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Polish Tantal in 5.56

4K views 9 replies 4 participants last post by  Tommo 
#1 ·
Update on a recent build.

Been too hot to build anything lately. But I pulled a hamstring two weeks ago so., killing some time in recovery.
I have not seen any posts on building a Tantal in 5.56.., (until mtdew posted his.,doh! :)
I purchased one of the AKBuilder Tantal profiled barrels in 5.56.
I have a virgin kit that was demilled in the final stage of assembly. It is parkerized but never painted. Looks kinda weird.

NDS Tantal receiver

All the journals except the FSB were spot on and no fitting or turning required.., the FSB journal is .001" or 2 oversized. I'll deal with that.

I'm using the Beryl mags that I got from a friend and they were nicely priced at 4 for $75.

I had some Beryl furniture I purchased from Robert RTG some time ago. The folding stock and the black forward grips. I think I'll use those vs the standard Tantal grips and folding stock that came with the kit.

I might swap a black grip for the Amber one.

Feeds the 5.56 rounds very well.
It will go nicely with my 5.45 Tantal



A pic with the 5.45 Tantal and the Beryl handguard with pistol grip.

I finished the rivet work, barrel pin, component pins and final assembly on 9/2.
Just need to rework the Tantal FCG with the burst mechanism etc. temporarily I threw in a standard FCG.

Need to put on the final KG GunKote finish.
I think I might mod a M76 smooth receiver cover to replace the ribbed Polish cover. I like the smooth & thicker cover as on the later Tantals.
Went to a holiday shoot Labor Day weekend so I wanted to bring it along for test fire and show & tell. :)

Tantal-izing! :)




Ran like a top on GI 5.56 ammo. Would not run right on Tula 5.56. I had that problem before with Tula being under powered and short stroking on a pre-drilled Bulgarian barrel I put on a Zastava M85 pistol to rifle conversion project.

The same ammo also short stroked my friends M16A1 clone with USGI upper.
No more Tula 5.56 for me.
I only had/have like 150 rounds I received in a trade. I shoot brass cased USGI 5.56 as a rule but wanted to try different types for the function test.
I used a .070" barrel gas port size which should be great for standard 5.56. It is perfect for the USGI stuff.
 
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#2 ·
Sweet rifle!
I took mine to the range with 60 rounds of Monarch from Academy Sports and although it functioned flawlessly the group's were pie plate size, not too good. I then ran some of my reloads that were just loaded from the book and not refined and the group's shrank to baseball size open sights, old eyes. First time I have had cheap 5.56 to group that badly. I drilled my gas port to .0625 and it throws brass 8-10', and recoil is very soft.
 
#4 · (Edited)
The Beryl forward pistol grip is very sturdy and fits well. Works well too. I do not use the rails on the side but they could come in handy.
But honestly I never got used to the forward grips in general.
The standard palmswell or standard lower handguard feels more natural. Whether on a Romy, or the Beryl type or AMD65.

All of the Beryl accessories., including the folding stock, receiver rail, and pistol grip handguard do add weight except the non pistol grip one in the pic above.
 
#6 ·
funny I have almost the same project as you guys going.. just head spaced the barrel.. but I'm adding the polish scope rail and a fixed stock.. maybe a lookalike fixed option...I have a bunch of old stock wolf 223 that I got around 2003-04 that I don't think is underpowered..that I'll burn up first.. I also drilled my port @.070..a lot of 223 ak's are over-gassed..
 
#8 ·
Very nice! I debated about getting that stock over the one I used, I might pick one up to see how I like it. How did you decide where to position the front sight base? I had a hard time deciding to put it up front like yours, back against the gas block as I did, or somewhere in the middle. Looks good either way.
 
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