Category Archives: Uncategorized

1911, 1911 / 2011, Uncategorized

Rock Island Armory’s 52009 Ultra FS HC 10mm Packs a Punch

Hi folks – this is my second Rock Island Armory (RIA) 15 round 10mm 1911 high cap-style pistol that I have owned. My first one was a 6″ Rock Ultra that I sold years ago because I didn’t really need it. Lately I have gotten back into 10mms for situations where I need to pack a punch such as back country hiking in black bear country.

At this point, I have two 10mm pistols. My 1911-style Desert Eagle and now this 2011-style RIA 52009 Rock Ultra FS HC. FS meaning Full Size – it’s based on a series 70 5″ 1911 in terms of the action. The HC means high-capacity because it uses a staggered 15 round magazine that means the pistol can hold 16 rounds when topped off with one in the chamber.

In my opinion, Rock Island pistols are work horses. They may have a very plain parkerized finish and be a tad rough but they were made for use – not just sitting in someone’s safe. In terms of the rough action, they do wear in and give you a very good pistol.

In the case of this 52009, the pistol was well assembled and just felt a little rough. Folks, this is just fine in my honest opinion. What happens is that the parts are made and assembled. There isn’t a ton of hand polishing and tuning going on like when you buy a high end pistol but the fundamentals are there.

The way you address this is to clean the brand new pistol, lube it really well and then use it. What happens is that the parts get to know each other – surfaces start to wear together and smooth out. Sure, you could take it apart and do it by hand but just using it can make a world of difference so don’t judge it right out of the box. I use Superlube grease on the parts that slide and their oil/liquid on the parts that rotate.

The only thing RIA honestly did wrong was forget to pack one of the unique 15 round magazines with the pistol. These mags are normally available but with all of the panic buying and COVID screwing up supply chains, they are next to impossible to find. Armscor USA would not even reply to my emails and it wasn’t until Reed Sporting Goods, the Gunbroker seller I dealt with, got a new Armscor/RIA sales rep that I was then able to get a single mag. By the way, Reed is great to deal with if you see them on GB.

The missing mag irked me but I realized there was a business opportunity and made a bunch more for myself and to sell [click here for that story] and click here if you want to buy one. By the way, after hand cycling my slide hundreds and hundreds of times while testing those mags, it is nice and smooth now.

The left magazine is one that I made and it works great. The right mag is an original ACT-Mag. Quick shout out to Dawson Precision for making some great Para base plates!

It came coated in oil to protect the steel more than anything but you always want to take a new pistol apart, clean it and then lube it. The 52009 has been to the range a couple of times now and I definitely like it.

Click here to go to the section of our online store that has all of our current 1911/2011 magazines and related products.

Here are a few more pictures:

Like I said earlier – it’s definitely well made. The parts all fit together nicely without any slop. The set screw in the trigger allows you to adjust over-travel if you wish. It’s factory set and some folks either remove it or put more thread locker on it. I added wicking thread locker and called it even.
It comes with a huge funnel. Folks, I like funnels and you’ll see them on many of my pistols. They help guide your magazine into place when you are in a rush. In my opinion, any funnel, even a beveled mag well opening, is better than no funnel. I also prefer steel or aluminum funnels to plastic.
Here’s the business end – you can see the big bull barrel and because of this, it does not have a bushing. Takedown is accomplished by putting a pin in a drilled hole in the silver guide rod you see when the slide is locked open. In this photo you can also see the fiber optics collecting the light and send it out the end – the sights worked real nice at the range when I was shooting steel plates.

Conclusion

I definitely like the pistol and we are still getting to know each other. I did polish the ramp and chamber. In the next blog post, I’ll tell you about my range trip with my three 1911/2011 10mm pistols and the one that got sold after – which is why I said I now have two at the start of the post.

August 24, 2024 Update: Still have the pistol and it runs just fine. I don’t think people know how good these pistols are. I can’t guess how many rounds I’ve put through mine – well over 1,000.

I hope this helps you out.

Note, I have to buy all of my parts – nothing here was paid for by sponsors, etc. I do make a small amount if you click on an ad and buy something but that is it. You’re getting my real opinion on stuff.

If you find this post useful, please share the link on Facebook, with your friends, etc. Your support is much appreciated and if you have any feedback, please email me at in**@ro*********.com. Please note that for links to other websites, I may be paid via an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay.

ARBuilds, Reviews / For Sale, Uncategorized

Top Four PSA AR-15 Kits

Hi folks. I like building AR rifles and sometimes I just want a kit with all of the parts. Sometimes I will then swap stuff out and the original parts go in a bin but they are nice to have as spares and sometimes I will build the kit with the included parts – it just depends on my mood and budget to be perfectly honest. For years now, my main source for kits has been Palmetto State Armory (PSA) headquartered in Columbia, SC.

I almost always get my stuff off their website but they do have some very cool retail stores scattered around South Carolina. I had an opportunity to go to one a couple years back and it was very cool. Unfortunately, I lacked funds at the time and just picked up a couple of items. A person could put a serious dent in their credit card by going in one of their stores … or their website for that matter 🙂

People used to complain that they were slow to ship and to respond. First off, I always knew they were trying to keep costs low – they always shipped and they did respond – just not right away. For over a year now, I have noticed they are far faster at shipping – sometimes even the same day – and they are also faster at responding. So, if you hear bad stuff about this, I wouldn’t worry about it.

I’ve also heard people question their quality. Folks, if you want a tier one rifle, go buy a tier one rifle or the parts from them. Palmetto gives you a decent combination of quality and price. For folks planning on hunting and target shooting with their friends, I have no reservation to recommend them. If you are shooting in competition or planning to use this rifle in some kind if law enforcement situation or somewhere that requires high reliability, I think you probably need to look at the higher end ARs that are designed to handle tens of thousands of rounds. Look, I’m just being candid – the PSA AR rifles and pistols are solid but they have a different intended audience. There are reasons besides “coolness” where certain buyers must move to suppliers like Daniel Defense, BCM, Knights, LMT, H&K, LWRC, etc.

At any rate, back in April of this year (2021), I asked what their top four complete kits were (meaning everything except the lower receiver) and they had a list! If you like building AR kits like I do, I thought you might find this interesting in terms of what is included:

PSA 16″ 5.56 NATO 1:7 MIDLENGTH NITRIDE 13.5″ LIGHTWEIGHT M-LOK MOE EPT RIFLE KIT W/ MBUS SIGHT SET (Model 516446780)

PSA Model 516446780

Noteworthy here is the entry level Magpul MOE buttstock and grip plus Magpul MBUS flip up sights. They are also including a PSA EPT fire control group – this means that the trigger and hammer have nickel boron finish causing them to move easier because friction is reduced.

It has one of the PSA 13.5″ long handguards set for M-Lok attachments. Everything else is typically found in any of their AR kits with a collapsible stock. They make and restock these kits all the time.

The price as of this writing is $669.

PSA 16″ M4 CARBINE-LENGTH 5.56 NATO 1:7 NITRIDE 15″ LIGHTWEIGHT M-LOK FREEDOM RIFLE KIT (Model 51655106915)

PSA Model 51655106915

Despite a cool looking 15″ handguard, this is a basic AR and you can replace the grip and buttstock later if you want. It’s selling so well that PSA is out of stock right now but you can be notified when it is back in stock. They tend to make and restock these kits all the time.

The price isn’t listed right now since they are out of stock but I would expect it to be slightly less than the first kit – unless they are charging a premium for that handguard.

PSA 16″ M4 CARBINE-LENGTH 5.56 NATO 1:7 NITRIDE 15″ LIGHTWEIGHT M-LOK FREEDOM RIFLE KIT (Model 5165450384)

PSA Model 5165450384

Definitely a basic 15″ railed rifle kit. Everything looks entry level but you can always customize it down the road if you want.

Again, no price as they are out of stock. I’d expect it to be cheaper than the two kits above. You can sign up to be notified when they do get it in stock if you want. They tend to make and restock these kits all the time.

PSA 16″ MID-LENGTH 5.56 NATO 1:7 NITRIDE 15″ LIGHTWEIGHT M-LOK CLASSIC RIFLE KIT WITH MBUS SIGHT SET (Model 5165491598)

PSA Model 5165491598

This one has the Magpul BUS sights, an interesting looking handguard … and that’s about it. Everything else is what you tend to see in any of their basic AR rifle kits with collapsing stocks.

The price as of today s $649.99

What rifle is in the top photo?

It started out as a PSA 16″ kit. It had an Anderson lower, WMD bolt, and a Magpul ACS-L stock – I like those because they lock in place and don’t rattle. It had a BMC Mod 3 charging handle, Vortex 1-6x scope on a Vortex 2″ offset mount, YHM extended push pins and a PSA ambidextrous selector lever. The fire control group is one of the PSA EPT sets – I do like them for basic triggers. I like Geissele SSA-E triggers the most though. I honestly don’t recall who made the offset sights.

Conclusion

If you’re looking to build a decent entry-level rifle from a kit with all of the parts you need other than the lower receiver, the above should work great for you. At a minimum, they will all give you a foundation to start with.

Note, I have to buy all of my parts – nothing here was paid for by sponsors, etc. I do make a small amount if you click on an ad and buy something but that is it. You’re getting my real opinion on stuff.

If you find this post useful, please share the link on Facebook, with your friends, etc. Your support is much appreciated and if you have any feedback, please email me at in**@ro*********.com. Please note that for links to other websites, I may be paid via an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay.

Uncategorized

Trevor’s Cool Zastava ZPAP M70

Trevor sent me a photo of the Zastava M70 that he modified:


He provided the following info on it:

  • The furniture is from ironwood designs – it has a Tabuk-style buttstock with an AK-74 style handguard set
  • The recoil pad and lower handguard ferrule are from us (Ronin’s Grips)
  • The magazine is Serbian
  • The sling is Yugoslavian surplus
  • The brake is a J-Comp from Strike Industries
  • The rifle is a new Zastava ZPAP M70

It looks great Trevor!

If you find this post useful, please share the link on Facebook, with your friends, etc. Your support is much appreciated and if you have any feedback, please email me at in**@ro*********.com. Please note that for links to other websites, I may be paid via an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay.

Gunsmithing, Uncategorized

Changing Springs and Buffers in My Beowulfs To Improve Reliability

Okay, so the last range trip went a lot better. The new Lancer L5AWM mags with Tromix followers worked great. The reliability on the pistol was coming along but not where I wanted it and the rifle was disappointing still but I knew what was going on.

7.5″ Beowulf Buffer Spring

My 7.5″ Beowulf pistol is running pretty well but I wanted to increase the forward force of the bolt carrier to strip the next round and chamber it. I was already running an H2 buffer but an other wise normal carbine spring. I upped my game to a Sprinco Red Extra Power Carbine buffer spring that they say is made with the “thumper” cartridges such as the .458 SOCOM, .450 Bushmaster, .50 Beowulf. I bought mine from Primary Arms.

The Mil-Spec Carbine Buffer Spring is on top. The Extra Power spring is on the bottom with one end painted red. That’s handy for knowing what spring is in the weapon at a glance.

I cleaned the pistol, lubed everything and installed the extra power spring and the H2 buffer that was in there. It definitely slammed home harder when I released the bolt.

When we go to the range next, I’ll be taking a standard carbine spring, an enhanced Sprinco spring and the carbine already has the extra power spring already installed. I’m also taking standard, H2 and H3 buffers with me.

Changed the Spring and the Buffer on my Full Size Beowulf Rifle

This rifle was built using an Alexander Arms DIY upper.

When we were shooting this, it had a hard time stripping the next round and chambering it. It dawned on me that they hydraulic buffer that I originally used wasn’t driving the bolt carrier forward hard enough. You see, a Hydraulic buffer has a piston inside that has a controlled leak down rate and, for whatever reason, it was dampening the stripping of the next round properly.

With carbine tubes, you have tons of sling and buffer options. Not so much on rifle length tubes. I did opt for a Geiselle Super 42 rifle-length buffer spring and a slightly heavier Expo Arms 5.4 oz rifle buffer –I bought both from Primary Arms.

Top: KynSHOT hydraulic buffer and Mil-Spec rifle-length buffer spring.
Bottom: Expo Arms 5.4oz buffer and Geiselle Super 42 Rifle-length buffer spring
The Kynshot buffer is very nicely made but I don’t think it’s the best choice for this application. I will save it for future projects.

When I cleaned the rifle prior to installing the new spring and buffer, the one surprising thing I found was that it was fairly dry. Why? I have no idea and this would have impacted functionality at the range also as I assumed I’d lubed it already before putting it away. Yet another example of my memory not being what it used to be.

Given that surprise, I went through and applied Super Lube oil and grease before installing the new Geiselle spring and Expo buffer. Afterwards, the action slammed home very easily.

I will take the hydraulic buffer with me back to the range for testing but am somewhat skeptical of it right now. The rifle is set for the next range visit at this point. Another Mil-Spec spring and buffer will be in the bag as well.

Conclusion

We have a ton of snow right now and I’ll have to wait to test my hypotheses. I expect that with the above changes, the two Beowulfs will run very well now.

I hope this helps you out!

Note, I have to buy all of my parts – nothing here was paid for by sponsors, etc. I do make a small amount if you click on an ad and buy something but that is it. You’re getting my real opinion on stuff.

If you find this post useful, please share the link on Facebook, with your friends, etc. Your support is much appreciated and if you have any feedback, please email me at in**@ro*********.com. Please note that for links to other websites, I may be paid via an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay.

Uncategorized

A New .50 Beowulf Magazine Option: Lancers With Tromix Followers

I’m still experimenting with my .50 Beowulf (12.7x42mm) rifle and pistol that I have posted about previously. I wanted to find better magazine options – both in terms of looks and reliability – than my modified D&H aluminum magazines. I tried a number of different options and then happened on using Tromix followers in Lancer L5 Advanced Warfighters Magazines (AWM).

Tromix Followers

A small cottage industry has popped up of people 3D printing followers to center the various big bore cartridges in a given model of magazine. I’m still tinkering with some of the 3D printed models but during my surfing, I came across a machined aluminum model from Tromix Lead Delivery Systems. Tony Rumore and his colleagues at Tromix specialize in the .458 SOCOM round but they came up with a really slick follower design that would work with the really slick Lancer hybrid AWM Magazines.

I ordered in a few for testing and they are really nice. Here are a number of views for you:

Lancer Hybrid L5 AWM Magazines

So the above Tromix followers are made specifically to work with Lancer L5 5.56/.223 AWM magazines. The AWM considered a hybrid design because the feed lips are steel The lips can be a weak point in the design of some polymer magazines.

At any rate, the AWMs are really nice. You have a bunch of colors and capacities and are a very nicely made. They also have a number of capacities *but* for the Beowulf, stick to the 10 or 20 round magazines. The Tromix follower is relatively tall and can’t negotiate the curve in the 30s. It can be made to work with the 20s and I’ll detail that more in a moment. I have some thoughts on how to modify the Tromix follower to get it to work in a 30 but haven’t had the time to tinker with it yet.

The 10 round 5.56/.223 magazines can hold 3 Beowulf rounds without any tuning. The slight curve to the 20 round magazines can cause the follower to jam and we’ll cover how to address that next.

Tuning and Installing the Follower

Push the the button on the bottom of the follower and slide the base plate off. Note, the magazine spring will want shoot out so just be prepared to control the spring’s expansion.

This is an original Lancer follower stull attached to the spring. It’s really hard to get the assembly oriented wrong due to the design. The follower can only go into the magazine body one way. and the spring can only attach to the follower one way.
The spring can only fit into the Tromix follower one way also.
You then slide the assembly back into the magazine and slide the base plate back on. It is that easy.

The tuning required has to do with making the follower slide as easily as possible in the 20 round magazine. If you don’t then you are going to find that the Tromix follower jams inside vs. reliably pushing the cartridges upwards the way it should.

Now whether you do it before you install the spring or after, use a buffer and go all around the Tromix follower and make it nice and smooth. I used a 6″ buffing wheel with buffing compound. The reason I said you could either do it before or after is that I had already assembled four magazines before I realized I needed to do the polishing. Just rub off any buffing compound left behind. You’ll notice that the follower surface is far smoother to the touch than before.

I have used this 6″ Harbor Freight buffer a ton over the years as you can probably tell from the photo. It’s what I used along with some black/emory buffing compound to polish the followers.

The next step is to apply three coats of Teflon to the follower and the inside of the magazine body. I’d recommend using a dry lubricant inside a magazine body so it doesn’t attract dirt the way a liquid or grease would.

My preferred lubricant for inside a magazine body is Dupont’s Non-Stick Dry Film. It sprays on wet and leaves a layer of Teflon as the solvent evaporates off. Be sure to shake the bottle before spraying so the Teflon is floating in the can when you spray.
Due to health and environmental concerns over Teflon, the Dupont formulation now uses a ceramic technology. It seems to work just fine and I have been using the ceramic-based product for several years now. Click here for the Dupont Dry Film Aerosol that I use now.

The trick I do is to use a heat gun to warm up the parts before I spray and then hit it with the spray lightly. I then warm it up again, let all of the solvent evaporate and then repeat for a total of three coats. I’ve hard far better luck getting a consistent thick layer of Teflon this way vs. trying to do it all in one spray.

The white dull look you see is the Teflon residue that will enable the follower to slide easier in the magazine body.

I spray the inside of the magazine body and all sides of the follower. Your goal is or there to be Teflon where ever the follower males contact with the magazine body. When everything is dry, reassemble each magazine.

Coat all four walls of the inside of the magazine body as well.

Testing

One quick comment – I do not recommend testing with live ammo. There are just too many things that can go wrong. I use A-Zoom 50 Beowulf Snap Caps to do my testing. They come in packs of two and I’d recommend having 4-8 rounds total for testing. Ideally, you’d like to load the whole mag you want to test so it really depends on what you plan on testing.

Get yourself 4-8 Snap Caps for testing. They are far safer than live rounds and hold up very well.

The Result

With the Tromix followers, the L5 AWM 10-round mags can hold three Beowulf rounds and the 20-round mags can hold seven. They are far, far more reliable than what I have been trying thus far.

The 10-round L5 AWM is on the bottom and the 20-round model is on top. You can see the big Beowulf rounds loaded to the capacity of each.
The weapon used first is this 7.5″ Beowulf pistol. Yeah, it bucks but I am trying to figure out the brake to use. There is a massive amount of unburned powder blowing out that pepper pot helical brake.
Target from 50 feet – rapid fire free hand. Yeah – feeding is way, way better.

The bottom line is that I am very happy with the pairing of the Tromix big bore follower with the Lancer L5 AWM 10- and 20-round magazines. I’ll experiment more to see if I can get the 30-round L5 AWMs to work but that is for another day.

I hope this helps.

Note, I have to buy all of my parts – nothing here was paid for by sponsors, etc. I do make a small amount if you click on an ad and buy something but that is it. You’re getting my real opinion on stuff.

If you find this post useful, please share the link on Facebook, with your friends, etc. Your support is much appreciated and if you have any feedback, please email me at in**@ro*********.com. Please note that for links to other websites, I may be paid via an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay.

Uncategorized

What Are Good Commercial AKs You Can Buy In The USA?

If you ever want to start an argument on the Internet, ask what is the best AK brand you can buy in the US or at least ask what is good a good brand. You’ll get a ton of opinions, hear say and even a few people with real experience will chime in.

Paul Popov is the admin of the AK-47 Group on Facebook and an avid AK hobbyist and industry tracker. He also runs a website called the Kalash Connection where he maintain information about AKs.

The other day he sat down and took the time to create what I will refer to as “Paul’s List” to try and answer that question above:

Current 12-12-20
Question one: What new Ak do I buy?
Current new production mass market AKs that are proven and a safe bet.
Alphabetically
· Arsenal,
· Century imported WASR or Draco
· IWI Galil ACE,
· K-USA KP9p/r,
· M&M Cugir AKs,
· Palmetto State Armory GF3 – up, GF4, 103, AKv, 74 (the only 74 in new prod),
· Riley Defense is hammer forged where it counts, should be ok? (test is not completed, ammo is expensive currently for just putting rounds through one for testing)
· WBP Poland. Still pretty new, hard to say on this one. Maybe ok
· Zastava should be ok, the ones Century imported were hit and miss. New ones have chrome lined barrels (yay and about time) and lets hope better metallurgy than Century imports.
o Atlantic firearms often have decent kit builds to purchase, but are not mfg. new AKs. So do many kit builders, we have a list in announcements along with a list of where you can buy kits from.
o Please let me know if I forgot any.


·Question two: What are good used AKs to buy?
This is a great list Darryn Eugene compiled.
AK variant buyers guide (models and variants G2G)
7.62×39 AKm/47 Variants
· Mitchell Arms Imports, M-90/m-70
· Mitchell Arms Imports, M-72
· Zastava M-92 (inspect due to varying QC)
· Zastava NPAP/OPAP (inspect due to varying QC)
· Cugir/Romarm/Century AES-10B not to be confused with AES-10 (basically a long barreled wasr)
· Cugir/Romarm/Century Sar-1
· Cugir/Romarm/Century Cur-1
· Cugir/Romarm/Century Wum-1 (check for “moon cuts” meaning a dish shaped portion cut out of the rear of the receiver to dissuade the use military stocks.
· Cugir/Romarm/Century WASR-10 variants (only upon inspection)
· Cugir/Romarm/INTRAC Romak-1
· Cugir/Romarm/INTRAC Romak-991 (dimple-less single stack pre WASR import.
· FEG/Hungary/KBI/Kassnar Sa-85 variants post and pre ban.
· FEG/Hungary/TGI Amd-65 builds (not to be confused with Clearview Investments builds)
· Valmet, Literally any of them they’re all excellent.
· Arsenal of Bulgaria/Las Vegas/Legion SLR 107 variants, SAM-7 Variants, SLR 101 Variants, SGL-21 Variants
· BlueRidge/GordonTech/INTRAC SLR100h builds (Hungarian Type3 AK-55 kits on Bulgarian Receivers)
· Norinco/Polytech AK47S series.
· Norinco/Polytech MAK90 series milled and stamped models. (on stamped models identify whether it is slant cut or straight when figuring your price to pay.
· Norinco/Polyech NHM-91
· Norinco/Polytech MAK-91 (20-inch barrel milled receiver rifle, neutered Polyech legend national match).
· Norinco/Polytech Hunters. (great for galil/valmet conversion)
· GSAD/Kengs/Siles Type 56, AK47S
· Molot Vepr 1&2 models (model 2’s being the integrated front sight gas block set up)
· Robinson Arms Molot Vepr Conversions
· IWI Galil Ace series.
· Izhmash Saiga series.
· Intrac Maadi ARM
· Century Maadi MISR SA (avoid MISR 90)
· Intrac Maadi RPM, RML
· Steyr Maadi
5.45×39 AK-74 Variants
· Cugir/Romarm/Century SAR-2
· Cugir/Romarm/INTRAC MK-2
· Cugir/Romarm/Ratmil WUM-2
· Cugir/Romarm/Ratmil CUR-2
· 1st Gen Waffen Werks (identified by Nodak Spud receivers and Bulgarian barrels)
· Arsenal of Bulgaria/Las Vegas SLR 105-104 variants
· Arsenal of Bulgaria/Las Vegas/Legion FIME SGL 31 variants.
· Marcolmar/InRange Ak-74/AKS-74
· Molot Vepr 1&2 Series
· Robinson Arms Molot Vepr Conversions
· Interams Tantal
· Izhmash Saiga Variants
AK-101/5.56 Ak variants
· Romarm/Cugir/Century SAR-3
· Royal Tiger/FB Radom/ Beryl Archer
· Arsenal Of Bulgaria/ Las Vegas SLR 106 series ( research serial number prefixes to identify potential problemed models)
· Izhmash Saiga Variants
· Norinco/Polyech 84S
· Norinco/Polytech NHM-90
· Norinco/Polytech BWK-92
· Zastava/Century M85 (cannot verify quality of m85NP series)
· Mitchell Arms M-90
· Arsenal USA (not to be confused with KVAR) K100 model. (Bulgarian milled receiver assembled with Bulgarian 5.56 barrel on 74 parts.
· Arsenal Of Bulgaria SAM-5
· IMI/IWI Galil and Galil ACE variants
· TENN Galil builds.
· Valmet M72/65 variants.
· Valmet Bullpup. M82? Can’t recall model during time of this list. And yes i know i could use google. Don’t judge me…

So for all you folks new to AKs, take a look a the above. The last AK I bought was an IWI Galil Ace and they are superb.

Also, be sure to check out Paul’s site at: https://thekalashconnection.com

I hope this helps!

If you find this post useful, please share the link on Facebook, with your friends, etc. Your support is much appreciated and if you have any feedback, please email me at in**@ro*********.com. Please note that for links to other websites, I may be paid via an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay.

PSA AK Webstore Links

Interested in an American made AK? Consider Palmetto State Armory (PSA) as a source. Click on the following links for the associated webstore categories for AK-related rifles, pistols and parts at PSA:

Uncategorized

Will A Bulgy ARM9 Grip Fit An IMI Galil? The Notch Is Definitely Different

A recurring question I get is if a Bulgarian ARM-9 grip can be used on an IMI Galil rifle. Not easily is my answer and I took a bunch of photos so you can decide for yourself. You would need to add black epoxy to the inside back of the ARM in order to Dremel or mill it open further to duplicate the swing of the Galil’s lever – at least that’s how it looks to me because I don’t own an IMI Galil to experiment with.

So, here are some photos so you can see what I mean:

Note the difference in the shape of the ARM-9 grip’s notch on the left vs. the IMI Galil’s notch on the right
Here are the notches even closer.
Here’s the ARM sitting on top of the Galil for another perspective.
Here’s where you can see that the ARM-9’s original wall design is hollow behind the notch. It’s not an impossible change – if you were to abrasive blast the inside of the ARM grip and then use wax stripper, you could then fill that back in with black epoxy. It wouldn’t be an exact color match by any means.

Summary

So there you have it. They are different and definitely not a simple swap with out doing some epoxy work and then maybe a top coat of some finish if you want the colors to match. I hope this helps you out as you think through your options.

If you find this post useful, please share the link on Facebook, with your friends, etc. Your support is much appreciated and if you have any feedback, please email me at in**@ro*********.com. Please note that for links to other websites, I may be paid via an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay.