wz.96 Beryl: Poland's 5.56mm Military AK
Select-Fire Rifles
•
14m
With Poland's entry into NATO in the 1990s, a new service rifles was needed, chambered for the 5.56mm NATO cartridge. Initial development work had been done in 1990/91 to adapt the wz.88 Tantal to 5.56mm, and this project was dusted off in 1995 to create the Beryl. Essentially a Tantal in 5.56mm, the Beryl includes an improved folding stock, a shorter muzzle device (and correspondingly longer rifled barrel) and a new handguard design.
Initially adopted in 1996 as the wz.96, the Beryl has undergone several mid-life improvements. These include the addition of a Picatinny optics rail, collapsing stock, and improved safety and magazine release. The basic mechanics, however, remain the same as the Tantal, with a left-side selector switch allowing semiauto, full auto, and 3-round-burst firing options.
Up Next in Select-Fire Rifles
-
Project Lantan: Poland Designs a Modu...
In the early 1970s, Poland wanted to replace their 7.62x39mm Kalashnikov rifles. The Soviet Union was developing the 5.45mm AK-74, but the Poles wanted to make a more ambitious advance in small arms systems. They launched Project Lantan (Polish small arms programs were code named after minerals a...
-
Mini-Beryl: The Carbine Version of th...
Yesterday we looked at the standard Polish service rifle, the wz.96 Beryl. Today we have the carbine version, the Mini-Beryl. Specifically, we have an early example, predating several of the mid-life improvements that were made by the time the first major contract for the Mini-Beryl was placed.
-
Madsen LAR: An AK for NATO!
The Madsen LAR (light automatic rifle) was an attempt by the main Danish arms manufacturer to get into the military rifle market after World War Two (they also released a bolt action rifle around the same time, the Model 47). The first version of the LAR was chambered for 7.62x39mm and submitted ...
