Bad news for those looking forward to the latest Israeli Kalashnikov rifle: IWI’s launch of the Galil ACE to the US market has been delayed, according to a post on the US division’s Facebook page: As all of you know, we have been seriously delayed in [Read More…]
Retiv sends us this photo of the personal AK-74 of a Russian MVD (Ministry of Internal Affairs) agent “KardeN”. The rifle sports numerous modifications that actually differ between the two photos, even down to the optics mounts: One theme common to Russian [Read More…]
Kalashnikov USA has come out with a press release stating their new products are ready for sale/shipping in the United States, under the new banner “Russian Heritage/ American Innovation”. The company is not directly connected with Kalashnikov Concern (more [Read More…]
The Indian military will have to live for a while longer with the troubled and increasingly dated INSAS, and antique hand-me-down AKM rifles, it seems. Daily Mail India reports: In a setback to the Indian soldier’s quest for a reliable assault rifle, the Army has [Read More…]
Today’s POTD is a photo taken by Russian shooter Irina Mareeva of the new Kalashnikov Concern PL-14 Pistol. This photo shows the ergonomics of the new pistol with its Glock-like grip angle. Here is a comparison with the Glock that I put together. The Glock is [Read More…]
The official English language press release for the new Kalashnikov Concern PL-14 pistol arrived late, after we have already blogged about it, but I thought I would share it with you all anyway. Here it is … Kalashnikov Concern revealed the prototype of a new 9mm [Read More…]
A prominent Russian blogger has published an extensive photo essay of the stages of production in Izhevsk on her blog. The article gives a full description of the various process’s the AKs go through in their production, but it is all in Russian and Google [Read More…]
Kalashnikov Concern has made an effort to rebrand itself following its consolidation, and spurred by the US sanctions of 2014, that prevent the importation of the Concern’s products to the lucrative American civilian market. VICE News, online offshoot of VICE [Read More…]
What rifle influenced Kalashnikov’s famous carbine design more, the Garand M1, or the Haenel MP 43? This question was broached by blogger Jeff of TwistRate in a video posted to the Full30 gun video hosting website recently. Readers can follow the link to watch [Read More…]
Rifle Dynamics (RD) is one of the top tier custom AK builder in the USA. They are local to me and I was invited for a factory visit. Unlike the popular AR-15 platform with its lego like modular construction, building an AK properly requires a lot of skills and [Read More…]
The AK-12 rifle, slated to be adopted by the Russian Army in some capacity late this year, has been delayed in production until 2016. According to Russian news media sources, the rifle will undergo a series of improvements of an unspecified type. From [Read More…]
Back in February, I wrote an article about Rob Ski’s unboxing video on the Century Arms RAS-47 stamped American-made AK rifle, as an example of the excellent unboxing videos Rob has been producing for the AK Operators Union. Of course, Rob intended to do more than [Read More…]
I’ve written a lot about the AR-15 and M1 Garand rifles, and after a time I will have written nearly as much about the EM-2, M14, and FAL. One rifle, though, hasn’t been the subject of very much of my writing, in part because reliable historical information [Read More…]
Six weeks ago I announced that Alexey Krivoruchko, the CEO of the Kalashnikov Group, would be interviewed by me and he was willing to answer question submitted by TFB readers. As promised, I chose the highest up-voted questions and sent them to the Kalashnikov Group, [Read More…]
Taofledermaus, master of unconventional (and some would argue unsafe) ad-hoc gun modifications has taken the Kalashnikov hobby to a new level. A well-made AK with good magazines is one of the most reliable firearms on the planet. It’s certainly no mystery why [Read More…]
The Sturmgewehr is a rifle that will never lose it’s place in history; it is one of the single most influential weapons of the 20th Century. It is not the first of its kind, however, and we at TFB have previously taken a look at some of the rifle’s [Read More…]
I doubt that any of my readers have never seen a film in which a suitably menacing-looking Kalashnikov rifle was used this way: With the sling over the shoulder, stock folded, pointing from the hip: When one comes into ownership of a folding-stocked rifle of this type, [Read More…]
The constant bugbear in Soviet small arms engineers’ sides after 1950 was the poor performance of the AK rifle in fully automatic. The rifle was for decades very inaccurate in fully automatic fire, owing to its vigorous action and relatively (when compared to [Read More…]
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 [Read More…]
The AK-12 has just been approved for use in the Russian Army, but what else do we know about the weapon? TV Zvezda has released a helpful video describing the rifle to the public: The problem for monolingual English-speakers such as myself being that we cannot [Read More…]
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 [Read More…]
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: Концерн «Калашников» планирует в [Read More…]
Outdoorhub posted up a video instructing the viewer how to properly pronounce the names of 10 popular firearms. Some of these are obvious and others are not. How is your pronunciation?
Today’s POTD is a little different. I don’t normally feature company marketing photos but today I am sharing with you the new Kalashnikov Group promotional images sent to the press. The first photos are for Kalashnikov, the sub-company of the Kalashnikov [Read More…]
A number of news sources (BBC, The Guardian, Moscow Times, and RT) have reported that arms maker Kalashnikov, Baikal, and Izhmash, sub divisions of Kalashnikov Group, have changed their brand logos as unveiled at an industrial meeting in Moscow. The change seems to be [Read More…]
RT produced this 25 min documentary about the Kalashnikov. For those of you who are not familiar with the AK-47 this video will give you some good background info on the infamous weapon. I dare say this video makes me want to buy a Izhmash AK now. In the [Read More…]
Last week Kalashnikov Concern claimed that US sanctions were not hurting them and production was up. This dubious claim could only be true if government purchases have been increased (as I predicted they would be back when the sanctions were first announced). [Read More…]
That’s what they’re claiming. Back in July sanctions where placed on all Izhmash & Kalashnikov Concern products. According to Kalashnikov Concern the sanctions haven’t hurt them one bit, they’ve even claimed that their production is on the [Read More…]
Bennett sent in these photos of his custom Saiga 12 shotgun. It still needs a bolt polished or the ports drilled so It will run light loads But I’m pretty happy with how it came out. A Saiga-12 in this type of configuration has been on my wish list for a long [Read More…]
Kalashnikov Concern, makers of Tigr SVD, Vepr and Saiga rifles and shotguns, and KBP Instrument Design Bureau, the less well known manufacturer or the GSh-18 pistol and VSK-94 rifle, have been added to the Government of Canada’s list of sanctioned Russian [Read More…]