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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Well, this sucks – Molot, the maker of Vepr rifles and shotguns has been added to the treasury’s list of people and organizations US businesses can’t engage in commerce with.
MOLOT-ORUZHIE, OOO (a.k.a. OBSHCHESTVO S OGRANICHENNOI OTVETSTVENNOSTYU ‘MOLOT-ORUZHIE’; f.k.a. OBSHCHESTVO S OGRANICHENNOI OTVETSTVENNOSTYU PROIZVODSTVENNO INSTRUMENT KACHESTVO), 135 ul. Lenina, Vyatskie Polyany, Kirov Obl. 612960, Russia; Registration ID 1094307000633 (Russia); Tax ID No. 4307012765 (Russia); Government Gazette Number 60615883 (Russia) [UKRAINE-EO13661] (Linked To: KALASHNIKOV CONCERN).
Notice the part I set in bold black – linked to Kalashnikov Concern. It may be because Molot was bankrupt and the speculation was that only Kalashnikov Concern was in a position to buy them.
Molot published this walk through of their production facility in March 2017. It’s in Russian but with English subtitles. It’s only 5:31 long and worth your time. Yeah, I drooled when I saw the injection molding.
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This is a cool review of an actual North Vietnamese Army (NVA) Chinese Type 56 AK. It was a captured rifle and brought back to the US. Ian of Forgotten Weapons does one of his usual exemplary reviews of the rifle and discusses its history.
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The NRA did a nice American Rifleman TV segment on the Chinese Type 56. It’s only 5:37 long and worth your time.
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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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