The Finish Army have release photos of their newly upgraded RK62 service rifle. The RK62M embodies a number of ergonomic improvements over the original rifle and allows more modularity. Finland adopted the 7.62x39mm Valmet RK62 in 1965 with over 300,000 produced by the early 1990s. The RK62 has long been in need of an upgrade with plans for the RK62M first emerging in 2015.

South Carolina-based American Tactical have introduced the Galeo, a rifle made from surplus Israeli Galil parts kits. Providing that classic Galil aesthetic with the 5.56x45mm, Galeo is available with both wood and polymer furniture.

For those of you who have to have featureless grips on your AKs, the company called AK Thumb Grips has developed quite an interesting product that allows having a better purchase on the finned grip. This little device may also be useful for those who have a habit of placing their thumbs along the index finger (not wrapping it around the grip).

Good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining us for TFB’s Silencer Saturday. We’ll pick back up with the reviews next week, starting with CZUSA’s CZ Rimfire, but for this week I thought it would be a good idea to take a look at suppressing Kalashnikov patterned rifles. Full disclosure, while I have built a few Romanian AKs from parts kits, I’m not a Kalash expert. Make sure you consult with a competent machinist/gunsmith before altering any of your weapons to run suppressed.

According to Russian news sources, the Russian Ministry of Defense has agreed a contract with Kalashnikov Concern to purchase the first 150,000 new AK-12 and AK-15 rifles. The adoption of the AK-12 and AK-15 was first announced back in January 2018. 

Brandon Herrera, The AK Guy, has just published a video showing the world’s first AK chambered in .224 Valkyrie. No, this is not an April Fool’s Day joke. The AK-224 does exist!

In this episode of TFBTV, James sinks a boat with an AK-47. James’ pal Mark found a Jon boat washed up on his property and James realized that this was a golden opportunity – to conduct “The Somali Pirate Test.” It is officially time to find out how many rounds from an AK it will take to sink a Jon boat containing one 200 pound adult pirate, and how long does this assault rifle sinking take? Is it even possible? Let’s get to the bottom of this (pun, LOL) and more…today on TFBTV.

Tromix Lead Delivery Systems has published this photo on their Facebook page. The image was accompanied by the following caption: “Production parts for the new Tromix 458 SOCOM AK are coming along“.

If you are into AKs then you probably know about the  Sharps Bros MB47 milled 7.62x39mm AK receivers. But did you know that recently the company has released the 5.45x39mm version of this receiver called MB74? This new receiver has all the good features of the 7.62mm one but its dimensions are tailored for the 5.45mm AK parts.

With a name like Kalashnikov USA, what kind of guns do you expect? Yes, the Soviet kind… I had the good fortune of going to check out their factory in Florida.

In this article, we’ll discuss the history, development and evolution of muzzle devices seen on Mikhail Kalashnikov’s Avtomat. In particular, we’ll talk about those made in the Soviet Union and Russia. Just like in the case of  one of our previous installments dedicated to the history of Soviet/Russian AK bayonets, this article is also primarily based on Kalashnikov Gun Magazine‘s content which we use with the permission of KGM’s chief editor. Without further ado let’s see how the AK muzzle devices developed over the years.

In this episode, James discusses 6 reasons why the Galil ACE is better than the AK-47/AKM.

Today’s guest post is written by Andrey Ulanov. Andrey is a firearms enthusiast, historian, researcher and writer. He is the author of numerous interesting small arms articles in various websites. Here is an example of an article written by Andrey. Let’s see what’s the story of Mikhail Kalashnikov’s first light machine gun.

Sureshot Armament Group sent us a tip with pictures of a rifle that will soon become the civilian version of AK-12. The new rifle is called SAIGA-AK12. The pictures are from testing of this rifle conducted by George Gubich (six-time IPSC champion of Russia) in the premises of a company called Orengun. George posted on his Facebook page his first impressions saying: “so far, I like almost everything”.

You’ve got an AK but don’t want a grip that stores your batteries, dollar bills, condoms, matches or that last round?

News Agencies from both India and Russia have confirmed that India will adopt the 7.62x39mm AK-203, with production to be established at a plant in India. Production of as many as 750,000 rifles is planned. In recent weeks we’ve seen a lot of progress in India’s struggle to modernise its Army’s small arms. Not only have India recently confirmed a deal with SIG Sauer for over 70,000 7.62x51mm SIG716s but they have also purchased 6,000 sniper rifle from Barrett and Beretta. They are also reported to be nearing a deal for 95,000 5.56 Carbines from Caracal.

For many years we at TFB have been following the progress of Venezuela’s efforts to build a factory and produce AK-pattern rifles. In recent years 2019 has been the projected start date for production. Well, it’s now 2019 and according to Russian media sources everything is on track for Venezuelan AKs to start rolling off the production line before the end of the year.

Malyuk is the new bullpup assault rifle which has apparently been adopted by the Ukrainian Army.

A year ago we reported that the Russian Federation’s army had adopted the 5.45x39mm RPK-16 Light Machine Gun. Reports from Russia’s MoD’s official newspaper, Krasnaya Zvezda (or Red Star), confirm that the RPK-16 has begun operational testing with Russian forces.

Circle 10 AK and Mrgunsngear teamed up to create a new AK three-prong flash hider called Tri-Tip. It has a rather interesting and unusual design with the lower prong being much longer than the other two. Let’s see why it is designed so and what advantages it provides by watching Mrgunsngear’s review of this muzzle device.

Russia’s Rosoboronexport, which is part of the Rostec State Corporation, is launching a Global marketing campaign to promote their new AK200 series manufactured by the Kalashnikov Concern.

Last year we reported that Saudi Arabia had entered into an agreement with Russian small arms manufacturer Kalashnikov Concern’s parent company, signing a memorandum between Saudi Arabian Military Industries and Russian Rosoboronexport State Corporation.

India is reportedly poised to purchase a large number of 5.56x45mm carbines from the United Arab Emirates small arms manufacturer Caracal. A deal to buy almost 95,000 Caracal CAR816 rifles is said to have been agreed.

Earlier this week news began to filter onto English language defence news sites from Russian media sources that the Russian Military may be considering a move away from 5.45×39 back to 7.62×39. This is not the case.

It was probably halfway through the second magazine that the new gun butterflies started to wear off.  The jarring over gassed recoil, combined with the massive concussion that comes with having a short 12.5in barrel, was enough to make me want to put the gun back in the bag and go home.  For the past three years I’d been shooting almost all of my rifles suppressed. Combine this with a cramped indoor range and shooting this rifle was borderline intolerable. I’d also gone a step further on my AR pattern rifles and added adjustable gas carriers.  All of that customization lead to easy to shoot suppressed rifles. Something I was desperately missing.

The concept of balanced recoil has been around for a long time. The main idea of this design is pretty simple – to counter the impulse of the bolt carrier moving back, there is a special rod that moves forward at precisely the same time. Both counter balancing rod and bolt carrier are connected to the gas system and linked to each other via a gear. This mechanism considerably reduces felt recoil and muzzle rise, making burst and full auto fire much more controllable.

Some people say that in the US, the time of AKs is over – most good import lefts the shores. But I think it is in US companies that we must place our hope. Some say that US AK manufacturers are failing, they are weak and only seeking riches, not even trying to make a quaility product. But looking at some companies from the SHOT SHOW 2019, I would have to disagree. One of those companies was  United Defense with their new line of Kalashnikov rifles – AK103 X1, X2 and X3.

In the last few years,  Palmetto State Armory expanded its product line and and became one of the biggest AK manufacturers in the US. At the SHOT SHOW 2019 they presented a new line of Kalashnikov-pattern rifles under the name AK-E (Enhanced).

It is hard to find an AK enthusiast who does not know about Zastava. Founded in 1853 in Serbia, to this day Zastava Arms remains to be one of the largest arms manufacturers in the region. For many years, several companies imported Zastava AK variants which became very popular in the US. But recently, just before the Shot Show, Zastava announced creation of Zastava Arms USA – exclusive importer and distributor of Zastava Arms products for the US market.

VLTOR Weapon Systems brought a ton of new products to SHOT Show 2019. In this article, I’ll briefly tell about the most significant ones. According to the company officials, most of these new products will be available for purchase by Q3 2019. Let’s take a look.