The first practical shooting Rifle World Championship will take place in “Patriot” park in Russia from May 25 to June 11, 2017. It is going to be a pretty large event with 850 shooters from 45 countries participating. However, some shooters faced a problem of not being able to bring their guns into Russia, because of sanctions against this country. That pretty much excludes these shooters from the competition and risks to ruin the event.

Kalashnikov Concern came up with a solution. They will manufacture 60 Saiga Mk 5.45×39 rifles and send them to IPSC Russia. These rifles will be offered to those shooters who couldn’t bring their own guns because of the mentioned sanctions. In a statement released on their website, Kalashnikov Concern says that they want to keep the sport away from politics and will do anything to make it possible for foreign sportsmen to take part in the competition.

The Saiga Mk rifles are basically semi-auto versions of the AK-74 as seen in the image above. However, those 60 examples made for the sportsmen will have a couple of improvements to make them more suitable for the competition use. Particularly, they will be equipped with Picatinny rail sections on dust covers and collapsible stocks.

I think this is a good example of keeping our passion for firearms away and not affected by politics, just like we do it here on TFB.