#Ak

The TFB staff meticulously combs through SHOT Show, but somehow we missed this little gem: Kalashnikov USA has shown a competition-oriented 12-gauge shotgun. Twitter user ArmedResearch pictured the red gun* on display in the RWC/Kalashnikov booth. Immediately obvious is the new forearm and the gargantuan left-side charging handle.

Rob Ski, founder of the AK Operator’s Union, has posted a review of the newest American-made Century AK, the RAS-47. This is a follow-on to Century’s C39 Centurion rifle, differing in its stamped receiver. Rob wastes no time in taking the rifle apart to show, in detail, both the good and bad aspects of the gun:

Lindy, who blogs at Vodka and Espresso wrote …

This picture of a Peshmerga fighter sporting a slick hair do and an oddly configured AK-47 with AR-15 parts and other tacticool doodads was posted on Reddit recently. It also looks like it’s missing the pistol grip and has an AR carry handle attached to the top cover. Can anyone tell which AK variant it actually is? This Frankengun makes the Bubba’d Mosin Nagant spotted in Syria a while back look like a masterpiece.

After the Ichord report of 1967 identified the early failures of the M16 rifle in combat, particularly failures to extract, solutions to the problem of fouling were investigated by Colt, as well as Rock Island Arsenal (a government entity), and Olin/Winchester. Colt’s effort was the 703, which they somewhat presumptuously offered to the Army as the “M16A2” in 1969. The 703 was not only one of the first – if not the first op-rod AR-15s, it was also the first “hybrid” AK/AR-15 design, utilizing a very AK-esque gas block and fixed flexible piston:

Gibbs Rifle Company, perhaps most famous for their 1903 Springfield rifles, were showing off today a .45-70 conversion of a Fazakerley No. 4 Lee-Enfield:

Good grief. The new MagPul products just keep coming! Uncle Sam meets Mother Russia with the announcement of steel-reinforced AK magazines, M-LOK handguard for AKs, stocks for AKs and more.

YouTube channel BombBuster72 has created a video showing how the trigger group for the AK-47 functions. Using CAD, he based the video off the Tapco G2 double-hook trigger system.

Coming on the heels of (and surely related to) news that Kalashnikov Concern has decided to launch the AK-12 on the open market, the Russian Army has announced today that both the AK-12 and the A545 (improved AEK-971 variant) have passed state trials and will be accepted into service with operational units for evaluation. VPK.name reports:

Russian news media today reports that, one year after Mikhail Kalashnikov’s death, the company that bears his name has officially launched the AK-12 rifle on the open market. Russia Today reports:

Bob Holloway, then of Fort Worth, Texas, in the 1980s built on his experiences in Southeast Asia and Rhodesia to design a .308 caliber military rifle, what eventually became the HAC-7. His rifle was an amalgamation of Armalite, FN, and Kalashnikov designs, with a considerable amount of his own ingenuity thrown in. The result is now one of the most interesting “might-have-beens” of the 20th Century: A lightweight .308 infantry rifle two decades older than the FN SCAR-H.

Anon, sent us this photo of his Saiga decked out in Christmas lights. He writes …

Our own Richard Johnson is reporting that Heizer Defense, make of the the pocket DoubleTap pistol calibers and single-shot .223 handgun is set to release the Pocket AK 7.62×39 and Pocket “Sniper” .308 handguns. Retail is reported to be $429 and $499 for the x39 and x51, respectively.

Vhyrus sent us his and his girlfriend’s primary carbine/pistol combinations. He wrote …