Gun Review: Upgrading A Century Arms RAS47 Zhukov
I got my hands on a Century Arms RAS47 Zhukov. Now I am a complete newbie with regards to AK pattern weapons. I can count how many times I have shot an AK on one hand prior to getting the RAS47 Zhukov. I know there are many people out there who like the classic wood and Soviet smell of power when it comes to their AK pattern rifles. I do not share that same affection. I am a Magpul fan so when I saw that I could get an AK with the Magpul furniture already on it, the RAS47 was an easy choice.
I got the RAS47 so I have an AK to round out my collection of firearms. First impressions were not that good. Now I kept an open mind as I do not plan to shoot this that much. Well there was quite a problem and that was shooting the RAS47 Zhukov right out of the box. The gun ran fine and did not have any malfunctions. But there was an issue when you shoot it. I had a couple of friends verify that it was not just me. When you shoot the RAS47, out of the box, the Magpul Zhukov stock punches the shooter in the cheek. My friend Corey said it was like getting cross checked in hockey.
I tried a number of accessories and discovered that it changed the CG and therefore the recoil harmonics of the gun entirely. It stopped punching me in the cheek. The first accessory I tried was a Midwest Industries scope mount my friend Jim gave me to try. I mounted my Vortex 1-6x Strike Eagle but found the scope mount put the scope too far back that I had to extend the stock all the way out and made the gun further away and that much more heavy to wield. However it did mitigate the stock punching my cheek.
Due to the position of the scope it is not how I would prefer to run this gun. So I removed the scope mount and tried a VG6 AK Epsilon muzzle brake. The AK Epsilon completely changed how the gun recoiled and made the gun shoot flatter. Not that the bullets were flatter but the AK itself recoiled flatter and had very little muzzle rise.
I tried to re-purpose the MI scope mount to mount a red dot. Due to the position of the battery cover it interfered with the scope rings and I was not able to mount it perfectly straight. The red dot was canted so that didn’t work as well as I would like.
Midwest Industries has a railed gas tube and it worked perfectly on the RAS47 even under the Magpul Zhukov handguard.
The Meopta Meored mini red dot worked great but the recoil of the AK knocked off the Meopta badges off. Also the QD picatinny mount sits the Meored a little high so the red dot does not co-witness the sights. MI does make a rear sight mount that does allow a MRDS to co-witness but according to my buddy Andy Yohnk at MI, it does not fit the RAS47.
The biggest surprise was that this RAS47 Zhukov has concentric threading. So I had Silencer Shop send me a can to try and suppress this RAS47. They sent me a Yankee Hill Machine Phantom .308 can with an AK flash hider mount. The suppressor worked as expected. I only shot cheap Tulammo 7.62x39mm and it was hearing safe. The can was rather heavy though.
Of all the modifications the VG6 Epsilon and MI railed gas tube with MRDS were by far my favorites as they did not add much bulk to the gun and made the shooting experience a lot better and allowed me to enjoy shooting RAS47 more than I thought I would.
More by Nicholas C
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I really think the bashing is of the Century RAS47 is more of a piling on than situation than actual experiance talking.
I have 2 of them, bought early on prior to the Magpul option. Added the Zhukov furniture and found that it was, for me, an improvement over the original wood stock. Find them comfortable to shoot, don't understand the "punch in the cheek" thing, maybe I use a higher cheek weld? The first one is at a little over 5,000 rounds and still performiing as intended. Don't fear for my life when I shoot it.
I am not saying it's the best AK out there but I do think it is the best AK for the money.
RAS47 aka problem child. Good luck trying to sell that POS as the word is out loud and clear to stay away from these troublesome rifles. You need to investigate via web searches this POS !