Wieger STG 940 rifles
East Germany, in the period before the collapse of the Berlin Wall, was short of foreign currency. In an attempt to generate cash for imports Wieger developed an AK-clone chambered in 5.56mm NATO. It was apparently very reliable. The collapse of the wall saw the demise of the company which found itself in direct competition with West Germany’s H&K.
Inter Ordnance manufactures an AK rifle which looks like the STG, although the resemblance is surface deep. Until Sven emailed me the below photos, I had not seen pics of the real STG 90x series.
[ Many thanks to Seven for emailing me the history and photos. ]
I founded TFB in 2007 and over 10 years worked tirelessly, with the help of my team, to build it up into the largest gun blog online. I retired as Editor in Chief in 2017. During my decade at TFB I was fortunate to work with the most amazing talented writers and genuinely good people!
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If you consider a Gilil a AK yes you can but many consider a Galil a differnt weapon than a AK. As per Bulagaria all infantry units use the AR-M1 which is a AK-103 7.62x39 AK. And many still have AK-74s. Only a hadful of troops use 5.56 AKs they have had issues with the caliber in a AK action. Due to this Bulgaria adopted the AK-103 (AR-M1).
I own one of the IO StG2003 carbines in 5.56mm.
Pros: good reliability, low muzzle rise due to straight-line stock, points much more naturally (at least for me) than the typical AK. Mine has an excellent trigger. It's you-bet-your-life reliable with mags it likes.
Cons: it's a dressed up WASR3. The buttstock is hollow plastic and weighs about an ounce and a half--I'd hate to have to buttstroke someone with it. Fit and finish are what they are. I cut my knuckles repeatedly in fast mag changes due to just about every vertex where two plane surfaces meet having been left razor sharp before it was dunked in the bluing tank. The only mags that work worth a damn in it are the steel Wiegers--which are spendy and damn hard to find. Mine's optic mount rail is crooked. I also put homemade aluminum foil heat shields inside the cheap thin plastic handguards to keep them from melting during a mag dump.
All in all I'd like to see a rifle made to this general plan by someone who cared a bit more about the quality of the final product. Something like this built on a Nodak Spud receiver, with an optics mount rail put on straight, and the worst of the razor-sharp edges filed off before final finishing, with heat shields inside the handguards and a solid buttstock, maybe with a trap in it for a cleaning kit, would be something very much worth pursuing. Even if--especially if, come to think of it--it were in 5.45mm, which would make the ammo and mags a lot cheaper.