Slabs and Waffles and Bakes, Oh My! A History of Soviet AK Magazines
Russia / USSR
•
9m 33s
In recent months, a couple of interesting developmental varieties of AK mags have appeared on the market here in the US, and I figure folks might be interested in learning about the history of where and when they came from, and why they were used or not used. So today, we will look at the progression from slabside to ribbed to aluminum to "bakelite" magazines for the AK-47, AKM, AK-74, RPK, and RPK-74. Russian ones, anyway - we will leave magazines from other countries for another day!
Up Next in Russia / USSR
-
Predecessor to the Mosin: the Russian...
Before adopting the M1891 Mosin-Nagant, the Russian Empire (like most major militaries) used a large-bore single-shot rifle as its standard infantry rifle. In this case, a .42-caliber rifle designed by American General Hiram Berdan (yes, the same guy who invented the Berdan primer). As with other...
-
Soviet SVT-38 Self-Loading Rifle
A lot of people think that the US was the only country in World War II to mass-issue a semiautomatic infantry rifle, but that isn't true. While the US was the only country to issue everyone a semi auto, both the Soviet Union and Germany produced large numbers of them. The Soviet rifle in particul...
-
Soviet 122mm D30 Cannon (Firing)
The D30 is a Soviet 122mm multi-role gun introduced in the 1960s and still in use around the world today. It has a somewhat unusual 3-leg mount that is slower to set up than a standard trail, but allows for complete 360-degree rotation of the gun. The piece was designed for both indirect fire (ma...
