North American AK "Alpha Trainer" - the 5.56 Russian Ammo-pocalypse Savior-ish

This episode was brought to you by Slate Black Industries. For M-LOK grips and accessories, visit slateblackindustries.com. Welcome back to Ninehole Reviews. Today's video is an homage to anyone who's ever been scrolling through the forums, looking at photos of elite units on deployment, heck even just watching a war film and thought, whoa, what firearm does that guy have? And then gone down a rabbit hole to identify an ultimately clone or pseudo-clone said build. Spent well in excess of what would be considered normal, and then, once the firearm was finally assembled, ultimately just changed it up anyway. Yes, today's video is the story of my 5.56 Kalash, its origin, and some of the technical details surrounding how it fits into the current landscape of the USAK marketplace. That is, how a 5.56x45 Kalash, built out with a modernization kit of sorts, in an SBR package, makes sense, or doesn't. Let me take you back to the beginning. The inspiration for this build came about during the AK-9er project, another 5.56 Kalash that we've previously brought on the show on several occasions. During filming for that project, I spent a good deal of time behind the 5.56 gun and also got to do some digging into the source imagery and the like. Henry and I stumbled across this photo from Kalashnikov Concern, of an AK-102 build which utilized a very unique rail system, not the Zeneco system most people would think of when thinking AK-alpha style rifle. From the first time I saw it, I've always loved this build, and from what felt like this picture alone, I launched my whole project to create a short-barreled Kalash. After debating chopping up my factory-original Bulgarian 104FR, and thankfully being talked out of that by Henry, I approached our gunsmith Mike from 19CharlieTactical. Now, there's no sugarcoating any of this. While the AK-9er was a true Russian gun from the Ishmash factory, my 5.56 Kalash has got a bit more of a frankengun vibe. We might just say its parts list is… diverse. As many know, true imported AKs and parts kits are getting harder and harder to find, based mainly on importation bans and lack of supply from some of the remaining routes. As such, Mike and I opted to forego the traditional clone-correct build for an Alpha AK and instead produce something that would constitute more of a trainer or user-grade firearm. We started things off with a stamped DDI receiver, Bulgarian front trunnion, Russian 5.5mm hinged rear trunnion, Romanian parts kit, and a US-made 1-9 twist 12.5-inch barrel. After Mike worked his magic, the guts of the build were sorted. Next, I was on the hunt for the unique rail system from the Kalash Concern Expo build. After some research and subsequent disappointment in finding the rail wasn't commercially available, I managed to find it for sale from a distributor I'd never heard of before, and frankly can't remember the name of now. Of course, located in Israel. We ID'd the rail as the TDI-X47 system. This three-piece allows for optics mounting over the receiver without adjustments to the dust cover, along with an upper-railed gas tube that sits over the original gas tube and is rock solid based on its attachment to the receiver and lower handguard. This rail took quite a while to find and over three months to get in hand here in the US once purchased. All in all, from our shooting of the setup, the rail seems to be extremely solid and effectively held zero, both for the optic and the aiming laser, for which we had chosen an EOTech EXPS and a PURST 4 Gen 2 respectively at the time. But as I mentioned in the onset of this video, even after half a year of back and forth from start to finish, once completed, I inevitably did what we've all done and made some further adjustments to the configuration of this firearm. Ultimately, I've settled on the SLR Rifleworks rail and gas tube for the front end, with a Texas Weapon Systems top cover. Since the configuration has changed over time, you'll actually be seeing some footage of both setups throughout this video. Now, this is as good a time as any to discuss, and yet, rifle is fine. For the uninitiated, this is the internet or gun formattage that proposes the AK rifle, in its natural, original configuration, is the best configuration. And, quote, if you want to hang a bunch of rails on an AK, you should just buy an AR. So, what do we think about that? Well, there's always an element of truth in every good bit of lore. Would an AR suffice in a similar configuration for functional equivalence or even superiority? I think so. But it doesn't then follow that the purposeful addition of such modernization equipment or kit isn't needed or desirable on the Kalash. When we look at what the SSO, FSB, or other elite units are doing to their AK setups, they are indeed modernizing them into a configuration which usually includes some form of a shortened down barrel in the 12.5 inch range, the addition of a telescoping, folding, and adjustable stock, extended controls, modernized pistol grips, optics, lights, lasers, and the rail systems required to mount these tools. Basically, all of the same things you'd expect to see making up a Mark 18 or similar firearm employed by US special forces. So, with that said, what have we added in terms of ergonomic upgrades and accessories to improve the system's capabilities? Well, starting at the butt and moving forward, we've got a Voltor carbine stock on a Meridian Defense hinged buffer tube. This particular bit was hand fitted and installed by Meridian since the original hinged tube we tried had an inexcusable amount of movement at the hinge that developed over time. The Meridian tube, however, has been rock solid. The pistol grip you see here is from US POM. It's my personal preferred grip and I tend to like the size a bit better than the original AK pattern. You'll notice extended fire controls and ALG AK trigger. For the optics, most will know me as fairly snobby and normally selecting Aimpoint or EOTech, but the Holoset micro dot with the ACSS reticle is something I've been testing and liking enough to keep in place on this build. The feel is similar to the dot and donut of the EOTech up close, but with a much crisper reticle and in a much smaller footprint. Out on the handguard we've got the Slate Black Industries vertical grip and rail panels to provide positive ergonomics for hand position to manage recoil and activate the white light and laser units while also staying off the hottest parts of the AK as much as possible. The muzzle is topped off with a dead air brake which acts as the suppressor host for the Sandman series of Now before we get to performance, why did we end up choosing 5.56? Well, in part it was part and parcel to the original rifle Kalashnikov Concern had built, which we were replicating for this build initially. Second, it was a means to ensure access to a wider variety of plentiful domestic ammunition, and wow has that become very relevant as of the summer of 2021. And lastly, it was a means to explore the 5.56 AK further. We've been intrigued with the chambering in the Kalash platform since our restoration of the AK-9r and getting hands on the Polish Beryl. We've heard sporadic commentary over the years that 5.56 Kalash systems simply don't work, and this was a means to further test the concept. I will say, unlike Henry's 5.56 AK which manages to handle pretty much any magazine we throw in it, I have seen this rifle to be a bit more finicky with magazine selection. When building the rifle, our gunsmith Mike utilized a 7.62 receiver and contoured the magazine well to appropriately accept the Beryl 5.56 magazines. As a result, I have seen the bullet angle coming off some of the other magazines, that being other brands of magazines, not being sufficient to reliably feed. Probably something we'd be able to tweak in the shop, but since I've got a mini stockpile of Beryl mags, I've not gone to make that adjustment at this point. Henry and I are both aware that this is one of the major points of concern that people typically go to regarding 5.56 AKs, so we wanted to mention it. So how well did it shoot? Shooting .55 grain ball ammunition, the firearm grouped a 4.5 inch 9 shot group. Yeah, that's kind of on the wide side, even for Kalashnikovs. We've got a fairly comprehensive video exploring AK accuracy on the channel if you want to see some additional data on that, but 2.5-4 inches is what we've seen across a sample of 10-15 tested rifles for 9 shot groupings. For this particular accuracy test, we shot groups with the Dead Air Sandman K Suppressor attached, and then we shot secondary groupings without the can, which measured in similarly with no material differences in group size. After our base accuracy tests, we stretched the firearm out to 450 yards. We were able to record 450 yard hits with an EOTech attached, but the performance dropoff was notable after around 350-400 yards. Based on the group size we were printing on paper, the hit consistency we were seeing makes sense for the reduced size targets we generally shoot at. We ultimately did record hits out to 500 yards on a reduced size IPSC target, but those hits were not consistent. This runs in contrast to the accuracy we were able to achieve out of Henry's Gordon Carbine build, a rifle which also runs a 12.5 inch barrel in the same chambering, but easily cleared out to 500 yards with much less issue. So how well did the platform handle at close range? Well, 5.56 out of an AK is already exceptionally controllable, and for this build we added a little extra juice under the hood with the inclusion of a K&S adjustable piston. As such, we were able to tune the system for the increased back pressure of the can, and keep things extremely controllable with or without the suppressor attached. With the ALG AK trigger, we ripped on the blaster as fast as possible, printing repeatable alpha zone hits between 10-15 yards in repeatable long form strings. You can see the difference in terms of recoil pattern between the brake and the suppressor, with the brake having a tighter pattern despite the added weight of the can aiding with some form of recoil control. Some further points to note are the effectiveness of the extended controls. The Kreb safety allows for the manipulation of the safety without breaking the firing grip, and the addition of the Zenitco bolt knob certainly aids in racking of the action, especially when performing a reload and reaching under the firearm with the support hand. While covering ergonomics, it's worth referencing that when utilizing an optic mounting solution and needing to clear a laser unit at the 12 o'clock position with your red dot, the height of the sight is then going to become quite high over the bore, and the shooter will have to use the bottom of their chin as a reference point against the buffer tube, opposed to the cheek. This is similar to our experience in other Kalash systems, such as the Beryl, where you get more of a chin weld than cheek weld based on the optic selection and mounting solution. On one hand, this allows for a much more heads-up style of shooting, but consequently, consistency in recoil management can be lost to a degree. You'll notice that even in the updated configuration though, I've opted for a standard height mount as I've been growing more and more accustomed to the heads-up style of shooting over time. Ultimately, the close-range performance of the firearm is tip-top as far as I'm concerned. It's an extremely fun project, and one which I'm excited to continue training on in spite of the challenges that have recently arisen with 539 ammunition. I hope you enjoyed coming along on this journey with us, and be sure to let us know in the comments section below the most similar pet project you've had over the years. Until next time, we'll see you on the range. 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