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Universal AK Optics Rail from KGM Consortium (Ad-free)
🕑 Added 2024-06-30 12:00:05 +0000 UTCAt the IWA trade show earlier this year, a representative from the Polish KGM Consortium gave me a sample of a new AK optics rail to try out. This idea here was to create a universal optics mount for basically any AK/AKM/AK74 rifle that would be light, not require permanent modification, and not interfere with other military accessories like under barrel grenade launchers. The target market was Ukraine; to provide a way to quickly and easily improve the combat effectiveness of legacy Kalashnikovs by giving them modern optics.
The rail mounts to the gas tube of the rifle after removing the upper handguard. Three steel claps are used (the rest of the mount is 7075 aluminum, but the steel clamps give steel threads for the 12 screws used). For an additional point of control, the mount is designed to fit tight over the rear sight block of the rifle, thus stabilizing the often-slightly-wobbly gas tube. Since this does not use the barrel at all, the lower handguard is not involved and UBGLs like the GP-25 and GP-30 can still be used. The mount is high enough to allow easy field stripping of the rifle, and either rod dot or magnified optics can be used.
I was initially skeptical, but when mounted to my rifle (an older Century AK74 build with Was tGerman furniture) it actually seemed quite solid. Disassembly and reassembly did not cause a loss of zero. However, after I tried dropping the rifle from head height a couple times, I got a 6 MOA vertical shift in POI. KGM advised me that removing and replacing the rail/gas tube assembly would fix this, but it did not.
Despite my initial skepticism, I really wanted to like this once I started using it. And as long as it doesn't suffer a significant blow, I think it is a pretty good solution for easily mounting optics on an AK. The use of the rear sight block as a support is clever, and isolating the rail from the dust cover prevents any zero-hold issues resulting from basic field stripping. Unfortunately, the drop that caused my zero shift is not really a "torture" sort of thing to my mind; it's a totally reasonable accidental slip that could happen to anyone, and having this cause a major zero shift is a significant compromise.
Comments
Reed Gregory
come on Ian , i ain’t throwing any of my weapons down like that, and if you drop your weapon hard enough to change things, combat armor s would just put a fresh one one if it was bad enough off
Larry Schwartz
That may be so, but rivets are cheap. So I guess I still don't see the point.
EyeBall
Since the gas tube is part of this accessory, I wonder how the heat transfer to the picatinny rail is during energetic usage.
Mark H. Smith
Ah so. Well that is it then. Too bad it is not robust enough. Thank you for the courtesy of a reply sir.
Forgotten Weapons
I'm pretty sure I bent the rail; the optics appears just fine.
Forgotten Weapons
Lots of legacy Ads don't have the side rail, as it was originally only included for a small percentage of guns intended to use specialized night vision optics. The intent here is to create a no-gunsmithing mount for those legacy guns.
Mark H. Smith
That is disappointing as it does look like a possibly useful solution. A question I would have is if you do as you did to first sight in, test zero then drop, find POI shift, then REZERO, then DROP AGAIN does the POI shift AGAIN. I question is it *really* the mount and not the optic? But I am not going to do a multi-failure-mode test as I have no dog in that fight but I AM curious. Thank you for the video. Peaceful Skies.
Guido Schriewer
a littlebit high it looks. too much stuff for me. impressive it DOES hold zero though. no doubt about that! OHNO that poor ak! no droptests... ok that was quite an impact. question is wasn't lost zero the sight instead of the rail.
Robert Henry Illston
Could you intentionally “bottom out” the rail when you install it a make the loss of zero on drop less an issue?
Larry Schwartz
Seems like the Ukrainians are going through a whole bunch of hoops to not use the standard side rail mount . . .
Patrick Benjamin
Is this product better than other possibilities on the market?
John Arpin
Woujld be interesting to see if KGM comes out with a modified version in the future.
