AMD 65 on the way

hotbarrel said:

I may do that again sometime but not with the 65,,,, well maby the 65 too I am not shure. not a lot of options with the 65.

Click to expand...

Sure there are...

AMD-65 as original (with barrel extension)

AMD-65 with standard AK buttstock

AMD-65 with underfolder (can't use forward pistol grip)

AMD-65 with krink-type sidefolder

AMD-65 with AR buttstock

AMD-65 with AR telescoping buttstock

AMD-65 with regular AK handguards and original folding buttstock

AMD-65 with regular AK handguards and any of the above mentioned buttstocks

That'll give you about 14 different variants. If you figure in laminate, blonde, walnut, Chinese red, plum polymer, black polymer, or green polymer furniture, that will leave you with about 42 total variations. Then there's the choices for muzzle extension... I saw a pic of some flash hiders (or faux hiders) that were probably long enough to work for attaining legal length.

Then there would be the AMD-74 (AMD-65 chambered in 5.45) or a .223 version...

Do they make gunkote in that funky irridescent that changes color as your viewing angle changes? That would be seriously pimped!

Seriously though... I just got a few coats of walnut stain on a set of Romanian handguards. The original finish was hideous and was like brown and clear paint mixed together. I sanded all the old finish off and the guards lightened up to almost a honey oak color. They lightened up even more with a couple washings of laquer thinner and then some more wet sanding.



The guards didn't come out too badly and should look even better with a few coats of satin polyurethane. They're still a little rough feeling, but the poly and some steel wool will take care of that. With a parkerized finish and the walnut stained furniture, I think it would have a vintage WWII look. It might look even better with the Gunmetal Blue Gunkote.


I scored a couple Romanian buttstock and pistol grip kits from a guy on eBay. I'm not sure what kind of wood it it, but it is REALLY light. With some thinned stain, the stock will match the Blonde Hungarian Elm handguards I bought.

With that little tweak on a standard gas tube, the blonde wood should look kind of cool... IMO, anyway. I planned on doing one of my AMD-65 kits like this. I don't know if I want to bother with the SBR thing, so I'll probably add the extension.



Here's a couple variations with legal length extensions. Well, they'll be legal in September unless the $%@@#%^! demoRATS get their way. I got to thinking about the L1A1 flash hider. It's already machined to clear a 7.62 projectile, and it might be long enough to make the 65 legal.





The gas block on the bottom one is similar to one sold online. HCPookie made one like it from a standard gas block and front sight block.

Here's another thought... Stainless gunkote and black polymer furniture. To get an idea what that would look like, save one of these pictures to your hard drive. Open the picture with MSPaint and click "Invert Colors" from the Image menu.

The FAL flash hider threads are recessed into the hider about 1.5". This rules out any easy install on an AK muzzle unless the sight block is moved back. This also removes the possibility of meeting barrel length requirements, since half the length of the extension would slide back over the barrel. A 5" long flash hider would only give you about 3.5" of extension (maybe less).

IIRC, the L1A1 flash hider is 9/16-24 R.H. thread. This presents a problem for retapping to fit the AK barrel. The 14x1mm is pretty close to the 9/16, so there won't be a lot of material to work with. And since the thread is opposite from the AK, you'll wind up with something that looks like the flats of a file. Since it would be soldered (or welded), I don't think there would be a problem. I would bore and sleeve the flash hider and then tap it for 14x1mm L.H. to do it properly.

The metric FAL muzzle threads are 9/16-24 L.H. Todd at Ohio Rapid Fire said you could just chase the AK brake with the SAE tap to fit it to a FAL. Since they have to be soldered or welded, a little slop won't hurt during assembly.

Tapco has L1A1 flash hiders for $1.00 til the 21st. If you're going to order an AMD-65 kit, you could pick a couple up to play with.