AK47 & Soviet Weapons

Anyone who knows me knows that I have no love for the former Soviet Union or the Communist ideology. Part of it is from growing up in the ’80s, when the USSR was America’s arch-nemesis. But a large part of it is also because, thanks to Josef Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev, I have aunts, uncles, cousins and other relatives buried someplace, probably in a mass grave, in Serbia. However, with that being said, my dislike of everything Communist didn’t transfer over to the Avtomat Kalashnikova, or more commonly known as the “AK Just like any other _ rearm, the AK is a tool. It does not bestow the user with a new sense of morality, politics, religion and so on. It’s the user behind the gun who dictates whether it will…

As a pragmatist, I suffer none of the consternation collectors and purists do when altering _ rearms. I think of guns as tools, and some are more useful than others. My _ rst step is often altering my _ rearms to make them work better for my needs. I’ll customize pistols, ri_ es, shotguns and even precision ri_ es. The only real “cool” things I’ll add are usually cosmetic, like custom camou_ age patterns. Other enhancements, including replacement safeties, triggers, sights and handguards, all are geared towards hard use. Given the amount of market support, it’s easy to customize an AR-15. Precision ri_ es are getting better in this regard, too, and the AK more and more companies have expanded their produce lineups to colleague Steve Palano of Joe Firearms.…

In memory of Mikhail Kalashnikov, November 11, 1919—December 23, 2013 The story of the Kalashnikov assault ri_ e began in 1942, during the hardest part of World War II, when the Soviet Union desperately fought against the invading Nazis. Two events took place during that year. First, a young, wounded tanker, Sergeant Mikhail Kalashnikov, began to design his _ rst small arm, a submachine gun while on medical leave. Second, during the winter of 1942, the Red Army captured the _ rst specimen of the newest German weapon, the Mkb 42(H) machine carbine and its 7.92mm Kurz ammunition. These trophies were carefully examined and proved to Soviet experts that it was entirely possible to improve both the range and accuracy of shoulder-_ red automatic weapons while retaining the relative weight and size of…

Loose, cheap and as popular as it is reliable, the ubiquitous AK-47 has served many countries. With more than 100 million in circulation, the AK-47 is the most common assault ri_ e used around the world. Chambered in 7.62x39mm, the select-_ re, gas-operated AK-47 was _ rst developed in the USSR by Mikhail Kalashnikov. A throng of communist countries adopted the AK-47 and began building it in their own factories. These commonly known facts just scratch the surface of the AK’s history, but a look back in time reveals variations in manufacturing that have been reinvented by an American manufacturer. L Borrowing its name from Bulgaria’s state-owned Artillery Arsenal, Arsenal Inc. began manufacturing products in 2000 for the movie industry, government agencies and the shooting public. Since then, Arsenal has manufactured…

“In our time , no foreign army has ever occupied American soil.Until now.” I can still recite those words, and the _ rst time I read them was in early August of 1984—off at college and cycling between part-time jobs and full-time studies. Ronald Reagan was our president then, and like many single graduate students, I didn’t have a lot of spare change. But I went to see the movie Red Dawn on opening day, and it made a big impression on me. Enemy paratroopers falling from the sky, teenage boys and girls holding off Russian invaders, living off the land in the mountains of Colorado and, of course, the guns onscreen. One of those guns sat next to me as I wrote this. I grew up with WWII television shows like…

The DAKM-4150 is a highly sought-after AK-pattern ri_ e from De_ nitive Arms of St. Petersburg, Florida. I had been hearing lots of buzz about this company and the magic it works on various _ rearms. Based on how well various forums talked about this company and its ri_ es, it seemed like a bunch of voodoo and witchcraft. With a price tag of $1,089, and given that these ri_ es are hard to _ nd, I was willing to take the gamble. With a little luck, I learned when Atlantic Firearms was putting these mythical ri_ es up for sale. Atlantic had an exclusive deal with De_ nitive Arms to bring these ri_ es to market, and it had been almost a year since the guns were last seen for…