Here’s an interesting but short video of Vladimir Onokoy, who is a Technical Advisor with Kalashnikov Media, showing the AK-203 undergoing environmental testing – freezing cold, desert sand, rain and a combination. Vladimir is speaking in Russian but there are subtitles and it’s not surprising that the AK-203 performs well.
Going from the freezer to the test rangeCovered in very fine sand that is blown on and into the weapon
Here’s the Video
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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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In March, the Prime Minister of India inaugurated the Indo-Russian Rifles Pvt Ltd factory that will manufacture 75,000 of the AK-203 assault rifles. The AK-203 is the current model of the AK service rifle chambered for the 7.62×39 cartridge.
A common criticism is that AK rifles aren’t very accurate. Vladimir Onokoy, a technical advisor to the Kalashnikov Concern assembled this video to demonstrate how the 203 can accept modern optics, has a repeatable zero and can deliver acceptable accuracy at 100 meteres.
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Until I watched this video, I’d only seen the very unique Hungarian AMP-69 in books. Ian McCollum did one of his impeccable reviews of this very interesting AK. He calls it the ugliest AK he’s ever seen but I think it’s pretty cool.
One of my first AKs was an AMD-65 it ran like a top. Like the Yugoslavs, the Hungarians had no issues with producing some very uniquely designed rifles based off the Kalashnikov design.
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Two Rivers Arms recently built a Yugo M76 8mm designated marksman’s rifle for me. I’ve wanted one for years and it was a long but worthwhile wait until it arrived. So, once Tim called and said it was almost ready, I started reading up in earnest and watching videos as well.
That’s where Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons enters in. I am a fan of Ian at Forgotten Weapons and both subscribe to his Youtube channel and support him via Patreon. Ian published a video of him using a Yugo M76, or as it is formally known, a Zastava M76, in a 2-Gun match. It’s a quick fun watch to see Ian swinging around the big rifle.
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I’m tuning a bunch of Yugo M76 magazines so they no longer nose dive when the bolt hold open (BHO) follower is hit from behind. It involves welding a small tab of 20 gauge sheet metal behind the follower and is straight forward – I’ll write a post about it shortly. The challenge I ran into was the need to reliably test ammunition feeding safely.
I had to add in the “safely” comment. I would tell you to never use live ammo when you are doing this kind of work because an accidental discharge could happen for a ton of reasons. There are a number of companies that make dummy rounds to enable folks to safely test their weapons. You’ll hear these rounds called things like “dummy rounds”, “snap caps”, “action proving rounds”, and probably tons of other things.
They tend to be made either from machined aluminum or from real components – such as real brass cases and jull metal jacket (FMJ) bullets – that are asssembled without powder and usually something rubbery in the primer pocket to protect the firing pin during dry firing. Assuming you are using a reputable vendor who is making the rounds to accurate dimensional specificaitons, either will work. The issue is longevity – especially in a big semi-auto rifle.
Aluminum is inherently soft. I’ve used a number of makers’ products over the years and some get chewed up real fast by heavy actions that slam rounds into the chamber with force. I’ve literally had chips/shavings of aluminum fall out after soft aluminum met hardened steel.
So, in order to safely test the feeding of the M76, I knew I could not go with aluminum rounds. I did some searching around and found “Realistic Snap Cap” brand and they take the route of producing an inert round (meaning not “live” because there is no powder and primer).
For reasons I’m not clear on, the firm makes two 8mm mauser snap caps – one with a blunted nose and one with a full size FMJ bullet that is the normal length. I did not know this when I ordered a package of five off Amazon because I mistakenly assumed the product photo shown accidentally did not show the top of the bullet.
You can see the blunt snap cap vs. a full size one. Do not use the blunt rounds to test a M76.
I really do not know why they made the blunted rounds. It might have been for people wanting to test hollow points, soft points or maybe wanting an even more positive identifier that it was a test round. Whatever the reason, they work horribly in a semi-auto M76.
I couldn’t blame the maker or Amazon because I knew better that to try a shorter than spec round that had a blunted nose vs. the curvature of a FMJ round that assists with feeding. I was too caught up in the “let’s get this done” mindset so it was my own fault.
The short rounds were made well so I did some digging and they did make a full size 8mm Mauser model described as “Advanced Tactical 8mm Mauser” that I ordered. Ok, now these work great.
They are well made and the patina is a pretty quick visual indicator that they are snap caps but never ever have live ammo anywhere near a firearm you are working on or you are risking an accident especially if you are tired.
Thanks to the right snap caps, I could then test all of the magazines and the snap caps held up great. Just be sure to get the full size snap caps and not the blunted ones if you are testing an M76.
4/3/24 I no longer see these on Amazon or eBay but there are other brands. Go with 8x57JS dummy rounds made from metals – not plastic or the M76 will beat them to death.
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