We’ve seen AKs fitted with all manner of 1913 pattern rail farms, but what about the other way around? AR-15s with Soviet-style side rails, would anyone really do that?

For years now, one of the major modernization efforts for the Kalashnikov series of rifles has been to fit them with stable, repeatable Western Picatinny-style rail systems for mounting optics. Success in this area represents a magnification of capability for those rifles, as the side rail prevents field-stripping without first removing the optic, and it also blocks the folding stock, if applicable. Neither of these things mattered in the original operational context in which the side rail was designed, but they do now.

Well, in some parts of the world, Egypt to be precise, it’s back to the future, with M16A4s mounting adaptor blocks inside their removable carrying handles, allowing the user to affix side-mounted Soviet-style optics to their AR-15 pattern rifles:

This fighter, reportedly from Egypt, is using an M16A4 or clone with an attached rear sight/carry handle, and a block to allow him to mount his POSP-type scope.

This adapter – the only one of its kind I know of – reportedly comes from Egypt, although the context beyond that is not known to me.

It makes sense: These optics are plentiful and robust, you can field-strip an AR-15 with it attached, and there’s no folding stock to worry about!

H/T, Max Popenker