I did a little night shooting this weekend and it was a lot of fun. I was shooting steel silhouettes at 75, 100, and 120 meters in full darkness using a mid-1980's Russian NSPU 1PN34 night vision scope mounted on a Russian made Arsenal SGL-21 in 7.62x39mm. The ammo was cheap Russian Tula FMJ from Walmart. Everything worked great…except…

The Tula 7.62x39mm. has a huge flash and the Arsenal SGL-21’s AK-74-style muzzle break does nothing to hide it. The flash was so bright the light safety switch inside the scope was tripping and whiting out (greening out) the view to prevent light damage to the tube. The rounds hitting the steel and shattering also caused massive sparking that left streaks and splashes in the reticle for 1-2 seconds per shot.

So I need an effective AK flash hider and some commercially available 7.62x39mm. that does not flash as much as Tula.

Any recommendations?

I already have some Golden Tiger. I’ll try that next time out.

The military surplus may have less flash .

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Get a Vortex flash hider.

Golden Tiger or M67 Yugo won't be nearly as flashy, whereas Tula/Herters is known for thermonuclear eye sizzling flash.

As far as flash hiders go, there are tons of them out there, from old classic designs to modern ones; the best working ones seem to be 3 or 4 pronged models like the Krebs, Vortex and Manticore Eclipse just to name a few.

The Golden Tiger has the least amount of flash from what I've tested. 3 Prongs work good, but the if they sell the 4pc Krink in your thread size, that's a flash killer.

I have some Golden Tiger and some Yugo M67 I'm to try next time. Hopefully they flash less. I'm also going to switch out the muzzle brake for one of the Bulgarian flash hiders at K-Var. The Vortex's are great but I don't think they come in a 24mm thread for AK.

I really like the Manticore Eclipse, you should give them a look too.

M67 will be your ticket.

Good low flash from what I've observed - this even out of a Draco (still some flash )

Yup..M67...you want actual military ammo as it has flash retardants, commercial stuff....not so much.

Mega flash hider

The Bulgy 4 piece doesn't work quite as well as the Krebs, and it's also heavier; check out this video review:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHUst1Ivzlo

Here is the Eclipse at work, also with Golden Tiger in another of Buffman's reviews:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3rc0Xa15YY

Here again on a flame throwing f/a M92:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuzoiLKAFwA&feature=youtu.be

UPDATE:

I did some more night shooting this weekend. I kept everything the same except for the ammo. This time I used Golden Tiger and it flashed much less than Tula. My night scope only flashed out a few times, mostly when I was in the prone. The GT also sparked a little less than the Tula but still left streaks in the reticle.

Overall the Golden Tiger was a huge improvement though.

Next time I will try to replace the AK-74-style muzzle brake with a flash hider. I'm leaning towards the Manticore.