The AK74 | AKs74 and the 5.45x39mm: the Soviet response to the M16 (Feat. Maxim Popenker)

This video is brought to you by Slate Black Industries. For grips and accessories, visit slateblackindustries.com. Welcome to 9 Hole Reviews. This is the first of two parts of an AK-74 special where we discuss the foundation of the 3rd generation Kalashnikov in its 5.45x39 cartridge. We'll hear from the Russians directly on the design principles and test it ourselves. We will then look at some major changes between the base model AKM to the AK-74 and look at some of the major shifts in employment philosophy. The subsequent part 2 will then be dedicated towards interesting issued optics, accessories and the modernization kits to the AK-74 platform in Russia and in North America. It was the 1960s when America was embroiled in the Vietnam conflict and made the decision to switch from the M14 to the M16 series of rifles. Despite rocky starts with the implementation of the weapon system and associated ammunition, the M16 entirely reshaped the NATO doctrine of a universal infantry cartridge to a light intermediate cartridge. The Russians silently watched as the new US M16 went against the intermediate 7.62 family of weapons such as the Kalashnikov, the SKS and the RPD. The M16 increased the American troop mobility, the ammunition carrying capacity and showed that the high-velocity lightweight 5.56 cartridge was able to create some very nasty wounds on unarmored targets. The Russians started to plan. Of all the weapons in the vast Soviet arsenal, perhaps one of the more iconic silhouettes would be the Avtomat Kalashnikov, folding model of 1974, more commonly known as the AKS-74. Its low-curve magazine, containing the high-velocity low-recoil and low-weight 5.45 cartridge, is a concept that many fighters love. An elegantly simple seven-pound amalgamation of forged steel and plywood, it retains the AKM's reliability, simplicity and brutal efficiency. It will function, whether it's in the cold Siberian banks, the muddy Chechen tank tracks or hot Afghan dunes. It's so easy to use that conscripts can use it, and they do. The Soviets pressed the rifles into Afghanistan and the Afghans loathed it. But at the core of it, it's a cartridge that makes this rifle so unique. So what exactly were the Russians trying to do with their new 5.45x39 cartridge? Enter Russian military historian and founder of modernfirearms.net, Maxim Popenko. The original idea behind this cartridge was basically to catch up with the Western world, with NATO, especially the United States, who extensively used 5.56 NATO cartridge, which was much lighter and flatter shooting and had less recoil than both 7.62 Soviet and especially 7.62 NATO cartridges. In late 1959, the Soviet military obtained the first examples of the .223 Remington cartridge, which has been tested by American military. So first thing first, Soviet engineers replicated the cartridge using locally made new bullets and the case from 5.6 hunting cartridge based on the 7.62x39 cartridge. So back in 1960 and 1961, this new cartridge has been tested and it has been found that it produces less recoil, it is flatter shooting and it is lighter. So as an assault rifle cartridge, it has much potential. It must be noted that Soviet military considered burst fire as a primary mode for employment of assault rifle, not a single shot. So the primary goal was to decrease dispersion in full automatic firing shot bars, not to produce maximum accuracy in single shots. The Soviet designers tested a 6.5 millimeter cartridge and even smaller 4.5 millimeter cartridge. The 4.5 millimeter cartridge had very little recoil, but its lethality was very minimal and effective range was also not so big, so it has been rejected. With a 6.5 cartridge, which was quite similar to current 6.5 Grendel, it has been found that it has recoil very close to the older 7.62 cartridge, so in full automatic dispersion is still too big. By the mid-60s, it has been decided that 5.6 millimeters is the way to go and after much experimenting with different cases, different bullet shapes, different design of a bullet core, the Soviet designers settled on more or less on existing design. It results in two important features. First, the case is lighter and the cartridge itself is much lighter, 50 percent lighter older 7.62 cartridge. And second, there is no way you can load a 7.62 cartridge into 5.45 rifle. No way. It simply will not chamber. Otherwise, it's possible. You can chamber 5.45 cartridge in a 7.62 rifle. It will probably fire, but there will be no catastrophic malfunctions. Just bullet will went sideways and probably you will have an erratic ejection of the case, but it will not be dangerous for a gun or for the shooter. It has same case length as an older cartridge. The base diameter is about one millimeter smaller than 7.62 cartridge. You can see the bullet is significantly longer than NATO standard bullet, so it has a better ballistic shape. So even if the muzzle energy is smaller than similar NATO cartridge, at a longer range, the ballistically better bullet. Longer, better optimized for medium range shooting. It also has a three component core design. So it's B metal steel, black red steel jacket, initially mild steel core and a thin lead filler, so the bullet can be squeezed by the rifle. The 5.45 millimeter armor-piercing ammunition has better penetration because of higher velocity and smaller diameter of penetrator. It has more tight paper than a NATO cartridge, so it's easier to eject it, especially with steel cases, which are cheaper and lighter than the brass cases traditionally used in the West. Now if we were to go from front to back on the AKS-74, we can point out most of the updates from the AKM. We start with a massive new muzzle brake, an extremely effective brake in decreasing recoil while not pushing too much flash at night. Neither does it push too much concussion back towards the shooter. The 90 degree gas block is typically one of the most evident front end changes. AKM vent holes are now deleted and the retainers are updated. The ribbed dust covers stay. The Bakelite magazine cuts down on weight, but then the AKS-74 models have a new distinctive folding stock that makes it much easier for mechanized infantry and armor crews to dismount. Lastly, the N-model AK-74 rifles are now capable to take night vision devices, which would later turn into a universal optics mount. In short, the decreased recoil, lowered weight, increased ammunition carrying capacity, truncated size, with some quick mount optics rails integrated, and increased fighting distances were all points for the Russians to implement through the updated system. So how well did it actually work? Now take note that despite how Josh likes to turn everything he owns into a space gun, our Bulgarian SLR-104 does reflect the original performance of the AKS-74, as these were direct data transfer factory built rifles. So they were built on the same blueprint, tooling, and standards as the early Afghan war era AKS-74s. Since recoil reduction was a main design feature, we were keen to seeing how it would perform on the recoil test. 2 or 3 shots I just kind of let it ride and see where the recoil took it and wrote it right off to the right side of the target. Do you think we could do better? Probably. Let's go check this one. What do you think compared to the first one so far? I was tracking the sight better. Yeah. So a couple out over here, but I slowed down a little bit to make sure that I was tracking the sight, like actually tracking it in terms of making adjustments as I was tracking it. Whereas the first time through, I just watched the sight and watched it pull off to the right side, but I kept pulling the trigger. So I was kind of seeing like what a recoil pattern would look like versus how controllable we could actually make it. With ball ammunition, we've seen the 100 yard accuracy of these 5.45 rifles to be honestly very comparable to 7.62 Kalashnikov's accuracy potentials. However, perhaps some people think of it as more accurate due to its low wind drift and bullet drop. Rather than increasing a short range accuracy, the 5.45 capitalizes on its ballistic potential where it makes the difference. And indeed on a practical accuracy test, time after time, we see a low wind drift and a low bullet drop characteristic displayed by 5.45 rifles. The Russian doctrine for the full size 5.45 rifle is to hold a battle zero from zero to 400 meters with no elevation adjustments, but a belly hold for zero. A 400 meter combat hold is extremely advantageous to decreasing the guesswork required for less trained soldiers to hit or suppress a target. So we experimented by zeroing this rifle at a 450 yard target under 25 mile per hour winds and then printed it on a 100 yard target to see where the zero was. We zeroed it out there at 450 yards, which is close to 400 meters. We had very strong full value wind from nine to three o'clock position. And so we expected the grouping to be on the top left. What we're purely looking here is the drop. Now this drop is actually quite concurrent with the 1P29. What we're seeing here is essentially that drop duplicated right now. So the 400 meters zero for the Russians actually holds water. There is actual merit on why they would do that because essentially as long as you aim at your target's chest area, mid chest area, you'll hit anywhere from upper thoracic to the mid chest area from 100 all the way out to 450 yards or 400 meters. This is absolutely phenomenal seeing this duplicated. So what do soldiers who actually use the AKS-74 in combat think of this service rifle? So what troops think about this rifle? First thing first, if you have to go on foot, there is no way you will choose the bigger round or this one because single round of 5.45 weights 10 grams. Single round of 7.62 millimeter weights 16 grams. So you can carry a lot more ammunition within the same weight. It's also much flatter shooting. It has less recoil. Shoot more accurately from an unsupported position, from standing, kneeling, offhand, less wind drift, flatter trajectory, so you have better chances to hit your target, especially with limited amount of ammunition. It's probably not so accurate in single shot like the Western ammunition, but you have to consider that most of 5.45 ammunition is actually inexpensive, steel-cased, military-grade ammunition. As far as I know, most people who actually fight, you know, fail to fight, terrorists, heavy armor, criminals, so on. So people like this cartridge. It is a known fact that Mikhail Kalashnikov didn't like this smaller cartridge. He thought that 7.62 millimeter intermediate cartridge still was not fully exploited. Its potential has not been fully used in the field, but he was not a ballistic, to be honest. He was a gun designer. He was not a fighter, but still for military use, this is a perfectly adequate cartridge. In my opinion, and in the opinion of many people who actually used it in the field. And shortly after the release of the AKS-74, Russia went to war in Afghanistan, and later, Chechnya. And that low recoil, lightweight, compact, and distance-capable AKS-74, indeed, defined the tactics and the heavy mechanization of the Russian infantry operations during the last year of communism. And it laid groundwork as a base for modernization, when the era of counter-terrorism and modern warfare took root. We'd like to thank Max for contributing towards our episode. Max runs modernfirearms.net and is one of the OGs in cataloging online firearms content. So we invite you to check out his website. Furthermore, we'd like to thank Small Arms Solutions in the past for loaning an AKS-74. And we'd like to thank Oxide, Ben over there, for being a good sport and chatting about various topics. Now, part two is going to be focusing on some of the optics development that the night vision rail had really enabled the Russians to delve into. And following that, of course, what happened in North America, the modernization kits that are available in North America, and some of the modernization kits. And this is a fresh package from Zenitco that we can get from the motherland. And for that topic, we're looking forward to working with Vlad and Ben over at Oxide for even more content. And so until then, we'll catch you on the range.