Category Archives: Poland

Poland

Assembling a Beryl-ish AK From a WBP Kit – Part 2 – The Trigger Guard

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The first thing I like to do when building is to install the trigger guard assembly. In this particular case I had paid extra for an extended paddle mag from a

Arms of America (AoA) and I would not do it again to be completely honest. I’m very familiar and comfortable with the standard AK controls and not only did I find the extended magazine release awkward but it would not fit into my ak-builder jig so I wound up having to trim it off anyways.

As you can see in this next photo, the paddle hits the front of the ak-builder jig and will not allow the trigger assembly to sit properly. Sure, I could have taken the trigger guard assembly apart and done the frame first but that defeated the purpose of it already being assembled so I simply sanded down the magazine release paddle using the rivet jig as a gauge. Once it fit in, I was good to go. I just did a little bit of cleanup sanding to make everything level and smooth. It was still a little bit bigger than normal but that was fine by me.

One thing you’ll notice in this next photo is that I have the selector stop plate and rivets already in place in The Jig. It is way easier to get them set and then put the receiver down on top of everything then to try and put the rivets in one at a time with the receiver ID place. Be very careful to orient the selector plate with the stop on the correct side. Years ago I did one backwards and it taught me a lesson.

In the above photo you’ll notice a small square plate just above the trigger guard jig and the block with the u-shaped cut out just to the right of the jig and just touching the receiver. Those are what you will use to squish down the rivets.

I use a big H frame hydraulic press to do a lot of my rivet work. I have also used rivet sets and bucking bars for this as well. But for this step I did use the press and my ak-builder jig .Of course, I did not take a photo of this step and I don’t know why 🙂

If you buy a hydraulic press to build AK rifles, I would recommend at least getting a 12 ton unit. I have a 20 ton unit and it works great.

In the below photo you can see two of the four forward rivet sticking up. The square plate goes on that and then you use the bar to apply the pressure from the ram of the press. Keep checking things carefully. It doesn’t take a great deal of pressure to squish the rivets down and you’re looking for them to be flat.

When you get done, the trigger guard will be secured against the receiver, the inside rivets will be flat and the outside rivets will have nice round domes. I am jumping ahead of bit but with the below photo but you can see some of the squished rivets slightly.

And here are the domes that were protected by the dimples cut in the jig.

So that is it for the trigger guard. Next up are the trunnions.

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Poland

Assembling a Beryl-ish AK From a WBP Kit – Part 1

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It’s been a couple of years since I last had time to build an AK and definitely felt the need to catch up. Contrary to what some may think, the majority of guys who like building guns aren’t trying to bypass laws – they genuinely enjoy it. Think of it as being similar to building a model but this one can go “bang” 🙂

I think I got bit by the AK builder bug in 2006 after reading an article in Shotgun News by Steven Matthews about building AKs. The rest, as they say, is history. At the time, you could buy a kit for $50 if you shopped around then after the barrel ban went into effect, the prices just went up and up. Now, with the advent of US and foreign barrels plus businesses that are selling kits with headspaced barrel assemblies, prices are relatively affordable. They are still far higher than years ago, but you can build your own entry level AK for about $500 and then the prices just go up and up.

At this point I have to answer the question “Why do it when you can buy a complete AK rifle for the same amount or less?” In short, you get to control as much of the quality as you want is the answer. Like anything, someone can always figure out how to make an AK cheaper but that doesn’t mean better. Frankly, some of the US-made AKs are total pieces of shit if you will pardon my French and complete honesty. The internet abounds with stories of busted US made parts and hack assembly jobs. Really, the only AKs I would recommend are going to come from custom or semi-custom shops like Two Rivers Arms, Jim Fuller’s Rifle Dynamics, Jim Roberts, Krebs and so forth.

Certainly there are good foreign made AKs but even they can have quality control moments. Zastava can make excellent AKs if they choose to is one example. Russian Molots are my all time favorite but they are banned from further import though there seems to be a ton of them still for sale and prices haven’t gone up much. Bulgarian AKs can be good and that is one reason K-Var can charge what they do. One country with a long AK history that not all American’s know about is Poland. It would be cool if they start selling more models into the US- market but at least Arms of America is bringing in a wide variety of kits right now.

So that brings me full circle. Why do I want to build vs. buy? Because I like building them and I can make an AK do just about anything I want it to at this point. I’ve done rivet, screw and weld builds. I’ve built Romanian, Hungarian, Polish and Yugoslavian AKs and RPKs. I’ve done traditional looking builds and over-the-top “tacticool mall ninja this thing is way too heavy” builds. Seriously, I kind of went nuts with a Hungarian AMD-65 about 10 years ago and put on a quad rail with a red dot, laser, light vertical fore grip and bipod. The thing was so heavy that it literally taught me that just because you can add something on does not mean you should – it takes time and energy to bring something that heavy up into position and also to stop it once on target.

I’m not saying I know everything. I’m just saying I know my way around the AK platform well enough to build what I want. The hardest thing for me is finding the time between my day job, family and Ronin’s Grips. So, an interesting opportunity presented itself because I had Polish Beryl furniture, Childers Guns sells Polish receivers and Arms of America (AoA) had a cool kit for sale. It was a WBP 7.62×39 kit with a Polish chrome-lined Cold Hammer Forged (CHF) barrel that is arguably, and it will start arguments, one of the best AKM-style barrels you can buy right now. The kit included a solid-steel Bery-style optics rail that goes over the dust cover and for about $670. This appealed to me because I already owned the Beryl handguards, was getting ready to release our version of the modern Beryl grip and, separately, AofA was selling a collapsing Beryl stock that is a unique looking beast for sure.

So, I got the wheels in motion and ordered the kit stock plus some translucent WBP mags from AoA, a RRD-4C brake from JMac customs, an ALG trigger and a Vortex Crossfire Red Dot. I ordered a completed 100% receiver from Childers Guns and had it sent to my FFL and good friend, Scott Igert, of Modern Antique Firearms.

Once it all arrived, it was time to start.

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Poland

Polish Build Runs Like a Top

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!

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Poland

Our New Polish Beryl Gen 2 Grip Model

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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.

Click here to go to our online store if you are interested in learning more and/or buying one.

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. 

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