Mike from MD Arms post on their Quad Stack Magazines

Saw this at one of the major AK forums. It has been a little bit of an open secert that MD Arms (makers of great Saiga stuff) have been working on quad stack mags. Here's portions of Mike's post on it: "I have ZERO doubt that our quads will by far be the best AK mags in the world... Full heat treated steel inserts through out (thats in the rear and front mag catch, feedlips, at the bottom for the floor plate and a removable metal floor plate) and the plastic we use is far superior to the plastic used in ANY surplus or aftermarket AK mags to date. In fact the material we use is so strong I am completely confidant that we could not use metal and still not have the breakages that others do that skipped the metal inserts. That isn't our style though. Ous (sic) will have the steel inserts even if it is overkill with our material. We don't cut quality corners to save pennys on the dollar... Going to be a lot of foot in mouth when we release the quads from those who doubt them. It might be best to wait for first hand experience to avoid being one of those guys... For the guys that claim they don't need 50rd we will have a nice tight 30rd for you that is a touch shorter than a 20rd double stack. It will be far less constricting to carry on your person than a double stack 30 and lighter and stronger as well..."

If they are as good as he says we are in for a treat!

And it becomes a whole new Iron Dot Market

Midwest Industries has a new Iron Dot style mount.

Interestingly it will work with Aimpoint Micro style, along with the Primary Arms and Vortex Sparc clones (Sparc won't co-witness due to the emitter location).

Update: Primary Arms should have them instock early next week.

(Hat Tip kmrtnsn)

Attero Arms and Twisterx44 Responses

-AKMatt (Me)" What is your lead time on the Draco and Saiga? Obviously the Draco buyers will have to wait for the tax stamp transfer as well.

-Attero Arms (AA): The Attero AK SBR can actually be created and ready to go in about 2 weeks. Yes, the buyer must wait for their tax stamp transfer, but the weapon can be completed far in advance. The Attero S-12 can be shipped out approximately 1.5 - 2 weeks from ordering as well.

-(Me): Are your mounts currently shipping?

-(AA): We are currently shipping the Attero AK Micro Optics Mount.

-(Me): Any plans to add protective "ears" or "roll cage" like the Burris upgraded mount or the LaRue AK Iron Dot?

-(AA): We have considered the protective ears, but it will raise the cost of the mount and detract from the no-snag profile. Right now we are trying to keep it simple.

-(Me): I'm sure your mount is going to be compared to the LaRue Iron Dot which was liked but most usually felt like it was limited by the original Fast Fire and the Fast Fire II should fix some of those problems. Do you have any thoughts on what sets your product apart from LaRue's discontinued one? It looks like it shouldn't effect take down that much, correct (the dust cover can be popped off with out removing the mount)?

-(AA): What sets our product apart from LaRue's? First, LaRue didn't have very good replacement BUIS (Back Up Iron Sights) on their mounts. Second, it forced you to use a particular optic. Ours works with the three most common micro optics which can be found on our website in the description for the mount. Our mounts are also shorter in length, so take down and cleaning is even easier.

-(Me): Does each mount support all three optics or do you have to get a new one each time?

-(AA): Each mount supports all three optics. (Burris Fast Fire II, Leupold Deltadot, Trijicon RMR)

-(Me): Do you have a lot in stock from this first run or it is a on individual demand basis?

-(AA): We have enough mounts in stock to fuel what has been the consistent demand, but order volume is increasing, so we will be increasing our production.

-(Me): Comments on the apparent Guerrilla Marketing campaign by Twisterx44 on the gunboards? What is Twisterx44's relationship to the Attero Arms?

-(AA): We have been notified of the apparent marketing attempt by that user, however we have absolutely no affiliation with 'Twisterx44'. We may take steps to contact the board administrators to notify them that this was not an Attero Arms endorsed action. The problem is locating all of the boards that were posted on - there seem to be a lot. Twisterx44 has no relation to Attero Arms other than they were one of the first customers to purchase our SBR.

Interview via email with Nate of the Attero Arms Sales Team,

According to their website, Attero Arms holds a Type 7 FFL as well as a Class 2 SOT, issued by the BATF.

Twisterx44 was accused of guerrilla marketing by several board Admins with his review of Attero Arms SBR awith their mount.

EDIT: Statement from Twisterx44: "I wanted to clear the air with everybody here because I think I have been misunderstood slightly. I know I have been on other forums.

I posted a review of an SBR I finally got on this forum. I also posted my review on many other gun forums. My main reason for doing this was to show off my new toy, but one of the products my SBR came equipped with was a replacement for the Larue AK IronDot mount that I know everybody has been looking for since Larue discontinued them. I figured just about anybody with an AK would want to see it. Unfortunately, I got mislabeled as a 'guerilla marketer' which I had never heard of before, but on this forum and a few others I was accused of having an affiliation with the company that made my SBR.

I want to clear the air with that. I have no connection to them, I was just sharing my new gun. "

Attero Arms SBR review incident

If your a member of just about any gun forums/board you've might have seen the Twisterx44 review of the Attero Arms Draco SBR which seemed to be a guerrilla marketing campaign. I'm in communication with Attero Arms and Twisterx44 and will have comments shortly.

No matter what you think of the posts, I really think the mount is interesting, obviously like the discontinued LaRue Iron Dot.

Manticore Arms 14x1mm LH Night Brake

Sven from Manticore posted over at Jerking the Trigger that they will be making a standard AK thread 14x1mm LH Night Brake. Looks like the Draco pistol may have found a new friend!

Hat Tip to Matt over at Jerking the Trigger!

Interesting new Romanian variant M10-762

Check this out, (and here) a factory done, Bolton gas block style rifle with what appears to be a Draco gas block. When I recently handled a Bolton gas block rifle, it convinced me that maybe a Draco with a permanently attached extended brake would be a handy rifle, and it is.

But this rifle maybe would have done what I wanted to, although it would be harder to convert to an SBR than a Draco. I would suspect it being a Century build but it isn't listed on their site. Interesting other features are the RPK rear sight, Hogue grip, and hammer forged chrome lined barrel. Personally I'd change the Tapco RAZR hider and UTG handguard, but to each his own. Looks to be a WASR style receiver without dimples.

Update: A commenter pointed out it is a Colorado Guns build, thanks!

They are the second link in this post and I must have missed on their site that they are the builders. The part that confuses me though is the WASR style receiver, my first guess would be that it is a WASR with a Draco Gasblock. Which isn't a bad thing in my book, if I could have found a Draco gas block for sale I would have done the same thing. But instead I sold off my WASR10/63 to fund the Draco carbine.

Some added details is that it has a G2 trigger group, a Tapco stock (which I like if you are just going for the basics), a Tapco trigger group retaining plate, and a ProMag magazine (not to thrilled about that but there are plenty of AK mags out there).

EDIT 1/30/12: This post is the single most popular one here at my Blog. Welcome to those of you that find this site by searching on it. I'm trying to keep up on the news of it, there are a few more related posts if you click the Romanian M10-762 label here or below. I'm considering shifting some priorities around and buying one for a review, but my wife is currently unemployed so that could be awhile. Also I'm not sure if there is already enough information out there on it. If you would like to see a detailed review done by me as well, please post it up on the comments.

EDIT 2/29/12:  M10-545 review part one is here.

US Palm Fanboy updates

What's a blog reboot without an US Palm Fanboy update. Now I know how the AR guys feel about Magpul.

Magazine Rebuild kit-FWIW, I like their regular mags a lot. This could be a good option to add 922r parts to your steel mags or of course fix worn out ones. I'll be very interested to see their floorplate design since regular AK30 mags don't have a traditional floorplate.

rEvolution package- Consists of AK30 magazine(s), AKTR railed handguard, AKBG grip (which is awesome!) and AKES enhanced Safety (Krebs style execept no cold range bolt hold open notch and tab is riveted on). Looks interesting, I could skip the AKES though these days, but would have liked it a lot a few years ago. I really need to get on board with one of their handguards built under a partnership with Midwest industries. They offer several different top handguards to allow cowitness with most of the common red dot out there (Vortex Sparc and maybe one of the Mini red dots do not cowitness) . Kinda disappointed to see the rEvolution package doesn't come with a couple of their rail covers.

They will be releasing their V2 Attack Rack Chest rigs any day now. This generation will have some MOLLE on the sides and offered custom shaped soft armor (no word if the armor will be offered for the V1) AK style and "Multi-platform"

I have one of their V1 Attack Racks and while I'm not big on chest rigs for my purposes, I like it a lot when I need to be tacticool.

Military Arms YouTube Golden Tiger review

Speaking of Lacquer coated, Military Arms has a review of the lacquered Golden Tiger ammo:

I like it for accuracy and so does he. But I'd say right now Golden Tiger on the low end of an import cycle since I'm not seeing it as much at the internet retailers. Atlantic Arms as linked by Sturmgewehre in his video has it in stock, maybe this is part of a new import wave of the stuff.

Also Golden Tiger's terminal ballistics are untested. It has a very large airspace in the nose which would make it want to tumble, but then it has a boat tail which tends to prevent tumbling. I love to see a gel shot of it. but still some of the best target/plinking ammo out there.

Military Arms is definitely a YouTube channel AK fans should be subscribed to, plus he's a Hoosier!

Hat Tip to Matt (the other one) over at Jerking the Trigger, while I subscribe to Military Arms, I saw this first on his Facebook feed.

Lacquer vs. Polymer coated Ammo

Lately since we are in the middle of a hot and steamy summer in a lot of the country, I've been seeing a lot of posts about polymer ammo getting surface rust.

I get surface rust on any polymer coated steel cases that sit loaded in my mags. When loading magazines with polymer coatings I now wear gloves to stop my sweat from starting surface rust (I have clammy hands a lot). I might use a slightly oily rag as well but I generally like to avoid chemicals with my ammo because you don't know what might penetrate a primer or case neck and make the round a dud. Overall, Wolf Military Classic rusts the worst but it is also my largest amount of ammo that sits in my mags so it may be an unfair sample. My Hornady hasn't been that bad yet but I don't have as much of it and it is from the first lot.

The rust makes me miss when everything 7.62x39 was copper washed or lacquered. Those coatings have much better rust resistance. Lacquer is still available in many loads even though the Wolf and their suppliers (Tula and Ulyanosk) stick to polymer. Golden Tiger and Brown bear are two exceptions. However, lately I and others have noticed with concern that there is Brown Bear that is coming as polymer. I emailed them and they assured me they will continue to offer both:

"We will be stocking both types. This allows us to work around Russian government orders as they specify polymer, making lacquer available. Also some of our customers have a preference for one or the other.
Thanks,
Bart Eaton" (DKG Trading Sales)

DKG Trading, who owns the Bear lines, also offer their rust resistant Silver Bear (zinc coating) and Golden Bear (brass coating).

I find it interesting that the Russian government prefers polymer, although not a surprise since Wolf Military Classic is suppose to be Mil-Spec ammo.

Honestly, I was blaming the AR guys for demonizing lacquer as what made Wolf go to all polymer coating, turns out I might need to blame the Russian military instead (sorry AR shooters!).

But while the surface rust is bad looking and needs to be watched, has anybody actually experienced a malfunction due to too much rust on a case in an AK? On the flip-side, anybody have a gummed up chamber cause stuck cases or other malfs from lacquer?

New Safeties

Say this today, an AR style AK safety, made by Sniper Handle. In general I tend to think of these style safeties that allow for thumb or index finger tabs as "training wheels" but if it is what you like check it out. For me though, I'm comfortable with the AK safety as is. Also the other things that would steer me clear of it is having to drill a larger hole for the safety post on the receiver, making it more difficult for FCG disassembly, it not working with side rails, underfolders, and thicker than 1mm receivers (although they are working on that last one). However if your AK fits into that niche and you like AR style safeties, this could be for you.

Awhile ago I blogged about the Black Horse Safety that I have dubbed the "teeter totter" style. Well Krebs came out with their own style of this a few months ago. The exception is that it doesn't have the index finger tab. It is marketed as a Saiga safety if you are keeping the standard stock on it. One other "advantage" depending on how you like to run your AK would be that it allows you to use it as a thumb safety left handed with a pistol grip and stock.

Night Brakes and others

And on the reboot, just saw this over at CNC Warrior, the Night Brake. Looks like it could be a inexpensive alternative to the PWS FSC47 compensator with flash controlling features (still not as good as a true hider).

I've been looking at a lot of 14x1MM LH brakes lately to put on my Draco pistol. The rest of my AKs tend to have hiders, save the 74. The look of the 74 style brake is one of the few aesthetic things I dig enough on AKs to go for looks over function, but it is also partly due to the lack of cool looking 24mm hiders. But the Manticore Nightshroud II might win out eventually. Coincidentally they have a Night Brake for 24mm as well.

I tried the slant brake on the Draco and it does cut some muzzle flip but decided to go for something else. While it isn't much of an issue on a pistol Draco, I still believe that they a lot of times contribute to AK inaccuracy.

Due to me being poor this summer (just had our second daughter), I cheaped out and went for the Tapco slot brake, which seems to have some good reviews but I haven't got to shoot it yet. I also want to try the US bastardized "Krinkov" and 74 brakes which of course both deviate from the original Russian designs but are cheap and common in 14x1MM LH.

The CNC Warrior VZ58 looks interesting and effective. Then there is the TGI series of brakes seems to be the the Swiss Army Knives of muzzle brakes since they are listed as a "muzzle brake/flash hider. Wire Cutter. Door breaching device. Glass breaker." LOL The Bart is the most aggressive and amusing at the same time with the name, but I would probably go for the Castle style. The King Armory KA-1230T is also on my radar but there seems to be very little actual end user reports on it.

Reboot

Hey guys if there is anybody out there in cyberspace, I'm working on rebooting this thing, lately I've had a couple people mention they missed it which is about 1 more than I thought was reading LOL. It still probably won't be a daily thing but I'll post as I find new stuff to add. Please feel free to forward me news tips, advice, complements, or complaints,. They all help.