I have an AK related illness....

Well, I got my first ak, a Chinese Poly-Tech Type 56 "spiker" about 1985/6. In the almost 40 years since, I have probably had an AK of some flavor 75% of the time. WASRs, IOs, Yugos, Hungarians, Egyptians, half dozen different Saigas restored to "proper" configuration, Polish, and Palmetto GF-3.
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The problem is, I don't really like AKs! The platforms I prefer are the Ruger Mini-14s & 30s, M1 Carbines, and AR15s all way more than the AK platform.

The reason I have almost always had an AK is that they are freaky indestructible and are an amazing piece of battlefield kit! My last AK was the Palmetto, which was a great gun, shot really well, but still did not ring my chimes, so last month I sold it for something else.

Fast forward to the other day, when the gunsmith at the gunshop I work at (a total AK fanatic, I think he has seven or eight) tells me Atlantic firearms has Romanian MD-65 folding stock barreled receivers on sale! Only need furniture and FCG to finish it. He got one from them, and I have to admit that when he was done, it was an AK I really did like (for a change!).

Pulled the pin and ordered one. Already have a Romanian bayonet and sling, cleaning kit and cleaning rod, and a black poly stainless lined hand guard. Only had to order a FCG and a pistol grop. Got a black polish Beryl grip to go with the black hand guard.

To add to my illness, a gorgeous, minty Russian SKS came into the shop, with blade bayonet intact, original tan Russian sling, and no rework marks! At $850, I think I paid too much, but it is the nicest, cleanest SKS I have ever seen! It looks like it just left the factory!

I've always wanted a Russian SKS. I don't think you did too bad, especially if it's in minty condition. I say as long as you're happy that's all that matters! Congratulations

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Originally Posted by imarangemaster

a gorgeous, minty Russian SKS

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I had one of those back in the mid '80's when there were almost no SKS and 7.62x39 was all but impossible to obtain. Blued and laminate stock, was a nice piece. They commanded a mere $150 or so then. The regular castoff RVN bringbacks were less...

My shipment from the wholesaler to the dealer has mysteriously been sitting in Pennsylvania for 5 days, tracking saying "This trailer can not be dispatched!". Contacted UPS, and they have no idea what is going on! Unbelievable.

Hmmmm.... Magically appeared at my dealer today! LOL.

Here it is with an original Romanian Leather sling and bayonet, and Bulgarian slab-side mag. For now I am using black furniture from a Beryl with a Strike AK fingrip, but I have ordered Romanian wood to go with my Rommy bakelite grip and Monkeeboi fin grip. The stock is "fixed" with a hose clamp, that stops it from collapsing, though it can revert to folding with a couple twists of a screw driver.

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo.../1Irdfjz-1.jpg

With the fingrip on the folding stock, your thumb goes up between the struts. Very comfortable, and much better than using it on a fixed stock AK.

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo.../HyMrwAR-1.jpg

Since we are talking about my Romanian AK, its a good time to share it again:

About 2007, there was an article on the "Associated Content" web page before Yahoo bought it out, and deleted all the gun related articles. It was a 10,000 round torture test of an early GP WASR 10/63 with a chrome lined AK barrel. . Mud, snow, ice, water heat, rust, shot until the handguards smoked. NO cleaning or maintenance. It still shot every time and was as accurate as it was new. It was well documented with pictures. It was absolutely nuts the abuse it took.

It is no longer available online. I saved it as a text file, but don't have the pictures. I am not trying to violate copyright, and give full credit to the original author. I would love for him to come forward and republish it with his pictures:

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Testing the Current Crop of Kalasinikov Rifles from Romania

Firstly, this rifle IS NOT LEGAL under the laws of California, Massachusetts and Washington DC. I DO NOT advocate breaking the law to obtain one of these rifles. It is perfectly legal to own in the other 48 states (including my own). Another important factor when modifying any AK clone is knowledge of the 922r "parts count" compliance laws. They state that any imported rifle capable of accepting a magazine with more than ten rounds cannot have more then 10 foreign made parts. The 922r compliance statutes make up an article of their own and I will not delve into them here.

The rifle was purchased through my local dealer for $370. It came with two 30 round magazines and an accessory kit with cleaning tools and a sling. The rifle was wrapped in plain brown paper and coated with heavy cosmolene grease for shipment. I spent about two hours disassembling and cleaning off this sticky grease. I discovered that lacquer thinner worked the best and did not remove the finish from the gun. All parts were inspected and oiled prior to reassembly. No defects or problems were found.

Of note is the need to inspect all AK type rifles before purchase (if possible) for the condition known as "canted gas block". This is when the gas block attached to the barrel is at an angle relative to the rest of the operating parts. It happens in about .5% of WASR rifles and I have only ever personally seen one with the problem. It can be identified by looking down the rifle from the barrel end and making sure the gas block lines up with the receiver and bolt carrier. If it is canted to one side or the other the rifle will not function properly and needs to be returned for repair or replacement.

I procured a variety of magazines and ammunition from several sources including my local dealer, Sportsman's Guide, Cheaper Than Dirt and TAPCO. All arrived as advertised with no problems. Accuracy was tested with Winchester, Wolf and PMC ammunition. At the time of these tests a severe shortage of ammunition was encountered on a national level. I was only able to obtain Wolf ammo in any quantity and I was limited to three boxes each of Winchester and PMC ammo. Testing was done in the fall of 2005 with temps ranging from 30 deg. to 80 deg. and also rain snow and sleet.

Initial accuracy tests were done at my local range at 100 and 200 yards. The AK has never been known for a high degree of accuracy but my example proved itself good if not exceptional. Groups are as follows

Winchester ammo
100 yards 30 rounds
3 shot groups ranged from 2" to 6"
200 yards 30 rounds
5 shot groups ranged from 4" to 12"

PMC ammo
100 yards 30 rounds
3 shot groups ranged from 5" to 10"
200 yards 30 rounds
5 shot groups ranged from 5" to 20"

Wolf ammo
100 yards 30 rounds
3 shot groups ranged from 4" to 12"
200 yards 30 rounds
5 shot groups ranged from 8" to 24"

This is the basic expected accuracy for an entry level AK-47. High dollar variants made by VEPR, and IZMASH are capable of sub 1" groups at 100 yards but hard to find here in the US and can cost upwards of $1000.

As all but Wolf ammo had been expended all further testing was done with Wolf FMJ ammo.

Of note is the wide variety of AK magazines available. The AK-47 and its variants have been manufactured all over the world with magazines to match. I have personally seen and handled over 100 different types of AK magazines and drums. They all pretty much function the same but those magazines made in Russia seem to be just a little more reliable than eastern European or Chinese magazines. Romanian and Chinese drum magazines holding 75 or 100 rounds are available but are banned in many states and locales. Check your local laws before trying to buy them. The only magazine failure in my tests was a Chinese magazine that apparently had a bad spring. On the first loading, the spring kinked and upon insertion into the rifle, it would not feed any rounds. The magazine was discarded and all others performed without fail.

After accuracy testing was complete the rifle was fired at a variety of targets and ranges from 20 feet to 300 yards. All just general target shooting. The rifle did not have any jams or failures of any kind and exhibited about 75% accuracy from prone, kneeling and standing shooting positions. A total of 590 rounds was expended that day.

The rifle WAS NOT cleaned or oiled for the next batch of tests as I wanted to see how long it would take for a maintenance failure to crop up. The rifle was taken out on a sleety/rainy day at a local farm and used for varmint/predator control. The farmer would "call out" a coyote or fox with a decoy and vocal call and I would shoot. We expended almost 1000 rounds that day and the rifle at times was hot enough to have to be set down to cool on the ground. This did not affect accuracy or operation in any way. By the end of the day the rifle was caked with mud, grit and grass. I hosed it off with the farmers garden tap and headed home with the rifle in the back of my pickup. By the time I got home it was caked with ice and snow. I simply left it where it was. The rifle had a muzzle plug installed so there would be no bore blockage from ice.

The following day was sunny and cold with ambient temps in the low 30's. The rifle was a solid block of ice in the back of my pickup. To clear it I kicked the bolt open with my boot and knocked off the ice blocking the sights with the base of a magazine. I removed the muzzle plug and checked for bore obstructions. None were found. Today's shooting was simply plinking or "fun shooting" at bull’s-eye targets and old 55 gallon drums with my brother for a shooting partner. We took 1750 rounds with us to the range. Even caked with ice and snow the rifle performed without fail. After about 100 rounds it had warmed up enough all the snow and ice melted. We expended about 800 rounds in the morning and stopped for lunch.

After lunch the temps had warmed to nearly 70 deg. and all the snow and rain from the previous day have melted and created a lot of mud and shallow puddles of water. We loaded 15 magazines and dumped them into one of these puddles. The rifle was likewise upended into six inches of mud and water. We left it all there 30 minutes and after donning waterproof clothing< I picked the rifle out of the mud and after checking for bore obstruction, I proceeded to fire all 15 magazines left in the mud and water. I picked them out without removing any of the mud on them and loaded and fired as fast as I could. No jams or stoppages were recorded but the bolt was very gritty and the receiver was packed with debris. Even in this deplorable condition the rifle exhibited 70-80% accuracy at 50-100 yards with no functional problems. Every time I fired, dirt and mud were blasted out of the trigger group holes and magazine well. There are generous gaps around all moving parts of this weapon and by the time I had finished the 15 magazines the rifle was mostly cleared of debris.

By this time were down to about 500 rounds of ammo and we stopped to load all of it into magazines. The rifle was hot enough that water on the barrel and action sizzled and evaporated instantly. After loading magazines for about 15 minutes we were back to shooting. The weather was beginning to deteriorate as the afternoon wore on and wind and rain became a factor in our shooting. We were forced to wear heavy gloves and parkas to combat the cold and rain. Even attired with the heavy cold-weather gear we were able to shoot accurately and with no control problems. The cocking handle of the rifle is large and easy to manipulate even with heavy winter gloves. The safety tang is large and easily gripped while the trigger guard leaves plenty of room for a gloved finger. We expended the remainder of the ammo we had rapidly as dark was falling and low temps were taking their toll on us. At no time did we have any kind of weather or temp related failure of rifle or ammo. The rifle was brought inside the house with us and placed near the woodstove to dry out for the night.

By morning, rust had begun to show in several places on the exterior of the rifle. Our abusive handling and worn off the thin finish in several places and wear points inside the gun were coated with a fine patina of rust. Several pulls of the cocking handle cleared up any resistance from this rust. We loaded all the remaining ammo we had for the gun into magazines (about 32 mags worth). We were invited to a friends house to shoot coyote's today and we took it along. Coyote's have become a severe problem among local ranches in the last five years. They take a severe toll on ranchers cattle herds and many will let you on their land for free to hunt them. There are no restrictions on hunting them, other than you need a $7 license.

We hunted with a Ford Explorer and I was in the back seat with the AK. when we spotted a coyote we would stop, and get out, then open fire. Usually I shot out the entire mag at the coyote and the animal was either hit or gone before I could reload. My hunting partners had AR-15s and Mini-14s. Over the course of six hours I expended all the ammo I had brought along with, once again, 70-80% accuracy.

The next weekend I took the gun completely apart and gave it a proper cleaning and oiling. No excessive wear or damage was found. I was able to obtain another box of Winchester ammo for a last accuracy test. All 20 rounds were fired at a 100 yard target.

Winchester ammo
20 rounds 100 yards
3 shot groups averaged 3-4"

During the last accuracy test I had the only functional problem during the whole review. One case about halfway through "stove piped". The jam was easily cleared and shooting resumed.

Overall I was incredibly impressed by the durability and resiliency of this rifle under the most adverse conditions. Whether frozen solid with ice or packed with mud it simply kept on shooting. It maintained its accuracy whether blazing hot from shooting or frozen cold after a night outside in the snow. Simply put this is the most reliable firearm I have ever put my hands on. I would recommend the purchase of an AK type rifle for everyone who shoots guns of any kind.

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I agree, every gun enthusiast should own at least one AK. Odds are they'd get a little hooked and at least end up having two haha. They are amazing machines and one of my favorites to shoot. Recoil is easily manageable and just a pleasure to shoot. Love the sound my steel target makes at 100 yd after being hit with that 7.62 x 39

Developed by the Soviets but never used and picked up by the North Koreans, is the helical magazine. Not a new design as it was invented during the black powder period and even used in modern times in a 9mm pistol type design.

This helicul is thougt to hold around 120 cartridges of the 5,45x39 cal, no need to carry the old AK magazine vest either!

I really would doubt many of these magazine got out of North Korea but sure would make a choice collectors itemAttachment 130396

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Originally Posted by RCS

thougt to hold around 120 cartridges

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That should warm 'er up a bit...test that chrome bore.

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Originally Posted by RCS

Developed by the Soviets but never used and picked up by the North Koreans, is the helical magazine. Not a new design as it was invented during the black powder period and even used in modern times in a 9mm pistol type design.

This helicul is thougt to hold around 120 cartridges of the 5,45x39 cal, no need to carry the old AK magazine vest either!

I really would doubt many of these magazine got out of North Korea but sure would make a choice collectors itemAttachment 130396

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remember the Calico pistol, carbine, and SMG 9mms. They have 50 and 100 round helli cal drum mags. VERY heavy. Can you imagine 120 of AK ammo in a mag? Like strapping three 40 round RPK mags to your AK.

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Originally Posted by imarangemaster

VERY heavy

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Yes, and from what I understood the helical mags only worked partially, not that well?

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Originally Posted by RCS

Developed by the Soviets but never used and picked up by the North Koreans, is the helical magazine. Not a new design as it was invented during the black powder period and even used in modern times in a 9mm pistol type design.

This helicul is thougt to hold around 120 cartridges of the 5,45x39 cal, no need to carry the old AK magazine vest either!

I really would doubt many of these magazine got out of North Korea but sure would make a choice collectors itemAttachment 130396

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That's a new one on me and I cant think of a good reason for it either!

Do they do a 10 round restricted version of it for California:rofl::rofl::rofl:

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Originally Posted by mrclark303

Do they do a 10 round restricted version

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Like ours where a Thompson drum would be 5 rd...

Here's my all-original Russian 1977 Izhevsk AKMS. Story goes that it was an Israeli capture desitined for the PLO, sold off as surplus to SIDEM in the UK, who converted it to semi-auto-only and then sold to Canadian Dealer Peter Wilke of Ontario Gun and Tackle in the early 1980s.


https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...23090059-1.jpg

I remember Wilke. He sure did lots of business. I had an L2A3 Sterling from him...

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Originally Posted by browningautorifle

I remember Wilke. He sure did lots of business....

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Yes, yes he did. Including these four pieces. The C1 SMG was originally part of a Canadian military assistance sale to the Congo back in the late 1960s and wound up in SIDEM's "armoury" for conversion to semi-auto only. The same applied to my Belgian FN-manufactured Uzi, which came directly out of Wilke's personal collection round about 1998. The "Suppressed" Sterling was a joint Wilke/Sterling creation purely for the Canadian market. The Suppressor Housing and the rods which secure the end-cap are all present, but the barrel extends the full length of the suppressor casing and there are (obviously) no internals (Spiral Diffuser, etc). There were 13 of those Suppressed Sterling MK9s manufactured for the Canadian market. One ended up in the Pattern Room and the other 12 came to Canada. Mine is marked both "Sterling England" and "OGT Canada" on the Right side of the Trigger Housing. Last but not least is one of the centrepieces of my Cold War collection - an all-original Artillerie Inrichtingen AR10 License-manufactured under Armalite, a division of the Fairchild Aircraft Company. Of the less than 10000 ever produced, this is the final refined version known as the "Portuguese Variant". It features a Grenade-launching Barrel-sleeve, a 3-position Gas Regulator, and a Retractable/collapsing Charging Handle.


Canadian 1959 C1 Submachinegun (C1 SMG) 9mm


https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...27183548-1.jpg


Belgian-Manufactured, Congo-Contract Fabrique Nationale (FN) Uzi Submachinegun 9mm


https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...27185330-1.jpg


British Sterling Mk 9 Semi-Auto, Faux-Suppressed Carbine 9mm


https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...13162732-1.jpg


Dutch Artillerie Inrichtingen-manufactured, Portuguese Contract Armalite AR10 Rifle


https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...17182112-1.jpg

That AR 10 is cherry. I had one in hand not long ago, was one of the Sudanese models. I also owned an Uzi years back but aside from the Submachine guns C 1 we used in the army never owned one.

Thanks for the kind words, Jim. That AR10 is a real shooter as well. If memory serves, my groups used to hover right around 1 MOA with match ammo back in 2005 when we were still trusted to safely discharge such a rifle by our government. The design is just inherently accurate. My Colt USA LE-901 (Colt's monolithic .308), which is the direct basis of the new Canadian C20 Sniper Rifle, consistently shoots sub-MOA out past 800m on my local range. Or I should say it USED to shoot sub-MOA. Nowadays it just collects dust in the safe, thanks to a goverment that doesn't trust its citizens.

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Originally Posted by Bartok5

Nowadays it just collects dust

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I'm with you there...lost a few(4) myself that day.

LOL, the May 2020 Order In Council (OIC) cost me another 18 safe-queens. That is on top of the 20 prohibited firearms I was already storing as a result of the early 1990s OICs (12-3, 12-4, 12-5). All-in, I have 38 military-style semi-automatic long-guns that I am no longer permitted to lawfully discharge due to the unreasonable "threat" those legally-acquired firearms suddenly pose to Canadan society at large. It would be laughable were it not so sad and entirely unnecessary....

the only Romy AK i have , i lean towards the chicom stuff
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