I like military tribute videos. This video has a catchy song and the real neat thing is that it is in high-definition (HD) video. It has footage of men and women from a lot of different militaries and branches including: Austria, Germany, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Russia and Sweden – probably more that I didn’t catch.
You’ll also get a chance to see quite a collection of ships, helicopters, uniforms, small arms, bases and what not – all in high def. Very cool. Here are some examples of the many cool videos they assembled:
Seriously, this is a cool video and a chance for a lot of folks to see other men and women serving their countries. At 1:41, I got a kick out of the Russian operator wearing an “Infidel Strong” morale patch.
In 2015, Larry Vickers had a great chance to visit the Central Armed Forces Museum in northern Moscow. While there, he had a chance to visit the museum’s archives and see an original Federov rifle, an early SKS and a preproduction AK-47 that was produced in 1946. He assembled this part of his visit along with a comparison of a German StG 44 and a Type I AK into a video.
The Federov
The Federov Avtomat was arguably the first assault rifle. It was designed in 1913 and produced at the Kovrov Arms Factory from 1913-1925. Roughly 3,200 of these forward thinking rifles were built. Personally, I think the rifle was very novel for its time including the use of the 6.5x50mm SR (Semi-Rimmed) Arisaka cartridge (What we call 6.5 Japanese today).
An overview of the Federov from the video.Larry steps shows the Federov to viewers and has a lot of great close ups of this rare rifle.
The SKS
The Samozaryadny Karabin sistemy Simonov (SKS) was designed in 1944 and went into production in 1945. Thus, it became known as the “SKS-45” in the USSR and was widely exported. In total, the Soviets produced about 2.7 million SKS carbines first at the Tula Arsenal (1949-1958) and also Izhevsk Arsenal (153 and 1954). The rifle was chambered for the 7.62×39 round that would later on be used the the AK-47.
Larry provides an overview of the SKS carbineHere, he is holding an early SKS model and gives a quick overview of it.
A Preproduction AK-47
Larry had a chance to review an actual pre-production AK from about 1946 that was used in the Army’s trials of the weapon prior to official adoption in 1947. This is what I especially wanted to see. You see, many people assume the AK-47 was one single assault rifle when, really, it evolved over time. They had the Type I, II, the III/AKM and so forth.
At any rate, Mikhail Kalashnikov and his design team worked on the AK-47 design from 1946-1948. From 1949 to present, it estimated at least 75 million AK-47s were built. Like the SKS, it uses the 7.62×39 cartridge.
Larry shows the Army Trial rifle and the viewer gets to see a number of angles of the rifle.
German StG-44 vs. Type I AK-47
Larry then goes on to argue that the StG-44 greatly influenced Kalashnikov and his design team. Folks, this is a hotly debated topic. As a point of Russian pride, they minimize any thoughts of influence. At this point, it’s really hard to say. If it were me, I’d look at a previous design and get ideas from it to save time, money and reduce the risk of mistakes.
Larry has a German StG-44 on the left and a Type I AK on the right.
The Video
So with no further to do, here’s Larry’s video:
Please note that all images above are extracted from the video and are the copyright of Vickers Tactical.
Kalashnikov Concern released an interesting short video of this prototype 7.62x39mm AK-47 that they say dates to around 1948. There are some interesting design features to point out:
A sheet metal receiver with no reinforcing center rivet/spacer visible.
The muzzle brake is integral with the barrel
The fire control group is permanently mounted
The cocking handle is a hollow tube
Source: Photo from the video Source: Photo from the video
This is a promotional video hosted by the Kalashnikov Concern of the 7.62×51/.308 AK-308 rifle. It looks pretty slick and borrows quite a bit from the AK-12 but some noticeable differences are the 20 round magazine and different muzzle device.
Here’s the Video
Please note that all images were extracted from the video and remain the property of their respective owner(s).
This 3:40 promotional video from Kalashnikov Concern was released in 2017 but I am unclear as to exactly when it was made. You’ll note that they spend a lot of time showing their assault boats and they were unveiled in 2015.
You’ll see small arms, AGVs, optics and assault boats. Pretty cool! You can definitely see they are expanding their product line.
Hatsan Arms Company is an innovative builder of air guns and shotguns that was founded in 1976 and produce over 300,000 units per year. Hatsan is located in Kemalpaşa, which is a large town located in the Izmir Province of Turkey. There they product Hatsan airguns, Escort shotguns and Optima shotguns.
One interesting facet of Hatsan is that they handle all facets of production – machining of wood, machining of metal parts, heat treatment, finishing of work such as honing, different types of chemical plating & bluing, injection molding, metal injection, mold making, welding, barrel manufacturing, laser marking, laser engraving on wood & metal parts, camouflage coating, assembly, quality assurance testing, and test shooting.
Hatsan has over 650 workers, 599 machines in 35,000 square meter production area. To produce products to high standards, Hatsan uses total quality management (TQM) and are ISO 9001 certified.
You’ll note factory looks well used, is relatively organized and bright.
Work centers are organized and appear well equipped.
Substantial automation including a variety of CNC systems.
This is an interesting 5:28 video that showcased their facility in 2015:
Two guys I really respect, Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons and Larry Vickers discuss the history of the AK-47 and also show Larry’s new book on AK rifles. They cover a ton of information through questions submitted by Ian’s followers. For people into the history of the Kalashnikov rifle, this is well worth your time.
Here is the link to Larry’s book that he is selling direction and not through Amazon.
This past Spring I built a Polish Beryl inspired rifle from a WBP kit imported by Arms of America and was very impressed by the quality. I was surfing around on Youtube and ran into this really cool video posted by WBP Rogow showing how they build an AK. I found all the specialized tooling fascinating and was also a bit surprised by the amount of hand fitting – they are putting some craftsmanship into those rifles.
So, I would highly recommend you watch this video if you are considering buying one of the imported Polish WBP rifles or pistols, one of their kits or you are just interested in how AKs are built in general.
