The Galil rifles have always fascinated me. Israel designed and adopted them following the disappointing performance of FAL rifles in the desert. The history is pretty interesting and Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons gives you a brief overview in this video.
To learn more, check out these additional resources:
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As my wife will tell you, I like T-shirts and, of course, I like AK rifles so the two go together! There are so many cool designs out there these days, I thought you might like to see them. Plus, since they are on Amazon, you know you will have their excellent customer service backing you up.
I hope you have some fun looking at the photos at least plus it is time to get ready for summer and having fun outdoors!
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I am definitely a long-time fan of Zastava rifles. I’ve owned a number of their Kalashnikov variants over the years including the M70B1, M72B1, M76, M77 and M92. When Zastava announced prior to the 2019 SHOT show that they were forming Zastava USA to handle importation instead of Century Arms, I was cautiously optimistic that we would see at least the introduction of the M91 rifle to the US market.
Zastava USA has a website and they have a PDF catalog with some great looking firearms. What caught my eye were a number of tactical models including some I didn’t expect – the M07, M12, M91 and M93 rifles.
Here are some screen captures from their catalog so you can see what I am referring to:
In mid-March, I emailed them to ask about importation plans and they did confirm that both the M91 and M93 are planned for importation in “early summer” of 2019 but the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) has not been set yet.
They did not mention the other models to be clear so I must conclude they are not planning to import them at this time.
I know a lot of us would like to see the M91 come to the US and I’m hoping they price it in an affordable manner. I would really like to see how it performs next to my M76 (8mm Mauser) and M77 (7.62×51) rifles. So, let’s keep our fingers crossed.
Folks, here are online sources for Zastava firearms including the M91 and M92:
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While I am not fond of eBay’s antigun sentiments there are deals to be found there – especially when individuals are listing stuff for sale. So, I want to give you some tips and also have the system run you some real-time results of searches so you can see what is out there.
Buyer Tips
Watch out for the scammers. Folks will list stuff and make claims. So, know what you are looking for and don’t buy blind.
If the price seems too good to be true, it probably is a scam.
Watch the shipping price. I’ve watched sellers enter a low price and then have a very high shipping charge to recover the difference.
Businesses sometimes have good deals but many will price stuff high and just let them sit there until a buyer comes along. All things being equal, try searching only on auctions (not Buy It Now (BIN)) and have the eBay system list them in the order of auctions ending soonest. You might be surprised what turns up. Under Advanced Search, you can change a number of search criteria to dig around in your favor.
Watch the seller rating – I put a lot of stock in the number of transactions and the seller’s score. If you have a seller with very few transactions and is relatively new, then there is more risk. I will not bet a fortune on an unknown seller but I might take a small risk and see what happens. Statistically, if they have more than 30 sales and a good score, you have a pretty good indication that the buyer is legit.
Don’t freak out of the seller doesn’t reply right away. Folks do go on vacation, get sick, etc.
Save your searches so you can re-use them and get emailed results.
Realize that if you are really specific you may not find stuff listed differently. For example, I will list the country and bayonet in case they say AK, rifle, AK47, AK74, etc. and throw a really tight search off.
Look at the photos carefully. I’ve bought stuff after looking at an item on a smart phone and missed problems I would have seen on a larger monitory.
Learn the prices. If you jump right in you may pay too much. In some cases you will see one buyer asking multiples of the going price – he/she may be counting on people jumping in and buying with little to no knowledge of prices.
Be objective – if an auction starts exceeding what you want to pay then bow out. Don’t get emotionally attached and feel that you need to win the auction.
If you buy something international, you will want to understand shipping charges and any regulations you may encounter either in the seller’s country or in your own.
Searching on a eBay
This is your basic search page in eBay.
You’ll notice it is set to “Auction” only and the sort is set to “Time ending soonest”. Lastly, the heart under “Accept Offers” means I checked the box to save the search.
If you look to the right of the search button, you will see “Advanced” and this is where you can do all kinds of cool stuff to your current search or a saved search including:
Words to exclude – this is powerful if you are getting unwanted stuff in and it happens all the time. This can make your search far more likely to turn up what you care about. For example, you could tell it to exclude airsoft and model.
You can search just in specific categories. Be careful with this one – bayonets for example can be in a number of different categories.
You can search in title and description, completed listings, and sold listings.
By specifying a price range you can skip stuff like frogs/scabbards. For example, you might tell it to only show you items between $14.99 and $200
It again let’s you select from Auctions, Buy It now and Classified Ads.
You can specify the condition new, used or not specified.
You can list specific sellers you care about.
Items with Free shipping or located somewhere.
And much more
Russian and Soviet Bayonets
Here I am searching both ways – I tend to find people do not always realize the difference between the USSR and Russia when they list an item. It’s set to auction only and sorted by items ending first.
Bulgarian Bayonets
Same thing but in addition to saying “Bulgarian Bayonet” I will use the slang of “Bulgy Bayonet” too. It’s also auction only and sorted by items ending first.
East German Bayonets
I didn’t see any auctions when I wrote this post so this search is for all items, not just auctions, sorted by “Price + Shipping: Lowest First”. This is an example where you tend to see a lot of frogs and scabbards show up first due to their relatively low pricing.
Polish Bayonets
Here’s an example where you can get weird stuff like shoe polish so I will exclude the word shoe. It’s also auction only and sorted by items ending first.
Romanian Bayonets
We need to search both for Romanian bayonets and Romy bayonets. Now when I created this search, no auctions turned up so I am showing any items that match the keywords and am sorting “Price + Shipping: Lowest First”. Some of the prices I am seeing are nuts. I would not pay over $20 for a Romy AKM bayonet – sorry.
Yugoslavian and Zastava Bayonets
On this one we need to get more creative and will search using variations of Yugo, Yugoslav, Yugoslavian, and Zastava, I did need to exclude “WWI” and “WWII” because of all the WWI and WWII bayonets that come up. Not a great deal came up when I was writing this so the search is for all items and is sorted “Price + Shipping: Lowest First”
Conclusion
I hope this helps you out. There are a lot of search capabilities in eBay and you need to learn how to use them in your favor.
AK-47 Image Source: By Allatur, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16254298
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I’m always searching for better lubricants. Many of the so-called specialty weapons lubes are just marketing hype with some bulk lubricant poured into their container. In terms of greases, I’ve used quite a few over the years including wheel bearing grease and Tetra Gun Grease. I wanted to find something effective, non-toxic and less expensive.
A name popped up when surfing – Super Lube. To be honest, the first few times I totally dismissed the name because it sounds like some overly-hyped wonder lube that is sold in infomercials. However, the name did keep popping up so I actually started reading up on it.
Super Lube products are made by Synco Chemical Corporation of Bohemia, NU, that was founded in 1980. Their specialization is in the space of synthetic food grade lubricants and hold a number of patents.
There are a number of interesting characteristics about their grease that should be noted:
To apply it, I use either a chip brush that I store in a zip loc bag to keep from getting dirty (as shown in the featured photo above) or a small flux / resin brush that I also keep in a baggy.
So, for the last few months I have been testing it. When I cleaned one of my rifles or pistols, I would replace whatever I had been using as grease with the Super Lube Multi-Purpose grease.
I go by the old saying that if it rotates, oil it. If it slides, grease it. That is my rule of thumb so it goes on AK rails, bolt carriers, where the trigger hook grabs the hammer, etc.
It works great! The weapons feel well lubricated after cleaning and they function great. When I take them apart again for cleaning, the Super Lube shows no sign of breaking down, drying out, becoming gummy, etc.
If you are looking for an excellent affordable grease, check out Super Lube. I’m definitely very happy with it.
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Okay, I had them both out to shoot photos so I had to take some side by side photos. In case you want to read the blog posts about each rifle, click here for the Yugo M72 Carbine or here for the Vepr FM-AK47-21.
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I have always liked Yugo AK rifles. One of my favorites is the M72B1 RPK. It’s a big rifle and really overkill for me with the long barrel and bipod. For quite some time I wanted to either build or buy a carbine length RPK. I was talking to Tim at Two Rivers Arms one day and he said he could absolutely make one and custom fabricate a side rail to boot. That was just what I wanted so I sent him my parts and then waited my turn in the build line as those guys are so busy. After a few months Tim called and said it was ready and he shipped it to my FFL, Scott Igert at Modern Antique Firearms in the Fall of 2015.
Seriously, this rifle shoots like a dream but I didn’t get a chance to take some decent photos until now. The most telling difference is that this is a 16″ cut down Green Mountain barrel vs. the normal 21.3″. It has a 1:9.5″ twist and not chrome lined – I’m going to keep it clean and will not be burning through tons of mag dumps so I wasn’t really worried about the chrome.
Here’s a run down of the parts:
Yugo M72B1 kit from Apex with a new Green Mountain barrel [cut down]
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Well, the when I heard the Treasury Department blocked further importation of Veprs, I jumped and bought the FM-AK47-21 that FIME imported. I’ve owned a number of Molot Veprs over the years so I knew I would be getting a quality rifle. I’d not bought one earlier because I didn’t see the need to rush – then the Treasury blocked them and that caused me to pull the trigger. So, I rushed and ordered one from Classic Firearms and had it delivered to my FFL, Scott Igert of Modern Antique Firearms. Here’s what showed up:
It’s one solid rifle. As usual, Molot did a great job – fitment is excellent, heavy 1.5mm RPK receiver, heavy barrel, RPK recoil spring guide rod, pretty good trigger and cool folding stock. Things I don’t like – the folder hinge is going to make installing an optic rail interesting, the grip is way too small for my hands (Gee, I know a guy who makes grips that will fit). I’m also not a huge fan of the ribbed RPK handguard. I get that it would help with insulation on a full-auto RPK but I find the ribs annoying. I may make a polymer version of the Russian wood originals – it’s something I’ll need to think about.
It shipped with a tiny 5 round magazine but at least it is a double stack. I’ll replace it with normal AK mags. I bought a bunch of rock solid Romanian steel mags years ago and that’s my go-to magazine for reliability and looks. I used a Romy for the photos in this post.
So, I decided to go ahead and make some changes right up front. I wanted a good muzzle brake so I reached out to Justin McMillion at JMac Customs. We talked about my desire for a good brake and he recommended his RRD-4C which comes with the required 14mm x 1mm left hand thread. He shipped fast and the quality of the machining and finish are excellent. I like the way the porting is done. With the top opened up, the gasses will vent up pushing the barrel down.
To install it, I pushed the spring loaded detent to release the muzzle nut and then turned it clock wise for removal – AKs are reverse threaded so you do the opposite to remove or install them. I then threaded the RRD-4C on and was done in just a few minutes.
Next, I cast, drilled and finished a black Molot Generation II grip for the rifle. I thought about using a Bulgarian ARM-9 but decided a Russian designed grip made more sense on a Russian gun – or at least it made sense to me. I may yet go to the ARM-9 but the Molot Gen II feels pretty good. To install it, I then removed the dust cover (you will need to hold the grip nut in place later), took out the recoil spring assembly, unscrewed the original grip and removed it. I then held the grip nut in place with one hand and installed the Molot Gen II using one of my heavy duty grip screws (they have a bigger head and are an alloy hardened to 12.9) to secure the grip.
So here is the rifle at this point. I’ll decide about the optics later. I may well go with a RS!Regulate mount and Vortex Strike Eagle but that is a project for a later date.
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