Larry Vickers is a lucky guy. Heading over to Russia, he was able to go hands-on with the latest iterations of the Kalashnikov platform. Dubbed the “AK-400” the rifle is one of the latest versions to come from Mother Russia.

The pre-production AK400 is a relatively tame (but welcome) update to the venerable AK platform. Weapons manipulation is identical to previous iterations.  It features a folding stock that moves the latch button from the side of the gun to the rear, a pistol grip that features removable storage, and adds a picatinny rail with the iron sights moved to the very rear of the gun.

The picatinny is a welcome change. Unlike common aftermarket kits which simply add the rail to the exisiting top cover and suffer a wandering zero, the AK 400 solves that by sliding the top cover off the base receiver and locking it into place. As such, the rail is near uninterrupted.

The gas system is changed to a two-position gas block and changes the operation from long to short-stoke operation (OK, some may not call this update “tame”…). with the front iron sight built into the gas block. Then, the handguard is mounted directly to the receiver, which free-floats the barrel.

Check out the video with LAV below: