Tag Archives: AK

AK & Related Rifles, Reference Books

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:

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, we are only paid if there is an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay and only if you purchase something. If you’d like to directly donate to help fund our continued report, please visit our donations page.

AK & Related Rifles

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.

DSC_0880

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.

DSC_0885

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.

DSC_0895

At 437F, notice how the plastic knife melted when I touched our gas tube cover – it couldn’t penetrate it:

DSC_0901

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.

DSC_0914

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, we are only paid if there is an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay and only if you purchase something. If you’d like to directly donate to help fund our continued report, please visit our donations page.