#AKM

In the late 1950s, after the first public demonstrations of the AR-15 and its new small caliber, high velocity cartridge, the Soviet Union took notice of the radical developments in military .22 caliber rounds in the United States. By 1959, four years before the adoption of the AR-15 as the M16 by the US Army, Soviet ballisticians were already testing Soviet-made replica 55gr spitzer FMJ bullets fired at over 3,000 ft/s from modified necked down 7.62x39mm cases. This program for a new small caliber high velocity lasted into the late 1960s, but it wasn’t until the mid-1970s that the 5.45x39mm caliber was eventually issued alongside the AK-74 rifle, a modified but significantly more effective variant of the previous 7.62x39mm AKM assault rifle.

It’s no good to discuss how firearms work without also giving the context surrounding the firearms themselves. With that said, let’s talk about the AR-15, its copycats, competitors, and relatives. Together these rifles share space under the loose umbrella of black rifles, a term which references the use of lighter and more durable black polymer gunstocks in place of traditional wood, something that became common from the 1960s onward in military firearms design. Today the term simply means any modern military rifle, or any rifle patterned after a modern military rifle, the two most common of these by far being the AR-15 and AK types. For the purposes of this article, we’ll focus on the AR-15, but much of what we’ll talk about will be applicable to any black rifle.

We introduced you to the concept of locking in a previous one of our 201-level posts on how firearms work, and today we’re going to talk about what has become the most common locking mechanism for rifles: Rotary locking. If to lock an action, you need to create an interference between the breechblock and the barrel, one of the most intuitive ways to do this is the same way a barrel bolt latch works.

Command Arms and Accessories (CAA) has announced their new AKMAG Ak-47 magazines is now shipping. The new magazine is of polymer construction featuring a round count window and aggressive texturing for easy magazine manipulation.

Recently a number of AK groups on the internet have been abuzz with green AK furniture. At first I thought this might have been various owners painting existing bakelite material dark green, but this was not to be the case. The furniture sets are real and are some of the rarest furniture sets that an AK collector can get their hands on.

With a rather coy announcement and single photo teaser-only, Dead Air Armament has announced the upcoming release of a suppressor designed for ComBlock weapons. Designed to look the part, the new can is purported to feature modern baffle design in a communist-design inspired housing.

Yes, yes, yes… We know the eternal debate between the two most popular platforms rages daily and we do try not to fan the flames, but The Wound Channel has an interesting video comparing the two from a completely unique perspective: a complete 100% new to the platform shooter with no experience shooting, at all. The two test platforms are a Smith & Wesson M&P 15 and a standard pattern AKM.

So you want to buy an AK, but don’t know where to start, eh? Well, don’t worry about it because as the kids say these days “there’s an app for that”.

For the last few months, I have been using Magpul AK polymer furniture on my Kalashnikov rifle. The Magpul polymers transformed my Krebs special edition Early Afgan War pattern AK74 to something a bit more modern looking.

In 2014, Colt announced a new variant of its CM901 line of convertible 7.62×51/5.56×45 AR-pattern rifles, the CK901. Designed for orders coming from the Middle East and other areas where AKs are plentiful, the CK901 feeds from existing surplus AK magazines, while – in the paraphrased words of the Colt representative I spoke to – “introducing that market to the AR platform without disturbing what they’re used to”.

Looking for a Christmas gift for myself, I stumbled on a nice offering from DDI, a stripped stamped AKM by DDI. Basically, its the AK equivalent to  Colt’s OEM and similar series of rifles which feature a functional action but little to no furniture. For someone looking to customize the furniture on their rifle, these rifles can have significant cost savings.

To the first-time AK builder, the task in front of him or her can seen daunting, or even impossible. Unlike AR-15s that easily go together virtually like a LEGO set, the Kalashnikov rifle requires a bit more effort – and more expensive tools – to put together. There are some resources available online to aid a new AK builder, but another option is Build Your Own AK, Volumes I and II, by Montag and Nicoroshi.

Gunwebsites has a kickstarter to fund making identification playing cards, similar to the old aircraft identification playing cards, but with AK style rifles printed on them. If you are interested in supporting them, you can go to their kickstarter page.

The famous Avtomat Kalashnikova has been copied and adapted by many nations and organizations, but some shine above the rest. In this episode of TFBTV, we take a look at our 5 favorites and explain why we chose the ones we did.

On the heels of the formal cancellation of the Indian rifle tender that would have selected a foreign arm to replace the problematic indigenous INSAS rifle, the Indian government has announced they will proceed with a newly announced home-grown development, the brightly-named “Excalibur” rifle, the Daily Mail reports: