I have a Bulgy kit build that i can demill and a nodak receiver that i can get a stamp on. I have built a few of the Romy G kits  a few years ago. Now i see the US made FSB gas blocks and i am back interested in a SBR. My plan is to have the barrel cut/threaded to whatever i want. install the US made FSB and use my AAC SND 6. So if i keep the original gas system i think it will build a 104 length rifle. But what if i want to go shorter? Is there a length shorter that has some standard length parts such as gas tubes and pistons? What is the next length shorter? I would like to use as many "standard" AK parts as possible and make as few as possible.

Is this Bulgy kit a 5.45, if so, most 5.45 barrels I have seen that were cut down keyholed.

No. sorry it is a 7.62 Romy G.

The next "standard" length shorter would be an AKSU length gas system. Unfortunately, if you wanted to go that short you would either need to use an AKSU specific gas piston, rear block, top cover, and gas tube. Or cut and weld a regular gas tube to shorter length and then use an AKSU sized gas piston. If you're going to go with option 2, you could make it any size you want and then just shorten a standard length gas piston as well since you're already making the custom sized gas tube. Doing the piston shortening would require a lathe, however.

Thanks. That's good info. I don't think I want to replace all those parts with genuine import parts. I think a lot of that market is inflated price wise. But I do have access to a lathe. I think someone made US made pgas pistons. Maybe they make them krink length. Then I just cut/weld gas tube to that length.

What do you think us ideal SBR barrel length for suprrssed 7.62? I would guess around 8-9"?

I thought the AMD-65 was shorter than the ak-100 series but longer than AKSU, no?  That's what I'm using on my 12.5" build--hungarian kit, -65 barrel and piston from curtis, combo fsb/gb, -65 length ultimak.


dana, do understand that if you drill the gas port to cycle reliably unsuppressed, you'll be quite overgassed when suppressed.  likewise, if you drill for optimal gassing when suppressed, you may or may not have a properly-cycling rifle when the can is off.  it's something i'm dealing with on the above-mentioned build as well, mainly because i want to run it with the can 90% of the time, but i don't want to sacrifice reliability the other 10%.

That is true. I always forget the AMD-65, mainly because when I think of standard AK variants I think of Russian spec'd rifles that other countries then produce themselves. But yes, that would be a good intermediate. I have some handy charts from Robert Forbus that I'll post when Photobucket is back up.

Here's those graphics I was talking about:

I had a bulgy 74 kit built as an sbr. I wanted an ak105, but I wanted a shorter barrel. I had them use the amd65 gas port location and gas tube length. I also bought a 105 fs/gb combo. It turned out great. Barrel ended up around 11.5. I have 2 krinks and while they are cool, I think this 105ish sbr is probably a better weapon. It suppresses well too with a 30 cal can.

James