The Grand Inquisitor
Member
I Bought a brand new CUR 2 Romanian Ak-74 earlier in the week and I finially was able to take it out today and see how it fired. One of the main reasons I decided to jump at this specific gun was that it had come through the borders before the executive order which affected importation; so instead of a rifle with a mish-mash of parts, this rifle is 100% Romanian military parts.
I wasn't quite sure what to make of the 5.45x39 round, it seemed to me that it was comparable to the .223 at least superficially, but the main thing I noticed with the round is that it has a very long projectile, much longer than anyone I've seen before.
Throughout the week I've been handling the rifle and trying to get used to the actual feel of the rifle before I took it out, and I'm happy with the way it looks, and even though it does not have a pistol grip, I think I've become more or less at ease with the thumbhole psuedo pistol grip buttstock, and also with the open "Dragunov" style open buttstock.
I love the AK's, and I've done my best to keep up with the changes Kalashnikov's have made recently and also trying to learn as much as possible about the history of the various designs, so I was expecting the traditional Ak experiance with this 74; a mostly comfortable gun, mild to medium kick, and accurate up to 200 yards, and modestly accurate out to 300 or 350 yards.
So with this in mind I could not believe what actually firing the gun would be like. The most noticable change from the 47 to 74 is that the kick (which some people believe is strong on the 47) is very nearly non existant. The amount that the rifle kicks and the amount that the barrel lifts with each fired round is the most obvious change in the 74, I was able to fired multiple well aimed shots at a good pace because the rifle barely wanders away from the target with each round. Also, one of the faults I have always found with the AK-47's (and for that matter, the Mosin Nagant as well) is that firing the rifle for maybe 100-150 rounds or so, the rifle can become very hot, and the hand guard becomes uncomfortable to hold without gloves.
The range where my friend and I shot today is not especially orginized (actually it's state land that they have set aside for shooters to blast away at a 90-95 yard dirt range with a large berm at the back) so I haven't any targets to get an idea of exactly how accurate I was able to fire, but I was able to hit Windex bottle sized targets at about 80 yards with 3-5 rounds (could be 1 round if I was a better shot).
The rifles design is nicely ergonomic and fits me well; there have been minor changes to the actual outside furniture of the rifle (mine is wood by the way) although a few pieces have been resized or slightly modified and the rifle is a bit lighter than the 47. I used a East German light brown magazine and it may have been me not being used to loading it, but I did notice that it is a bit hard to load the magazines properly because the projectile is so long that you have to push each round back fully multiple times else it slips forward and won't allow other rounds to be pushed in - like I said though, thats probably me.
It seems to me that the Ak-74 is another victory for Mr. Kalashnikov. As far as I'm concerned the 74 is a substantial improvement over the 47 (not that say the 47 is bad in any way though) and I hope more serious shooters start buying up the AK-74's so the serious shooting world that there is a new, damn good, Kalashnikov in town.
I wasn't quite sure what to make of the 5.45x39 round, it seemed to me that it was comparable to the .223 at least superficially, but the main thing I noticed with the round is that it has a very long projectile, much longer than anyone I've seen before.
Throughout the week I've been handling the rifle and trying to get used to the actual feel of the rifle before I took it out, and I'm happy with the way it looks, and even though it does not have a pistol grip, I think I've become more or less at ease with the thumbhole psuedo pistol grip buttstock, and also with the open "Dragunov" style open buttstock.
I love the AK's, and I've done my best to keep up with the changes Kalashnikov's have made recently and also trying to learn as much as possible about the history of the various designs, so I was expecting the traditional Ak experiance with this 74; a mostly comfortable gun, mild to medium kick, and accurate up to 200 yards, and modestly accurate out to 300 or 350 yards.
So with this in mind I could not believe what actually firing the gun would be like. The most noticable change from the 47 to 74 is that the kick (which some people believe is strong on the 47) is very nearly non existant. The amount that the rifle kicks and the amount that the barrel lifts with each fired round is the most obvious change in the 74, I was able to fired multiple well aimed shots at a good pace because the rifle barely wanders away from the target with each round. Also, one of the faults I have always found with the AK-47's (and for that matter, the Mosin Nagant as well) is that firing the rifle for maybe 100-150 rounds or so, the rifle can become very hot, and the hand guard becomes uncomfortable to hold without gloves.
The range where my friend and I shot today is not especially orginized (actually it's state land that they have set aside for shooters to blast away at a 90-95 yard dirt range with a large berm at the back) so I haven't any targets to get an idea of exactly how accurate I was able to fire, but I was able to hit Windex bottle sized targets at about 80 yards with 3-5 rounds (could be 1 round if I was a better shot).
The rifles design is nicely ergonomic and fits me well; there have been minor changes to the actual outside furniture of the rifle (mine is wood by the way) although a few pieces have been resized or slightly modified and the rifle is a bit lighter than the 47. I used a East German light brown magazine and it may have been me not being used to loading it, but I did notice that it is a bit hard to load the magazines properly because the projectile is so long that you have to push each round back fully multiple times else it slips forward and won't allow other rounds to be pushed in - like I said though, thats probably me.
It seems to me that the Ak-74 is another victory for Mr. Kalashnikov. As far as I'm concerned the 74 is a substantial improvement over the 47 (not that say the 47 is bad in any way though) and I hope more serious shooters start buying up the AK-74's so the serious shooting world that there is a new, damn good, Kalashnikov in town.
