Arrow?

I think this is the rifle grenade that Willard has been calling "the arrow"...  The Yugoslavian M60P1 anti-personnel rifle grenade.

STL file made and transmitted!

I modeled it with the safety cap installed.  I'll have to drill and tap for the safety pin and ring after printing.

Law Abiding Citizen Of The Federation

In an attempt to avoid the best outcome being to be buried in secrecy so my grave doesn't get violated...

I am paying close attention to the 922r compliance parts.

If ever there was a more chickenshit law passed, I'm not aware of it.

To get the imported parts count down you've got to toss perfectly good parts.

You have to carefully avoid some combinations of parts.

Some parts are easy.

The serialized receiver is a given.

The barrel comes with the parts kit.

The hammer trigger and disconnector are sold in a pack.  But the trigger will need a notch cut for a spring because Tantal.  A pre-modified trigger is available from Apex, but I don't think I need it.

Magazines count for three parts with the body, follower and baseplate.

All of the above get's the Godless-Furriner-Parts-That-Matter® down to 8.  Anything 10 or below is Kosher.

The rub happens when you want to use a nostalgically pleasing and photogenic Hecho en Polska magazine.  That ups the parts count to 11.

One solution is to find US made followers for your magazines.  That solves the photogenic part of the issue, but might introduce function problems from tossing a perfectly good follower made to the same specifications as the magazine by the same manufacturer.

Replacement floor plates are also a solution. 

The use-any-magazine solution is to replace the gas piston.

This is pain-in-the-ass territory.  The gas piston is threaded and riveted to the bolt-carrier on an AK pattern gun.  Drill out the rivet.  Screw out the perfectly good old piston.  Toss it.  Screw in new piston.  Drill a hole in it to match the holes in the bolt carrier.  Hammer in a new piston.  File/sand/grind the rivet heads flush with the contour of the bolt carrier.

All for compliance with a law that apparently is never checked or applied until you run afoul of the cops in some other way.  Where you're burned for the primary charge so the add-on 922r violations are just a dusting of sprinkles on top of the going-to-prison sundae.

Serious!  Look for someone who isn't some form of licensed manufacturer getting in trouble for just having too many 922r parts.

Looking around at my fellow shooters at the range; there's a lot of non compliant SKS's out there.

Useless Appendages

Yugoslavia was an enthusiastic user of rifle grenades, and oddly for a nation that was more or less Soviet in its rifle issue; their grenades were NATO spec.

The AK is wrong for this attachment.  A proper Yugo AK for a grenade launcher has a grenade sight that's also a gas cut-off.

Revived

If you recall, back in December I posted that the phosphorescent night sights on Portia weren't quite dead, but they weren't far from it.

Marv bought some phosphorescent paint and he revived his.

I begged him to borrow some of the paint and he just revived mine for me.  Thanks!  It needs at least two coats and it takes like five hours to dry.  I didn't have time to wait for the drying so he borrowed the gun for a couple of days and did three coats.

Sights repainted, not charged:

Charged:

Charged with a 1.5 second exposure instead of 10 seconds, same room lighting.  Also more to the side for the shot.

On a ten second charge with my 7w LED light, they are bright for about ten minutes and visible for much longer with all the lights out.

Baffling

There's gunborker seller in Colorado who's got two SKS's listed.

One's a Norinco, the other is a beat to shit Yugo. (Links will be dead after a few months).

Both them are:

LE/MILITARY PURCHASE ONLY
You must provide LE/Military Credentials at time of purchase.
You must be one of the following:
Sworn LEO (Law Enforcement Officer) State, County, or Local
Federal LEO - F.B.I, US Marshal, DEA, DHS, et cetera
Corrections Officers, including Parole and Probation Officers
Retired LEO with “retired” credentials including Federal, State, County and Local
State Licensed Security Companies and State/City Licensed Security Officers
Federal Flight Deck Officers
Court Judges, District Attorneys and Deputy District Attorneys
First responders including firefighters and rescue personnel with appropriate I.D. and letterhead with verification of duty purpose
Military: Active, Retired, Active-Reserve. Active - Nat’l Guard

There's not a whit of explanation as to WHY they're not for sale to those untainted by government employment.

They sell AR's to the unwashed, so it's baffling.

All Zastava All The Time

Two are Serbian, four are Yugoslavian.

Top pistol is an M99, the Tokarev is an M57.  Of note is the M57 lacks any manual safety whatsoever past the magazine disconnect.  A real live battlefield pick-up.

Top to bottom on the rifles.

Century imported M70ABM.
Mitchell imported M70.
PW Arms imported M59/66A1.
Century imported M48A.

The M70 has dead tritium night sight inserts and is pre-Bush imported!

Important Unit Of Measurement

The amount of time to clean a Yugo SKS is equal to the run time of the AC/DC album "The Razor's Edge".

Now you know.

And knowing is half the battle!

Tula vs Zastava

In the blue corner, we have a 1970 made Zastava Poluautomatska puška M59/66A1 or Yugo SKS.  The Serbian Yugoslavian rifle tips the scales at 9.8 lb. with a folded length of 44", extended length of 51-9/16".

In the red corner, we have a 1952 made Tula Samozaryadnyj Karabin sistemy Simonova 1945 or SKS.  The Russian Soviet rifle tips the scales at 8.7 lb. with a folded length of 40-1/16", extended length of 49-7/16".

The Tula has been refurbished at some point, as can be seen by looking at the blackened bolt carrier (and the arsenal remanufacturing mark).

The first surprise for my comparison was they have the same length of pull!

This is despite the Yugo having a 9/16" thick rubber butt pad instead of just plain steel.  The Soviet gun has a red stained and lacquered arctic birch stock; the Yugo an oiled beech stock.  This is another source of extra weight on the M59/66A1, beech is more dense than birch.

The next surprise was the Yugo having a shorter cleaning rod.

This is despite the Yugo having a longer barrel if you include the length of the grenade launcher.

All of the real difference is out front.

The gas pistons are identical, but the gas cylinder of the Yugo sits on the gas block differently.  The Yugo's front sight is a little closer to the rear to give more room to thread for the grenade launcher.  It's hard to see, but the Soviet rifle's bayonet pivot is slightly farther forward.

Despite having a shorter bayonet...

The way the bayonet locks forward is different as well.  The Soviet gun has a ring that fully surrounds the muzzle, the Yugo has a hook that mates with a ring well back from the muzzle.

It's Shooterday!

Actually became a member of the closest range today.  Family membership so Harvey can go shootin' too.

Zeroed the Primary Arms 5x on Dottie.

10 shots, 25 yards, supported.  Need to get to a longer range to finish dialing it in.

Update:
Marv came up and wanted to test fire his M59/66, so I refined my zero when I went with him to the range.

Five rounds per circle, 25 yards.  Top right opened up when a round fell between my belt and shirt in back.

Then I put some rounds through Portia.

25 yards supported, 10 shots at the center, then 10 more spread around the surrounding three.

As predicted, Portia is just about recoiless.  A very pleasant shooting rifle, if I do say so myself.

Heartwarming

I offered one of the Yugo SKS's to Harvey because it's born-on date was Halloween, our favorite holiday.

She looks it over and says, "I don't want another gun," my heart sinks, "but I can always use another knife!" as she snaps open the bayonet.

I love my wife!

By coincidence, it's the gun I pulled at random to clean up to see what general condition the lot was in.

Supersized Knife System

She's yet to name her.

We're going to call her "Lily" after Lily Munster.

Surprising Comparison

An FAL is shorter than an M59/66A1.

Just by a bit, mind you, but it's real.

The weights are surprisingly close as well, although the FAL is lacking its bayonet.

Loaded PAP M59/66A1 is 9.8 lb.  Loaded FAL 50.00 is 10.4 lb. plus 0.5 lb. for the bayonet.

That extra pound and some gets you a detachable magazine, double the shots and 7d pi instead of 5d+1 pi.

I Got Wood

Heh heh heh heh heh.

The 1970 made PAP M59/66A1 has decidedly different wood from the 1976 made one.

'76 on top, '70 on bottom.

Am I seeing the difference between elm on the '76 and beech on the '70?  Or vice versa?  Neither?

Not All The Way Dead

The phosphorescent night sights on Portia aren't completely dead.

If I charge them up with my super bright Chinese 7w CREE LED light, they will glow quite brightly for about 30 seconds.

Before charging.

About five seconds after 10 seconds of charging with the Cree light.  It's about half as bright as when I started to attempt to get the camera to take a focused shot.

They're on life support, most assuredly.

I wonder what one would buy to renew the phosphor.

Or even upgrade to tritium, like they did starting in 1986.

PAP M59/66A1 'Portia'

This is Portia, in keeping with naming my guns with girl's names.  Her last three digits of her serial are 926, which reminds me of Porsche, which sounds like Portia...

It's more amusing if you've memorized "A Fish Called Wanda".

The sharp eyed will notice that this is not the same rifle as pictured earlier.  As I mentioned, Marv is generous and I borrowed enough to buy a crate (what do I need a soul for anyway?).  Except SOG was out of crates.  But I got a crate's worth of rifles!

I have just guaranteed that there will be no successful attempt to ban such guns, as anything I own doesn't climb in value.  But I cannot ignore that these were $59 rifles once and merely $250 rifles a mere five years ago.  With Mosins around $300 and climbing...  This is an investment more than anything else.

This was the oldest gun of the ten.  Acceptance date in the log-book is November 24, 1970.  These log books are full of information that would be wonderfully useful, if I could read Serbian.  Not that it matters most of the time since most of the entries aren't written legibly.  Of note, though, is the "depreciation" entry and this gun shows 0%.  This lot has a spread of 0% to 80% "depreciation" and one translation I've found says that "Procenat nagriženosti" means "percentage to corrosion" not "percent of depreciation".  A gun with a stated 70% has a bright, shiny, pitted bore about halfway from the muzzle end.

PAP stands for Poluautomatska puška, which simply means "semiautomatic rifle".  Being made in Yugoslavia makes it an M59 instead of an SKS.

The grenade launcher muzzle...

These ports were part of the muzzle device from 1967 through 1972 and are omitted in later production guns.

...and gas shut-off...

The shut-off button also locks the grenade sights down.

...and grenade sights...

...makes it an M59/66.

And these (now dead) phosphorescent "night sights"...

...make it an M59/66A1.

All took apart.

Contents of the cleaning kit.  About useless since the cleaning rod is WAY too short.

The ten round magazine...

...is loaded with...

10 round clips!

Lovingly Drowned In Cosmoline

It's a Zastava Poluautomatska puška M59/66A1.  Also known as a Yugo SKS.

My first gun in the dreaded 7.62x39mm.  According to the log book that came with it, it was manufactured on October 31, 1973.  Halloween is about my favorite holiday, so this ROCKS!

It cleaned up nicely.

With pig-sticker deployed.

Ready to launch rifle grenades.

She's not a svelte lightweight at all.  9 lb. 12.8 oz. loaded.  By the way, there was almost 3 oz. of cosmoline in her when I unboxed.  That's a LOT of cosmoline!

By the way, MAJOR thanks to Marv for bankrolling my gun habit while these things were on sale for Black Friday.

I've also discovered that the front sight is wider than standard.  I had to open up the slot in my sight tool to turn them.