Awesome man!  Do you plan on offering these for sale when you get them worked out?  I'd be interested.

Any updates from thread contributors? I'd hate to see this cool thread die.

Nothing much since I'm not risking ordering any more stuff from Russia at the moment. Recreator is releasing their AK-12 receivers (only took them 2 years) and initial reports are not good. Some of the dimensions are so bad that parts simply cannot fit in addition to missing some details to make them accurate to originals. If your plan was to get a blank for a build (before the August deadline), I would stick with Childers at this point.

Woops, looks like I'm late to the party
You guys have some great stuff going on in this thread, and thats a big reason I ended up taking the plunge on an AK12 myself, so thank you guys for that


And thanks very much AE for checking out the photos prior to me buying this one, I really appreciate the help. You've always been a bad ass technical resource and have done cool projects, and I believe you were the first person to actually build the 12

This AK12 turned out to be a really nice shooter

The previous builder used a reprofiled Molot RPK barrel instead of the US ones on the market and while acuracy isn't anything special compared to most 74s, (and it's not as accurate as my 105) it does have a tight zero and is very consistent. This actually is one of the nicest 74's I've ever shot TBH. It has a smooth and pleasant recoil impulse and the ALG in this one is perfect for me

Nah, I wasn't the first to build one. But I think I was first to document the parts and their differences. Even scouring Russian forums I couldn't find anything at the time. Now I find my reference pictures on Russian forums . That's a damn fine looking AK-12. Probably one of the few to have an actual Russian barrel. Can also see from the pics that they nicely dimpled the rivet holes on the receiver into the trunnions.

You did a hell of a job too and I'm not surprised your photos are making it around the world. I know the feeling when it comes to seeing my photos on Russian forums too, it means you did something right


The builder did a good job overall, but the rear trunnion cuts for the folder are noticeably terrible. Almost like the builder had never done a 5.5 trunnion (or perhaps in his defense the Childers receiver cuts didn't line up with the trunnion hardware and he did the best he could, but I find it hard to believe Childers would have botched those cuts)

If I had a builder do it that way and they sent my clone gun back looking like this one I'd have some strong words for sure. To me it's unacceptable from a collector/clone perspective, but the buyer wasn't familiar enough to know the issue and it does in fact work properly, so it probably seemed GTG from his point of view

TBH after I discovered it, I decided I don't particularly care because this is a shooter for me (just like everything else I own I guess), and I do plan to run it hard and hang it up wet to see how it holds up


The rest of the gun seems to be really nicely done, and I will give the builder credit for that. The Russian paint is not as even or perfect it could be but again no problem for me, and I think the buyer said he had about 1.5 rifles worth of paint but it got used on 2 builds, so he wasn't expecting perfection. Compared to my RPK that Two Rivers did the AK12 paint isn't nearly as nice (in fact the Russian paint work they did on my RPK is better than any factory Molot or Izhmash gun I've seen), but again in the buyers defense it was good enough and it was applied properly, just not quite thick enough to get that perfect Izzy look

The buyer used a Bulgarian BCG and a remarked Bulgarian front trunnion, otherwise it appears all Russian. So far I haven't had issues with the selector stop that 9-Hole and Herrera have mentioned, but I also haven't tested the HG return to zero yet or even the top cover return to zero yet

I'm actually optimistic about the top cover though. It's an interesting design and looks like it will work, but time will tell. The AK12 HGs are definitely straight up Russian Tapco, which is odd for Izhmash because they actually know how to do HGs right

(And if anyone has a Sport-12 kit they want to sell LMK )



The truth is I've seen worse, but this shouldn't have come back from a clone builder like this

You guys have a ton of dedication to this project. I wish the war wasn't going on so we could get more parts or technical info for these builds.

Interesting thread. I would have thought rewelds could be possible with the receiver stubs to preserve markings, but given the pin egging they wouldn't be good for anything beyond show - unless there was a way to reinforce those holes.

Suppressor testing is going well so far but I haven't seen any significantly better groups like I have other AKs and the SVD. Maybe a couple 2 moa groups with Hornady Black but most are still 2.5 to 3.5
Since this had a reprofiled Vepr barrel with 14x1L I used a Samson MFG adaptor to 1/2x28 and it seems to be working well so far (well built too, I believe their website made it out like it was intended for suppressors)

The AK12 handguard design is definitely total shit. When zeroing the laser I could get 5-8 MOA shifts just by resting the HGs on sandbags. Any pressure, even bumping with the palm of my hand would shift it by 3-6 MOA

I'm on the hunt for a Sport-12 set of HGs but til then I'm going to ditch the laser and focus only on accuracy testing

I apologize if this has been brought up already but how do you get the rear sight base off the top rail?

The base is held on by the rear sight spring that interacts with a non-removable pin in the receiver cover. If the spring isn't installed the base should slide off the rear. It was very tight on my examples.

It should be noted that once the base is off there isn't usable 1913 rail underneath.

Thanks.  Got it.

did rusweapons get taken down?

Great pictures ITT, enjoyed perusing. Too bad about Rusweapons

Any update on this? Interested as it would be rad to add to an updated AK12 / AK19 build.

Also have any idea of places that still have the LAC in stock? Def need one of those.