Well, the when I heard the Treasury Department blocked further importation of Veprs, I jumped and bought the FM-AK47-21 that FIME imported. I’ve owned a number of Molot Veprs over the years so I knew I would be getting a quality rifle. I’d not bought one earlier because I didn’t see the need to rush – then the Treasury blocked them and that caused me to pull the trigger. So, I rushed and ordered one from Classic Firearms and had it delivered to my FFL, Scott Igert of Modern Antique Firearms. Here’s what showed up:
It’s one solid rifle. As usual, Molot did a great job – fitment is excellent, heavy 1.5mm RPK receiver, heavy barrel, RPK recoil spring guide rod, pretty good trigger and cool folding stock. Things I don’t like – the folder hinge is going to make installing an optic rail interesting, the grip is way too small for my hands (Gee, I know a guy who makes grips that will fit). I’m also not a huge fan of the ribbed RPK handguard. I get that it would help with insulation on a full-auto RPK but I find the ribs annoying. I may make a polymer version of the Russian wood originals – it’s something I’ll need to think about.
It shipped with a tiny 5 round magazine but at least it is a double stack. I’ll replace it with normal AK mags. I bought a bunch of rock solid Romanian steel mags years ago and that’s my go-to magazine for reliability and looks. I used a Romy for the photos in this post.
So, I decided to go ahead and make some changes right up front. I wanted a good muzzle brake so I reached out to Justin McMillion at JMac Customs. We talked about my desire for a good brake and he recommended his RRD-4C which comes with the required 14mm x 1mm left hand thread. He shipped fast and the quality of the machining and finish are excellent. I like the way the porting is done. With the top opened up, the gasses will vent up pushing the barrel down.
To install it, I pushed the spring loaded detent to release the muzzle nut and then turned it clock wise for removal – AKs are reverse threaded so you do the opposite to remove or install them. I then threaded the RRD-4C on and was done in just a few minutes.
Next, I cast, drilled and finished a black Molot Generation II grip for the rifle. I thought about using a Bulgarian ARM-9 but decided a Russian designed grip made more sense on a Russian gun – or at least it made sense to me. I may yet go to the ARM-9 but the Molot Gen II feels pretty good. To install it, I then removed the dust cover (you will need to hold the grip nut in place later), took out the recoil spring assembly, unscrewed the original grip and removed it. I then held the grip nut in place with one hand and installed the Molot Gen II using one of my heavy duty grip screws (they have a bigger head and are an alloy hardened to 12.9) to secure the grip.
So here is the rifle at this point. I’ll decide about the optics later. I may well go with a RS!Regulate mount and Vortex Strike Eagle but that is a project for a later date.
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