This is an AKM built on a Recreator Blanks FORTY-7 receiver in 7.62x39mm, assembled around a Russian parts kit made at Izhevsk in 1969. The receiver and the gas block both carry the kit number PZ2773 beneath an arrow-in-triangle arsenal mark, and the numbers match throughout except for the recoil spring guide, a part commonly replaced. The receiver carries the correct three-position AK selector with Russian markings, and the barrel is a Polish hammer-forged, chrome-lined unit. Furniture is Russian wood with a correct bakelite pistol grip. The parts kit was in near-new condition and the rifle is cosmetically like new. It carries serial n327xx and comes with its numbers-matching original trigger pack, uninstalled, a Russian 30-round steel magazine and a Russian sling.
The AKM was introduced in 1959 as a lighter, cheaper successor to the AK-47, and the change that defines it is the receiver. Where the AK-47's was machined from a solid block of steel, the AKM's is stamped from a 1.0mm sheet with the front and rear trunnions riveted in, which took roughly a kilogram off the rifle and suited it to mass production. The chrome-lined barrel was kept, 16.3 inches long, pinned into the front trunnion rather than screwed in, and the furniture went to birch plywood laminate. Other hallmarks are the ribbed receiver cover and a single-arm hammer release with a hammer-delay device. Soviet production ran from 1959 to 1977 at Izhmash and the Tula Arms Plant before the AK-74 began displacing the type in frontline units through the 1970s, so a 1969 Izhevsk kit sits squarely in the middle of that run.
Specifications
Country of origin: Receiver United States, parts kit Soviet Union
Configuration: AKM-pattern rifle, fixed stock
Action: Gas-operated semi-automatic, long-stroke piston
Bolt carrier: Original military surplus configuration, full-auto sear trip intact
Caliber: 7.62x39mm
Serial: n327xx
Receiver: Recreator Blanks FORTY-7, Fallsington, Pennsylvania
Selector: Correct three-position AK selector with Russian markings
Parts kit: Russian, Izhevsk, dated 1969 and marked PZ2773
Matching: All numbers matching except the recoil spring guide, a common replacement part
Barrel: Polish hammer forged, chrome lined
Furniture: Russian wood stock and handguards, plum-coloured pistol grip
Sights: Front post, adjustable rear
Condition: Cosmetically like new; the parts kit used was in near new condition
Included: Numbers-matching original trigger pack (not installed), Russian 30-round steel magazine, Russian sling
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.
This rifle is built with a military surplus kit. It has been test fired to ensure functionality, and the rivets and headspace have been checked and are well within spec.
