fire one round into the target. As long as the bullet hits the target anywhere, you can move onto the next step. If not, move the target around until you can get a bullet to hit the target. Once a round hits the target you can fire a second round, not using the scope, just to make sure nothing moved. This includes the gun and the vise. If everything is good the second round should pass through the hole from the first round or be really damn close. If nothing moved and your second round went through the hole from the first round, you are ready for the next step. Now look through your scope and adjust it gradually until the reticle lines up with the hole in your target from the first and second rounds. At this point, your scope is set. Try firing a third round. The third round should hit exactly where the first two did. Now remove your gun from the vise, sight back in on the bull's eye and fire. You should be able to hit the bull's eye every time now.

Definitely no problems on my side with mounting a scope on the dust cover! Especially a replacement cover that fits securely!

Sportsman's guide used to sell an AK47 dust cover with a rail attached for about $16.00. At the rear of the cover, it had two screws that could be tightened to stop any free-play movement of the cover. It worked by forcing the rear of the cover up and against the spring-loaded retainer. The biggest problem with the cover was that it didn't fit an AK47. The second worst issue was that in order to remove the dust-cover the two retaining screws had to be loosened, which of course required that the scope be zeroed back in every time the cover was removed. The third worst issue was that should the scope or cover be bumped it would throw the scope out of alignment. The 4th issue was that every time the rifle was fired the recoil would throw the scope out of alignment. Needless to say, it was a piece of junk. I checked and The Sportsman's Guide no longer sells them. I wonder why.

Fab makes the best dust cover with rail milled into it and I have an EOTech red dot on it and it hasn't even moved because you can put proper tension on the dust cover with adjustment knob and when you take it apart to clean it and put it back on your right back at zero

Nice! Thanks for the vid. I plan on putting a small red dot on mine. I believe that will allow co-witness and good enough for cqb applications if all goes well

What dust cover with rail did you use? Thanks

My Arsenal SLR 95 has the picatinny rail (Dogleg Rail) is made part of (not on) the rear dust cover. It's made by Texas Weapon Systems, is rock solid and holds zero. I am definitely in love with the TWS Dogleg Rail and I think it's the perfect scope mount for AK Rifles that do not have a side mount.

Dude!!! You have an AK-47!!! Awesome.

Thanks interesting demo

I've been kind of curious about the mods which let you mount a magnified optic on the dust-cover. I think a low-power scope like a Simmons or Tasco will work well, like it did in this case, considering the low bore-axis these mounts offer as compared to the higher up platform that you get with some side mounts like my UTG I currently use. If I were to use a dust-cover mount, it would only ever be for something short or medium range. Even on my optic setup I use for hunting and range shooting I don't have a ballistic reticle. Most shots you take with an AK in 7.62x39 will never be outside 200 yards, and my zero is at only 100 for treestand-shooting anyways. The best pro you get, aside from being able to have an optic on an AK pattern rifle not fitted with a side-rail, is that you can field-strip and clean your rifle much quicker and affect your accuracy a lot less from such cleaning or general field use that might affect the accuracy of a side-mounted optic. If you have the option, though, and you're looking for a good target mount, then UTG is a great brand in the U.S. market that I would highly recommend. :)

What brand/model is that scope mount?

So would you say someone drilled a couple holes on the cover to install the rail?

Thanks for the experiment! I've been curious about the dust cover mounts myself. I know on my old Norinco SKS they were absolute trash. The tech sight and irons on my Yugo are plenty accurate for it. Not to nit pick, but 1) that being a .22 scope, the scope itself isn't built to take that recoil, just in the event you continue to use it on the AK if it were to lose zero it may not be the mount causing it 2) I noticed on both of the second rounds that you held tighter groups on you tended to squeeze the trigger and ease into the reset rather than snap back. That's one of my worst habits with pistols is not easing into the reset. Happy shooting and long live the Republic!

Thumb hole/CA compliant stock... do you like them?

So is this a factory dust cover someone drilled Into or is this a after market option? Able to upload any photos of the underside how they mounted the rail?

awesome vid. grouping sounds great in theory but for practicality in real world situations, anyone hit with an AK is going down. period. that's all that matters

Im pretty sure the bolt carrier is not suppose to stay locked back like that. Even when you took the cover off, it was locked back. I know those werent bolt hold open mags either...dude i would reprofile that hammer if it still hangs up like that. Thats not good. Nice rifle though

I just ran across this video. There is a really good solid scope mount which you can still find for around 50 bucks. It is a B-square mount. It might be tricky to put on as you have to remove pins and replace them with threaded screws (it really wasn't that hard). The drawback is that it wont fit on some AK variants, but works good with Mak-90s (my AK) and a few others. Hope that helps someone.

think it your aiming ..

get a ultimak rail