I wanted a place to discuss my handguns and firearms in general. Everyone seemingly has lots to say about guns, so I promise you this won't be a rant blog.
I’d planned on mounting them on my PSA AK pistols. I mounted one on the AK-V and the other on the AK-P.
I had to remove it from the AK-P, though, because I have an enhanced safety on it and I can’t use the charging handle and the enhanced safety at the same time (the charging handle interferes with the usage of the safety.
I put it on my SAM7UF instead. They look great and the handles offer good traction. They are easy to mount, too, although I need to go back and add thread locker so that they don’t come off.
I noticed that there’s a lot of carbon and copper jacket on the then-installed brake that was originally on the AK-V. The carbon is normal. The copper jacket is somewhat of an anomaly, though. The jacket comes off the bullet due to excessive velocity. 9mm was primarily designed to be shot from handguns. When shot from a rifle, due to longer barrels, muzzle velocity is high enough to where the copper jacket sheds as it’s exiting the barrel. That copper spatters against the brake. I’ve 570 rounds through the AK-V, which is enough to where I’m starting to see some build-up. Cleaning it will be a pain.
I researched for alternatives and was about to put an AR-15 bird cage on the AK-V (I’d have had to drilled a larger diameter bore through it, or found one for 9mm). I did find some others and was about to make the purchase when I saw that the PSA website had the Faux Bulgarian 4-piece muzzle brake back in stock. They always sell out of them.
Now, this pistol doesn’t really need such a muzzle brake since the 9mm round isn’t throwing flash everywhere when the pistol is fired. It’s not a 4-piece brake. It’s only one piece and it’s more of a megaphone in internal shape. I wanted it mainly because I didn’t want to have to clean out copper splatter. There’s nothing to clean with this muzzle device…there are no nooks/cranies. It’s more of a show piece than anything, as it does look good.
I had fun today! I ended up shooting 199 rounds from the AK-V. In an hour. I had 100 rounds of Wolf 115-gr FMJ and Winchester White Box 115-gr FMJ.
I started out at 10 yards, then went to 25, then to 20, then focused on 15 yards. I had no issue staying on the paper while out to 25 and when I moved to 20 (to better see where I was shooting), I ate the bulls-eye up! This pistol is easy to shoot. It has very little recoil and you can shoot it fast with ease.
I did have 4 FTEs, though, with one mag. It was the CZ Scorpion mag that I believe is the issue. It’s spring is very stiff, to the point that my finger is sore from loading it. I think it may break in. We’ll see. It wasn’t related to ammo because it did it with both brands of ammo. As well, the bolt didn’t hold open several times. There was also a time where one round didn’t want to feed and was jammed into the chamber. When I tried to get the bolt to hold open so I could get the round out, it slammed shut, forcing the round into the chamber. When I tried to eject the round, I couldn’t get the bolt open, but the trigger was live so I fired it out. The casing came out but I didn’t see where it went (so I could look at it). It did this a second time as well, but I was able to get the round out.
I have range footage but my camera wasn’t positioned well (I couldn’t preview the footage to ensure proper framing).
Hopefully, I can get better range footage next time.
I had been spending a good bit of time researching my next rifle purchase.
I was looking for a 9mm AK variant (but was also considering a Grand Power Stribog). I wanted a pistol caliber rifle, preferably short-barreled.
I had the following list:
Century Arms NAK9X
Century Arms NAK9
Palmetto State Armory AK-V
The Stribog was on the list but dropped it after a process of elimination.
I’d also struck the AK-V off the list because it was, 1) never available, 2) when it was available, it was a high dollar variant, and 3) compared to the NAK9 and NAK9X, it was expensive.
Last night I was looking at NAK9s and I wanted one with a brace already on it. That raised the price by ~$120. For a few more dollars more, I could’ve gotten a fully-optioned 9X. So I nixed the NAK9.
I found a NAK9X that had a great price (no tax and no CC fee). I had it bookmarked (on Gunbroker.com).
Then I checked PSA’s page as a last minute check before committing to the NAK9X. They had an AK-V for $799. While that was a quite a high price for me, I decided to get it anyways. Why? I can make it match my AK-P by ordering the red wood furniture later, it has a lifetime warranty, and it doesn’t have that cheesy plastic magwell that the NAK9 and 9X have. Full price for the firearm was $864.99. That does not include transfer fees at my end (it will be another $32). I balked at the $900 AK-V’s price but I’m close to that now. Granted, the $900 AK-V would be close to $1K when all the fees were added.
This WILL be my last firearm for a while (the next 12 months at least). My wife might flip, but I did let her know that with the anti-gunners on a rampage, I wanted some guns that might be banned from purchase in the near future.
UPDATE – 10/16/2019: The AK-V will ship tomorrow (it has a UPS tracking slip and number but UPS hasn’t picked it up yet. It’s two day shipping so it may not even get here until Monday. The FFL will probably call me on Monday to arrange for me to get it on Tuesday. I’ve no idea why PSA waited 8-9 days to ship. They said they were very busy with orders but they still took my damned money. I do NOT like spending that kind of money and waiting for them decide to ship…that’s hokey as hell and that’s one reason why I don’t buy from Bud’s Gunshop anymore. This will be the last time I buy from PSA. As well, I bought two 32-round CZ Scorpion mags for this pistol (they will fit). I’ll discuss them more in an upcoming video.
UPDATE – 10/21/2019: The AK-V was delivered around noon time at the FFL. I’m awaiting their call.
Today I ordered a red PSA AK-P with an SBA4 brace. This is an AK pistol chambered in 7.62×39. This will be the first AK I bought that has actual wood. I was going to get a Magpul version but was torn on what color of polymer to get. Then I saw that they had red wood and the red is deep in color.
I wanted to get an AK pistol before they were banned/restricted. (Sorry, I’m not interested in AR pistols at this time, although that may change; at one point, I wasn’t interested in 1911 nor AKs.)
I’m not sure when this will be arriving, as I ordered it the Wednesday (night) before Labor Day. It may arrive this coming Tuesday or Wednesday.
As well, I tried to order a PSA AK-V (9mm AK pistol), but I spent too long trying to decide between it and the Century Arms NAK9X…I tried to add the AK-V to the shopping cart and found that someone already bought it…it was the last one. :/ So, either I wait for more to be available or I get the NAK9X. I wanted the PSA due to it’s warranty, but they are very similar. I believe the PSA is cleaner. Neither have been heavily reviewed. I can actually wait on this purchase. Maybe I can find something cheaper than these two, like a decent Draco with a tube brace.
UPDATE – 9/2: Well, it actually shipped today (9/2/19), although UPS says it’s not shipped yet — only the shipping label has been created. It’ll actually ship tomorrow, probably (9/3/19). This is so that people have an idea of how fast PSA ships firearms. I ordered the night of 8/28. That was a Wednesday night. It is currently Monday (Labor Day).
UPDATE 2 – 9/3: And, it really shipped today; so sayeth UPS. It’ll be here on Thursday (9/5).
UPDATE 3 – 9/7: It is here (I picked it up yesterday) —
