DS Arms RPD Carbine Review
By mliann22

My background information is I work as a quality engineer in a manufacturing plant with a mechanical engineering degree. Entire package comes in a Giant cardboard Box. My FFL dealer had it back ordered about 10 weeks before he received it from his distributor. Box contains rifle in Plastic Case, two drums with belts (cosmoline removed!) and carrying bags, B&T vertical grip pod, Saw bag adapter, Soviet era cleaning accessories / tools, soviet era gun sling and soft case.



Initial Impressions

Rifle appears to be extremely solid and well-built from a Polish part kit (Oval 11) using a DS Arms semi receiver. The finish is very nice and appears to be a solid single shade of black. Rail system is solid. B&T grip locks up to the rail easily with the throw lever and does not rattle. Some grease under the mounting system where the drums lock into the receiver. Additionally, some white grease under the flash hider / brake combination. See picture below. It rubs off but I was surprised to see it. Turns out, the flash hider / break is welded to the barrel at this spot. Not sure why DS Arms decided upon this unless the barrel is under 16” per NFA regulations.



One thing I notice with the rear sight is that the gap for the windage adjustment is larger than the actual sight apparatus and I can easily look through it and think I am looking through the rear sight apparatus. See picture below.



I added an Eotech EXPS 2.0 to the front rail. Pretty easy to quickly get a sight picture.

Overall length of the rifle from front of the muzzle device to rear of the stock is 36 and ¼” with stock fully collapsed and 40 and ¼” with stock in last (6th) position. Rifle comes with a Vltor mod-stock and it is a very nice stock. Extremely lightweight and has a very good check position. Has a quick disconnect swivel mount for a sling. I suggest a sling that is well padded and wide.

Rifle Manual is extremely nice and is in English. Manual discusses rifle Inspections, Assembly and disassembly, testing and accuracy qualifications, and even the operation of the rifle. One thing I noted was the firing positions on the gas regulator. Level 3 is to be used if the rifle is dirty. Level 2 is for the first 1,500 to 1,000 rounds. After that, the rifle is to be used on the Level 1 setting. I have heard that the RPD is tough on itself so I would suggest turning the regulator down as suggested.

RPD Shortcomings

Being one of the first light machine guns, there are some disadvantages in the RPD design from my perspective. Besides the rear sight, a full 100 round belt and drums weighs around 5 pounds and with the stock fully closed is 18 inches away from the rear of the stock. It makes the rifle very heavy and acts towards the front of the rifle even though this Carbine has a fluted barrel and other weight saving parts. The safety level wiggles a tiny bit up and down. The dust covers cannot be used when a belt is loaded into the gun. The feed side dust cover can also get into the way of loading and locking the drum into place.

ATF rulings make this normally open bolt gun a closed bolt semi with a striker. One thing I noticed is if the charging handle does not slide into the forward position, the bolt is probably not completely closed on the rifle. This may cause weak primer strikes.

DS Arms

Like I stated in the beginning, the finish and build quality of this rifle appears very nice. The modern stock options and pistol grip are very nice features. The accessories are very nice as well.

The B&T vertical grip pod is made from injection molded plastics. It appears to be ultrasonically welded together down the middle. The throw lever is metal. I am a little concerned placing so much weight on the injection molded arms but I haven’t broken it yet. The Saw bag adapter is made out of metal and is a solid piece. Without a Saw bag, I was unable to try it out. The rail system mimics the assembly of the original hand guard split down the middle side to side not top to bottom. No slop or movement in the rails.

Only two things I currently see with the rifle are really only an appearance issue that you would have to search to see. First, the disassembly bolt’s bottom is not flush with the receiver and sticks up a bit, see pic below. Second, the feed tray is tight and there is some wear do to the metal to metal contact.



Testing – Pre-range

Before taking this rifle to the range, I checked a couple of things on the rifle. First, I made sure that if I held the trigger down; the Striker would stay in the rear position when it was moved rearward by the bolt carrier. Second, the safety works and mechanically will not allow the trigger to be pulled. Additionally, the safety will function even if the striker is in the forward position. I also placed the bolt all the way in the front and tried to slide the bolt forwards or backwards. The locking wings appear to be holding the bolt in place.

Firing (most important part!)

I took the RPD carbine to a range Saturday 18th of February. It was a nice 50 degree day with a little bit of wind compared to the previous weekend of about 20 degrees and snowing No videos but there are some videos of the same type of rifle on Youtube, just type in RPD carbine. My goal was to test the reliability of the carbine as previous models had issues. I loaded up a belt of 30 to sight in the rifle along with two 100 round belts and a belt of 70 for a total round count of 300 rounds. All rounds were Wolf 7.62 x 39 military classic steel cased hollow points. My first thirty rounds ran flawlessly, although my Eotech sight was aimed far too high. I was at a point where I just got on paper by the end of the first belt at the 25 yard range.

The second belt I ran into my first issue. The first round failed to feed. Once I was able to get the first round into the chamber, the round failed to fire. However, after reviewing the round, it appears that the ammunition was a fault as the primer has a solid impact from the firing pin. After removing the belt and round I attempted to load and shoot the belt. Again the rounds would not feed into the gun. After playing around with the top feed cover and bolt for what seems like forever, I discovered that the error rested in the operator. I had failed to push the first link though the feed tray and it was jamming up against the bolt when I tried to charge the weapon and prevented the weapon from grasping and moving the next round into proper position.

I moved on to my other belt loaded with 100 rounds and ran through with a single fail to fire, my second. Again, the primer appeared to be well struck but the round failed to fire. Again, this appears to be an issue with the ammunition, see pic below. I was able to get my eotech sighted in. At the end of this belt, I did get a failure to eject from the last round. My only actually gun related error of my range trip.



I returned to my second belt of ammunition and when I correctly loaded the belt, the rifle ran like a sewing machine. It truly is a blast to shoot, double taps, and long bursts of semi auto fire. I did not have any issues with the last 70 round belt.

My Conclusions

Overall, the rifle is a lot of fun to shoot and I hope over the next couple of trips to see less error in the operator as I become more comfortable with my first belt fed rifle. I want to be able to prove to myself that this rifle will run error free and be completely reliable. Until I run more rounds through the gun I cannot say that the gun is reliable. Out of my first three hundred rounds, I ran into 2 ammo related issues, 1 operator error, and 1 rifle issue for failure to extract. TBH, I was expecting more rifle errors, so I am pleased with my results. I truly believe that a belt fed semi auto rifle being more complex with have more issues than a standard magazine fed rifle. However, my experience has overall been very positive. I am excited to take this rifle back out to the range

Nice write up Thanks!!

Yes nice review. I imagine once you have it broken in a little more your will have less problems with the tight bolt and feedtray. If  you need help breaking it in I'm sure you can find plenty of volunteers. LOL

This seems like a good candidate for a slide fire stock.

My original thought was adding a slide fire stock to this rifle. Here is a picture of the gun compared to an ar-15 lower. Sorry for the crappy cell phone pics.



The rpd stock starts farther back therefore the distance from the stock to the trigger is at a farther distance than the ar15. However, I think that the stock could be lenghtened at the finger trigger rest. The other issue would be clearance compared to the ar15. I would like to have a stock to see if there was any big issues before purchasing one.

Someone asked me to explain how the grip is attached to the lower. See picture below. Its just a small protruding block that uses a hex bolt. I do not believe there is any modifications to the grip. It appears to be a Tapco Saw Grip.



The trigger guard hooks into a front craddle and then is held in place with the grip.

Thanks for the pics!!

CSF

Outstanding review~!

Thank you for posting this review! What was it about the "modernized" version that appealed to you more than the more original appearing version that DS Arms sells?

(spelling)

I actually have a parts kit for an original rpd but I have not shipped it to Project Guns. Therefore I chose the modern version to have something different. Someday I will have both.

Pleas keep us updated on the possibility of the slide fire stock!  That would be freakin bad ass!!!!

McMillan Ordnance RPD Top Cover Rail by mliann22

    I purchased this new top cover rail off a gun auction site. The companies name is McMillan Ordnance. It comes in a thick plastic bag with two rivets and the rail itself. It mounts to the top cover on the right side with the included rivets. Approximately two weeks for its delivery as it is built to order.



I’ve temporarily set it on my DS Arms RPD carbine to compare it to the DS arms fore grip mount I am using. There is a slight difference to the height with the new rail being slightly lower that the fore grip. I like the height of this new rail better as it gives a nice comfortable check rest with a primary arms micro dot with fixed base. It does not co-witness in case you were wondering but lines up well.



    The design appears to be well thought out. The rail’s base has a relief cut in for the back where the top cover’s lock slides back and forth to open the cover. It is also relieved with an angular cut in the front for clearance to where the top cover’s surface as it rises. The cover has one more relief – a circular hole to allow the top cover’s rivet to not interfere with the base.



The one spot where there could be a clearance cut is where the charging handle folds up. It’s not necessary but might make the handle easier to grab and fold down.



Overall, I am happy with this product but I hope to have more information about using this cover in the future but it will have to wait for my next rpd build.

+1

AWESOME...  Been pondering this for a while with my whole bump-gun build.

I think you have it mixed up a bit. The slidefire stock doesn't need to get longer. It's already as long as an A2 stock on an M4 tube. It might need to lose some meat in the diagonal area that connects the grip to the stock though...

I bet it could be done, and if I had the money for it, I would get right on it.

Good luck!!!

Length is an issue for the grip location. You are correct about the stock length. The bad part is that area seems pretty important for its strength but I could wrap it with carbon fiber.

Frankly, I don't see the issue. I have the SSAR-15 slidefire and I can take a pic of it with unmounted next to the AR and a tape measure. I think the bigger issue is going to be on the Y axis.

I will take some pics here soon when I have my bump-SAW thingy out of the safe.

Thanks, that would be a big help!

Handled an RPD just like the OP's today. A slidefire is not going to work due to the height of the sock tube vs the trigger (Y-axis issues).

BUT......

It would be SUPER easy to make your own bumpfire stock. Like freaky-easy.

Go on...

On the version with the AR tube, you would only need a stock like a VLTOR where you could thru-bolt some modest square or flat stock steel. The difference is that it would be 100% stick straight meaning you could use something really strong.

Think like broadband8's archived thread.

Ive already been thinking in my head for when my rpd comes.

Well...... If you need slidefire that you aren't afraid of modifying to make work on your gun, I have just the stock for you...............cheap.

Wow!! Hope that didn't hurt anyone. I'll pm u for details.

OP: Have you considered using one of those BMF Activators just for the fun of it?

I really don't think it would be hard to do a home made bump stock mod to one of these.  How is the trigger?  A short reset is nice to have when building a bump gun.



There are some home made bump stocks in this thread if your looking for some ideas on how to do it.

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/1641834_Slide_Fire_haters__The_OFFICIAL_bumpfire_stock_hate_thread_.html

If you don't mind me asking, how much does that rail run? Also, do have a link to the company? I tried Google, and wasn't able to find any.



Thanks!

I haven't seen these advertised on gunbroker at all since I bought mine. I think they might of had issues as my rail spacing is actually off (dimensionally the width of each slot is too wide) . So my acog mount actually half sits off the rail. Good luck with your search.

Oh well.



How do you like the railed forearm? Do you notice much change in POI when your mounting an optic on it?

With this eotech having such a high sight above bore it required quite a bit of adjustment to zero (I feel a red dot is the best for this rail). However I haven't noticed much in terms of poi changes during shooting when it gets hot or over time. Hope this helps. However a slide fire may change this opinion.

I'm thinking that the longer 308 slide fire if I can get past the vertical fit problems might offer the best chance.

I am currently working on a slide fire using spare stocks and grips lying around. The problem i am running into is the length of pull on the trigger.

good luck! Let us know how it turns out!