Vermont Stamped KAlashnikov. From the caption under the picture in the article.

My guess is the carrier is a casting and that the recoil spring tunnel is a cast in feature.

The holes are an artifact of how the mold supports itself, to keep the ID of the spring tunnel centered and parallel.

Looks like Rob has started his testing. Can't wait to see how it does.
And as pointed out above. My browser indicted "AK Discussion". Says nothing about technical.

If you go to the main AK Community page, and look at the subtitle for this forum here you will notice that this is AK Technical Discussions.

While I can understand your point man, it does specifically state AK Technical Forum.



To jump back on topic:

Is Century even listing to their customers, or the market in general? Here’s why it’s a no for me:

- No bayo lug
- No accessory lug
- No cleaning rob or capability of cleaning rod
- Doesn’t have a chrome lined barrel
- It seems that instead of making new receivers they have just grabbed left over RAS47 receivers and plugged the optic mount holes with rivets

Anyone would be crazy not to just buy a Mak90.

Looks like whoever wants a Cugir built Draco needs to make up their mind ASAP.

How can I post I pic like that. It will surprise you that my browser does not have the second line in its description. It just says "AK Discussion". I know, it's shocking!

Some people just won't take the hint.-HM

$500 PSA all day over this.  At least with PSA you have their CS.

Looks like Rob and Atlantic are moving fairly quickly thru their testing.
James Yaeger has a 5000 round test scheduled for 11/18.  I am guessing the testing will go over pretty easily. These guys are not going to do anything the DOD didn't already do to their batch of test rifle prior to giving it the nod.
Yeager says put up or shut up. I agree. Once the VSKA is done (either triumphant or failure) I think some of the mouthy guys that have bashed it before they even shipped much less ever saw one in real life, needs to submit his (insert make and model other than century here) rifle for 5000 testing.
Pretty sure we are never going to see that. Would be very interesting to see if anyone truly believes in their rifle that much.

Two new VSKA failures in the same session and the same round counts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HUdOVYAR2k&ab_channel=JamesYeager

You should have watched Yeager's update before commenting lol. Both VSKA's that Yeager tested failed miserably at 1,500 rounds.. People WANT to see Century succeed. Harsh criticism is obviously warranted at this point. Century doesn't care about quality, nor do they care about what we want. They just want to sale vast numbers of terrible AK's before people catch on, and then they move to their next "indestructible" AK..

LOL, WHAT?! You actually believe that obviously BS story from Century that the VSKA was for a military contract? Anyone with an ounce of common sense knows that's a big fat lie by Century!

And yes, as Crogers23 already said, the VSKA failed the test horribly. The first gun they were going to use failed a no-go gauge after firing only 1,000 rounds previously, so they couldn't even use that gun. They used a second gun, which was new and unfired, and that failed a no-go gauge after just 1,500 rounds in the test. They were able to tap out the barrel retention pin with just a hammer and punch and the barrel could be pushed in and pulled out by hand. Their stock also cracked. The VSKA is unquestionably another Century Arms piece of garbage.

Tim, from M.A.C., just sent an e-mail out yesterday about - if I understand it correctly - nitriding not belonging on AK's due tot he brittleness of nitriding and the by-design flex of AK platform parts.

He and James Yeager have a whole test coming out where, again if I understand correctly, VSKA's are deemed dangerous, and they are warning folks about them.

Ok. So you fellas have made your statements. Please post links to support them.
Prove everything you have said.

Wow. Looks like Century has a real talent for screwing up AKs in new and exciting ways.

Ok. I have checked out the video posted above. So the VSKA is a failure 2 for 2. Sad.

Statement from Tim (MAC).

Recently James Yeager invited any YouTuber that wanted to come down to join him while he publicly put 5,000 rounds through a new VSKA rifle from Century Arms. As you know from my previous blog post (it was only available to Platoon Sergeants and above — it’s a perk) that I believed the VSKA to be a cheapened version of the RAS-47 rifle that preceded it in the Century Arms AKM line-up.
I’m making this blog post available to all Patreons because I believe it’s important that you all know that based on our testing today that the VSKA rifle is not just of poor quality but is dangerous to own and shoot. If you do own one and plan to keep it, I highly recommend you buy a “no-go” gauge to test the headspace during each range session as I believe within 2,000 rounds or less most of the rifles will go wildly out of headspace and this can create a very dangerous condition.

We filmed the entire test, but I felt it was important to get this info to you ASAP while we travel back home and have time to edit the video. Again, based on what we witnessed today I believe the rifle is potentially dangerous to shoot.

When we arrived at the range, there were two rifles. One was to be the test rifle and James and his crew had already put 1000 rounds through it to confirm function. I didn’t have a problem with this as what was once a 5,000 round test would now be a 6,000 round test. Then there was a brand new, never fired VSKA rifle next to it.

While others loaded magazines we did a quick check of the headspace on both rifles to get a baseline. Should the headspace change (worsen) during firing, I wanted to know. We immediately ran into our first problem. The rifle that had 1,000 rounds through it failed the “no-go” test. That means it’s potentially not safe to shoot. So we couldn’t conduct the test with that rifle. Just 1,000 rounds fired and it was already out of spec. This didn’t make sense to Don, the armorer, because he tested the rifles back at the shop and the rifle passed. Out of curiosity and frustration, he tapped the rifle on the ground muzzle first (on a rock) and the barrel moved back a few thousands of an inch in the trunion! Now the rifle passed the headspace test! Well, until we forcibly slammed the bolt/carrier home with the no-go gauge, then it went back out of headspace (the barrel moved forward).

We took a punch and hammer and tapped on the barrel pin (above just above the two rivets) and it moved! It should take a press to move this pin, you should not be able to tap it over with a hammer and punch. This is where the safety issue comes in.

Keep in mind that Century claims the trunion is made of S7 tool steel, and it may well be, but it appear to be cast just like the RAS trunion and within 1,000 rounds it had softened enough to allow the pin to be tapped out and for the headspace to become unsafe.

You’ll have to watch the video, which we will have up shortly, for all the minor details.

So we begin the test on the second new rifle. We stopped every 500 rounds to check the headspace. At 1500 rounds the gun failed the no-go test and swallowed the gauge. We took at look at the bolt and carrier, which I believe Century claims is now made from S7 too, and we saw all sorts of premature wear and heavy peening of critical parts.

Once again we tapped on the barrel pin of the test rifle and the second rifles’ pin was easily driven out with a hammer and punch just like the rifle before it. Now we have two rifles with the exact same flaws and the parts Century claims are made from the super material, S7, are showing all sorts of signs of premature wear. By the way, S7 is just another tool steel. There’s nothing magical about it and if you cast it and improperly hardened it, you’ll see exactly what we saw with the VSKA rifles today.

The amount of peening and metal deformation we saw was far more than you would expect from a rifle fired so few times. Heck, even the stock cracked and came loose. The screws holding the stock in place had chewed up the wood holes and couldn’t be tightened. The wood is too soft, just like the RAS-47 rifles before it.

We will be home shortly and I will started editing the video. All I can say is please do not consider buying the VSKA rifle. It is not safe to shoot in my experience and is a waste of your hard earned money.

Thank you everyone for your support which allows us to bring you this type of content.

Tim

I think I'd just go back to importing complete guns as the AKM or any design might be out of their reach.
They never proclaimed their products to be as good as brand x. They do allow more people to get involved no matter their financial position.
This brings more people into the hobby/sport. This gateway gun will ultimately sell more mags, ammo, optics, schools, and in time many of these buyers will upgrade to better quality weapons. This is exactly what needs to happen to negate our master's desire to end the expansion of interest in this design on these shores.
It's really sad that an American company like this cant seem to take advantage of the resources at hand.
The one thing that came from this. Yeager always said that he does not get hand picked guns. He also said he calls em like he sees em. Two failed rifles in the first round of testing should lay these accusations to rest.

Not only that, but Century didn't even do the nitriding properly; it could be scraped off with a knife.

Where did you see this nitride problem? Post a link.

That’s kinda their MO, isn’t it?

Deny anything is wrong with anything they do, but then “fix” what wasn’t broken with a new, improved product.

Why even bother with them? Trust is loooong gone at this point.

Ironic, isn’t it?

They try and produce a rifle renowned for its reliability above all else that is effectively manufactured all over the world in countries that can’t compete with us in terms of manufacturing tech and sophistication, yet it’s worth noting when we produce one that appears to be reliable on its first range trip.

VSKA barrels aren't nitrided.

Perhaps because Century anticipated catastrophic  failure far before the beneficial effects of nitriding their barrels would be any sort of a factor regarding longevity of the rifles.

It's both ironic and pathetic really.

You'd imagine that Century would have performed adequate in house testing to ensure their rifles didn't disassemble themselves in 1500 rounds or so.

The barrel pin issues are unforgivable; a modicum of in house testing and quality control would have discovered the problem.

They damned sure know how little pressure they exerted on the barrel pins during installtion.

Seriously, I wonder if rather than properly machine pressing in properly oversized pins, they simply had some guy with a mallet tapping in the undersized pins?

Maybe it's an "oreo cookie" trunion problem.

At this point it's moot; they've got no credibility remaining.

As a person that has built several AKs that is nuts.