#Misc

Along with the Nightforce products, Daniel Defense was present at Nightforce 2016 with a number of rifle developments and news. Due to unprecedented demand and growth, Daniel Defense will be expanding their current production building in Savanah, Georgia from 130,000 sq ft, to a 250,000 sq ft building next June. The most recent item on the companies product list is the DD magazine, a 32 round (on closed bolt), blend of Carbon fiber and polymer. On the bottom of the magazine there is a neat Ranger plate/tab that aids in grip as well as impact absorbing, very similar to Magpul’s original entry product. They came in a pack of 12 to dealers, and sell for around $20.

I’ve always been an extremely big fan of any AR15 extended right side bolt release, whether it was Magpuls BAD lever, or Knight’s Armament’s integrated design. The sheer simplicity and difference in operation these devices make can cut down reloading time by seconds when used correctly. But not only reloading, but also general weapons manipulation and malfunction clearing makes much more of a difference after an extended bolt release is installed.

Firearms product placement within Hollywood movies always provides a fascinating look into how firearms are portrayed on the big screen. In this case, we have two firsts when it comes to product placement, that of the H&K M27 IAR, and the Radius from SilencerCo.

Noori Sabeh (نوري النقاش) is a professional engraver in Iraq who has made his presence on social media with some excellent engraving work considering the lack of access to materials and tools otherwise very prevalent in Europe and North America. The majority of his work is focused on traditional wood and metal engraving of various bolt action rifles, shotguns, and handguns that customers send in. He originally started out in the jewelry business and has been engraving for several decades.

In a move that will most likely resonate deeply around the entire NRA precision and rifle competition folks if fully approved in January of 2017, the NRA sponsored Civilian Marksmanship Program High Power matches will be moved from their traditional location in Camp Perry, Ohio where they have been held since 1907, to Camp Atterbury in southern Indiana. The move was apparently prompted by the director of NRA Competitive Shooting, and will face final approval by the NRA Board of Directors in January 2017. If enough support is garnered among the competition community by then, it could be feasible that it would be reversed, but we doubt that is the case. It appears that the decision had alot to do with location, in that shooters at the Smallbore Prone Championships in Bristol, Indiana would have more time getting to the High Power competition.

The Vintorez is a suppressed rifle currently in use by a number of Russian Special Operations units. It was used extensively in the Chechen conflict, in addition to popping up in Syria as well. It fires a special 9x39mm SP5 cartridge in addition to an armored piercing round. The rifle has eluded importation in the U.S for quite some time and will probably never be imported unless it comes in parts kits from Russia, possibly many years from now, although Molot is currently producing one for the Russian market. It is very similar to the Kalashnikov rifle platform but there are actually few parts that interchange between it. Taking from the AS Val, a suppressed select fire rifle, the Vintorez is a long stroke gas piston operated, select fire rifle with a 6 lug rotating bolt head. Essentially it is designed for accurate suppressed fire within 400 meters.

If you looked at this photograph and thought to yourself, “This looks like a 40x46mm Low Velocity grenade launcher, but it is unlike any launcher currently used by any Military/LE force”, then you’d be halfway to a solid conclusion. However if you are really into Airsoft, you’d probably instantly recognize it for what it is, a Mad Bull Airsoft grenade launcher made in Taiwan. But then what in the world is it doing on a “Real Steel” AR rifle? In Iraq?

Red Oktober is an entirely Kalashnikov themed competition that took place at Southern Utah Practical Shooting Range in St. George, Utah. It was primarily by Rifle Dynamics, along with a number of other industry sponsors that all pitched in to really support the two day competition. Essentially Jim Fuller from Rifle Dynamics, along with range staff from Southern Utah Practical Shooting Range saw the opportunity to create a competition in celebration of the Kalashnikov platform in the United States and brought it to reality. The divisions included Kalash Heavy (7.62×39), Kalash Light (5.56×45 or 5.45×39), Open Kalash for optics or drum feeding devices, and finally a ComBloc division for any non Kalashnikov design Soviet or otherwise within the Warsaw Pact countries.

Dead Air Armament is a Utah based company that makes a number of suppressors for a variety of platforms to include rifles, handguns, and shotguns. We’re written some posts about the company but haven’t been able to get this in-depth with one of their suppressors. Along with SilencerCo (based in the same state), they are part of a growing industry of smaller companies going after a market once only populated by the big leagues of Gemtech, AAC, and Surefire to identify a few. Although Dead Air Armament has a huge variety of suppressors, at Red Oktober they were showcasing their Wolverine PBS-1 for the Kalashnikov platform. The claim to fame is that this is the first rack grade ready suppressor for the rifle platform. Your standard ComBloc Kalashnikov rifles although very reliable weren’t manufactured to standards necessary to suppressor operation. As an example many barrels are not concentric, in addition the muzzle threads on the actual barrel probably aren’t concentric either. This means that if you had a suppressor with 14.5mm threads, even if you screwed it on the rifle, you are running a very high risk of a baffle strike because the actual position of the muzzle within the barrel might not be centered, and even if it is, the threads on the muzzle might also not be centered. Thus, a baffle strike will occur.

Sabrewerks has been making a very indigenous optics mount that replaces the Kalashnikov factory rear sight blocks. The initial unit requires some gunsmithing or least knowledge of complete Kalashnikov disassembly (removing the OEM rear sight block). Once this is removed, you now have a system on which to insert a variety of optic platforms made by Sabrewerks onto the mount. These are held in place by a very snug dovetails on the base mount, in addition to a cross pin that doubles as a gas tube retaining pin (previous retaining pin is removed with the old rear sight block). The company makes a mount for just about any optic you want to throw on the rifle, and I’m sure if you have an older scope, they’ll be able to do a custom fit for it. Every mount they make has an integrated non adjustable rear sight within it, so if the scope goes down, there will always be a back up rear sight, without the need to affix an aftermarket rear sight. Of course, this does take away the ability to co-witness a rear sight (However, some of their reflex optic mounts do allow for a co-witness). In addition, an important point about their system is that it allows removal of the top cover for disassembly without needing to take off the optics mount first.

Circle 10 AK showcased their line of muzzle brakes and flash suppressors at Red Oktober this year. In regards to their muzzle brakes, the company makes two thread sizes, 14mm for standard Kalashnikov muzzle threading, and 24mm for AK74 or a number of AKSU inspired offshoots and designs. Both thread pitches can be ordered with either right hand or left hand threading. Going for a reduction in weight, Circle 10 offers the same designs but in titanium instead of 4140 steel. In addition, there is a shorter two port version available compared to the standard three port version.

Joe Firearms is a Utah based company that specializes in outfitting Kalashnikov rifles in addition to offering their own line of AJAK-47 and AJAK-74 rifles. Most significant is their flared magazine well that is welded to the receiver, their extended magazine releases, and left hand charge. Apart from the flared magazine well, a number of these features are available all over the Kalashnikov world, however combined with a number of their other options, many other companies offer these at a much higher price point for the consumer. I thought their extended magazine release looked especially worthwhile because it is ambidextrous by way of a bar that extends on either side of the trigger guard. Many Kalashnikov aftermarket extended magazine releases are usually only operable from the right side of the firearm, instead of the left side. They also had a neat concept wherein they cut down the charging handle to a short enough length to engage with a notch on the safety, while retaining their added left hand side charging handle. A number of Kalashnikov safety’s feature a bolt hold open device but few of them allow the bolt to be activated into battery by just a flick of the safety. Their simple concept does just this.

We first wrote about Kalashnicohn in 2014, when the small company began introducing their pistol caliber AKs. Compared to a number of larger manufacturers bringing the platform to market, Kalashnicohn has encountered a successful selling point considering that the entire company operates out of a small warehouse with 4 employees in Phoenix, AZ. While at Red Oktober the company showcased a number of their SBRs, pistols, and parts kits, mostly focusing on pistol calibers, however they do have some rifle caliber offerings as well.

The Polish firearms company  Fabrykę Broni has brought their redesigned 40x46mm Low Velocity Under Barrel Grenade Launcher to the public. The company had a previous 40mm UBGL that incorporated a slanted grip with the trigger almost underneath the muzzle of the grenade launcher (this looks like it allows a significant reduction in weight). With this redesign, the company has placed the trigger inline with the barrel, directly in front of the magazine, very similar to Russian GP30 grenade launchers. It appears that the grenade launcher does not require a proprietary handguard to be mounted to the 5.56x45mm MSBS rifle (example shown with 7.62x39mm MSBS).

A Ukrainian company has introduced a series of wrist mounted sighting systems to be attached to various small arms and viewed through an LCD screen on a shooters wrist for shooting around obstacles without exposing the shooter. Their smallest unit is designed for short ranges, while their largest units are capable of zooming in on a target up to 300 meters away. The smaller design uses a barrel mounted camera about the size of a flashlight that connects wirelessly to the LCD monitor on a shooters wrist. The LCD monitor has a cover over it that obscures visible light coming from the screen while the shooter is operating the device in low light conditions.