Every year, during the SHOT Show days, Rifle Dynamics hold their own event, the RD Open House. This year I was lucky to be able to attend it and in this article, I’ll tell you about the newly released and prototype Rifle Dynamics products as well as some really interesting builds displayed during the event.

This hasn’t been done before and has been demanded for a long time, the Century Arms AK74 completely American made! Check it out and let us know what you think in the comments below. Stay until the end for a special guest appearance.

On the pre-range day of SHOT Show 2020, I had a chance to visit the Arsenal booth and take a look at their new AK-20 series of rifles. Retaining the good ol’ time-proven AK mechanism, these rifles offer a lot of improvements that are added to make them capable of providing features that we demand from modern firearms.

Would you believe I wrote 1/17/19, corrected it to 1/1/7/20, and only after typing up most of this article I realized it was wrong? Well, it doesn’t really matter. Here’s some deals to drain your wallet.

In this episode of TFBTV, James Reeves Reviews the NEW Zastava M70 Z-PAP AK-type rifle. The Z-PAP is the newest iteration of Zastava’s legendary M70 PAP series of AK rifles. However, unlike in the past, Zastava has taken importation of these AKs into their own hands. Zastava not only manufactures the M70 Z-PAP, but they also no longer rely upon third parties for importing and converting the rifles for 922 compliance. What does that mean for price and quality? See this review to find out.

It is ironic that what might be one of the hottest releases on all of SHOT Show 2020 is 100% Russsian. But – the good news is that it is also 100% American at the same time.

Welcome everyone to the 37th edition of ‘Hot Gat or Fudd Crap?’, one of our many excellent series here on TFB. If you’re new to the series, this is where we look at the most obscure firearms that are actually for sale and ask the question – is this Gat a sweet deal or does it only have Fudd appeal? Each week the TFB staff weighs in with their thoughts, but readers get the final say in the poll at the bottom of each article!

“PAPER BOOKS ARE DYING” – I keep hearing that over and over again. In a way it makes sense, but in the last few years, when I started doing more serious research about small arms (serious meaning just one level above articles like “The Deadliest Nerf Gun On The Planet”), I realized that books still remain the best and most accurate source of information for a serious researcher. And books like “Vickers Guide: Kalashnikov (Volume 2)” add one more variable to the equation – high-quality pictures that you can’t really find anywhere else.

Kalashnikov Media continues their series of videos telling about some of the rarest experimental and prototype firearms created by Mikhail Kalashnikov and we at TFB make sure to deliver the most interesting stories to our readers. Today we are taking a look at one of Mikhail Kalashnikov’s experimental firearms called Avtomat-Karabin.

New to the United States AK market are  Zastava Arms two new ZPAP M92 pistol variants.  With both fixed and side-folding SB Tactical braces, I was curious how these two Krinkov style pistols would preform.  Lucky for me, Zastava was kind enough to send both new variants of the ZPAPM92 over for review.

Good morning everyone and welcome back to another edition of TFB’s Silencer Saturday brought to you by Yankee Hill Machine, home of the Turbo K2. Last week we dove into an academic exercise regarding the normalization of suppressors by the government, industry and consumers alike. The comment section was lively, with most of us agreeing that the perception of silencers, the NFA process and NFA laws need to change. In case anyone is wondering, my stance on any bans is absolute – we should focus our efforts on criminal actions, not inanimate objects. This week we are back out on the range with a IWI Galil ACE suppressed with a SilencerCo Saker and outfitted with a KNS Precision AK Adjustable Gas Piston. Thank you to both IWI and KNS for loaning me the equipment for today’s Silencer Saturday evaluation.

Recently a photo of North Korea’s fearless leader, the supreme leader of North Korea and the chairman of the Workers’ Party of Korea, Kim Jong-un presenting a beautiful chrome Type 88 rifle to a soldier of the Changlin Island defense unit. Type 88 is the indigenously manufactured North Korean version of the AK-74, chambered in 5.45×39mm. It is in service alongside the 7.62×39mm, Type 68 AKM clone.

Kalashnikov Media has published a video showing a very interesting AK-47. This is an experimental Type 1 AK that has some design changes done by Mikhail Kalashnikov himself. The experiments were done in the early ’50s, shortly after the adoption of AK-47 in 1949, in an attempt to find ways of improving the weapon’s performance, especially when firing in full auto mode and from unstable stances.

While doing a research for another TFB article, I came across this chassis called Shadow designed by a Russian company called AKademia. It is an aluminum chassis that converts the Molot Vepr-308 Super rifles from their classic hunting configuration into basically a DMR type rifle. In other words, the AKademia Shadow chassis converts this:

Behold the Death, the fourth and last horseman of the Apocalypse. Meridian Defense Corporation has released the last rifle in their special project themed after the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse. MDC launched the Apocalypse series of AK rifles back in November 2018 with the introduction of the first rifle, Pestilence, followed by the War and Famine and finally about a year later from the launch of the series, the fourth rifle is announced. Let’s see what features Death comes with.

In August of 2017, TFB reported that much-beloved maker of AK mags and other parts/accessories, US Palm, was sadly going under. After a hiatus of a year-and-change, in September 2018 TFB also reported that they appeared to be setting up for a resurrection with the help of Century Arms – eliciting joy from many AK enthusiasts. In the weeks and months following this apparent revival, drama unfolded in the form of a lawsuit brought against XTech Tactical over alleged copied designs. Now more than a year after first word of their resurgence, it seems as though substantive strides are coming closer to fruition. As of December 2nd, 2019, US Palm now has a functioning website complete with several product pages, contact and warranty info, and a shopping cart function (although as of this writing there is not yet a way to add products to said cart and complete a transaction, so we will have to wait for more to follow on that).

Welcome to Costa’s Gat Swag. A monthly installment of some subgun, SBR, or SBS that I have built or bought. I have an addiction to shorties. I love versatile PDW setups, and I am here to share some of my favorite builds. Meet the KR-9 9mm AK SBR with Zenitco handguard, hand stop and IR/Vis laser. Equipped with a cute little 9mm can and optic. A fun blaster and quickly becoming one of my favorite pistol caliber sub guns.

Welcome everyone to the 35th edition of ‘Hot Gat or Fudd Crap?’, one of our many series here on TFB. If you’re new to the series, this is where we look at the most obscure firearms that are actually for sale and ask the question – is this Gat a sweet deal or only have Fudd appeal?  Each week the TFB staff weighs in with their thoughts, but readers get the final say in the poll at the bottom of each article.

Every year I come to the one and only Russian civilian firearms exhibition called “Arms & Hunting”. And when I am tired of looking at petty at pitiful booths of tiny Russian gunshops and barely alive small firearms manufacturers I come to the “Molot Arms” booth.

Earlier this year the Netflix original series Stranger Things debuted its highly anticipated 3rd season. While not specifically targeted at the gun-toting audience, Stranger Things brings plenty of firepower to the Home Screen. Today we’ll look at a few guns from Guns of Stranger Things Season 3. Obviously, if you haven’t seen Season 3 of Stranger Things be warned, there are minor spoilers ahead. Also, get out from that rock you’ve been hiding under.

You know it was bound to happen sooner or later. So here we are guns ablaze picking out the top 10 sci-fi movie weapons to grace the silver screen. For these articles criteria, we are choosing only weapons that are based on real-world functioning firearms with sci-fi features added for the film. Also, with this article, we’ll be taking a deeper look at the actual firearm used in the movie instead of any particular scene. So strap in and load up as we blast away at TFB’s Top 10 Sci-Fi Movie Weapons.

Kalashnikov Media, apparently inspired by IV8888, conducted a meltdown test of AK-12, the latest iteration of Kalashnikov rifle that was recently adopted by the Russian military. They fired this 5.45x39mm rifle in full-auto rapidly changing the magazines until the barrel ruptured right behind the gas block. The gun performed pretty well though firing 680 rounds of 7N6 ammunition before the failure which according to Kalashnikov Media is over three times the sustained fire requirement of the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Welcome everyone to the 31st edition of ‘Hot Gat or Fudd Crap?’, one of our many series here on TFB. If you’re new to the series, this is where we look at the most obscure firearms that are actually for sale and ask the question – is this Gat a sweet deal or only have Fudd appeal?  Each week the TFB staff weighs in with their thoughts, but readers get the final say in the poll at the bottom of each article.

In today’s Photo Of The Day, we find ourselves in Vladivostok and something that looks like Circus Kalashnikov.

Kalashnikov Media has published a new Gun Myths series video showing a quite an interesting experiment set up to find out what is the minimum amount of parts that an AK rifle needs to fire a cartridge. Most of you have probably seen videos where people fire AKs without a receiver top cover or gas tube. But how far can you go removing parts from the gun and still having it go bang?

Today’s Photo Of The Day was found in one of the online communities dedicated to AKs. It depicts a half-built  Wolfpack Armory AK with a carbon fiber wrapped barrel. While carbon fiber barrels are nothing new in the industry and there are probably half a dozen companies making such barrels, they are mostly seen on bolt action rifles and AR-15/AR-10 pattern gas guns. For whatever reason, we don’t often see other firearms with carbon fiber wrapped barrels. In fact, this is the first time I ever see an AK with such a barrel.

POTD, short for Photo Of The Day, is TFB’s recurring articles where we go to great length trying to find the best pictures out there.

People think ceramic armor is fragile, but is it really? To find out we blew up a Shot Stop level IV+ rifle plate (model #D1581SSB) and then shot it with an AK and an AR.

Chris Bartocci of Small Arms Solutions has published a video showing a prototype adjustable AK gas system which is being developed in cooperation with Ukrainian engineers. As shown in the top image, this system consists of a new gas tube, operating rod that replaces the AK piston, a new short piston with its spring and the actual adjustment valve that is inserted into the AK gas block and provides an external adjustment knob. Let’s watch the Small Arms Solutions video first.

Halcyon Defense is a new company founded by Daniel Fisher, one of the engineers behind many KNS Precision products. This company is specialized in building custom firearms. They have several interesting ongoing projects and in this article, we’ll talk about one of them – AK rifle (Polish Tantal) chambered in .277 Wolverine.