The problem with the AKs is that they’re usually assembled out of crap parts in a 3rd world plant with no more than a rubber mallet or, at best, a hydraulic house Jack with no thought to squaring up the barrel to the action. Then you’re gonna have rather serious accuracy issues. It takes an EXTREME level of care to get it right, as it’s a very highly sensitive procedure and will make or break the rifle overall. I like Chinese production best because in modern times, they do that by means of a robot that presses the necessary parts in perfectly with run off barely measuring in the 10,000ths of an inch bracket. It came a long way from the 50s, or even the 80s
From observation of AK pattern rifles in NMC matches the Norinco AK rifles and the Romanian WASR were the very worst in terms of aiming point moving as the rifles heated up. With such rifles the concept of a “zero” is more or less a chimera.
Of course I hear about all the accurate AK rifles, it just seems no one who ever actually goes to a rifle match has found one.
Kind of like accurate M1 carbines, every one knows someone who has one, yet somehow less than 2 percent of them in the hands of CMP shooters seem to be able to put in a 10 shot group of less that 4 inches at a fixed aiming point 100 yards away.