During his visit to Russia in 2018, Larry Vickers was interviewed by Vladimir Onokoy, a technical consultant with the Kalashnikov Concern, about Larry’s views on the traditional AK platform.
The two discussed a number of topics and I’ll just hit some personal highlights that I found interesting:
Larry mentioned that people get hung up on the design of the safety and the short sight radius but the positives of the design far outweigh the negatives. This is especially true because the safety works just fine once you get used to it and the addition of a good red dot is a game changer. I agree with both points.
Vladimir asked Larry his caliber preference. Larry said if he had to only pick one, it would be 7.62×39. That’s definitely my go-to caliber for the rifle.
Larry made a really interesting point – the tapers of the 7.62×39 and 5.45×39 aid in reliable feeding in the AK platform. The 5.56×45 is at a disadvantage because it does not have the same degree of taper. That caught my attention – I never really stopped and thought about the impacts of case taper on reliability given how to AK operates. Interesting point.
So, is the AK obsolete? In my opinion, it is an extensible platform but watch this interesting video and here Larry’s thoughts first hand.
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Being interested in AK weapons also leads me to an interest in the militaries that used them. AKs are in military use in 106 countries and the USSR licensed production to 30 countries including East Germany, Hungary, Iran, Iraq, Poland, and Yugoslavia just to name a few. Interestingly enough, there have been some licensing issues but that is a topic for another day.
One of the high quality producers of small arms is Poland. In my opinion, their AKs and other small arms are very well made. When I started to research about their Beryl series, I was surprised to find out that Poland has been very pragmatic with their weapons and are leveraging designs from Eastern and Western countries.
A Polish soldier with a kbs wz. 1996C Beryl.Polish soldiers with kbs wz. 1996A Beryls. I’m pretty sure these are A-series rifles because with the B, they introduced a fixed front grip that is integral with the lower handguard.Another soldier with a kbs wz.1996C series Beryl. The Poles use the Russian Hind-D gunship and plans to modernize them. This is one of my favorite helicopters so I had to include the photo.
A young man assembled the below video about the Armed Fores of the Republic of Poland as part of his Facts Without Borders broadcast series and found it very interesting. He has assembled some excellent footage and commentary about the Polish military including aspects you may not have considered. You ought to consider subscribing to his channel on Youtube also.
Here’s the video
Please note that all photos were extracted from the photo and remain the property of their respective owner(s).
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DefenseWeb attended the Army 2018 expo in Moscow and released this video where they interviewed Vladimir Onokoy, a technical consultant with the Kalashnikov and experienced AK armorer, about Kalashnikov Concern’s new AK-200, AK-308, AM-17 and AMD-17 rifles.
AK-201 rifle in 5.56×45. The AK-20x family of weapons is available in 5.45×39, 5.56×45 and 7.62×39 plus in long and short versions.AK-308 for countries wishing to use 7.62×51/.308 ammoAM-17 compact assault rifle that replaces the out of production AKS-74U.AMB-17 compact assault rifle with integral suppressor.To the left is the AM-17 and the AMB-17 is to the right.
The AM-17 and AMB-17 are of special interest to me as some groups are looking for compact weapons and this rifle will have to compete against the well established Tula’s AS Val, VSS Vintorez and SR-3 rifles.
Here’s the video
Please note that all photos above are extracted from the video.
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PSA AK Webstore Links
Interested in an American made AK? Consider Palmetto State Armory (PSA) as a source. Click on the following links for the associated webstore categories for AK-related rifles, pistols and parts at PSA:
I wish I had better news but Youtube cancelled the channel for the Kalashnikov Concern so the video is no longer available. I am leaving the post up so at least you can see the screen shots.
I am really enjoying these videos that Kalashnikov Concern in Russia is producing. In this video, Vladimir Onokoy, a technical consultant with the Kalashnikov and experienced AK armorer, discusses the Hungarian AK evolution with Pavel Pticin, founder of the AK-info.ru web portal, who has extensive AK knowledge.
I’ve always liked Hungarian AKs and found them to be high quality. Over the years I’ve built several AMD-65s and an AMMS. The kits all had original barrels and I was impressed by the fit and finish of the parts plus the rifles just ran and ran with no problems. They are definitely unique AK variants and I was actually really interested to watch this video and learned quite a bit.
Vladimir actually showed photos of a modified AK-63D that he encountered in Somalia. He mentioned how very impressed he was that it was still running with very little maintenance for close to 20 years.
This is one of Vladimir’s photos of the Somalian AK. Pavel noted it was likely an AK-63D with a cut down barrel, modified gas block and an AMD-65 muzzle break. One can’t help but wonder who did the work and why.
The video is just over 12 minutes and they discuss the early AK-55 rifle that is very similar to the Type 2 AK-47 with a milled receiver. They then move to a discussion of the AKM-63 (I’ve always heard it referred to as the AMD-63 in the US) with its distinctive handguard and grips plus other design differences.
As you may know, I own Ronin’s Grips and we make replica AMD grips. In one of the funniest gun video lines ever, Vladimir noted that the designer who decided to put an identical pistol grip at the front but simply reverse it deserved a medal! The Hungarians wanted to add it to improve accuracy and control under full auto fire.
Both Vladimir and Pavel noted that the front grip made reloading problematic and Vladimir pointed out that he had encountered rifles with the front grip cut down to reduce interference with loading magazines.
I finally got the best explanation ever as to why they used that bluish colored plastic. When the Hungarians decided to experiment with and move to polymer stocks, they lacked the ability to manufacture the base plastic. Because they were a Socialist country aligned with the USSR, the only plastic they could find that they could buy and import was a bluish plastic intended for dish making! You know what, that makes sense to me and what I will explain going forward.
The blue color is because the only plastic they could buy abroad was intended for dish making!
Lastly, they brought up some great examples of unique features you will see in the AKM/AMD rifles:
Distinctive pistol grip design
Metal lower handguard with no gas tube cover
The selector notches are labeled with an infinity diagram for full auto and a “1” for semi-auto.
The rear sight leaf has an “A” on it
The Hungarians used unique selector markings – the infinity loop is for full auto and the “1” is for semi-auto.The rear sight leaf has an “A” on it.
This is where the video would have been. Too bad Youtube had to cancel the channel.
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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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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.
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**@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.
While I am not fond of eBay’s antigun sentiments there are deals to be found there – especially when individuals are listing stuff for sale. So, I want to give you some tips and also have the system run you some real-time results of searches so you can see what is out there.
Buyer Tips
Watch out for the scammers. Folks will list stuff and make claims. So, know what you are looking for and don’t buy blind.
If the price seems too good to be true, it probably is a scam.
Watch the shipping price. I’ve watched sellers enter a low price and then have a very high shipping charge to recover the difference.
Businesses sometimes have good deals but many will price stuff high and just let them sit there until a buyer comes along. All things being equal, try searching only on auctions (not Buy It Now (BIN)) and have the eBay system list them in the order of auctions ending soonest. You might be surprised what turns up. Under Advanced Search, you can change a number of search criteria to dig around in your favor.
Watch the seller rating – I put a lot of stock in the number of transactions and the seller’s score. If you have a seller with very few transactions and is relatively new, then there is more risk. I will not bet a fortune on an unknown seller but I might take a small risk and see what happens. Statistically, if they have more than 30 sales and a good score, you have a pretty good indication that the buyer is legit.
Don’t freak out of the seller doesn’t reply right away. Folks do go on vacation, get sick, etc.
Save your searches so you can re-use them and get emailed results.
Realize that if you are really specific you may not find stuff listed differently. For example, I will list the country and bayonet in case they say AK, rifle, AK47, AK74, etc. and throw a really tight search off.
Look at the photos carefully. I’ve bought stuff after looking at an item on a smart phone and missed problems I would have seen on a larger monitory.
Learn the prices. If you jump right in you may pay too much. In some cases you will see one buyer asking multiples of the going price – he/she may be counting on people jumping in and buying with little to no knowledge of prices.
Be objective – if an auction starts exceeding what you want to pay then bow out. Don’t get emotionally attached and feel that you need to win the auction.
If you buy something international, you will want to understand shipping charges and any regulations you may encounter either in the seller’s country or in your own.
Searching on a eBay
This is your basic search page in eBay.
You’ll notice it is set to “Auction” only and the sort is set to “Time ending soonest”. Lastly, the heart under “Accept Offers” means I checked the box to save the search.
If you look to the right of the search button, you will see “Advanced” and this is where you can do all kinds of cool stuff to your current search or a saved search including:
Words to exclude – this is powerful if you are getting unwanted stuff in and it happens all the time. This can make your search far more likely to turn up what you care about. For example, you could tell it to exclude airsoft and model.
You can search just in specific categories. Be careful with this one – bayonets for example can be in a number of different categories.
You can search in title and description, completed listings, and sold listings.
By specifying a price range you can skip stuff like frogs/scabbards. For example, you might tell it to only show you items between $14.99 and $200
It again let’s you select from Auctions, Buy It now and Classified Ads.
You can specify the condition new, used or not specified.
You can list specific sellers you care about.
Items with Free shipping or located somewhere.
And much more
Russian and Soviet Bayonets
Here I am searching both ways – I tend to find people do not always realize the difference between the USSR and Russia when they list an item. It’s set to auction only and sorted by items ending first.
Bulgarian Bayonets
Same thing but in addition to saying “Bulgarian Bayonet” I will use the slang of “Bulgy Bayonet” too. It’s also auction only and sorted by items ending first.
East German Bayonets
I didn’t see any auctions when I wrote this post so this search is for all items, not just auctions, sorted by “Price + Shipping: Lowest First”. This is an example where you tend to see a lot of frogs and scabbards show up first due to their relatively low pricing.
Polish Bayonets
Here’s an example where you can get weird stuff like shoe polish so I will exclude the word shoe. It’s also auction only and sorted by items ending first.
Romanian Bayonets
We need to search both for Romanian bayonets and Romy bayonets. Now when I created this search, no auctions turned up so I am showing any items that match the keywords and am sorting “Price + Shipping: Lowest First”. Some of the prices I am seeing are nuts. I would not pay over $20 for a Romy AKM bayonet – sorry.
Yugoslavian and Zastava Bayonets
On this one we need to get more creative and will search using variations of Yugo, Yugoslav, Yugoslavian, and Zastava, I did need to exclude “WWI” and “WWII” because of all the WWI and WWII bayonets that come up. Not a great deal came up when I was writing this so the search is for all items and is sorted “Price + Shipping: Lowest First”
Conclusion
I hope this helps you out. There are a lot of search capabilities in eBay and you need to learn how to use them in your favor.
AK-47 Image Source: By Allatur, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16254298
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Okay, once in a while I watch a video and my jaw drops. Larry Vickers visited Russia and got to shoot a new AK-107. Unfortunately, it’s unlikely we will ever get to see this amazing piece of engineering on this side of the pond thanks to politicians.
The AK-107 is a chambered in 5.45×39 and uses a novel balanced gas system and the AK designator does not mean Avtomat Kalashnikova as we are so used it. Instead, it means Alexandrov/Kalashnikov.
Larry dumped a 97 round magazine and I was stunned to see how little the rifle moved. That is some seriously controllable accurate firepower. The AK-107s rate of fire is rated at 850 rounds per minute and he dumped the drum!! Seriously – wow!!
Watch this video:
Just a parting comment – They also make an AK-108 in 5.56×45 NATO and a lesser known AK-109 in 7.62×39. I’m a huge fan of 7.62×39 and can only imagine what that round must be like coming from that mechanism – wow.
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**@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.
