Kalashnikov Concern has announced about a new upgrade/modernization kit for AK style rifles. It is a drop-in kit which allows converting any stock AK-47/AKM or AK-74 rifle into a bit more modern weapon making it more adjustable and suitable for accessorizing. As seen in [Read More…]
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 [Read More…]
North Korea recently celebrated its national holiday, the Day of the Sun, commemorating the birth of the founder of the communist hermit-nation, Kim Il-Sung. In true communist fashion, the holiday was marked by a large military parade where all the latest North Korean [Read More…]
The bullpup rifle tends to be – when it comes up – a pretty divisive subject among “tactical” rifle shooters. Bullpup detractors dismiss the layout as clunky and awkward, while its proponents cite the advantage of longer barrels and shorter [Read More…]
There can be many reasons why one might be looking for blueprints or technical drawings of any particular gun or gun part. It can be for learning and educational purposes or to compare if their parts are within specs and many other reasons. If the legislation of your [Read More…]
Vitaly Kryuchin, the president of Practical Shooting Federation of Russia (the Russian branch of IPSC), has announced, that Kalashnikov Concern is planning to make an AK-based pump-action rifle for the competition shooters. The new rifle will be called KSZ-223 [Read More…]
Russia has adopted a small arms training system called 1U35M (1У35М)․ It is designed by a company called TsNII Toch Mash (ЦНИИ Точ Маш, stands for Central Scientific – Research Institute for Precision Machine Engineering). The system simulates both [Read More…]
The AR-15-style combined safety/selector thumb lever has become a hallmark of modern assault rifle and carbine design, proving to be an ergonomic and simple design for fire control management. However, it wasn’t always that way. The AR-15’s selector lever [Read More…]
Back in September, TFB reader Brandon took us through the history and variations of Russian Kalashnikov magazine patterns in a two part article that’s well worth reading if you haven’t already. Having said that, if you don’t have the patience for [Read More…]
Well, a cleaning kit is for cleaning the gun, right? Of course! However, AK cleaning kit has several built-in “hidden” features. Some of them are intentionally put into the original design, others are invented by the users of AK rifles. You can watch all [Read More…]
Ukroboronprom (Ukrainian defense industry organization) made an announcement about Malyuk bullpup rifle successfully passing government tests. They’ve already started manufacturing it. It is a bit confusing because they don’t literally state that the gun [Read More…]
The Berlin Wall fell some 27 years ago. Now the situation around the Baltic Sea seems to turn to the worse again. As a reply Lithuania – a NATO member since 2004 – just updated their civil defense booklet, with clear information to citizens what they should [Read More…]
Yesterday, we took a close look at the AK’s operating group, to enumerate the details that make this pattern such a dependable design. Today, we’re going to be looking at some of the other elements of the AK that make it so reliable, but first I want to [Read More…]
Today we know the Kalashnikov family of rifles as one of the most successful and reliable weapon families ever designed. Even as the rifle’s legend has begun to be peeled back, the weapon’s reputation for reliability is still largely unquestioned, and many [Read More…]
Continuing on from where we left off yesterday, in this article we’ll address the arguments that center around the Sturmgewehr’s designer – Hugo Schmeisser – and his career in Izhevsk. Let’s get on with it: 4. The AK-47 looks just [Read More…]
We are all familiar with the standard conspiracy theories: NASA faked the Moon landing on a Hollywood soundstage, President Kennedy was shot by another gunman who was working for the CIA/the mob, all world leaders are actually reptilian aliens from Alpha Centauri, [Read More…]
When the AK-Alfa rifle was announced at Kalashnikov USA’s booth at the 2016 SHOT Show early in the year, it created an enormous buzz. The rifle’s Kalashnikov heritage, sleek looks, and surprise appearance in association with Kalashnikov’s [Read More…]
The Russian small arms firm Kalashnikov Concern has announced several new weapons during the International Military-Technical Forum “ARMY 2016” held by the Russian government in Moscow, the first of which is a new take on a promising 20th Century [Read More…]
The AK-12 is dead. Long live the AK-12! That’s the song Kalashnikov Concern is singing this week at the recent ARMY 2016 expo in Moscow, Russia. The radical AK-12 prototypes that have dominated Kalashnikov’s press over the past two years are gone, replaced [Read More…]
In the late 1950s, after the first public demonstrations of the AR-15 and its new small caliber, high velocity cartridge, the Soviet Union took notice of the radical developments in military .22 caliber rounds in the United States. By 1959, four years before the [Read More…]
It’s no good to discuss how firearms work without also giving the context surrounding the firearms themselves. With that said, let’s talk about the AR-15, its copycats, competitors, and relatives. Together these rifles share space under the loose umbrella [Read More…]
We introduced you to the concept of locking in a previous one of our 201-level posts on how firearms work, and today we’re going to talk about what has become the most common locking mechanism for rifles: Rotary locking. If to lock an action, you need to create [Read More…]
Previously in Operating Systems 101, we covered the simple, inexpensive principle of blowback, and the reliable principle of short-recoil. Both of these mechanisms together form the foundations of almost all automatic handguns in common use today, but what about rifles? [Read More…]
Rumors of a new Magpul magazine for the AK-74 platform are confirmed: The company has just released the PMAG 30 AK74 MOE magazine, designed to hold 30 rounds of 5.45x39mm ammunition and compatible with all 5.45mm caliber AK rifles that take traditional AK-74 pattern [Read More…]
An image of a mysterious new Russian machine gun was leaked to the public recently, during a visit to the Kalashnikov factory by Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov. The weapon is an intriguing dual-feed magazine/belt loading gun that features distinctly un-AK-like [Read More…]
For the prospective civilian AK buyer, there’s nothing quite as helpful as the experience of others. Most reviews (including most of the ones I have done) cover the experiences the reviewer has over tens or hundreds of rounds, as higher round-count reviews are [Read More…]
Gun guru and MVD agent KardeN gets to play with all the best toys – this time, it’s the 9mm Kalashnikov-based submachine gun, the PP-19-01 “Vityaz”. Designed to handle high pressure 9x19mm Russian ammunition, the Vityaz is a more elegant weapon [Read More…]
So you want to buy an AK, but don’t know where to start, eh? Well, don’t worry about it because as the kids say these days “there’s an app for that”. The famous Soviet Kalashnikov rifle has become something of a redheaded stepchild on the [Read More…]
In a show that so far seems short on major announcements, Kalashnikov USA, the orphaned official importer of Kalashnikov Concern products to the USA, announced a brand new rifle design, based on the AK, but featuring radically updated external aesthetics and ergonomics. [Read More…]
This article is an English-language translation of an article written for Мир увлечений: Охота & Оружие (World of Hobbies: Hunting & Weapons) magazine, by Andrey Donets and Dmytro Adyeyev. TFB reader dnepr0mike graciously aided the [Read More…]
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