The AK is one of the weapons that’s notorious for many things, one of them being its bright flash at night. A lot of that has to do with the powder com-bloc ammo uses, but the fact remains that the AKM puts out a huge fireball in low light conditions. For patrolling purposes, especially at night, anything we can do to mitigate that blast is an improvement. Most AKs come with 14×1 left hand threads on the muzzle along with a (nearly) useless slant break- I advocate tossing that thing as soon as you get it and replace with with something better. The Strela AK Flash suppressor is one device that makes a gigantic difference. Currently popular with both sides of the Ukrainian conflict, the muzzle device offers many benefits of a suppressor without the sound reduction (and need for NFA paperwork).

I’ve been using it for a few months now and I’m impressed with its performance. There’s less muzzle blast even in the daytime and unlike running a can on other platforms, there’s no gas in the face. We took some night video of it down at the UW Gear annual gathering. Take a look for yourself:

As I noted in the commentary, it has a single baffle to mitigate the muzzle blast. It doesn’t offer much in the way of sound reduction, but as anyone who’s fought at night can tell you, the muzzle blast will give your position away long before the sound will. Although it’s a bit heavy on the end it does cut down felt recoil, and that extra weight also eliminates muzzle rise.

They’re not cheap but I think they’re worth it. If you’re considering the AK as a go-to weapon or want to outfit one just in case, I’d pick up one. And while you’re at it, pick up some good magazines. The Russians are building 50,000 AK-103s per year just down in Venezuela…so training with an AK might not be a bad idea.

Liked it? Take a second to support us on Patreon!
Share this: