Russian & Bulgarian AKSU Rifles

[jithaca]

The early production rifles had the AKM style catch and the late style ones are the AK74 style. I don't know what year the switch was made. I'll try to take a closer look at some pics and see what i can tell. Most of the time it is hard to tell from the pictures.

[jithaca]

The early production rifles had the AKM style catch and the late style ones are the AK74 style. I don't know what year the switch was made. I'll try to take a closer look at some pics and see what i can tell. Most of the time it is hard to tell from the pictures.

i have located pics of several 1986 dated rifles with what appears to be the AKM style lever. I believe I have a picture some where of a 1987 dated rifle with an AKM lever but I couldn't locate it. I would guess in the 86 to 87 time frame. Probably the same time frame for the switch on the Bolt Carriers.

[Fiorentino]

I took some pictures to show the difference between a 1986 (mid-era) Tula AKSU bolt carrier versus a late era one. The top carrier is an unissued/unnumbered late-era example, and the bottom one is from one of the 1986 (mid) dated parts kits from RGUNS. The Bulgarian AKSU's follow the pattern of the bottom '86 carrier. Does anyone know when the switch occurred?







Another difference is that the late-era carrier appears to be chrome (I'm guessing chrome) lined where the bolt slides in, while the '86 era one is not. Bulgarian carriers, like the '86 carrier that they are patterned after, are not lined.



I hope that this thread gets revived now that '86 Tula kits are in the hands of collectors.

[jithaca]

I'll get off my butt in a few weeks and update this thread. I also have some info on an 84 Tula AKSU I can add.

[StuG_1944]

Geeze dude, resize those pics in paint.

[gphilly77]

From reading this thread, it seems that the only use of vented HG's was on early production Russian Krinks...so for authenticity, Bulgarian Krink HG's would not be vented, would be solid wood and the ugly brown color, is this correct?

[Tantal]

From reading this thread, it seems that the only use of vented HG's was on early production Russian Krinks...so for authenticity, Bulgarian Krink HG's would not be vented, would be solid wood and the ugly brown color, is this correct?

Bulgarian AKSU's can have blonde, ugly brown, or a weird bright orange-red solid wood handguards that are either of a super fat profile and cross-section, or the more Russian style slimmer design. Kvar used to sell laminated wood sets for these that were made in Bulgaria, but I wonder if they were only made upon special request from Kvar and not relaly used by Bugaria on their military production. of course, early Bulgarian production of AKSU was done with full Russian parts kits, and they imported a lot of Russian lamianted wood back in the day for their earliest domestic made examples. However, it was all of the non-vented type from what I have seen. The Soviet's had stopped making vented sets a few years before Bulgaria got into the game of building their own Krinkovs.

[evolixsurf]

From reading this thread, it seems that the only use of vented HG's was on early production Russian Krinks...so for authenticity, Bulgarian Krink HG's would not be vented, would be solid wood and the ugly brown color, is this correct?

Bulgarian AKSU's can have blonde, ugly brown, or a weird bright orange-red solid wood handguards that are either of a super fat profile and cross-section, or the more Russian style slimmer design. Kvar used to sell laminated wood sets for these that were made in Bulgaria, but I wonder if they were only made upon special request from Kvar and not relaly used by Bugaria on their military production. of course, early Bulgarian production of AKSU was done with full Russian parts kits, and they imported a lot of Russian lamianted wood back in the day for their earliest domestic made examples. However, it was all of the non-vented type from what I have seen. The Soviet's had stopped making vented sets a few years before Bulgaria got into the game of building their own Krinkovs.

Tantal,

What can you tell us about when Bulgaria first started getting the tula krink parts kits to build? I am really interested in getting my hands on one of these Bulgy/tula serialized kits. It would mean getting rid of another kit to pay for it, but they really tickle my fancy.

I noticed that they just scrubbed the tula and year off the trunnion and left the rest of the serial(shown on the "bulgarian" aksu in the Tokoi book. Also, I recently saw a bolt carrier and trunnion that sold on the for sale ads which had a bulgy serial # in the tula star and year area with the remainder of the tula serial still there. I love it. Is there any other info you know about this?

Thanks!

[armakraut]

Only other photograph I've ever seen of actual russian plum krinkov grips.