A long time favorite of mine, the PK-AS is an
interesting and well designed collimator sight that
has probably the best field of view of any red dot or
collimator type optic that I've seen. Originally
descended from the PKS-07 magnified scope used on the
SV98 and sometimes SVD Dragunov rifles, the PK-AS is
the non magnified version inspired from the original
PKS-01.
Of all the collimators I have personally used it
seems to me that PK-AS has the highest light gathering
and clearest optical quality. Due to it's construction
and with such a thin scope body the edges almost
completely disappear with both eyes open, leaving you
with virtually nothing to obscure your vision. A small
1.5moa always on black dot is handy for more precise
shooting and a large black oval is useful for CQB
shooting. The PK-AS dot can be illuminated red for low
light/night shooting and uses common CR357 type watch
batteries, and has a variable intensity as part of the
on/off knob. Battery life at max brightness is about 120
hours. Only the dot illuminates, not the oval as
well.
This is the most difficult Russian optic to zero
due to the mechanical nature of the windage and
elevation controls and this is actually an intentional
part of the design. PK-AS was intended to be zeroed to
a specific rifle and to remain paired with that rifle,
therefore the ability to easily re-zero in the field
did not appear to be necessary.
KalinkaOptics
has a manual for the PK-AS that
explains the features in detail, as well as how to
zero. Having
experience with it I can say it's not too difficult
once you get the hang of it but it's really not the
easiest thing for a first time user.
PK-AS comes with a 3.5mm wrench for adjustment
From Avtomats-In-Action
This is also one of the most left offset optics and
has a reputation for not giving a good cheekweld. If
you are right eye dominant I think this is true,
however with both eyes open you can still get somewhat
of a chinweld. It's definitely to the left however and
can be tough for new shooters to get used to. Because
of the offset PK-AS does not block the irons, but the
AK version with MTK83 mount does. The AK version sits
higher than regular PK-AS however and that may take
some getting used to as well. My personal experience
was that I had to train with this optic to get used
to, it wasn't as natural as other rifle/optic
combinations I'd tried but as I learned to shoot with
both eyes open and practiced more close range drills I
began to get an idea of why it was designed the way it
was. After you spend some time with it it becomes easy
to use and I continue to respect the PK-AS, but all
things considered I think Rakurs is probably the
better of the two.
PK-AS has an elevation cam wheel graduated in 2
MOA increments that can be used for any caliber rifle
if you know your ballistic drop at range. I believe
the pure military version of the PK-AS elevation cam
is in meters but I have not verified this in person.
Suffice to say that it can be easily used out to 400m
by applying the standard 22cm offset of the 400m zero
principle, allowing you to put the dot on center mass
and not have to know or adjust for range out to about
400 meters.
PK-AS is descended from PKS-01, which itself is a
descendant of the PKS-07 shown here on an NDM86.
PKS-07 is a 7x sniper optic for the SV98 rifle but is
effective on the SVD as well.
PK-AS with PKS-07
Left PK-AS and right, the original PKS-01. This
version of PKS-01 is actually for the AS Val,
a suppressed 9x39 rifle.
The PK-AS uses a universal mount, PKS-01 (as currently
available in the US) uses an SVD mount for the AS-Val.
There are dedicated 5.45x39 military versions of
PKS-01 but I have not seen them yet.
SVD stop pin on the front part of PKS-01 (right)
and Universal mount on the PK-AS (left)
PK-AS comes in several variants as well including
a Weaver mount and a civilian model with an MTK83 AK
mount that sits directly over the bore (and higher
than the regular PK-AS)
From Avtomats-In-Action,
PK-AS-V
PK-AS-W from POSP.RU
This was my favorite collimator / red dot for many
many years and probably would still be if it were not
for the appearance of the Rakurs and most recently
Obzor. I'm a big fan of the always on black dot which
means that even if the batteries go dead you still
have the ability to use the optic during the day.
While Rakurs looks huge next to PK-AS the two are
about 1 ounce different in weight...17.1 for Rakurs vs
15.8 for PK-AS
PK-AS is in use with police and counter terrorist
units but has not been adopted by the Russian military
so far as I know at this time.
