RPK
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The RPK entered service in 1959 as a more powerful
firearm, developed from the AKM. The RPK differs from
the AKM in a number of design improvements: the barrel
is lengthened to increase muzzle velocity; the capacity
of the sector magazine is increased to improve the
combat rate of fire; the machine gun is outfitted
with folding bipod to stabilize it during fire; the
sight is outfitted with sliding windage mechanism
to improve fire accuracy; the machine gun butt is
identical to the Degtyarev RPD 44 machine gun butt.
The machine gun intended for airborne troops had a
folding butt. |
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RPK Parks Kit Review
One
of our sponsors, Arms of America recently
gave us the opportunity to review some of
their parts kits. Here we review two RPK parts kits.
One is a Romanian RPK the
other is a Yugoslavian
RPK. Both started life as military rifles,
each were at some point removed from service
and eventually chopped into parts, then shipped
to the US and now are being sold by the guys
at Arms of America for
only $499.99 each for either flavor.
These
are cool and big, Heavy duty and strengthened
all around. I've shot these before so I can
already see how nice these rifles will be
to shoot. Enjoy the pictures as we help illustrate
these kits and the differences between them.
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Arsenal, Inc
Booth 5297 - 2005 SHOT Show
Arsenal
Inc, exclusive US Manufacturers of
the finest and most authentic examples
of the time proven AK design, utilize
the latest technology and materials
to sustain the legendary Arsenal of
Bulgaria reputation for quality |
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The RPK was designed as a squad automatic weapon.
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The RPK could also be fired in either semi or
fully-automatic modes. Squad automatic weapons,
as deployed, are more frequently fired in the
fully automatic mode. For this reason, one usually
sees the RPK pictured with an ultra-high capacity
magazine such as a 75 round drum or 40 round
box magazine instead of the standard 30 round
magazine typically used with the AK.
To handle the sustained automatic fire, the
RPK was designed to be much stronger. First,
the sheet metal of the receiver of the RPK
is 50% thicker than that of the AKM47. Next,
the trunion of the RPK is larger and stronger
than that of the AK47 or AKM47. The trunion
is the part to which the barrel is connected
and into which the bolt locks. Because the trunion
is larger, the receiver must be bulged out
to accept the larger trunion. Hence the
above mentioned bulges on the RPK receiver.
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CHINA
RPK NHM
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Often heavier semiauto "RPK" and/or sniper
versions of these rifles are also seen. These have
the longer barrels designed for military use on SAW
(Squad automatic weapons - light machine guns) or
sniper rifles. Generally these guns do offer a little
extra velocity to bullets leaving their barrels along
with less report and muzzle flash. But the weight
of these guns (over 9 pounds when the guns are empty)
makes them unsuitable for most shooter's needs.
A rare Russian 4 Cell Magazine Pouch made to
hold four 40 round RPK or AK-47 magazines. This original
Russian pouch was made for issue during the Vietnam
War. The dark green canvis material has brown
leather pieces on the front and a lighter green
set of canvis belt loops plus a carring strap
on the backside. Our canvis pouch is in mint
un-issued condition. Any RPK pouch is quite rare
let along one in this condition
90
deg curved barrel
N.F. Makarov designed a curved barrel assembly and
K.T. Kurenkov developed a ball-shaped mount. Consequently,
they performed all the work required to create a curved
barrel machinegun with a 90 deg. barrel curvature.
The machine gun was intended to arm tanks, more precisely
to protect them in the "dead zone" that
cannot be engaged by conventional straight-line machinegun
fire. To resolve the problems of disabled or trapped
tanks it was decided to mount such machineguns on
the turret hatch.The tankmen were not very enthusiastic
about it, to say the least. Consequently, the idea
to protect tanks by curved barrel machineguns was
abandoned and all activity to this effect came to
an end. -
http://kalashnikov.guns.ru/models/ka174.html
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