I will do a more In-Depth series of posts about building this rifle later. It is a Polish WBP kit l at the heart from arms of America with a Polish cold hammer-forged Barrel. The internals are installed in a Childers Guns receiver. The trigger is from ALG and I absolutely love it. I kid you not, this is now the only trigger I will use because it is so good.
The muzzle brake is a JMAC RRD-4C and boy does it eliminate muzzle climb. It made the rifle very controllable even during rapid fire.
The optic is a vortex Crossfire. The furniture is original polish Beryl with one of our US made 922r Beryl grips.
In the following video, this is my buddy Niko doing the shooting and while he is tall and wiry you can tell that the full-power Golden Eagle hundred and twenty four grain FMJ 7.62 x39 round is not moving him much at all.
The build turned out to be extremely reliable and accurate. Like I said I will post more details later but I’m thrilled with the results and had to jump the gun and share this!
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.
I built an Uzi a few months back and had trouble with it firing. A challenge a person has in the firearms industry is finding time to enjoy shooting! At any rate, I took it out the first time and had really light primer strikes with the firing pin – I’m talking you could barely see there was contact. So with the Uzi refusing to go bang, I had to do some digging.
I got into Uzis because of all the movies and TV shows in the 1980s. I decided to finally make one during the Winter of 2017/2018 and chronicled my efforts. The first time to the range resulted in a lot of good natured ribbing from my brother-in-laws as we could not get it to fire. We could hear the striker hitting real hard but no bang. Luckily I had other guns for us to shoot so I put the Uzi back in the bag and took it home where it then sat for a couple of months.
I did some digging and process of elimination and got it down to a few possibilities that in some cases I had already addressed. The following is my journey and what I did to sort matters out.
Lubrication
The Uzi closed bolt system is a huge chunk of metal and moving parts. When brand new, these parts still have their porous surface finishes on them, rough spots from machining and what not. You need to make sure everything is lubricated. Remember the old saying of it slides, use grease. If it rotates, use oil. I used Tetra gun grease on all sliding parts. I definitely wanted the big bolt body to slide easily. I also did put a light coat of Mobil 1 Full Synthetic 10W30 on the firing pin but really nothing rotates in there. In the trigger group, I used the oil also on all pivot points.
For me, I heard the need for this when I assembled the carbine for the first time. There was a very dry slow-moving sound and grating feel when I first ran the action during assembly. After lubrication it made a world of difference. I could feel and hear the striker hitting far harder. The important point is to lube your weapon. This definitely helped but it did not solve my problem in this case but I could tell it would definitely impact the operation of an Uzi.
Note: When I wrote this I was using Tetra Grease but I am now using Super Lube and it works fantastic on my Uzi. Click here for the write up.
Top Cover Bent
To be honest, I thought for sure this was going to be my problem after a fellow at McKay suggested I check it. I always thought the cover seated hard and I could not release the latch without a tool. As soon as the fellow suggested it I put one and one together – I bet it warped when the third party welded on the Picatinny rail section.
So, I did some digging on the web to figure out what to do. It turns out that you should be able to insert a 0.005″ feeler gauge between the bolt and the cover at the ejection port. Guess what? It wouldn’t go in – the first rib was tight and the far rib was impassable.
Before I go further – one quick comment on feeler gauges. Not all are equal. I have a few in my toolbox but the one I use the most is is this ABN unit shown above. It is accurate enough and it has a ton of gauges. I point this out because not all of these gauge sets are complete. For example, several of my gauge sets jump as the manufacturer just included the blades needed for their equipment. I’d recommend getting a set with a lot of SAE and metric blades so you have flexibility. For the Uzi dust cover, you need the 0.005 and 0.015 gauges.
Next was to take some plywood stock I had lying around and make a jig. Basically you want two pieces of wood (any wood to avoid marring) that are the same height. The top cover will be suspended between them so you can adjust the cover either up or down.
I then made two little punches. One is made by gluing and brad nailing two pieces of 1/2″ plywood together so I could hit both ribs of the top cover at once. I also made a punch out of a single piece of plywood to adjust just one rib. I then got out one BFH (big frickin’ hammer) to whack with.
If there’s one thing I have learned – don’t go crazy hitting stuff. I put the jig right on the floor for good support and then the dust cover on it. Note that on the front part, I pushed the wood block back until it was supporting a thicker part and not just the thin neck.
So, I gave it a tap – not a very hard one with the thick piece on both ribs and took it over to test. It sure went on the receiver easier. Wow – it overshot the mark. I could now very easily insert the 0.015″ feeler gauge too. My understanding is that you don’t want it that loose or you risk the bolt jumping the sear and resulting in an uncontrolled mag dump. No joke – I don’t need that in my life ever.
I took the cover off the Uzi and flipped it with top now facing up and I tapped down even lighter. It really is surprising how easy the dust cover bends. I thought given the thickness of the sheet metal and the two ribs it would be much stronger but no.
I then took it back and installed it on the Uzi. It was starting to fit better. I definitely noticed that the ribs were different in terms of their gap so I switched to the smaller 1/2″ plywood punch and focused on one rib at a time. Tap and test, tap and test. If I went too far one way, I would flip the cover and tap it the other way.
After about 15 minutes I had it dialed in. The 0.005″ gauge would slide in and the 0.015 gauge met just a bit of resistance.
In working the action you could both feel and see the improvement. As always, there was a nice firm thud of the striker. Problem solved? No – it wasn’t. Argh. It was a definite improvement in operation but did not solve the problem.
The Uzi Bolt Blocking Latch
The web is a wonderful thing. I continued to surf around and read more about peoples’ experiences with Uzis not firing. Finally I read one that caught my eye – the striker has a particular orientation that must be followed to clear the bolt blocking latch. Wow. I knew I didn’t know about that when I installed it because the light strikes definitely indicated the striker wasn’t reaching the primer and this would explain a lot.
Okay, #31 in the above diagram is the bolt blocking latch and #30 is the spring. The bolt blocking latch’s purpose is to reduce (not eliminate) the chance of an out of battery firing. It does this by blocking the striker’s base. In normal operation, it is depressed and the notch in the base clears the latch as it travels forward to touch off the primer. Now there are three key things here and I’ll tell you what I messed up.
The spring must be installed correctly.
The latch must move freely
The striker must be rotated such that the notch is in the right place- you can install it 180 degrees opposite.
So, your’s truly bombed the last one. I did not realize there was an orientation issue. The model B striker’s base is a half circle. The notch must be at the bottom to clear the latch. In this next photo, you can see I have it installed backward:
The following photo shows the installed Uzi bolt blocking latch. See how the bottom part sticks out? That is what will need to clear the notch when it is depressed during normal operation.
Note, I was working on a full size Uzi with a McKay semi-auto receiver and bolt group. Your bolt group may look a bit different.
When installed correctly, the striker sits in its seat and the seat sits in the striker guide like so:
You can see in the above photo how my latch was chewing on the improperly installed striker. As a visual reference for the correct orientation, see how the striker’s base is facing the part of the guide that has a depression in it. When installed, it will look like this:
You can see an immediate difference because when you depress the latch, the striker can fully travel forward and sticks out of the bolt face ever so slightly. That’s what we want!
Verdict – problem solved and fun was had at the range yesterday. The Uzi is still wearing in and smoothing out. We put about 100 rounds of 124 grain S&B FMJ through it.
The carbine was accurate and a lot of fun. If you didn’t read my other posts, there is a rifle length 16″ barrel hidden under the fake can. The weight of the carbine made it really soft to shoot so the girls and I had a lot of fun.
I am going to find a bit bigger optic for it – probably the Vortex Crossfire like I am running on my POF-5.
Regardless, I hope this helps you out!
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.
Because I make and sell a variety of AK furniture, I often get asked about where to find parts and accessories for a given type of firearm. One brand that comes up quite a bit is Norinco.
Norinco, or China North Industries Group Corporation Limited (中国北方工业集团有限公司), is a huge defense conglomerate and makes everything from small arms to big weapons systems such as tanks and missle systems (click here if you want to visit their site). They were established in 1980 and began selling small arms to the US domestic market not long after that.
Unfortunately, they ran into a number of legal problems. In 1993, importation of most of their firearms and ammunition was blocked other than sporting shotguns and shotgun ammo. In 1994 US Customrs conducted a sting on the importer and in August 2003, sanctions were imposted that effectively blocked their remaining lines of firearms and ammunition not already banned. In short, Norinco is very much still in business in China and exporting to clients elsewhere – just not in the US.
This unfortunate series of events leaves US owners of Norinco firearms such as their Type 56 SKS carbine, Type 56 assault rifle (and specifically the civilian MAK-90 and NHM-90 rifles), the NDM-86 Dragunov clone DMR, their various other rifles, pistols and shotguns wondering where to find parts. As for myself, I wish I could afford an NDM-86!
There are two reputable businesses I have dealt with who carry Chinese firearm parts – one is Numrich and the other is PolyTechParts. Of course, there is Gunbroker and the many sellers who use it as well.
There is another surprising source – eBay. Below is a live feed of Norinco parts for you to peruse plus they have much more:
Just to be clear, I am not a Chinese firearms expert. I get asked questions and have done some searching to try and help clients but that’s it. I created this blog post to have a quick link to email people when they have questions about where to find parts and I hope this helps you out.
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.
Photo of the Type 56 is by Dhalikar – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25006497
It’s interesting that we hold the AK-47 in near mythic regard when it comes to reliability. It took almost 12 years from 1947 to the release of the AKM (Avtomát Kaláshnikova modernizírovanny or “Modernized Kalashnikov Automatic Rifle”) in 1959. The journey the design team made over the years is quite interesting.
I did a post on the Type 1 previously (click here to open it) and that first iteration had problems with the stamped sheet metal receiver that affected reliability. In response, Valeriy Kharkov lead a design team who created a milled receiver from a forging to address the reliability problems and it was ready by 1949.
The Soviets had plenty of labor, that wasn’t a problem so in a manually intensive manner, they machined a six pound block of steel that required 120 steps into a finished 1.4 pound receiver. That means they wasted almost 3.6 pounds of quality steel and used a ton of consumables and machine time. To be honest, it boggles my mind but they accomplished their mission – the QC problems with the receiver were addressed.
In the following video, Ian McCollum does a great job showing a type 2 and describing the differences between it, the type 1 and the following type 3. For example, he points out the rear receiver extension that is made from sheet metal that is an instant identifier of a Type 2 fixed stock rifle (sometimes referred to as the “2A”). Note, they made the type 2 with an underfolder stock also (the “2B”).
Another tell is that the lightening cuts are parallel to the top of the receiver in the type 2 and in the type 3 they are parallel to the bottom.
There are quite a few other changes such as the grip now being a single piece, the selector lever having an additional clearance added above the pins, gas vent holes moved to 10 and 2 o-clock and more.
By the way, one thing Ian does is refer to it as the AK-49 and I have never read anything that supports that nomenclature. If you Google AK-49, nothing turns up. I would recommend you refer to it as an AK-47 Type 2. Other than that, I think it is a great video and you can actually see the many details as Ian points them out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch">
If you want to read a book that does a great job detailing the Type 2 and its history, I would recommend The Grim Reaper by Frank Iannamico. Poyer’s book has details but not as much history.
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.
Ian McCollum does a great job showing an actual Soviet Type 1 sheet metal AK-47. I’ve read about the Type and seen a few photos but nothing as detailed as this. We so often focus on the AKM but Mikhail Kalashnikov and his design team at Izhevsk had to go through a lot of learning and evolution of the design.
For me this was absolutely fascinating as Ian talks about the Type 1’s history and QC problems this early design had and then actually opens the rifle up to show the many differences.
Grip plates vs a true grip
No center support to keep the receiver from getting crushed
A selector lever that was only on the operating side that did not go all the way through
Longer trunnion
Ejector was part of the trunnion
Different rivet pattern
Fluted gas piston
and more
If you like AK’s, be sure to watch this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch">
Also, consider donating to Ian. He puts a ton of time into his videos and the research required. Here’s a link to his Patreon page.
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.
I have to admit that I am a huge fan of Ian McCollum’s Forgotten Weapons videos. On May 28th, 2018, he released “Romania Doesn’t Make the Dragunov: The PSL”. Being a fan of the PSL, I had to watch it:
As usual, Ian did a great job. The PSL, or in Romanian, the Puşcă Semiautomată cu Lunetă model 1974 was Romania’s designated marksman rifle (DMR) in 7.62x54R and came about after they had a disagreement with the USSR and would not longer get access to the Dragunov design.
In a classic example of pragmatism, the designers at Regia Autonoma pentru Productia de Tehnica Militara, also know as the RATMIL Cugir arsenal, upscaled the Kalashnikov rifle design to handle the larger round. The receiver design is based on the RPK light machine gun with reinforcing plates at the rear and a bulged front trunnion. To make use of the relatively old 7.62x54R cartridge, it used a 24.4″ long barrel whereas a typical AKM has a barrel that is about 16.3″ long.
In short, while some people refer to it as a Dragunov, it really isn’t the same design at all. The Dragunov’s design is unique and more complex. The PSL is essentially an AK-47 on steroids and it does a pretty good job for what it was intended for – being a DMR and providing supporting fire at longer distance targets vs. a sniper rifle. A DMR has good enough accuracy to – say about 2-3″ MOA or better whereas a sniper, or precision rifle, will tend to be sub-MOA.
Paired with the rifle is a LPS 4×6 TIP2 ((Lunetă Puṣcă Semiautomată Tip 2, or “Scope, Semi-Automatic Rifle, Type 2”) scope that attaches via the receiver side plate.
Really, the PSL design was a success for the Romanians. It was relatively inexpensive, rugged and did the job. They actually wound up exporting it to a number of countries for military use including: Afghanistang, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Congo-Kinshasa, Ethiopia, Iraq (after Hussein), Moldova, Nicaragua, North Korea, Pakistan, Somalia.
Here it is seen in the hands of an Afghan Army soldier:
In the following photo an Ethiopian solider is firing a PSL:
Of course, another market existed for these semi-auto rifles also – the United States. It was imported under a variety of names including: PSL-54C, Romak III, FPK and SSG-97. They were all the same rifle more or less and might show modifications for importation such as removal of the bayonet lug or no third FCG pin provision in the receiver. The PSLs in the US could have been assembled either at RATMIL or later after Romania joined NATO, the ARMS arsenal. Note, there are also PSLs floating around built from kits on US receivers also with quality running the whole gamut from poor to excellent.
My PSL
At any rate, part of the reason I wrote this is that I felt nostalgic. I bought a Century Arms assembled PSL Sporter from Centerfire Systems in 2010. Here it is next to a Yugo M70B1 for comparison and it has a Konus optic on a BP-02 SVD/PSL low center mount that is in line with the bore that I purchased from Kalinka Optics:
Contrary to rumor, the skeleton stock as the original design and not something they did for the US market. The skeleton thumbhole profile was developed to reduce weight, withstand recoil and be relatively comfortable – hiding under the steel butt plate was a spring to dampen recoil.
I couldn’t leave the rifle along because I really wanted an SVD so I had to pick up a Rhineland Arms unfinished walnut SVD conversion stock set – all it needed was the finish. I used one of the Minwax cherry stains (I don’t recall which now I’m afraid) and the multiple coats of boiled linseed oil (BLO) on top.
One thing I did need to do was to carefully remove the gas tube cover retainers on both ends. I carefull ground them off with my Dremel and then refinished the gas tube as you can see in the next photo.
I then drilled and tapped the receiver to hold a small piece of picatinny rail and took care not to harm the serial number and what not. I figured the rail could be readily removed for inspection if ever needed.
So here was the end result including a Versapod bipod with claw feet:
I definitely am nostalgic about the rifle. In one of those twists of fate, I had to sell it before I ever got to shoot it. If I ever fell into a good deal on one, I would get it.
** Note, images that have a grey wood background, are of the Rhineland stock, the finished custom rifle or are in the shop are mine. The other images are in the public domain and are from Wikipedia’s entry on the PSL.
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.
Having watched one too many TV shows and movies with H&K’s MP5 submachine gun over the years, the sub gun has been on my “I want to have one list” for years but way out of my price range. While surfing, I read about how Pakistani Ordnance Factory (POF) licensed the design and tooling necessary from H&K Germany to make roller locked weapons including MP5 clones. In reading about the various Mp5 clones, it became apparent that the POF-5 units are actually well regarded. What really tipped the scales was a great post by T. Mark Graham at Arizona Response Systems who really knows his way around MP5s saying they were good to go with details of his analysis provided.
This led me to calling up Chuck at Kelly Enterprises and talking about whether to buy a Zenith (my first choice) or a POF. Chuck is a very straight forward guy and tells it the way it is. The Zenith would be hard to get and he had POF-5 pistols in stock plus he gave me a great deal so I ordered one and had it sent to my friend and FFL, Scott Igert, at Modern Antique Firearms. Chuck sent me all the tracking info and just a few days later, the POF-5 was with Scott waiting for me to pick it up.
On inspection you could tell the receiver paint was a bit glossier than the more satin finish of an HK but other than the action feeling dry and new (that gritty not worn in feeling), it looked good to go.
Now, I have two personality quirks. First, I can’t hit the broad side of a barn with a pistol let alone one this big and heavy. Second, I can’t help but customize any gun I buy and this wasn’t any different.
I did a ton of reading and decided to go with a cool S&B brace, a B&T scope mount, Dakota Tactical handguard, a B&T muzzle brake and ordered a bunch of POF MP5 magazines. You can buy the brace at PSA and Brownells. By the way, Brownells has a ton of replacement parts and aftermarket parts for the MP5 reflecting it’s long-time use by law enforcement no doubt – click here to see them.
Installing the brace was easy – like any HK, you push out the rear pin, pull off the cap and put on the brace. I bought one all ready to go.
The handguard is a keymod unit from Dakota Tactical and they use a screw instead of a front pin to hold the unit in place. It really locks up nice and I like the feel of it. The rail section holding the Streamlight in the below photo is made by Monoki.
Now the scope mount is the standard B&T universal rail, the BT-21262-1. I would caution against you buying a cheap optics mount for an HK-type weapon. There are tons of stories of cheap ones falling off, not seating properly, etc. The B&T unit is a mil-grade unit. You slide it on and then work the little claws or feet into position and then secure them with the supplied screws.
Next up was to install the Vortex Crossfire Red Dot optic. These are the latest red dots from Vortex and come with both low and high mounting options.
Out of the box it has the high mount installed for the AR enthusiasts but includes the low plate as well.
As you can see, with the default high riser on it, the optic is way too high. I prefer optics as low as possible where I can get a good cheek weld.
It’s real easy to change – there are just four screws that need to be removed on the bottom. I used a bit from my Weaver driver set vs. the supplied key which would work but is slow compared to a driver.
I have the Weaver Deluxe Tool Kit and use the drivers all the time. I use the block and hammer some but not a great deal.
Notice that Loc-Tite Blue (the medium strength formula) is used to secure the screws.
Here’s the end result. Note, I will install a quick release mount at a later date.
One side comment – you may find it funny that the thing that puzzled me most was the B&T brake. It installs on the tri-lobe fitting on the muzzle. There is a quick release lever that baffled me until I carefully inspected it and saw that one end is open and a cross pin is retaining it. I then pushed the other way and lever lifted right up. Duh! I’d never seen one before! It is solid and I like it.
The case you see is a 32″ Blackhawk Homeland Security Weapons Carry Case. It comes with one internal mag carrier and I added a second pouch. They are sized for 30 round AR mags and you can get two 30-round MP5 magazines in each pouch pocket.
Next up, I cleaned the bore and lubricated the weapon – especially the bolt head and trigger pack. Past experience taught me to go through and make sure it was ready.
Two of my brother-in-laws and I took it to the range. We used 124 grain S&B FMJ ammo and it functioned great and was accurate. We had a blast at 15-25 yards shooting it despite it being a brisk day. I really like how this combination worked out. We didn’t use the light but the green laser was nice and bright when we tried it out.
We put probably about 200 rounds through it. You can now feel the action has really smoothed out and I wouldn’t hesitate using this for home defense if I needed – which is why I put the light on it.
All in all, I’m very pleased and would recommend the POF-5 to anyone looking for a semi-auto MP5-type pistol.
Update 10/6/2018: We put almost 500 rounds through this pistol this summer without one single failure to feed or eject. We mainly shot the 124 grain FMJ S&B ammo except for one time, as a test, I shot about 20 rounds of Hornady 135gr Critical Duty ammo with no problem. All of the magazines used (and I have 10 of them) are POF magazines. Honestly, this thing is awesome. I’ve only cleaned and re-lubed it once so far but it is on the to-do list.
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.
The karabinek szturmowy wzór 1996 Beryl rifle is manufactured by the Łucznik Arms Factory in Radom, Poland and is the successor to the Tantal. The first versions of the rifle had a rather typical AKM style grip.
With the kbs wz. 1996C Beryl variant, an ergonomic grip appeared that looked very similar to what the Israelis developed for their Galil Ultra.
So, after doing some digging, I tracked down a brand new copy of that ergonomic grip and made our version. Note, I am simply calling it the second generation or gen 2. That’s my naming and not the Pole’s.
You can see this is like our other grips – it is cast as a solid block and then a hole is drilled for a grip screw. It is sized to fit a normal 100mm long screw like you find with most AKM grips. “US” is cast into the back. If you look at the throat, this ought to fit most rifles but some final fitting/fine tuning may be needed. I have not tried putting this on a Yugo with their unique grip nut strap.
The original has grooves on the back but we will need to sand there so these ridges/lines on the backstrap will not be there. We will sand and blast the grip so it evens out with the surrounding surfaces.
Here is the grip mounted on a Romy G AKM. No fitting was needed – it went right on.
I wear size XL gloves and the top where the web of my hand from the index to the thumb would sit is just a tad small for me. The grooves and thumb shelf are very comfortable and could be used with either hand. For me, I prefer the Russian AK-12 grip or the Bulgarian ARM-9 grip. I’d recommend this for folks who wear Medium to Large to sized gloves. If you wear XL or bigger, you may find this a tad small at the top but it is very doable. I hope to build a Beryl later this year and still plan to use this grip for myself. I also left it on the Romy for further testing. I think folks will like this grip regardless of whether they are building a Polish rifle or one from another country.
Please note the opening photos of the Beryl rifle are from Wikipedia. They have a nice basic introduction to the Beryl if you’d like to learn more.
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.
