Looking into getting my first AK in the near future and was looking for some advice. It will probably primarily be a truck gun, but will also be used for plinking. I have two different options in mind: cut down a folding stock rifle length AK and pin and weld on a AK74 style brake, or just get an AK pistol. I have a suppressor (Rex MG7K with Griffin Plan A mount) but as I understand it AKs can be finicky to suppress and it wouldn’t have the suppressor on in the truck most of the time anyway. Anyone done anything similar that can give some recommendations? I already have an 16 and 11.5” 5.56 and 9” 300Blk so I thought a P/W at  14” or whatever the minimum length with the 74 brake is might be something nice and different.

If you’re going to hack up an AK and don’t care about it get a PSA.

That’s the plan, hoping to snag a GF3 for $700 or so

https://palmettostatearmory.com/psa-ak-104-classic-side-folding-rifle-with-pinned-and-welded-extended-booster.html

I already bought a PSA AK-103 but I'm thinking if I were to do it again to consider the rifle linked above.

Or just an underfolder from your county of choice would work as well.

I like that, it would be perfect if it had the 103 brake.

If it had a AK74 style brake on there then I would be much more interested. I believe the krink brake is designed to have more back pressure to cycle the bolt on short barrels.

PSA does have a pistol version that may work for you as well. You can remove the krink brake and add the AK74 brake if you wish.

AK's are worth too much money to let roll around in my truck anymore, so I use an AR now, cheap trash-can gun anyway so I don't care how beat up it gets.

Best post of the thread. Edited*** (apologies to the OP for my dumb sense of humor)

Been a looooong time coming on this site, and I will admit I got an inordinate amount of joy from posting it.

But also 100% true, my AK's are all worth like 2 grand now, the AR's not so much.

I don't hate 'em though, built 'em myself and enjoy shooting them, and they're cheap to fix and replace now so there's that.

Fair enough, I edited the end of that. I have a poor sense of humor!

My truck gun is an AR pistol… using an Adams Arms upper. The piston rod bent early on (bad heat treatment), so had to send the complete upper back for repair. So, having an AK-P, I just tossed that in there and swapped the pouches on my vest for AK magazines (Federal L/E, so a truck gun for me is more of responding to a “crazy guy shooting up a Walmart” gun).

My AK-P is the one with the triangle folder. Great gun, and size is perfect for that role. Here is a shot of it folded compared to my AR… which now has a LAW folder on it (going into suppressors, so wanted to give me some extra room).



The biggest benefit of the AK-P, can effectively shoot it folded. I don’t leave a round in the chamber, so not able to fire the AR without deploying the brace, then chambering. Used to consider that a bad thing, but I always have a handgun on me, so I can send lead down range if need be. Took me awhile to come around to the LAW folder, but glad I did… as it is a good product.

My biggest issue with an AK truck gun, probably more due to being in northern ME… and I get that we argue this with majority of the gun legislation… but it looks like a bad guys gun. Well, how about it doesn’t look like someone in L/E’s gun. I had a few coworkers BSing with me at the range when I confirmed zero on the AK-P, and all said that I better have good ID patches if I pull that out… or I’d look like the active shooter. So, for the couple weeks I had that in my truck… I pulled the reflective patches off my winter jacket and secured them on my vest (normally just has our “Police” patches on it). I get that isn’t a huge negative, especially how most people use a truck gun… but that was my only reason to pull it out. Love the round, and the fact that you feel your guts rattle as the concussion hits you. Never failed me with all the steel case ammo I’ve put through it.

I did like the 12.5” pistols… and maybe I can swing one if I get some extra money aside. The in between barrel length isn’t the big thing, but the side rail definitely is… which is not present on the standard AK-P. I have a SIG Romeo5 on the railed dust cover… which works (meaning cowitness; when I had it in my truck, it was just irons), but still haven’t had the time to take it out and zero/test it.

Curve in AK mag scratches my door/armrest when Im driving around with a rifle in my lap and the barrel out the window.  AR wins again.

Well not to blaspheme (I am a member of the 7.62 master race myself) but there's always a 5.45, much like today's runway fashion models, it has almost no curve to it. Same thing with a 5.56 AK.

Definitely go with a pistol AK in whatever caliber. Little Serb M85 seems about right.

I appreciate all the feedback. I cross posted this over at AK files and it mostly devolved into people telling me to get a shotgun for the truck, which really wasn’t the point of the thread.

I used to know a guy whom I thought was pretty cool. Turned out he was caliber racist. Just when you think you know someone.

And I remember a time when everything WAS bigger in Texas, including calibers.




Cut me some slack man, i'm not a size queeen, already admitted to owning AR's didn't I?

Crazy as it sounds, AKs are too damned expensive for truck guns. Buy a couple of ARs for the same money.

I built a Yugo 72 double folder with spike bayonet for my truck gun.







The pointy thing can span language barriers.

That is very cool !

To add some closure I ended up with an AKP. Got a Griffin adapter so I will be able to throw my can on once I get a MD and KNS piston.

Let me know how that works out for you…

I want to set mine up for my Bushwhacker 46, but wasn’t to sure how overgassed they are. Mine just went back to PSA because the casings are deforming the back end of the ejection port/top cover. From what I’ve concluded from a thread related to it… probably a little overgassed. Hopefully it gets squared away, and can follow suit.

I’ll hopefully be testing it out soon…from what I’ve read, just about every AK is over gassed to begin with, and when you add a suppressor they are even more so. It sounds like a KNS is pretty much necessary to run it suppressed without majorly accelerating wear.

Also let us know which piston you end up going with. From what I've read so far, the piston length of the AK-P is between two sizes of KNS pistons.

Ah, if you could only roll back the clock to the time when Romanian AKs were $235! Or even further to when the Chinese AKs were under $200! Now a days, it's probably better to have an AR pistol as a truck gun with one of those folding mechanisms, and I say this as an AK fanboy who own 13 AKs. The older imports are too valuable to throw in a truck.

Agree. ARs are ubiquitous and good imported AKs are getting harder to find at a reasonable price, so the concept of an AK truck gun doesn't make as much sense as it used to.

Used to have a very nice NDS/ original Polish UF build as the truck gun....but when AK’s got too valuable, I put it in the safe, and rotated a relatively cheap AR pistol with a cut down M4 barrel into its place.  Kind of sad.  But now the truck gun has a red dot, and am adding a cheap suppressor.

Think my brother is in the same situation.  

If I was going to use an AK these days for that task, you bet it would be a US made one vs a decent import.  The one Atlantic posted looks pretty cool, but I am not sure I like how that milled receiver is patterned.  Maybe a little too modern of styling for me!

So, I just figured I’d pass this along in case anyone wants to do a KNS piston in their AK-P…

Measured it up, and sort of fits the Yugo M85 piston pattern. I emailed KNS, as I wanted to confirm that it is ok, since it is a 5.56mm firearm. They said it is correct from my measurements, but to just ask for a large bore piston in the order notes. They also said they have done this for a few customers.

Just ordered it. I’ll probably have someone swap the pistons once I get it. After I dial it in, I want to come up with a way to get some sort of Griffin taper mount on the gun… hopefully one that I can easily pop off and go back to the booster when I’m not running suppressed.