2. I bought it from a pawn shop for a ludicrously low price (@$300.00 all told). Reason for low price: Whoever installed the RedStarArms bullpup kit (no longer being produced, now, it seems) screwed the pooch sideways without lube. The front sight extension was improperly installed, and the lockwork failed to function correctly.
I took it home, popped the receiver cover plate, and looked at it for about an hour (bear in mind - this is the first AK47 I had ever operated on, and I had no assembly diagrams for reference). It became plain to me why the lockwork failed: the "shepherd's crook" was reinstalled upside down, thus failed to retain the hammer and sear pivot pins. Easy fix.
I also noted that, due to the same incompetent installation, the trigger extension wire was FUBAR. I clipped it, untempered the clipped end, bent it into a hook, retempered it (crudely, I should note), and replaced a length with braided stainless wire, and added a 40tpi screw to the length for a trigger adjustment. That took about 30 minutes, most of which in-transit to and from the local hardware store, and cost an additional $2.40.
I then went out to try it out.
I did a complete dry functions-check, then locked it to a bench and remote fired it, then did a shouldered test run.
At this point, it became clear that the rear sight aperture was designed for a longer eye-relief than possible in a bullpup configuration. As a result, the front pin was about as lost in the ring as a worm would be in a subway tunnel.
Accuracy was impossible.
So, I whipped out my dremel tool and cut the damned front sight off. I wish I had realized in advance that the front sight mount also housed the muzzle-cap retention pin, but oh well... it came off, too. I intended to put a muzzle brake on it anyway, so no-harm-no-foul.
I then dismounted the kit's rear-sight assembly and mic'ed the living hell out of it.
Using those measurements, I designed this:
It is a picatinny-derived (abbreviated) dovetail optic sight mount designed to mate tightly to the remaining frame elements of the original rear-sight assembly of the gun itself. It is held in place by a roll-pin and one screw, so the mating-surface tolerances had to be pretty damned tight for the sake of rigidity and durability. I made it out of t6 aircraft aluminum alloy on a bridgeport vertical mill. I had to tap it into place with a mallet, it is so tight. It is now basically integral to the gun.
During my initial live-fire test, I noticed that the weapon ejects spent brass a good 45 feet over a 30 degree arc. I don't like that kind of messiness... too hard to police it up. So, I decided to build a brass-catcher (which leads to the next section of this tome).
3. I have done a great deal of custom fabrication and modification to the kitted weapon. I had to.
As you can see from the picture, below, the rifle has a forward-mounted charging handle with a long guide-channel. The handle itself is a temporary rig which I shall be replacing with a less obtrusive and rickety bit of work ;)
That handle was made necessary by the brass-catcher (made from sheet aluminum with fiberglass outer shell, and was an absolute pain in the ass to build - had to test and test and test and test and test to get the right combination of angles so that the casings wouldn't bounce back in through the ejection port and jam the gun...) which, of course, made it impossible to use the original cocking lever on the rifle's bolt.
*sigh...*
anyway, I designed, fabbed, and mounted that assembly to the pistol-grip frame.
What remains is a total redesign of the fore-end, to include a tactical flashlight, a laser indicator, and a collapsing bipod.
It's a hobby... and it keeps me off the streets :)
4. it is not particularly loud - I can fire it without ear protection and not have my ears ring as a result. I would not do so for target practice, but it is nice to know that I can use it for its design purpose without either wearing plugs or blowing my hearing to hell.
Oh, and that muzzle brake? Made by Bushmaster, and DAMN does it make a difference in felt-recoil and climb!!!