This week, I took one of my favorite rifles out of the safe and ran a couple of magazines through it. It has, unfortunately, become a bit of a “safe queen” in that I have neglected the rifle for a few months. Like the gun I wrote about last week, it has a bit of historical significance, but this one comes from the other side of the Iron Curtain: the Kalashnikov patter, or AK, pattern rifle.
I could go into the nitty-gritty details of the history of the AK, but all I am going to say about that is go read the Wikipedia page(s) about it. This is about my AK, because I am selfish like that. I bought my AK in January of 2013, which you might recognize as shortly after the tragic events at Sandy Hook elementary school. I was living in Colorado at the time, whose legislature was kicking around some pretty stringent gun control measures, and I have to admit, I paid an outlandish price for the rifle. I wanted one, and they were looking like they were going to be banned, if not nation-wide, then at least in Colorado.
Many of you probably recognize the AK as the rifle used by many a villain in movies and reality alike. This observation is one that is well-earned, as the AK and all of its various clones are the most widely produced firearm in the world. Due to its prolific, and communist, nature, there is often a debate on which rifle is better, the Russian designed AK pattern rifle, or the American designed AR pattern rifle. You can wander around the internets for an eternity reading and watching debate after debate over which rifle is better. I have the answer: Yes. Now be quiet.
Back to me and mine. The Kalashnikov I ended up purchasing is a Serbian copy of the AKM (an upgraded AK-47), called an O-PAP. It is slightly different from its other Soviet counterparts, as the stock is a little longer, the barrel has a bit of a different contour, more technical information, etc, etc. What this means for me is that some of the commonly available upgrades/modifications you can buy for a Kalashnikov pattern rifles don’t work or require additional modifications to use. The rifle is, however, superbly made, and still contains the trademark reliability of the AK platform.
When I purchased this rifle, I had become accustomed to my AR15 and its soft shooting 5.56×45 NATO cartridge, so the added punch of the 7.62x39mm Russian cartridge was a bit of a shock. While by no means a heavy recoiling cartridge in the grand scheme of things, the 7.62 Russian kicks a bit harder than the 5.56 NATO round. Combine that with the semi-infamous Yugo/Serbian “cheek slap” (when the stock smacks your cheekbone during recoil), it only took me a few range outings to decide to make some upgrades.
There were three big issues I had with my AK: the sights, the pistol grip, and the muzzle break. The sights were decent iron sights, but they tended to blend into any target background that was anything other than white in color. Plus, they were extremely hard for me to line up without smashing my face into the stock. The pistol grip was standard Century Arms International (the importing company); relatively flimsy and uncomfortable. Finally, the muzzle brake was the AKM “slant brake” that is a slight improvement over no muzzle device. That is to say, barely effective. Luckily, I was reading an issue of RECOIL magazine where they went over modifications for a very similar rifle, and that inspired me to make some of the changes I ended up making.
For the sights I had two options: Buy a side mounting rig like the Russians intended, or ‘Mericafy this rifle with a 1913 Picatinny railed fore-end to mount the optic. Being a red-blooded, meat-eating, commie hating American, I opted for the modified fore-end. Picking a fore-end was a bit tricky, as I had to make sure I got one that specifically fit a Yugo/Serbian rifle, as the fore-end is one of the parts that is a bit different. I picked the Midwest Industries fore-end, which is all metal and gave me an issue later down the road. Once I settled on the Midwest Industries fore-end, I had to figure out what optic I wanted. After taking a bit of a bath on the rifle itself (I think I bought it for $850 during the gun-buying craze, they go for ~$500 now), I wanted to get a good optic at a reasonable price. After listening to a friend of mine talk about how much he liked his Vortex rifle scope on his AR15, I picked up a Vortex Sparc II. With that problem solved, I was ready to move on to the other two big issues.
I had to wait for another paycheck to arrive before I made the last two upgrades to the muzzle and the pistol grip. The muzzle brake I ordered was a Battle Comp Enterprises AK-47 Battlecomp, which basically just screwed on the end of the barrel after I removed the original slant brake. The pistol grip I ordered is a US Palm AK Battle Grip, which was slightly more difficult to install than the brake, because it required a screwdriver. Once I had all three of my original grievances fixed, it was time to take the rifle to the range and find new problems to piss and moan about.
At the beginning of this article, I said this is one of my favorite rifles. This is largely due to the extremely cheap ammunition ($0.25/round or less), extreme reliability, and cheap, plentiful magazines. Plus the gun looks/is cool and I wanted it and I bought it. Despite what many AK aficionados may say about the rifle, it is not without its faults, and I (still) have several issues with this rifle.
The first is sling mounting options. Most rifles made in the past 50 or so years have come with some sort of provisions for mounting a sling to the front and the rear of the rifle. This rifle only came with a dedicated mount on the front of the rifle. I purchased a sling for it, and had to modify the sling to that it would attach in the position that I prefer. I know that there are probably adapters out there for me to buy, but I didn’t. I made due with what I had, but I am still going to complain about it.
The second, and actually biggest complaint, is accuracy. While I do not expect a rifle designed to be used by a poorly trained conscript army to embody precision, I do like it when my rifles can print sub-4 inch groups at 100 yards. That’s fairly wide even for iron sights, but this rifle fails to do that, even when I am concentrating as hard as I can on my fundamentals. That being said, the addition of the Vortex Sparc II really helped, as I believe most of the issues I was having with precision boiled down to how hard it was for me to get a decent sight picture with this rifle. It still is not the most accurate rifle in the world, but it isn’t that bad anymore.
My last complaint about the rifle is how difficult it is, for the Yugo/Serbian rifles, to find accessories. I know they aren’t as common as Romanian, Bulgarian, or Russian versions, but they are well made rifles in their own right. Obviously, there are ways to get the parts you want, but it does take a bit more effort to make sure you get the right parts in the mail. Some accessories you can put on the fore-end will also turn your rifle into a heat sink with all the hot metal on metal action happening between your barrel and that sweet American Picatinny rail. So be wary of that.
All in all, this rifle performs exactly as advertised. It is reliable, well-built, and cheap to shoot. I made modifications to mine to increase the rifle’s performance, and am pretty happy with it now. Originally, I was going to further ‘Mericafy the rifle by putting an AR15 stock adapter on it, but decided that I was fine with the original wood stock after the addition of the muzzle brake eliminated the “cheek slap.” The rifle now turns out decent groups, definitely good enough to hit a man-sized silhouette out to 200 meters.
While shooting from static positions is fun to a point, the AK was meant to be run, not sat on a bench. So in an effort to find out how this rifle compared to one of my AR15s, I took it to a range that I had to myself and ran them one after another to see how they compared. I set up two targets similar to the one pictured above at 50 yards, and two targets at 100 yards. The drill was 1 shot center mass on each target from prone, then run to the 25 yard line and fire one shot on each target center mass while standing, then side step and engage both 50 yard targets with 2 head shots each while standing. Then run past the 50 yard targets to the 60 yard line and fire 2 head shots from kneeling at each target. Then run to the 90 yard line and engage the targets with 2 center mass and 2 head shots each with the pistol I forgot to mention I had with me. Finally, sprint back to the starting point. Switch rifles, and repeat.
I did this drill 5 times with each rifle, and that allowed me to gather some data points. First off, having done drills like this with only Iron sights on the AK, there was a marked improvement having the optic. Second, while the AK was cheaper to shoot, it was heavier overall and heavier recoiling, and therefore more fatiguing to shoot than the AR15. The AR15 also felt more precise because of this, although both rifles are more than capable of hitting the center mass and head “A boxes.” Third, both the AK and AR have metal aftermarket fore-ends, which is not a choice I would make again for any rifle that will experience extended strings of fire. After only two or three rounds, both rifles heated up to the point where I had to put on gloves in order to hold them, and the AK actually started melting the palm of my Oakley gloves.
So would I recommend this rifle? Yes. I most definitely would, especially if you are willing to make some modifications/upgrades to it. At the minimum adding an optic using a side mounting system. Your mileage may vary with regards to the cheek slap, but I would also recommend a good muzzle brake as well. The ammo is relatively cheap, it is an effective, time-proven round, and it has a bit of a cool factor that makes it more desirable. Would I recommend it over an AR15 pattern rifle? It depends on what you are looking for. This would be a great Zombie Apocalypse/Russian Invasion/End of the World rifle as it requires little cleaning. It also would make a pretty good pig gun for those of you who are looking for wild hog rifle. If you’re willing to accept a little more recoil and weight to get the savings in ammo and the extra “stopping power” of the round, then yes, this just might be the rifle for you.
Shoot safe,
-Spencer