PSA AK-P: First Shots, First Thoughts

“AKs are outdated.”

“AKs have too much flash at night”

“But AKs can’t mount modern optics”

“..b…b-but AKs can’t efficiently interface modern enablers, like an IR laser”

Yeah, we’ve all heard it. And maybe in the past some of it was true. I’ve been an AK shooter for almost twenty years now and unlike damn near the entirety of the internet-land, I’ve run one once or twice overseas and trained and worked with not one but two nation’s armed forces on using them (Iraqi Army and Afghan Border Police) and while that doesn’t make me an all-knowing, all-seeing guru, it does give me a unique perspective into the weapon’s capability and a healthy respect for its virtues as a platform. My goal for this project is to find out what the modern AK can do- just like how we don’t look at the M16A1 as the paragon of combat capability by today’s standards when compared to a free-floated M4, what can we do with an AK?

So that said, Palmetto State Armory’s AK-P is an interesting beast. A compact, lightweight weapon with an MLOK handguard and railed topcover.

Heavier firepower than the AR, the undisputed AK reliability, all in a tight little package. Good for CQB, working in and out of vehicles, and in tight vegetation or thick woodland. But not only that, the 7.62×39 does not lose much in the way of velocity from a shorter barrel. What you do get is a lot more blast from a weapon already known for a distinctively blinding flash at night, which requires a more effective way to tame that beast. For this project I’m using a 4 Piece Bulgarian-style flash hider from CNC Warrior. It negates nearly all muzzle rise and blast, even at night, while cutting down on felt recoil as well. The PSA AK-P threads are the AK-74 standard 24×1 right hand, as opposed to the AKM’s 14×1 left hand.

In the past, many of the criticisms of the AK and modern optics came from difficulties in mounting scopes centerline to the bore. There’s a number of companies out there that have done a good job of addressing it, but all have had their shortcomings either in shift of zero or just general kludgy-ness. PSA has taken on the railed top cover and I’m happy to say that so far, it surpassed my expectation.

After zeroing the Primary Arms red dot, we opened the hinged cover and closed it multiple times. No shift was noticed, having not problem keeping all of the rounds in the head and in the A zone doing ready up drills at 50 meters.

I think its time to paint this thing. We’re gonna be working with it a lot more.