Avenge Me!

Shake your AK over your head and shout, "WOLVERINES!" today is the 41st anniversary of the original Red Dawn.

Appreciation

 My blade of Slavic might has gone up in value a bit since 2017.

$39 then, $100 now.  Even the ones with mismatched serials are $80.

Instantly out of stock, as is typical of emailings from Atlantic.

I Didn't Have To Use My AK

I gotta admit, it was a good Friday.

I'm not Catholic, so it's just another Friday to me.

Easter, likewise.

Though, the film Risen is well worth a watch.

Inflacja Jest Dziwką

My Tantal Kbk wz.88n I made from a kit ran me $950.  Six years ago.

If you want, essentially, the same rifle today, Atlantic will ask you for $1,800.

Dzięki Joe!

Get 'em while they're cheap, I guess.

Let There Be Light

Marv got me a Crimson Trace CMR-208 light for Christmas!

 

It replaces the TLR-3 I had on it.

 The CMR-408 is a little heavier, but it uses the 123 battery my other lights use and it's noticeably brighter.

Plus, I think it looks better.

All is not wasted, the TLR-3 can live on Mollie-Bean.  There's nothing standard on her, so an odd battery fits right in!

A Distinct Lack Of Features

Looking at the pics of the AR's from this post...

I only have one AR with all the banned features.

Kaylee doesn't count on account of her being a fully registered NFA item.

I take solace in knowing that both AK's are in full AWB non-compliance.

I'm Rich

Way back in 2018 Vickers Guy sent me a gift of East German 5.45x39mm magazines.

For free!

They are now running $80 each.

Unglaublich!

Once again, THANKS!

That Reminds Me

I really wish someone would make a damn clone of the Finnish AK.

The scanty few Valmet imports are breathtakingly expensive.

C'mon PSA!  Get on it!

Armed

 

I don't know what he's planning here, but...

Falsifiable Hypothesis

This is getting old.

For anything you find out there in firearms, there's someone who says that it sucks and you should buy a different version.

Because.

Today's burr under the saddle is the Magpul AK and AK-74 PMAG.

"Don't buy them, they have problems."

OK, what problems?

Don't fit into the gun?

Don't feed?

Don't come back out?

Fall apart while firing?

"Commie surplus steel is best!"

Um, you do know that the Russians ditched steel for the AKM way back in the sixties, right?

Alongside the people who say that surplus steel is the only magazine you should be buying are many reviews saying they had no problems with the PMAGs.

No problems is a quantifiable statement.

Unspecified problems is not.

 

13

Charmed

Something I've noticed more than once is that I don't seem to have problems with guns which others scream are garbage.

Case in point is my PSA PSAK.

Mollie Bean has never failed to function despite being a PSAK blem kit where I had to buy furniture separately.

That's not to say that ownership of Mollie has been trouble free.  The front sight post was a trial and the gas tube and magazine latch needed some massaging.

But it has always gone bang and groups well enough.

The problems that I've had are not the problems I've seen the most complaints about.  My bolt is not deforming.  My trunion is not stretching.  My extractor has not fallen out.  My firing pin has not broken.

You would think, from reading some forums, that any PSA AK is hot garbage and can't be fired.

Those forums also have a camp of people who've decided that only AK's from formerly Godless Commie nations are worth buying and give dire predictions about how many rounds it will fire before being shot out.

Battlefield Vegas has a PSA AK that they put 17k rounds through full-auto before the nitrided barrel started showing signs of being shot out.

I'm old enough to remember when 10k rounds was the expected barrel life of a bolt action in something like a .30-06.  The US Army says 5-6k rounds for a chrome lined M4 barrel.

I think that 17k is fine.

Notice that I gave a list of things that had been reported by owners of the PSAK?

The Commie Guns Is Best Guns don't tell you what fails.  They just say that Commies Make Best and drop the mic like it's self evident.

Quantify your argument so you can make a falsifiable hypothesis or shut the fuck up!

11

Settled?

It's entirely possible that the Taliban just settled the entire AK vs AR debate.

They have the choice between them and appear to have universally changed over to the AR platform.

It's All About Light

A bigger, better, sensor with better glass doesn't hurt either.

My dear departed S5IS in the bedroom and relying on the flash.

My M50 with the afternoon light in the back yard.

I feel like I've come a long way in my photography skills.

I am also a purist who eschews the use of Photoshop.  While the results from 'Shopping may be superior in some ways, I don't think it's a measure of photography.

Hell, I'm old enough to remember when airbrushing was term of scorn.  Perhaps that colors my desires about taking better photos.

Ian Does The Tantal

Nice to see that I did a good job with my clone!

I did a lot of research making my wz.88N (N because mine has the scope rail).

Hit the 'Tantal' tag to see the story of my rifle once you watch the video!

Relisted

Magpul has restored the PMAG-30 AK/AKM Gen M3 to its website!

I'm not sure the steel inserts are worth the extra scratch, but I am happy that it remains in production.

Metal

I participated in buying gun stuff I don't need because...

Well because wanna.

I bought me a couple of the Magpul PMAG-30 AK/AKM Gen M3 mags.

You can have any color you want, as long as it's black.

They are a tight fit in both the AK's I have here.

The only difference from a PMAG-30 AK/AKM MOE is the color of the follower and, in this case, the color of the body.  Oh and the Gen M3 has metal locking surfaces.

Again, I have not found anyone complaining about either Magpul AK mag except for damaging the feed lips by dropping them.  Normally it's simple to find out what's wrong with something because everyone complains.  I have not found anyone who's broken off the locking tab of the all-plastic MOE version.

The Gen M3 is more expensive and slightly heavier than the MOE.  $25 vs $14 and 7.4 oz vs 6.6 oz.

Additionally, the black really changes the look over our DIY "bakelite" orange.

I Just Noticed Something

I think Magpul quietly discontinued the AK PMAG Gen M3 with the metal reinforcements.

They no longer appear on Magpul's web site.

They're on slight discount at Midway and Brownell's and out of stock at a couple other places.

The AK PMAG MOE is still on Magpul's site.

Something I am having a lot of trouble finding is someone with an actual failed AK-MOE magazine.

I've found several people who've cracked a feed lip from deliberately dropping a loaded one on its mouth.  They never mention if it stopped working.  The AR PMAG had this too for a while, and while there were lots of cracked lips, the mags kept running.

I sure can find people dismissing the lack of metal in the AK MOE.

Magpul made a whole new design to mollify them, and apparently didn't sell enough to keep it in production.

Perhaps I'm just not looking hard enough, but it's usually easy to find out if something is utter garbage.

Another Reason To Mourn

Tam mentions the demise of Bushmaster, DPMS and Tapco.

Remington's shuttering of Tapco also means the loss of some fairly decent 922r compliant AK triggers.

Not match grade, but definitely not dragging a piano down a gravel road with your finger.

Camera

The EOS M50 arrived today!

So, of course, I have to compare it with what I had already.

Mollie Bean was handy as a test subject.

First with the Motorola Moto Z3:

Next with the Canon SX20IS:

Finally with the Canon EOS M50:

You should be able to click the pics to get them to original sizes.

Even though it's not a macro lens, the 15-45 captures some nice detail up close:

Interesting

Both Palmetto State Armory and Century Arms announced an AK-74 clone at SHOT.

Makes one wonder if 5.45 is going to be a lot more available than it's been recently.