Category Archives: Weapons by Country

Germany plus Historical East and West, Roller Locks - HK

Brace Options for the HK SP5K

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In the last post, I told you I bought an HK SP5K.  It’s relatively heavy and begging for a brace.  I don’t really feel the need to spend the money and wait to register it to be a Short Barreled Rifle (SBR) and there are actually a ton of arm brace options out there. 

Option 1:  The SBT5KA Brace

I have a SB Tactical SBT5A Brace on my POF-5 and really like it.    I knew they made a version for the SP5K known as the SBT5KA but I was hoping for something different. Please note they are two different models of braces reflecting the different receiver end caps.

Option 2:  The SOB Brace

Every time I write this product name – the “SOB” – down, I smile.  SB Tactical has a ton of braces for the AR/M4 weapons family and they have evolved a ton away from the ugly original.  The SOB has clean lines and I run one on my PTR PDWR.  I think it looks good and has handled the .308 rounds from the PDWR just fine and feels solid too.

Option 3:  The SBPDW

I thought I had found just what I wanted with the SBPDW – a collapsing stock that looked really slick and it would be easy enough to add an M4 adapter to the SP5K.  So, I ordered a very well made adapter and the expensive SBPDW stock and guess what?  It would not fit.

Needless to say, I was bummed.  I had it completely installed only to find out that the guide rods on the SBPDW run right into the sides of the SP5K.  Crud.  I didn’t feel like figuring out all the changes that would be needed.

Purely for reference, here’s the same PDW brace now installed on a 10.5″ AR Pistol but that is a story for another day. It is a rock solid brace.

The Winner?  The SBT5KA

Well, I was bumming from the strike out with the SBPDW so I went with my second pick – the SBT5KA.  I felt it was most true to the lines of the MP5K and ordered one. As with their other braces, SB Tactical did a great job.

Installation was a breeze.  Pull out the two small pins at the back, swap the old end-cap for the brace, push them together and reinsert the pins.  I did make sure the recoil rod lined up and nothing was binding as I reassembled the unit.

I Did Clean and Lube The Internals

I should point out that when I removed the end cap, I went ahead and slid out the bolt group and lubricated everything.  I applied Super Lube grease to the bolt body and Mobil 1 Synthetic 10w30 via a precision oiler to the rollers of the bolt and rotating surfaces.  I also oiled the pins on the trigger pack while greasing the hammer face with Super Lube.

Summary

So you see I went with the SBT5KA brace.  In the next post I will discuss handguards.

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.

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Germany plus Historical East and West, Roller Locks - HK

So, I have an HK SP5K …

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Folks, I have thoroughly enjoyed my POF-5, which is an MP5 pistol clone, this past summer.  We easily put way past 500 rounds through it with zero failures to feed or eject.  All my family members and friends wanted to shoot it and we had a ton of fun.  However, in the back of my head, there was a little voice saying “you need a real HK”.

Finding a Real HK

I’d talked to a few guys and the consensus was that a real HK will just go up in value even after being shot plus there are the bragging right of owning a real HK.  There was one problem – HK stopped making MP5s available for civilian sales.  There are definitely a lot of parts kits out there but then someone needs to pay an HK smith to assemble the subgun.  I thought about doing it but I lack the experience and the tooling.  Given the price $1,600-3,200 price of kits, I wasn’t about to experiment.

It turned out that HK still made a civilian pistol – the SP5K – “Sporting Pistol” 5K – that is a semi-auto version of the short MP5K submachine gun.  The one catch is that it comes to the US market a tad neutered.  Surprisingly, this was done due to strict German export laws and not US import laws.   For me, the sad part is that the barrel is 115mm/4.53 inches long and ends abruptly at the sight block – not only is there no threading or tri-lug attachment point but the abrupt end means you can’t add one either without replacing the barrel.  However, accuracy reports are excellent so at least that and reliability were still there.

Before I seriously considered buying one, I did some research:

There are also some choice articles:

Hard to Find an Affordable SP5K

Of course, these things aren’t cheap and they are really hard to find in stock.  I hunted around online while my FFL, Scott Igert of Modern Antique Firearms, did the same.  After hunting for a few weeks it dawned on me that I would need to use GunBroker.  So, I started by watching auctions and seeing what stuff sold for before I started actually bidding and losing.  I learned a while ago not to chase auctions – set a price and don’t go past that limit.  I finally found a deal after watching and bidding for over a month. 

So, the seller was Town Police Supply, located in Collinsville, VA, who goes by GunTalker on GunBroker.  They had an A+ reputation with over 700 trades.  I always prefer to deal with sellers that have a lot of trades.  At any rate, they were great to deal with.  I won the auction on 9/24/18 and it arrived at Scott’s shop on 9/25.  Literally.

As you can imagine, I picked the SP5K up as soon as I could.  It came in a real cool HK hard case with two 10 round magazines, a sling and a sight adjustment tool as you can see in the featured photo at the top.

Here’s the plain pistol out of the box:

In summary

So, it was definitely cool but if you know me, you also know what was going through my head – “I can customize this!”  In my next blog post, I’ll talk about what I considered for braces.

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Amazon product links are at the bottom of the blog.

Russia and also USSR

Kalashnikov Concern’s Own Video About Early AK Variants

As you well know, I am very interested in AK rifles, their history and how they are evolving.  In September 2018, Kalashnikov Concern released a very interesting video that shows you some of their early AK variants.

In the video, Vladimir Onokay, a technical consultant with the Kalashnikov Concern, will show some unique AKs manufactured in 1948 at the Izhevsk motorcycle factory as well as models produced until the 1950s.

Please note that the following video is hosted in Russia and you may need to let it buffer a bit for smooth viewing.  It’s just over 4 minutes long and any student of the AK design will find it very interesting.

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Czechoslovakia

There is a surprising ton of vz.58 stuff for sale on eBay if you look for it

The Czech vz.58 is an interesting 7.62×39 rifle.  While at a fast glance it may look like an AK, it is actually a different design and doesn’t share any parts with the AK-47.

Outside of the military, it has a sizable following with civilian shooters.  While folks may be aware of parts from sources like Apex and Czechpoint, they may not be aware there is a ton of parts and accessories on eBay.

Here are real-time search results that you can review and order from if so desired:

There’s even more that you can browse through on eBay if you click here.

Image attributions:
1. vz.58P Rifle Image Source:  By Jan Hrdonka (en:User:Hrd10)
2. vz.58P Rifle Field Stripped:  Ibid

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Russia and also USSR

Kalashnikov AK-308 Promotional Video

This is a promotional video hosted by the Kalashnikov Concern of the 7.62×51/.308 AK-308 rifle.  It looks pretty slick and borrows quite a bit from the AK-12 but some noticeable differences are the 20 round magazine and different muzzle device.

Here’s the Video

Please note that all images were extracted from the video and remain the property of their respective owner(s).

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Russia and also USSR

Really Interesting Overview Video of AK-12K, AK-15K and RPK-16K at the Army-2017 Defense Exhibition Outside Moscow

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In 2017, the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation held their annual international military-technical forum known as ARMY-2017 outside of Moscow.  There were over 1,000 exhibitors and over 500,000 visitors.  It was an ideal spot for the Kalashnikov Concern to show off their short AK-12K, AK-15K and RPK-16K weapons.

In the video, Vladimir Onokay, a technical consultant with the Kalashnikov Concern, does a great job showing the three weapons and giving an overview of each’s design points.

AK-12K in 5.45×39

Some things he pointed out were:

  • Free floating handguard
  • It has Picatinny Rails for mounting accessores
  • Front sight on the gas block and with the rear sight at the end of rail, the sight radius is longer than traditional AKs
  • The muzzle device is more for controlling flash during night operations
  • He showed the windowed magazine for quick round counts
  • The rear stock is adjustable

AK-15K in 7.62×39

The AK-15 is simply the AK-12 but chambered in 7.62×39.  He does make the interesting comment that they found a sweet spot in weapons weight of 3.2-3.3 kilograms for controllable fire in 7.62×39.  They try to make the weapons as similar as possible and this is really a family of weapons that can be made in different calibers.

The RPK-16K in 5.45×39

This light machine gun sports a 95 round drum and has swappable barrels.  A short one for close quarters battle (CQB) that requires a shorter weapon and a longer barrel for other use.

The Video

It’s an 8:00 video and has some great footage.

I hope you enjoyed this!

Please note that all images were extracted from the video and are the property of their respective owner.

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Bulgaria

Very Cool Slow Motion Video of AK-74 Operating – See It From Many Angles

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Larry Vickers and his team assembled this really cool video of a Bulgarian AK-74 firing.  They do different angles plus shots at normal speed and slow motion.  You get very clear shots of the fire control group, bolt carrier, gas piston and the muzzle brake.

It’s a brief 2:45 and worth it.

 

If you are interested, here’s a computer generated graphics video that does a great job at demonstrating how everything works on a Type 2 AK.

Here is the link to Larry’s book on AK rifles that he is selling directly and not through Amazon.

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**@*********ps.com. Please note that for links to other websites, we are only paid if there is an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay and only if you purchase something. If you’d like to directly donate to help fund our continued report, please visit our donations page.

Russia and also USSR

Russian Submachine Guns from 1927 to 2017 – Including Video Footage and Overviews

While many Westerners focus on the Mosin Nagant and Kalashnikov rifles, Russia has a very long history of submachine guns (SMGs).  SMGs are typically fire weapons that use a pistol cartridge as opposed to an intermediate- or rifle-sized round.

In this cool 25 minute video, Jmantime takes you on a journey with a lot of historical video footage starting with the experimental Tokarev Model 1927.  It was a blowback operated  7.3 pound SMG that fired the 7.62x38R round that the Nagant M1895 revolver.

On to more modern weapons that we see currently such as the PP-19 Bizon.

And my current favorite, he also has footage of the PP-29-01 Vityaz-SN:

He also covers many, many others such as the PP-40, PPSH-41, PPS-43, OTs-39, and PP-2000.  Here’s the 25 minute video – I think you’l find it very interesting — I just wish the clips were higher resolution :-):

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**@*********ps.com. Please note that for links to other websites, we are only paid if there is an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay and only if you purchase something. If you’d like to directly donate to help fund our continued report, please visit our donations page.