Rifle Dynamics' Red October AK 2017 - Gear Discussion & Conclusions 

It's only appropiate that Karl made a rifle imitating that of the Russian special forces and ended up shooting the hostage.

Karl has some great firearms, but really the best things he owns are the t-shirts

The weight of that modular AK is probably why the Russian MoD specified that the new AK-12 had to be the same weight as the old AK-74M but with all the new rails etc.

About the double magazine: You often see mags taped inverted, which means you have 60 rounds ready, although the reload is slightly longer because you have to flip the whole thing, you don't get in the way of the charging handle. The real downside of that is if you drop it, or fall with it in the rifle, you ARE getting that thing full of mud and even damaging the mag. When I taped ak mags I usually taped them offset, meaning that they are both the same way up, but the left side magazine is higher than the right side magazine. This means that the right side mag does not interfere with your ability to pull the charging handle, and you can use a smaller spacer so that they are overall less bulk. The one issue you may come into is that of optic mounts, if your left side magazine comes up too far when the right mag is loaded it may interfere with optic mounts. More recently I don't tape mags at all. For me personally, it isn't worth the bulk or hassle. It gives you ONE fast reload, then it gives you one slower reload as you try to get this huge double mag with a spacer into a dump pouch, because you aren't getting it back in a mag pouch quickly. I prefer single mags as I can put one back into a mag pouch faster than I can put a double in a dump pouch. Just my experience and opinion of course, use what works for you.

Karl (or Anyone), if you have problems with side to side inertia when transitioning between targets, try to drop and bring the rifle up like a U between the targets. You get less side to side inertia but might get some up down inertia but it is far easier to get rounds on target this way when transitioning.

*Finds roll over prone situation "comrades, gas!" - Karl lol that killed me

PERKELE

Instead of calling it classic call it nyet rifle is fine.

Oh I remebrer this armor. I had wear this once in russian army... It was strange. I was a weak always hungry thin 68 kilos medical squad secretary dude and there is an alarm(for study purposes) and things turn out so that here I am in this giant thing wich weights almost half om me... the amount of inertia wich it adds to your movement is colossal, and you feel like, I dont know, like you are under the wather. Good that that I was in this thing just half a hour or otherwise, deamn... And plus helmet.. I dont know is this all helmets or just this thing, but it sucks. But I must say that weight balance is not bad at all, and for people which are trained enough to wear that thing it must be fine.

When I got to the spinner on stage 2 at the end of the second day it was entirely a dull silver. I didn't even know it was orange until I saw your video. I was shooting an open sight classic AK74 (except for the grip) and once that spinner started to rock my 58 year old eyes had a hard time picking it up and I timed out. My only penalty on that stage. The targets should be consistent for everyone.

"...Weight vest for the gym." "Why not?" Spinal compression and knee blowout, maybe?

I really appreciate you showing how different military application stuff and match application stuff is. I think there may be a misconception that a match environment is similar to a military theater, and that's simply not the case. With you showing this, you've adequately shown how different the gear you need really is.

I am listening to this in the background at work not paying super close attention to it and I hear Karl say "You can only keep it up so long...". Had to rewind and listen again so I could get the context. lol, made my morning. Maybe that should be a new shirt. Karls alpha AK on a scale displaying 12.5 pounds with "You can only keep it up so long" ~ Karl under it.

Karl, avoid running with that weight if you can help it. I used to do the same thing for years, my knees have never recovered from the damage it did.

I play this video game called Escape From Tarkov. and it has so many real attachments i can literally build that exact AK in the video. and use the exact armor and helmet he was using as well

I can't tell you how much I wish I could find a Stahlhelm made for a 66cm head. My God do I envy you smaller head folks.. Top shelf video!

You guys cover the neatest stuff. Some of the comments match my own experience. Karl,watch the loads you are putting on your knees. There is a remarkable man, an Englishmen named Thesiger literally wore his out. I wrecked my knees by age 22 by way of thousands of miles on a 10 speed. They can recover some with many years,but most such damage is permanent.

Another dud round of Wolf 5.45mm this past weekend. I've amassed quite a little collection now. A 5.56mm AK is starting to sound pretty good.

Love all the match conclusion videos

Loved the gear breakdown, especially the armour. I'm looking forward to the "What would Alpha do" AK thing. Better luck next year! As for the weight vest idea, I've began doing much the same to get used to my - mind you, much lighter - Bundeswehr flakjacket. Somehow I've made the association of having armour on=doing physical stuff. It puts me into the mood to exercise, and I think such mentality can be useful for overcoming the suck that is having loads more weight on you.

I really wish you guys would do a WWKD rifle. >lightest stamped 47/74 receiver >barrel cut and muzzle device welded >bolton gas block >AKARS or TWS cover rail >Lightweight red dot >russian rail removed (yes, it does amount to weight.) >lightest stock and furniture It would be the lightest, fastest handling AK with a full length barrel.

love all the sweet russian gear!

I am going to be attending 2018's event, first time I've done something like this so really quite excited.

Also Beryl Magazines are excellent for 5.56 AK's.

I think an awesome idea for this year's match is to have someone show up Red Dawn style screaming Wolverines!

These videos are so fun to see, I really need to get into some better shape because I want to try these out.

US plate carrier with front, back, and side plates, 6 mags, ditty bag, and misc. stuff is 40-45 pounds as well.

i can relate to the mash mellow man effect of Army armor. i feel for ya carl!

Love Zenitco , any serious AK guy wants to use what Alfa guys use. 3 gun competition is just a fun sport.

The whole series was badass thanks guys

for the taped/coupled AK mags move the mag on the right down further about an inch and it makes more room for the charging handle.

Love me my ak's. Hope you guys get back to your lever action battalion idea with some rifles to go with it.

To add some support-side challenge, run that trench system both ways--if they have it next year. Thanks for the discussion and sharing your lessons learned.

They should call vanilla AKs the Ivan Chesnokov division

Been waiting for this one! :) Thanks guys

I did love this series can't wait until next year Karl is usually very calm but you can tell the first day kicked his ass and he wasn't a happy bunny Ian was in his element running around in trenches and up hills this was a good assessment I love AKs I might make a trip to America and try to compete in this sometime looks alot of fun but you guys have terrible 5.45 ammo so I can see why alot there are 556 it's probably the best way to go

I have been shooting matches with an Arsenal ak in 556 with those mags for about 8 years now. Never had a failure to feed or any other failure to fire. Not once. And I usually buy cheap Russian steel ammo.

you can turn the cheek piece around on your pt 1 so the bevel is against your face, makes it more comfy and keeps it out of the way

Very cool video 👍 I’ve noticed in movies 🎥 they wear load-bearing tactical vests but there’s no armor plates in them & the mags are empty 🙄 Drives me nuts 🤦‍♂️

That shirt is spectacular Karl.

If you tape those magazines together, you should make sure the left one is tad higher than the right one, thats how we did it(yeah not really useful when prone), allthought used sticks as spacer and leather straps instead of tape...

Keep deep divn' Karl! Never change for no-body!

Hooray for doggo. I get sad if no doggo

Top half in all - very well done guys! :)

It looked like ya'll had fun. And you can pimp out your rifle however you want but it always come back to the basics. Since you are home check out the HMG live stream at 3:30 EST tomorrow. I'll be there. Keep your powder dry and and your faith in God.

Yes! I am super Interested in Karl's Alpha AK

As for the taped mags, you gotta tape one upside down, and flip it that way. Might not be as 'fast', but due to the problem Karl mentioned with the charging handle, I'd say it's a much better way of taping 2 mags together.

Karl, is your rifle operator ready/rated?

You can also use $15 Galil magazines in your Valmet with modifications to the magazine.

*Does a Dixie Wasteworks Deep-Dive*

In Range Sponsored by Dixie Waste Works T shirt?

Lol at Karl's T-shirt

I use my plate carrier at the gym as well. It makes for a great workout.

Tell me Ian do you bleed wine ?

Great input.

With the taped mags, do you have enough clearance on the gun so you could have the right-hand mag a half inch lower than the left mag? Feels like it'd give you enough clearance to solve the charging handle problem.

So am I blind or did Karl not do that video about the "Alpha" AK yet? But didn't he allready switch out most of the parts?

You’re gonna destroy your knees Karl!

love the shirt Karl

I have some Zenitco parts on my AK. Buying that stock never crossed my mind. Maybe the Zenitco Krink stock.

Ian and Karl the 5.56 Ak mags are cool, try some polish archer ones they work just as well and are a little cheaper.

They dived too greedily and too deep, and disturbed that from which they fled, Karl's Bane.

Suomi mainittu, in the market we meet.

Ha Ha! One of my catch phrases is It's good for you; builds character!

Dwell timing is very important.

You almost got the helmet thing right, the best until the "Fritz " came out was the "East German M1945 , which was the last helmet due to be adopted by the Wehrmacht, but the end of the war intervened, so somehow they adopted the M45 , German quality and a more extreme slope to the helmet shape, and the old US helmet is all over the place when you fire your weapon, and I have wondered if these synthetic materials helmets degrade over time, Old Vietnam era Marine, infantry

LegionUSA is supposedly a good source for Zentico and other AK parts/accessories. I'm planning on doing an "Alpha" clone similar to Larry VIcker's clone just because I think his looks cool. The Zentico rails pretty much make the look of the gun so that's the only thing I've settled on so far. Haven't even decided on the base gun yet but I'm leaning toward 7.62x39 for the caliber just because guns and mags are just easier to get and cheaper.

Call that classic AK match the ''Nyet, Rifle is Fine'' division. Give the top scorer the Ivan Chesnokov trophy. Call it a day.

It'd be cool if someone ran an original sks in the combloc division.

if a combat rifle doesn't work in a match, then the match has a problem, not the rifle.

In the USMC they never shoot small space prone the reason why is a thing call ORM ( operational risk management) in other words to dangerous. Armor in the military is very subject from the people that have to use its protect vitals and go light on the other hand politicians wasn’t to show we have great protection for our troops.

Did Karl ever make that video going over the parts of his AK build I wanna make a clone of it in 7.62

Karls a Terminal Lance fan? awesome.

I'm not sure where you get the idea that stahlhelm was the most protective helmet of ww2, considering that during soviet testing they (soviets tested just about all the helmets from m16 to m42) proved to be significantly weaker than SSh-40. Also the reason why Finns went for the stahlhelm (and why smaller nations in general choose what they choose) is to do with what was available and nothing else really.

Wasn't this discussion posted like two weeks ago? I'd already heard this.

Still waiting for Varusteleka to make a Perkele-Ukelele

I love you guys. Have a off subject question, where did Karl get that shirt?

So Karl is going to start a trend of wearing surplus gear in a gym. Surplus stores have begun to rejoice!

I have been slowly tweaking the same load out for some time now. It's getting closer, but I'm still not there. Either I'm a slow learner, or gear choices are full of compromise and unknowns that crop up in unusual situations... Come to think of it, those are not mutually exclusive.

You can get a quad stack 5.45 mag from circle 10 brand name pufgun 100dollars a piece

Does no one use that DKX Dyneema Body Armor Nutnfancy raves about as gamer armor? The pistol plates are 1/4" thick and 1 Lb, rifle plates are a lot thicker but only about 3 Lb. With a pistol plate on the back and a rifle plate up front you'd have super light gamer armor.

And can you buy the InRange smock?

I have 2 valmet mags held together with a galil coupler that has the right side mag an inch lower than the left to avoid the charging handle interference. The left one does stick up a bit but does not get in the way. Prop guns are fine, just don't start the clock until you pick up your own weapon. Ian, can you show close ups of the bulgy waffle mag so we can copy the mods to make them fit valmet?? PLEASE :)

I don't think the size of the M27 IAR is an issue. Its still smaller than the M249 its replacing

When will be see a finally list for the Stoner Project!

Can somebody clarify for me what they mean when they refer to guns as "gamer", cause i'm kinda confused by what the term means in that context.

My friend ran a full auto ppsh 41

i want to do red october so bad

Perkele, what else do you need to say in a finnish costume.

Total Beginners Question. Would it make Sense to put the Laser flat on top the Rifle, befor the Red Dot?

about the jungle mag interfering with the charging handle; why not lower the right mag?

Je trouve le Kalachnikov Dinamics c'est un formidable AK , mais il a besoin de plus de développement et perfectionnement , par exemple le " couvercle de récepteur " pourquoi ils ne le rétrécissent pas Au lieux de le laisser en forme d'un arc, ils le réduisent en forme de triangle dentés comme la pyramide Maya et en haut de la pyramide du Picatinny ? Par exemple 🙂👍🎩🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️

Cant you just duct tape the second mag upside down so you just need to flip it?

offset the mag on the right down so it can clear the charging handle?

Goddamn how much does that AK weigh? It looks like something out of Terminator. Nvm just read the description. 12lbs AK lmao

Did i hear Karl say there is an ak mag somewhere in the world that costs 2500 fn dollars??? Was that for real? 😨

It's not that Russian plates are larger, it's that American civilians wear the wrong size armor so much so that the companies have changed their standards and gone smaller. At least that is what it seems to me.

Armour is suffering.

What was the rail mount for his light called again?

get a super lightweight modern armor package.