Anders’ Rifle With Our Dark US Plum First Generation Molot Grip.
He tells me that he really likes the UBR stock. I’m going to have to try one some time.
Tag Archives: AK
How To Remove an AK Gas Tube Cover
Hi folks,
It’s cool having a blog because I can elaborate on questions that people have asked me. A recurring one is how to remove the upper handguard cover, also known as the “gas tube” cover on AK rifles. Every military AK I have seen uses two half circle metal retainers to hold the half moon shaped gas tube cover. Sometimes they cover comes off super easy and other times you need mechanical assistance. Here is the basic process – hold the gas tube with one hand, grab the cover with the other, turn the cover 180 degrees so it is facing the opposite way and then pull it out of the retainers.
Now, sometimes the wood or plastic has really stuck/doesn’t want to budge. Do the following:
- Place the forged end of the gas tube in a vise with either soft jaws to pieces of leather to protect the forging. Absolutely do not put the circular end into the vise or you will crush it.
- Close the jaws just enough to hold the assembly in place.
- Either firmly by hand or with a strap wrench, rotate the cover 180 degrees so it is face the opposite direction. Note – you can turn it either way as these are just semi-circles and you may find it turns easier to the left or to the right.
- If you are applying force and are getting nervous that it still will not turn, you have some issue with one surface sticking to the other. You have two approaches you can try: 1) use a heat gun and warm up the metal retainers from their ends. Sometimes the varnish, BLO, urethane or partially melted plastic is sticking and heat can soften it after which it turns much easier. 2) Just brute force it and if it snaps then replace it. I have never had to resort to this.
- The new cover goes on the reverse. If you are using a wood cover, or our polymer cover, don’t forget to install the retaining clip first to limit cover movement. Some plastic gas tube covers do not use this but our gas tube covers do just to be clear.
Here are some videos that others have recorded to help further just in case:
The method I just outlined is very similar to what this fellow does:
Here are two more for additional perspectives:
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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Best AK Reference Book – AK-47: The Grim Reaper 2nd Edition
Folks ask me what is the best reference book to learn more about AK rifles and the variations that are made all over the world. The Grim Reaper Second Edition book by Frank Iannamico is, hands down, my number one recommendation and I say that based on owning somewhere over a dozen books on the AK rifle.
The first version of the book was very good and with the second he improved the guidance and increased the number of photos. In it, he provides:
- Development of assault rifles
- Production facilities in the USSR/Russia
- The Russian AK-47 – Production, Type 1, Type 2, AKM and AKS
- The Russian AK-74 – including the base AK-74, AKS-74, AK-74N, AK-74M, AKS-74U
- The AK-100 series and AN-4
- Related Russian AK designs including the RPK
- AKs produced in Warsaw Pact and other countires – the coverage by country is something I find very valuable
- AKs in America
- Accessories including magazines, bayonets, optics and more
This is definitely a book you will want to add to your library. I literally keep it on the right side of my desk for quick access when I need to look something up.
The bad news is that the price of these books always go up. The first edition did and the second has as well. As of 2/19/2024, the second edition is going for around $364 in new condition and the first edition is going for around $330. Why? Simple – supply and demand. With both books they produced a limited number and then everyone wants a copy because they are that good.
There are some good alternatives but they do not have the sheer breadth and depth of coverage that the Iannamico books do:
- Joe Poyer authored a very good book “Th AK-47 and AK-74 Kalashnikov Rifle and Their Variations“
- Mikhail Kalashnikov (author) and Elena Joly Andrew Brown (who translated) provide some interesting historical insights that shaped the creation and evolution of the rifles. Yes, the author was the creator whose name is associated with the rifle. “The Gun that Changed the World”
- Gordon Rottman wrote “The AK-47: Kalashnikov-series assault rifles“
There are plenty of other books including user manuals, technical manuals, buyer guides and how-to building books that I’m not listing. The above is really to give you historical information to better appreciate the design.
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, I may be paid via an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay.
How does Ronin’s Grips’ polymer handle high heat?
I regularly get asked about how well our handguards will withstand heat and why we don’t have a heat sink. I have class III SOTs building with my handguards and haven’t had complaints. Some of them have told me that heatsinks are over rated and once they are hot then all bets are off.
The Yugo M85/M92 handguards we sell are made from molds cast from the originals, which are very thick and our traditional M70 handguards are the same way. You have to shoot a firearm quite a bit to heat the barrel up and then heat the special high-temp urethane and glass fiber composite all the way through before it will soften. From a technical specification perspective, the manufacturer says the base urethane, without the glass fiber reinforcement we add, has a technical temperature deflection spec of 257F, meaning it will not deform until past 257F.
To test this, I took one of our black gas tube covers, a digital IR thermometer and the oven we use for curing plastic.
At 70F, our cover was rigid and the East German cover could flex a bit. I started the oven off at 200 degrees and kept checking every 15 minutes and the East German cover started to soften first. At 250F, the East German cover was very flexible and at 300F I could almost get it to touch its sides together. Our’s was starting to bend some.
By the time we reached 437F, the East German cover was melting like a stick of butter while our’s was very soft but did not melt.
At 437F, notice how the plastic knife melted when I touched our gas tube cover – it couldn’t penetrate it:
The cover was soft but it then hardened again as it cooled off. I then sprayed the oxidized looking urethane with WD40 and it brought it back to more of its original color.
Maybe the best answer I can give to folks asking how our handguards have held up – we’ve sold hundreds of the M85/M92 handguards and we haven’t had any complaints that they melted or did not hold up. If you search on the Internet, I don’t think you will find any reports either. But with that said, I do have to remind folks that all materials have a limit. If you start dumping drum after drum while bumpfiring or going full auto and the barrel is literally red hot, no handguard is going to survive that without being damaged or even destroyed. That is the only reason we do not warrant our handguards against high-heat – we know there are limits and we know there are guys who will push past those limits. For most people, our handguards will work just fine. I use them myself and have never had a problem with my family and friends at the range doing target shooting.
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, I may be paid via an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay.