Eventually I plan on making something similar to the VSS sniper rifle using my home made 1.625" OD titanium suppressor I am building. I am not sure if I am going to SBR it yet or not but it is a fun little gun that I am glad I bought.
It did have a few things I did not personally like. First was the rear sight slot is too narrow. The front sight completely blocks all light from coming through the rear sight. This makes trying to shoot this thing with any accuracy nearly impossible. I corrected this by taking an angled file and making the rear sight a "V" rather than the narrow notch. Now it looks and works great for what it is but I did leave the 400 meter (yes I know that is very optimistic) flip up alone. The second problem was the safety was extremely hard to manipulate. I fixed this with some creative stressing of the safety with a screwdriver as well as a few solid hammer hits on the end of the center rod. Now it is a lot easier to manipulate but not so much so it is unsafe. I am going to tweak it a little more until I can manipulate it with my right index finger.
Now the fit, finish and overall appearance was great. It is not your typical cheap AK. The bluing is blue and the parkerizing is not painted on. Everything fits together very tight and does so without any rattles. The stocks look great but came to me in an unfinished state so I stained them with some red mahogany stain then sealed it with some satin acrylic. Here is a few pictures of it after finishing it.
I thought the acrylic was gloss but after letting it dry I like the satin much more. The stocks look very similar, in color and finish, to one I carried overseas. Now I am super pleased with the appearance of the gun.
Something else I did was remove the welded on thread protector at the muzzle. It is a very minor spot weld that I cut through with a file and hacksaw in under 5 minutes. It literally is a tiny dollop of metal that is extremely easy to remove. After that you can use any standard 26mm LH muzzle device. I chose the booster and the company I bought the pistol from was also selling the booster cheaper than anywhere else but it also included the parts to install the detent that holds the booster in place. After cleaning up the gas block/front sight and the thread protector I shot them with some chalkboard paint (it is some of the most durable paint I have every tried outside of Cerakote). The chalkboard paint is cheap and because of additives used to protect it against chalk it is also very durable.
The only other thing I plan on doing is adding a pistol buffer tube. I do not plan on using the SB47 brace because I can build something that works just as well for a lot cheaper. I am going to use an angled piece of steel, with bracing, that is clamped in place between the grip and receiver. And to attach the pistol buffer tube I will be welding a castle nut to the angled piece of steel. This will allow me to screw in a buffer tube or maybe even a cheap folding stock mechanism. Here is a picture of what I plan on making at some point.
Today, while I was firing it I noticed something I have never seen before. The empty cases, which are reloads, look as though the primers have been crimped into the brass after being fired. Here are a few pictures. (the middle is unfired for comparison)
At first I thought I had grabbed brand new Lake City ammunition but then I realized I hadn't so this kind of alarmed me at first. And after seeing that I decided to investigate the cause by taking a look at the face of the bolt to see what was going on and this is what I saw.
I thought that it was a bushing of some sort like some other guns I have seen in the past but upon closer inspection I realized it is machined this way. So I asked myself why they would do this but I could not think of a reason so I started researching with a sinking feeling I was going to have to send it back in.
But even with this it does not seem affect function of the rifle at all and I will find out how much it affects brass in the coming days. At first I thought to myself that this is some sort of error made during the manufacturing process, that is until I started reading about the same thing on other M85's. According to some, who are more knowledgeable that I am it, is actually designed this way. And as I read they said it was to actually have the gun crimp the primers in place as it fires. It apparently does this to prevent primers from falling out and getting caught up in the works causing malfunctions. Seems like something not needed on a semi auto pistol but because ALL AKs are built the same this bolt could have been found in a true battle rifle rather than in my pistol. In the end I might remove the raised part that crimps when I convert this to 300 Blackout but that all depends on how bad the brass is now. If the brass reloads fine I will just leave it. And either way it will stay for now.
Now onto some of the best parts of getting this gun. First is the price, at $399 it is hard to beat for such a high quality AK as this gun. Second is it comes with 10, yes TEN, polymer magazines with the purchase price of $399. And another great thing is the factory STEEL magazines are $8 for a 30 rounder so I picked up 4 of them.
The only bad thing I can say, and it is not the pistols fault or even the sellers fault, is the $60 shipping cost because it must go as a pistol. But that also made sure I didn't have to wait too long to get this thing in my hands.
Then when it is not wearing the suppressor it will probably be used as a truck gun for when we run into town. I was never an AK person but this little pistol has changed that and even though I have picked the wrong time I think I will try to pick up some more AKs. I am thinking a RPK would be a really cool addition, especially with the 75 round drum mag they include with the gun.
And if anyone has any questions about this gun, the brace or what will be my suppressor please feed free to ask.
