mattv2099 Public Service Announcement: Check Your AK Safety

Make sure that your AK won't fire if you flip the safety up too high.  If the safety isn't notched properly, it will trip the disconnector and release the hammer.

AIM Surplus - Russian AK-47 Magazines - $19.95, 10 for $17.95 each

AIM Surplus Russian AK-47 magazines
7.62x39mm, unissued condition
$19.95 each
$17.95 each if you buy 10 or more

I haven't seen steel Com-bloc magazines this inexpensive since December.  For unissued magazines, and Russian ones at that, this is a pretty good deal.

DefCAD 3D Printable AK-47 Magazine

Magazine freedom, now in Kalashnikov flavor.

It was teased in the Vice Podcast Interview with Cody Wilson of DefCAD/Defense Distributed.  The file is now available for download, from the DefCAD site.

Video Screencap

I'm not really sure how durable a 3D printed ABS AK magazine is.  I wouldn't expect the locking lugs to last very long, but it's a magazine that you can make in a one-bedroom apartment with computer and a $750 3D printer. If you haven't visited the DefCAD site yet, you can browse the files here.  You won't be able to open the files without some kind of CAD software.

Some Rifle Magazines Available

Tapco 30 round black AK-47 - Galati International - $13.95 - SOLD OUT
Tapco 20 round black AK-47 - Brownells - $14.99 - SOLD OUT
C Products 20 round AR-15 - Galati International - $19.95


Not great prices, but I've seen worse.  Galati has set a limit of 5 magazines.

Try to Keep Calm People

I've been pretty mad, for the last month or so.  Can't turn on the news for long without hearing talk of gun control (civilian disarmament).  Except for maybe Fox News Channel* or talk radio, it's always some dope who has no idea what they are talking about.  "Assault weapon" this, "assault rifle" that, still confusing semi-automatic and full-automatic, magazines called clips, and rounds of ammunition are called bullets.  Really quite aggravating, when the fools are running the show and setting the agenda.  Obama's executive orders, and trotting out elementary school students who don't know any better, really only twists the knife.

And then, finally, the slushbox transmission in my brain changed gears.  The thought occurred to me that an AR-15 lower is not inherently semi-automatic.  Hell, there's even a crossbow upper.  The Brits have been shooting manually-operated ARs.  CMMG is working on a black powder muzzle-loader upper.  Should the day come, when a confiscation law passes, we may not necessarily have to completely give up our $2000 ARs.  A barrel without a gas port should do.

Magazines are not serialized.  Uppers are not serialized.  There's no paper trails.  It's completely legal to sell these things to anyone without a bill-of-sale or involving a dealer.  I never had very many anyway, and sold most of what I had for a tidy profit anyway. . .  What?  It's true!  Prove that I'm lying!

AKs are a trickier nut to crack.  Maybe someone's already got a solution to that one, that doesn't require a hydraulic press, and a few hours of gunsmithing.  I know that "bullet buttons" are nixed by the 2013 feinstein ban, and we probably won't get away with "freatureless builds" either.

There's a mid-term election in 2014.  The NRA and SAF, if they're smart, are already working on a lawsuit.  The world will likely not come to an end, and the country will most likely not crumble into chaos.  All is not lost, at least not yet.  We'll have to see what comes of this "ruling by decree" B.S..

So hang in there folks.  Keep calm.  Continue to call and write to your congressmen, and go to one of the upcoming capital building marches, if at all possible.  But maybe start to think more about short-term work-arounds, than going out in a blaze of glory fighting off the SWAT team or National Guard and starting a new civil war.  Maybe you're smarter than me, and you've already figured that out.


* - That asshat o'reilley can suck one, though.  He's almost as bad as piers morgan.

How To Make Home-Made Bump-Fire Stock

Sorry, videos were deleted from YouTube.  Can't really say I blame the dude for doing it.

mattv2099 has finally revealed how he makes those Bumpinator stocks, which are a sort of ghetto, redneck-engineering versions of the Slide-Fire and Bumpski stocks.

REMOVED VIDEO: VIDEO DELETED

Most of the work can be done with a Dremel tool.  I'm not sure about the square tube, but the other hardware you can find at your local ACE or Home Depot.  This one seems to be for the AK/Converted Saiga series of rifles and shotguns, but with a little ingenuity, could be applied to SKS and 10/22 rifles, as you can see in mattv2099's other Bumpinator videos.  EDIT:  Nevermind.  I forgot that the pistol grip is attached to the butt, and not the part of the stock that the action drops into.

Here is Br0dBaNd's home-made AR-15 bump-fire stock.  Because of the way the grip attaches to an AR, you have to do it differently.

(For educational purposes only, obviously, Suburban's Domain not responsible for any damages to persons, or property, bail, lawyer fees, or anything else, and I will not make one for you either)

EDIT, 2/27/2013:  Matt added a new video on how he did the 10/22 Bumpinator.

REMOVED VIDEO: VIDEO DELETED

EDIT, 6/9/2013: He put this one back up.  This is all for now

Easy and Cheap DIY AK Safety Mod

I had never thought to use a Chicago screw.  You could substitute a piece of metal tubing if you didn't want to use rubber tube.  I know you can get Chicago screws from MidwayUSA, but I'm not sure if they'd be long enough to accomplish much.  McMaster-Carr has a larger selection.

If you prefer a tab, like the Krebs enhanced safety, you can buy just the tab from Solar Tactical.  If you are going to try and attach it with a couple small Chicago screws, you could use washers for spacers, but it's probably best to use rivets.

Okay, No More AK Recoil Buffers For Me

A few years ago I bought a couple of BlackJack buffers.

I put one in my WASR-10, and the red dot sight shook loose.  Yes, I did use thread-locker.  No problem with function though.

When the spacer broke off the recoil spring guide for the TWS scope mount, I put the buffer from the WASR-10 into the Tantal.  All the stock screws and the buffer tube castle nut shook loose.  Again, I had used thread locker on the screws and the nut.  The buffer didn't affect function though.

Thinking that, with the variety of 12 gauge ammo, a buffer would probably be a good thing in the Saiga-12 to protect the stock trunnion from impact, and keep the rivet holes in the receiver from egging out.  I had intermittent stovepipe jams.  I tried turning the gas plug to open up the gas flow, and I still had the stovepipes, and the shotgun beat up my shoulder pretty good.

Without the stupid buffers, the Saiga-12 has been running 100% with the high-brass gas setting (not beating me up as much) and the carbines are holding together, and not shaking loose anymore.  The buffers are going into my bag o' AK junk with the crappy Tapco folding stock, the stock Saiga-12 trigger, the heavy gritty Century Arms trigger and unfinished wood stock set, and the foreign-made parts that I'm not allowed to use.  I don't need the buffer for the TWS scope mount anymore since they sent me the proper recoil spring guide, the Saiga 12 doesn't work properly with one, and there didn't seem to be any benefit to having the buffer in the WASR-10.

Attero Arms AK Mount - $75, Co-Witness with Micro Red Dot

Picture "borrowed" from Attero Website - Hey, it's free advertising.

Hey, this is kind of neat.  For about $75, you get new iron sights with white dots, and a mount to fit a micro red dot.

Direct link to Attero Arms & Accessories products page.

There's two models.  The one pictured above is the "Alpha" model, and it fits the Burris Fastfire sights, Trijicon RMR, and other sights with the Doctor pattern mounting holes.  The Bravo model fits Aimpoint Micros and the Primary Arms Micro Dot.

Looking forward to hearing some range reports.

VLTOR AK Stock Tubes Available

I see that Midway and Carolina Shooter Supply have the VLTOR AR collapsible stock adapters for stamped AK rifles in stock.  These have been sold out everywhere pretty much since 2008.  Just thought that's I'd let everyone know.

I've gone for ACE stock adapters, because I want to add folder hinges at some point when I find the money.

TWS Gen.II AK Scope Mount

I finally got the Gen. II TWS scope mount and peep sight that I ordered from Dallas Shooting Supplies a few days after Christmas.  Harummph!!  It came in about the 20th of May.  I'm not exactly sure, because I wasn't home and they didn't supply a tracking number.  I believe that I got the latest version with the "spacer" for the .308 Saiga rifles.  My intention was to mount it on my Interarms Tantal (Polish AK-74, more or less, with some unique differences).

How Does It Work?
The TWS Gen. II scope mount is a railed dust cover.  Wait a minute, don't start groaning just yet, this one's pretty clever, and seems to work really well! 

The cover is held in place in front by a hinge pin that passes through the front of the mount, and the holes where the pin for the rear sight used to reside.  That pin fits tight too.  The tab that the hinge pin goes through is attached to the dust cover with two socket head screws.  The overall length of the TWS mount, from rear sight bracket to stock trunnion, can be adjusted with these two screws in order to help make the mount fit individual rifles.

A tab, bent in on the right side of the cover works as a spring to maintain the lateral alignment of the rail.

Top: Right, rear corner of TWS dust cover mount.  Bottom: Inside, rear of railed TWS dust cover.

An angled surface on the bottom edge of the take-down button supplied with the rail interacts with the cover, like a wedge, to hold the cover tight against the stock trunnion.  Recoil only helps to snug the mount down tighter.

Crude attempt to show the angle of the button on the TWS guide rod.

The TWS dust cover mount is held tight to the receiver every which way.  The barrel is press-fit and pinned into the barrel trunnion, which is firmly riveted to the receiver.  The rear sight and optic mounted on TWS mount should stay aligned with the barrel.

Compatibility

The TWS mount will fit most stamped and milled 5.45mm, 7.62x39mm, 7.62x51mm (Saiga), and .223Rem AK variants.  It will not fit Yugo's, because their dust covers are half an inch shorter than most AKs.  It will not fit Saiga shotguns, because the shotguns have different barrel trunnions and rear sights.

It doesn't attach to the tang of stock trunnion, so it will work with AK pistols, underfolders, and rifles with side-folding stocks.

I believe there are plans for a Yugo version.

Return-To-Zero
The TWS mount is supposed to hold a zero, and return to zero even after you flip it up and lock it back down, through the simple machine elements described above.  For the most part, it does.  After sighting in, I flipped the mount/dust cover up, and unseated the take-down button/recoil spring guide, and then I buttoned everything back up again and vigorously racked the bolt carrier a few times.  I did this return-to-zero test a couple of times.  The first 2 or three shots would go a little bit to the right before the recoiling bolt carrier fully seated the take-down button/recoil spring guide against the rear of the dust cover/mount.  After those first few rounds, the bullets would start going through into 10-ring again.  At 12 paces the difference was maybe half an inch for the 1st round.  I can live with that.

This testing was done without fitting the recoil spring guide to the stock trunnion.  Return-to-zero may be better now that it’s fitted -- more on this when I get to installation.

First Impressions
Initial inspection was very positive.  I was happy to see that the font size of the engraving was not as large as on some of the prototype and beta-test mounts.  I also was a little surprised at how nice the mount looked.  I wasn't sure exactly what I'd get from a small company.  The mount looks very nice, and there's no machining marks on the outside of the unit.  Every other slot in the rail has a number machined (maybe laser engraved?) on it.  I'm very pleased. 

Please note that my Interarms Tantal has a grey finish.  Keep that in mind as you look at the picture of the mount on my rifle.  The grey rifle finish is the oddball, not the finish on the TWS mount.  I actually really like the grey/black two-tone look. . . I just need Duracoat the silver Aimpoint.

Installation
The mount didn't come with any instructions.  Having read through the ak47.net forum thread, and seen a YouTube video on how to remove an AK rear sight, I knew what I had to do.  That TWS Gen. II Scope Mount thread currently stands at 69 pages, and it's still going.  The mount should come with an instruction sheet, it's not a simple drop-in/bolt-on installation.  I was able to get the mount installed in 25-30 minutes, with a lot of that time spent fighting to get the hinge pin installed against the sight spring pressure.  Like I said, the pin fits tightly, and forcing everything into place took some real effort.  Removing the rear sight from my rifle was not as easy as shown in the video either, so that took maybe 3-5 minutes, instead of about 2 seconds as shown.  Getting the recoil spring removed from the Tantal take-down button/recoil spring guide, and reinstalled on the button/guide supplied with the mount was easier than I had expected, but remember, there were no instructions included, and I was working on prior knowledge from reading 50+ pages of forum posts.  Without knowing what to do, it would have taken a whole lot longer.

I did get the mount installed on the Tantal without cutting or filing anything.  It should be noted however, that fitting the TWS recoil spring guide may be necessary or even required in some cases.  The Gen.II mount worked pretty well on my rifle with no modification, but I don’t think stoning/filing the bottom of the TWS recoil spring guide hurts anything, and I’ll feel better knowing that there’s nothing to keep the mount from locking down snug.

Stock TWS spring guide.  Note that both screws are showing.

Romanian Spring Guide.  See how far back it goes?

TWS spring guide with the bottom filed/stoned down some. Note only one screw fully exposed now.

Co-Witness
The rail sits very low, allowing some micro red dot sights to co-witness with the iron sights if you get the TWS peep sight.  With a real Aimpoint Micro, the iron sights show in the lower 1/4 of the tube.  Heights of the tubes of the Aimpoint micro clones often sit higher up and may not allow co-witnessing with the iron sights.  By all accounts the Bushnell TRS-25 micro red dot sight will co-witness, and runs $75-90 some places.  The Primary Arms Gen.7 Red Dot, with the non-removable mount, may also co-witness, but the TRS-25 seems to be more common on the TWS Gen.II Mount.  The Primary Arms Micros that I have, have the detachable mounts, and the bottom of the tube and dot emitter block the iron sights.

Putting the rail on top of the dust cover gets the rail very nearly as low as on an Ultimak Scout Mount.  It is lower than the other Beryl-type rails made by Kreb's ($300!?!?), DPH Arms, UTG, or Red Star Arms.

Balance
The TWS rail doesn't add any more weight up front, like a 3 or 4 rail handguard.  Think about it.  Almost all the weight of an AK is forward of the pistol grip.  There's a lot of steel hanging out there already.

Atxjax on the Glocktalk forum weighed everything, and found that the TWS mount only adds 1.04 ounces over the weight of standard steel rear sight and dust cover, 3.46 ounces with an Aimpoint R1.

Cleaning/Clearing Stoppages
The mount/dust cover flips up, hinged off of what used to be the rear sight block, the rear sight now being mounted on the rail on top of the TWS dust cover.  No tools are required to release the cover, and lift it up, although the bullet tip of a cartridge, a pen, or a similar object can be used to push in the button of the recoil spring guide.  If junk gets in behind the bolt carrier, you just push in the take-down button on the guide rod, and flip up the rail.  The mount doesn't hinder cleaning or maintenance as much as a side-mount, except the taller ones.  You can still remove the gas tube for cleaning, and remove the handguard, unlike the Ultimak scout mount, which clamps onto the barrel and blocks the lever that releases the lower handguard.

Live Fire
I got the Tantal out to sight in.  The first trip to the range was mostly uneventful.  I had to move the front sight a bit to the right to align with the TWS peep sight, but that's fine with me, because the front sight had been most of the way to the left, over toward the protecting wing of the front sight base.  Elevation was almost spot on.  The tip of the front sight is nearly at the top of the protective wings of the front sight base for a 100 yard zero, but I was able to get the sights lined up for both 25 and 100 yard zeros (only one at a time, obviously, with just one aperture).

For the 2nd outing, I took my Polish AK-74 up north to indoor range for some rapid fire.  Everything was fine, up until the last round of the last magazine I had with me.  The bolt carrier stayed to the rear, which is weird, because AKs don’t normally have anything to hold them open after the last round.  I didn't really think too much of it at the time.  I tapped the charging handle, the bolt carrier slammed home, I dropped the hammer, and cased the rifle and cleaned up.

When I popped the cover open to clean the rifle at home, I found the “spacer” laying loose in behind the trigger.  Half of the pin that was holding the spacer onto the recoil spring guide was rattling around in the receiver.  I’m not sure where the other half of the pin went.  Fell out, I guess.  The top of the spacer had made some contact with the inside of the dust cover, removing some finish, but I don’t think any structural damage was done.  If you scroll up, and look at the picture of the inside of the dust cover, you'll see two silver marks just forward of the square slot in the rear of the cover.  Those silver marks were made by the tabs at the top of the spacer.

Oops!  That's not supposed to happen.

I tried to get the spacer back onto the recoil spring guide, to show you what it's supposed to look like.  However, the spacer must have been bent out of shape after getting beaten by the bolt carrier, and it no longer fits.  You can see pictures of the assembled spring guide and the Saiga .308 spacer and guide rod on page 63 of the AK47.net thread, as posted by Rafaga (Nelson of TWS).

I wasn’t crazy about the idea of a metal spacer in there anyway.  I pulled the Blackjack recoil buffer out of my WASR-10, which didn’t need it anyway, and put it on the TWS guide rod.  The buffer is that blue thing you see in the picture with the cover flipped up.  Nelson of TWS is offering to send out solid recoil spring guides without the spacer.  I think I’ll take him up on that offer.  I’m afraid the whole spacer thing is giving him a bit of a headache.

There is another small matter of peening at the rear of the ejection port.  I'm told that it's from ejecting casings hitting the dust cover on the way out, and I guess this must be true.  I don't think it'll be an issue, but it's something I'm going to keep an eye on.  Nelson at TWS says that that part of the dust cover work hardens, and the peening stops after a certain round count.

Sorry, I couldn't get a better picture.  Camera doesn't do close-ups very well.

Heat Transfer
I put 5 magazines through my Tantal with the TWS mount over the course of an hour.  Although there was some heat transfer into the mount through the rear sight block, very little of the heat transferred into the Aimpoint through the rear sight block.  I had a glove on my support hand, afraid of getting burnt by the metal up front, but the red dot sight stayed more or less at room temperature.

I did the same thing with my WASR with the Ultimak Scout mount, and after five magazines, the mount of the Primary Arms red dot was starting to get quite warm.  The Primary Arms sight held up to the heat, but I when I went to clean the rifle, I noticed that the sight was loose on the mount.  I think the heat from the gas tube mount melted the threadlocker I put on the screw that holds it on the rail.
'
Conclusion
A little too early for me to say yet, but the TWS Gen. II mount definitely shows great promise.  I'm looking forward to putting more rounds though the "new" Tantal, and really shaking down the new TWS mount.  I like my "new" modernized Tantal.

EDIT, 11/19/11:  I e-mailed TWS, and they said to send in the recoil spring guide rod and spacer, and they'd send me the standard no-spacer model.  So that's what I did.  I haven't gotten to shoot with it yet though.

UPDATE, 12/10/11:  All is well.  I didn't even have to adjust the sights.

Tapco AK G2 Trigger Recall

I just found out about this recently.  Most of the bad parts may have been scrapped by now, but for safety's sake. . .

TAPCO, Inc. G2 TRIGGER GROUP PRODUCT SAFETY WARNING

We have determined that during the period between October 1, 2008 and December 31, 2008, G2 trigger groups may have contained disconnectors that have a disconnector spring hole that is too deep. Use of these could result in a rifle malfunction and should be checked immediately.

 

The correct depth of the hole is between .383 to .420. Any disconnector with a depth of .421 or more should be returned for exchange.

NOTE: The spring hole has a conical point and the measurement should be made from the shoulder where the spring will rest, not the point of the hole.

Returns should be sent to:

TAPCO G2 Return/Exchange
3615 Kennesaw N. Ind. Pkwy.
Kennesaw, GA 30144

Or, contact your Sales Account Manager for additional information

Thank you,

TAPCO, Inc.

I guess I should take apart my WASR-10 (now sporting a G2 single-hook trigger), and my Interarms Tantal (which came with a G2 double-hook trigger). Not looking forward to taking apart Sid The Saiga-12 though. The Bolt-Hold-Open lever and spring make reassembling the Saiga lower a huge pain in the rear.

Ultimak AK Gas Tube Scope Mount

I didn't die or anything, I just haven't really found anything interesting to post lately.  Sometimes it pours, sometimes you get a drought.  Right now, there seems to be more of a drought.  Guess it's a good time to knock out some reviews.

Primary Arms Micro onUltimak Gas Tube Scope Rail Mounted on my WASR-10

Ultimak's gas tube scope mount is pretty popular among the AK connoisseurs, particularly when used with a Micro red dot scope.  I ordered mine from Primary Arms, along with their Gen.3 Micro Red Dot sight (which is discontinued, I think, replaced by Gen.7 model) at a reduced price.  The Gen.3 sight doesn't really co-witness, unless I set the rear sight to 800 meters; good enough to get the windage ball-parked.  The Gen.6 and Gen.7 sights are supposed to co-witness properly on the Ultimak mount, but I can't personally confirm this.
 
The Ultimak mount gives a nice low mount, just be aware that after a few magazines, it will get hot enough to burn your fingertips if you're not careful, and not wearing gloves. I wonder if cheaper optics will be able to take that kind of heat for long.  The Primary Arms sight is holding up so far, but I noticed that the heat was transferring to the Picatinny mount screwed to the bottom of the sight after a few magazines.  By all accounts, the Aimpoint H-1 and T-1 sights take the heat just fine, but then the Aimpoints cost more than a lot of AK rifles.

The Ultimak gas tube mount clamps onto the barrel, which means it's not easily removable for cleaning, which may be a problem if you shoot corrosive ammo, and a lot of the surplus ammo is at least mildly corrosive.  The mount/tube is aluminum, but when it's clamped onto the barrel, you really can't get at the gas block.  I didn't have any trouble installing the mount on the WASR-10 with the K-Var plastic handguard with heat-shield, but the wood handguard that came with the rifle would have to be chiseled out to clear the straps.

The Ultimak mount is way better than most of the dust cover scope mounts, most of which don't hold a zero (stay tuned over the next few months, I want to get the new TWS mount for a 5.45x39mm AK).  It's not as tall as many of the AK side-rail mounts, and it won't interfere with side-folding stocks. It's a good, solid, low mount for AK type rifles, just be aware that there are some trade-offs.

Ultimak Home Page
The mount reviewed here is the M1-B model, Scout Mount without side ports.  Ultimak makes mounts to fit many of the AK variants.  Check the Ultimak site for more information.

K-Var 9-9-09 Sale

To celebrate 9-9-09, K-Var has lowered prices on a whole bunch of stuff. They're not just modest discounts either, some of the prices have been dropped up to 50%. The premise of the sale seems pretty dumb to me, but hey, I do love a sale.

Sale ends Monday, September 14th.