I thought no more of it until a package from Novosibirsk arrived last week containing a Rakurs-A prismatic sight produced in 2017, a carrying/storage pouch and two manuals (one in English, the other in Russian).
The Rakurs-A is produced by NPZ in Novosibirsk, Russia and is available in a few different versions, the 1p76 military version which this is, a civilian version with diopter adjustment and a variant that mounts on a picatinny rail which would work for you AR fanboys......
The Rakurs-A/1p76 is a relatively modern optic, built like a tank and mounts using the standard Russian/ComBloc side rail so will fit just about any AK variant available.It is non-magnified but has a very wide field of view especially when shooting with both eyes open, crystal clear optics and a German post type reticle.The reticle is reminiscent of the PSO-1 reticle but without the additional hash marks and stadiametric rangefinder that the PSO reticle has.It weighs approximately 500g, which isn't really noticeable when mounted.
Unlike traditional Russian optics of this type, such as the PK-01V and PK-A etc, it doesn't have a red dot.The reticle is etched onto the glass and is designed for CQB but is also suitable for longer range shots as required.The reticle is tritium illuminated so there are no batteries or switches to worry about.
It is not a calibre specific optic and is adjustable for windage and elevation and the adjustment increments are quite fine which makes zeroing a breeze and once zero'd, at 100m for example, that's it.For longer or shorter distances a bit of Kentucky windage is required.I initially zero'd it at 50m and out to 100m the difference between POA/POI was negligible and perfectly up to the job.
The optic sits higher than some other Russian sights of this type and as a result it doesn't co-witness with the iron sights and the iron sights cannot be used with it mounted as the body that houses the tritium blocks the view.The tritium vial is a small square one that sits in a special holder that screws into the bottom of the main body.The one that was fitted didn't glow at all for whatever reason so I carefully removed it (it is secured with white silicon type sealer), cleaned up the holder and replaced the single square vial with two 1.5mm by 6mm green tritium vials that were sourced from EBay, they are used by carp fisherman to illuminate their bite indicators!.Once sealed in with a bit of sealant and left to dry the holder was screwed back in and the reticle was once again illuminated like it should.Two vials were sufficient but if I wanted it brighter I could probably fit another two vials of the same size.
All in all a cracking optic and ideal for the range that most AK type rifles are shot out to and the picatinny mount version would no doubt work well on a lot of other rifles.
