A reader emailed us a photo taken in an Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit’s building at an Army base in Afghanistan. This rifle was proudly on display next to a selection of disarmed M18 Claymore clones. At the readers request I cropped the rest of the photo out, to avoid identifying the soldiers in the photo.

The rifle is not nearly as well made as the AK/M4-clone rifle we featured last week on this blog. It is primitive in comparison. The carry handle/rear sight, stock and handguard look like the kind of quality you might expect from a cheap toy gun. I think they were probably made from a photo of a real M4.

The funny thing is that these features at best add nothing to the AK, at worst make it harder to use. I don’t believe the sights are even close to being aligned correctly (see diagram below). It is possible that the front post sight is simply for decoration and that the front sight is actually housed in the carry handle, giving it a sight radius comparable to a handgun, much worse than even the compact AK-74SU.

Don’t think I am complaining … long may the poor quality rifles continue to flow over the Pakistani border 🙂