This is a Tabuk clone, built in the United States on a Recreator Blanks FORTY-7 receiver in 7.62x39mm around original Yugoslav parts and a Yugoslav barrel. It is not an Iraqi rifle and is not sold as one: the Tabuk identity was applied here. The rear sight block is engraved with Arabic script flanking a circular emblem containing a triangle, there is further Arabic engraving on the barrel at the gas block, and the three Iraqi selector markings are engraved on the right side of the receiver. The Yugoslav parts carry their own numbers, 20535 on the dust cover, 517117 on the barrel and 125462 on the stock. Furniture is Yugoslav wood with slotted handguards and a black ribbed pistol grip, and the front end carries the Yugoslav folding grenade-launching ladder sight and spigot. The rifle carries serial RJ207xx.
The Tabuk is the Iraqi copy of the Yugoslav Zastava M70, which was itself an unlicensed reverse-engineering of the Soviet AK-47 rather than a licensed build. Zastava made the M70 the standard rifle of the Yugoslav People's Army in 1970 and built it in the millions. From the mid-1970s the stamped-receiver M70B1 carried an RPK-pattern barrel trunnion that leaves a distinctive bulge on the forward receiver beneath the bolt handle, and the rifles kept a folding ladder sight and a detachable spigot for launching rifle grenades, the sight closing off the gas port so the action cannot cycle while a grenade is fired. Iraq's Tabuk family followed the same pattern and ran to a carbine with an underfolding stock and a long-barrelled marksman's rifle alongside the standard arm, in the same 7.62x39mm.
Specifications
Country of origin: Receiver United States, parts and barrel Yugoslavia
Configuration: AK-pattern rifle, fixed stock, Tabuk clone
Action: Gas-operated semi-automatic, long-stroke piston
Bolt carrier: Original military surplus configuration, full-auto sear trip intact
Caliber: 7.62x39mm
Serial: RJ207xx
Receiver: Recreator Blanks FORTY-7, Fallsington, Pennsylvania
Parts: Original Yugoslav parts
Barrel: Yugoslav
Authenticity: United States built Tabuk clone. The Arabic and Iraqi selector markings were engraved here and are not Iraqi factory markings.
Markings: Rear sight block engraved with Arabic script and a circular emblem containing a triangle; further Arabic engraving on the barrel at the gas block; three Iraqi selector markings engraved on the right side of the receiver
Part numbers: Dust cover 20535, barrel 517117, stock 125462
Furniture: Yugoslav wood stock and slotted handguards, black ribbed pistol grip
Sights: Front post, adjustable rear, folding grenade-launching ladder sight
The rifle is semi-automatic, and the bolt carrier group is left in its original military surplus configuration with the full-auto sear trip intact.
These rifles are built with military surplus kits and are not cosmetically perfect, as the parts have seen service. Each gun has been test fired to ensure functionality, and the rivets and headspace have been checked and are well within spec. These are not cosmetically perfect guns, and that is part of the appeal of these guns.
