Oh man, I forgot about this hilarious video of Jeff Gordon pranking a car salesman. If you need a good laugh, check it out!
I miss the Romy G AKM Kits – They were a great learning experience, reliable and fun to shoot
You know folks, I miss the old Romanian Garda kits. I literally built about a dozen of them trying different variations on rivets, screws, welding and so forth. You could get them from $79-119 with the barrel and sometimes even a Tapco G2 fire control group (FCG) included. Copes, Centerfire, DPH and others had pallets of them. My wife would give me the eye any time a box showed up from one of them 🙂
That was the good times and then thanks to yet another ridiculous ATF ruling, the kits with barrels were forbidden for import, the well dried up and prices rose. I actually cut most of the completed rifles up and sold them for parts when kit prices went in the $300+ range. I sure had a ton of fun with friends and family at the range. What I personally enjoyed most was making them. Boy, I made a ton of mistakes along the way but learned too and also learned to respect a lot of concepts that Kalashnikov and his designers put into the rifles including pushing for reliability, simplicity, and so forth.
At any rate, I was going through some photos from January 2013 and thought I would share a few pictures of guns that ran like tops. These two rifles work great and I learned a ton making them. The finishes are shades of Minwax stain with hand rubbed urethane stain on top. I eventually moved to boiled linseed oil but that was long after I built these. I always liked seing how the stain would take to the wood. This is also before I started making grips – the wood one is from Ironwood and I don’t recall who made the plastic one. The finish would have been air dried Duracoat on these.
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Video: How to Lubricate Your AKM (AK47) and AK74 Rifles – AK Operators Union 47-74
In this video, Rob Ski, of AK Operators Union, does a great job explaining how to lubricate your AK. Rob is the real deal having grown up around AKs and having also served in the US military. Be sure to Like him on Facebook. He’s always posting news and information.
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How to cut the folding stock weld on a Vepr IV
Back in 2014 I bought one of the 5.56 Vepr IV RPKs. Boy was it nice but it had a folding stock that was spot welded. I installed a Tapco G2 FCG, the appropriate muzzle device and one of my Molot Gen 2 grips and then US mags. I’d planned to replace the gas piston but wound up selling the rifle to fund other projects. I did, however, snap some photos.
The rifles were amazingly allowed into the US and were gorgeous but I could not abide by the tack welded open stock or funky US grip. First, I removed the butt stock to get it out of the way and protect it. I then used my cordless Dremel with a cut off wheel to slice the tack weld enough to pull it open and then sanded the edges smooth.
I then applied Brownells’ Oxpho Blue to the fresh bare steel to blacken it. The end result – you’d never know the tack was there.
To the left is the grip that IO put on the rifle when they imported it. To the right is my Molot Gen 2 grip and it is in subsequent photos also. We make each grip by hand here in Michigan so they count as a 922r compliance part.
Like so many of my firearms, it sat in the safe for a year or two and I never hard time to fire it. Eventually, I decided to sell it to fund other projects.
7/20/19 Update: This rifle is #1 on my list of “I wish I never sold it” They are worth a fortune now.
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Video: Two Computer Graphic Videos of AH-94 Nikonov Operation
Here are two videos that use computer graphics to demonstrate the operation of the Russian AK-94 5.45mm rifle.0
Here’s the first video that gives more overall information (in Russian though):
Here’s the second video that gives a very clear view of loading:
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Video: Rocket Surgery: Inside the Russian Nikonov AN94 by Forgotten Weapons
The Russian AN94 Nikonov is a rather bizarre rifle that is often described as complex and expensive. Just those words alone should make you realize the rifle is a hard departure from the relatively simple and inexpensive Kalashnikov design maxims. I have been hoping to see a more thorough breakdown of the AN94 and Ian of Forgotten Weapons does just that. This is a great video released April 11, 2017. You definitely should check it out as he does a great job taking the rifle down and explaining how it operates. When I saw the pulley, cable and extra sub-assemblies required to do the two round burst, I just shook my head. Time will tell how rugged it really is.
Here’s the video:
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Step Drills Can Simplify the Drilling of Clean Holes in Sheet Metal and Relatively Thin Stock
One type of drill I use a lot are step drills. They are best thing since sliced bread for cutting circular holes in sheet metal and relatively thin stock where the the thickness of the material is less than the height of the “step” in the drill. Unlike a normal twist drill, the step drills will not thread onto sheet metal and make a mess. You get a nice hole on one side and if you can reach the back side, you can come at it from that direction and remove burrs very easily.
I keep a variety of step drills including some odd-ball drills that are very similar but stepless that I mainly for opening up some odd non-critical sized hole.
I also have several lengths of Irwin extensions that I use for holding step bits, spade bits, screw-drivers and just about anything else with the common 1/4″ interface. I’ve even plugged one extension into another to reach really remove parts and can’t even guess how many times these extensions have saved my bacon.
I’d recommend that you keep all of these handy. If you can, buy a known good brand as it will probably last longer. My problem with imported cheap bits in the past is that they dull fast. Irwin, Dewalt, Klein, Milwaukee and other name brands might be something you want to invest in if you plan to use them a lot.
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Video: Some really good review videos on the Hatsan Gladius
One of my favorite things is to do research. Before I bought my Hatsan Gladius Long Bullpup in .22, I did a lot of reading and also watching of videos. Youtube is a goldmine of reviews and insights that one should tap in to. Here are three videos that helped me learn more about the Gladius and especially get a better look at its features and how loud it was.
The first video is my favorite as the two guys set up the rifle and then go through each power setting and record three shots along with their velocity and calculated foot pounds of energy (FPE) for the pellet they were using. For some reason they did levels one through five but not six. Regardless, I was pretty much sold by the end of these three videos.
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