Century Arms NDS-2 AK-74 Rifle

Back in November I picked up a Century Arms NDS-2 AK-74 rifle. This is a typical semiauto-only Kalashnikov made from a mix of surplus and newly made parts.

The NDS-2 is built on an American made NoDak Spud stamped receiver with a scope rail and a new barrel. It also has a Tapco G2 fire control group (trigger, hammer, and disconnector), American made black plastic furniture, and an American made barrel. The remainder of the parts a Bulgarian surplus. The rifle is finished with a nicely done, even parkerizing.

I finally got to shoot the rifle this past weekend. As expected it ran like a top. I put 120 rounds of Russian surplus 5.45x39mm 7N6 ball through it with no malfunctions, feeding from a couple Bulgarian surplus magazines. Whenever I shoot a new rifle for the first time I try to do so at 25 yards to ensure that it’s on paper, and then move back to 100 yards to fine tune the zero. Since I didn’t feel like picking up an moving my stuff I stayed at 25 yards for this outing. I’ll finish zeroing it the next time I get it to the range.

Shooting the rifle is a pleasure. The G2 FCG has a nice, consistent, light pull. The 5.45mm round has minimal recoil, which is made even less by the very effective muzzle brake. The brake does result in a rather pronounced muzzle blast, however. I have a Bulgarian flash hider which fits the 24mm front sight base of this rifle and may give it a try.

The American made furniture is craptacular. Since Century or their contractor had to setup a mold to make the furniture anyway, I don’t understand why they didn’t just use a set of surplus furniture as the model and copy it. Instead, the butt has insufficient drop for use with iron sights, while the handguards lack a heat shield. I’ve read of other people melting them in sustained fire. So, I ordered a set of olive drab K-Var furniture that will not only look a lot better, is of much higher quality.

Unlike some Century Tantals, I saw no evidence of keyholing due to an oversized bore.

The barrel is plain carbon steel, not chrome lined. Since I’m not taking this rifle into battle with the potential of not being able to clean it regularly, it’s not a problem for me. Even though military surplus 5.45x39mm cartridges are corrosively primed, as long as I clean the gun the same day I won’t see corrosion.

I did run a few patches wet with Hoppe’s No.9 through the barrel, and also wiped the bolt face down before I left the range. Despite Internet myths about cleaning up after corrosive primers, all you need is either Hoppe’s No.9, MPro-7, or USGI Rifle Bore Cleaner. Hoppe’s No.9 was introduced in the early part of the last century and has always been rated for cleaning up after corrosive ammunition. Back in the late 1980s/early 1990s, the only ammo I shot in my SKS was Chicom 7.62x39 with corrosive primers. Hoppe’s was all I used for cleaning and I never had any rust.

Despite the lack of a chromed bore this rifle with better furniture is a good choice for a defensive carbine. New production non-corrosive 5.45mm ammo is available, but even in most SHTF scenarios it’s not an issue. If you can stock up on ammo you can lay in a decent supply of solvent and a cleaning kit.

Aside from the light recoil, the 5.45x39 round has the reputation for better accuracy in AKs than the more common 7.62x39 cartridge. Also, it’s currently the cheapest centerfire round available, if you buy military surplus ammo. For example, AIM Surplus currently lists a 1080 spam can of 7N6 for $139.95 + shipping, or $10 less if you buy more than one can. At that price you can afford to stock up.

AK-74 magazines are a bit harder to find than AK-47 mags. At one time they were very common and as cheap as dirt but that’s no longer the case. That being said, some time spent searching online will find magazines available for sale. I would stick with military surplus magazines for serious use, however.

Overall, I am quite pleased with the NDS-2.

Ruger LCP .380 Pistol

In a few of my recent posts I have discussed why it is important for Americans (especially Jews) to keep and bear arms. I also posted a link to a thread on Arfcom, "Street Robberies and You." Last week I picked up a new pistol which will help me follow my own advice, a Ruger LCP.

Ruger's LCP (Light Carry Pistol) is one of several recent micro-sized semiauto pistol designs to reach the market. It's in many ways a copy of the Kel-Tec P3AT. The Taurus TCP, Smith & Wesson Bodyguard .380, and Diamondback DB380 are all in the same class. The specs for the Ruger are:

• Caliber: .380 ACP
• Capacity: 6 in the magazine plus 1 in the chamber
• Length: 5.16"
• Width: 0.82"
• Height: 3.6"
• Weight: 9.4 oz for the standard model, 9.9 oz for the model with a LaserMax LASER* sight.
• Sights: Fixed, machined integral with the slide.
• Finish: Blued

I bought the LCP-LM, which is the one with the LaserMax sight.  MSRP is $443 but I was able to get it for $399 including tax. Here’s a quick picture of my pistol:

The LCP comes in a cardboard box with one magazine, an extended magazine floorplate, a gun lock, pistol rug, fired case, LaserMax flyer and adjustment wrench, and an owner's manual.

As can be seen in this picture, the Ruger is tiny. The silver object is a standard Zippo lighter which I included for scale. I have small hands and can get only two fingers on the grip. I installed the extended floorplate even before I took the gun to the range, because at under 10 oz. unloaded I want the extra purchase that it provides. Even so, I can get only two fingers onto the grip.

I went with the LASER for a couple reasons. First, even though this is a belly gun the need to use aimed fire could arise. The LCP's sights are tiny and won't be very visible in poor lighting. Second, statistically, most defensive gun usages are resolved without shots fired. Once a bad guy knows his intended victim is ready to resist with a gun, he usually finds that he needs to be elsewhere post-haste. The LASER can enhance the deterrent effect of a gun, and if shots do need to be fired, will help in putting them on target.

The placement of the LASER's ambidextrous switch works very well for me. When holding the gun with my index finger off the trigger, indexed on the frame, the tip is right on the switch. I can immediately press it to turn on the LASER, without shifting my firing grip.

I do wish Ruger included a second magazine with the gun. A leading cause of malfunctions with semiauto pistols is defective or dirty magazines. So, the same night I brought the LCP home I ordered another mag with the extended floorplate from MidwayUSA, along with a couple of boxes of CCI Blazer .380 ACP Full Metal Jacket ammunition.

A word about defensive ammo choice for the LCP: The .380 ACP cartridge is on the low end of acceptable defensive cartridges. Bullets are generally light and if hollow points are used, you may not get enough penetration to reach an assailant's vitals and incapacitate him. So, I plan to carry it with FMJ ammo, which will reliably penetrate at least 12" in ballistic gelatin.

Many folks will just chuck a gun like the LCP in their pocket and go on their way. Although I'm currently packing the Ruger that way, I've ordered a DeSantis Superfly pocket holster to keep the gun consistently oriented, and to keep the LASER from being switched on accidentally. If you choose to pocket carry without a holster, be sure to not put anything else in the same pocket as the gun. You don't want anything getting into the trigger guard that might cause the gun to discharge, or prevent you from firing it, e.g., something getting lodged behind the trigger.

Yesterday I took the Ruger to the range and put a box of Federal American Eagle .380 ACP FMJ through it. I had one failure to go into battery in the first magazine but after that it ran perfectly. Putting only 50 rounds through a semiauto gun to "prove" it is generally deemed to be insufficient, but the light weight of these micro-.380s comes with a price: brutal recoil. You don't shoot one of these for fun, unless you're a masochist. Not only does it whack your hand, there's some trigger slap and sometimes the recoil drives the inside of the bottom of the triggerguard into your finger.

Anyway, using the the minimalist iron sights the Ruger LCP is surprisingly accurate. It will pretty easily hold the center ring of an IDPA target at 15 yards until your hand starts getting beat up. I turned on the LASER and was able to see it on the white target from 15 yards, but in this outing didn't shoot with it on.

Up until fairly recently, if you wanted a posket pistol this size you were limited to guns chambered for .22 Short, .22 Long Rifle, or .25 ACP. With the advent of the micro-.380s starting with Kel-Tec's P3AT you can now get a similarly sized pistol that chambers are much more effective cartridge. This makes it easier for more Americans to be armed for self-defense, which is a win in my book.

 

* I capitalize "LASER" because properly, it is an acronym meaning Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.

Street Robberies and You

Over on Survival and Emergency Preparedness I've posted about a current thread on Arfcom, "Street Robberies and You - The Basics." This thread started out by "BurnedOutLEO" is one of the very best essays I've read on dealing with violent criminals.

Go read it.

LRGC 5th Annual Kalashnikov Match

This morning I participated in Langhorne Rod & Gun Club's 5th Annual Kalashnikov match. The match is open to shooters with "capitalist rifles" ;) but is meant primarily for AK shooters. For example, due to the AK's stock sights, most targets are kept to 100 yards to less, although we did shoot at torso-sized steel plates from 200 yards from behind a barricade.

I shot my Century Arms Vz-2008 (Vz-58 clone) which for the purposes of the match was classed with the AKs. I came in 2nd overall in points, and won the final stage, which is shooting at a piece of wood lath at 25 yards, with the goal of cutting it in half. As winner of that bonus stage, I won $30, which covered my match fee, gas, and tolls, with some money to spare.

I bought the Vz-2008 a few years ago. The first time I took it to the range I had nothing but problems. It seems that when it Century's subcontractors parkerized it the finish was too thick, so I got constant jams and stuck cases. I took the rifle home, degreased it and put Flitz on the bearing surfaces, then worked the action about 50 - 100 times to polish the insides. The next time out it had some malfunctions, but once I got approximately to the 200 round mark it started functioning well. I've put about 600 rounds through it since then with no malfunctions at all.

My Vz-2008 is basically stock. I did wrap the metal folding stock with paracord to protect my cheek, since it has the cross section of an I-beam, and put a Russian-style recoil pad on the butt to increase the very short LOP. I also replaced the incorrect and basically useless AK-style slant muzzle brake Century installed with a Czech military-style muzzle brake from CNC Warrior. The Czech-style brake is noisy but very effective at taming muzzle flip. The rifle has a milled receiver but weighs about as much as an AK with a stamped receiver (~6.4 pounds) empty. Wikipedia has a pretty good article on the Vz-58 here.

AIUI, semiauto Vz-58s have become pretty popular up in Canada since they are less restricted than AKs.

As one of the top two shooters I got an invite to LRGC's annual invitational practical rifle match in April.

All in all, a pretty nice Saturday.

Getting Back Into Archery

In my teens and twenties I was into archery. Back in junior high school, I was in the archery club, and brought my recurve bow with me to school on the bus. I suppose nowadays that would result in the local SWAT team being called out. Anyway, last month my 7 year old daughter expressed an interest in learning how to shoot a bow, so I got her a youth set from Three Rivers Archery. Naturally, if she was going to be shooting a bow I wanted in on the action.

However, when I strung the one bow I still had, a 55# draw Martin Howatt Hunter recurve, I realized that I was way over-bowed with it. I hadn't shot a bow for probably about 15 years and therefore, I'll need to work my way up to shooting a bow at that draw weight.

So, I picked up the current issues of Primitive Archer and Tradional Bowhunter magazines, as much for the ads as for the content. After considering several options I ordered a 40# Magyar Horse Bow from Seven Meadows Archery. Service from SMA was fast and I shortly had the bow in hand. The picture below shows it with the Martin.

One of the reasons I decided on a horsebow is simply that it's different. I didn't have any interest in getting a modern compound bow, so I was looking at traditional longbows and recurves. The horsebow is just neat, so after reading several reviews online I went with this one.

The bow was made by Istvan Toth in Hungary. The limbs are fiberglass, while the rigid tips, called siyahs, are made from ash. (Traditionally, the limbs would have been made of a laminate of wood and horn held together with fish glue.) The handle and limbs are covered in leather, and both sides of the grip have an ash side plate, so the bow is ambidextrous.

I'm shooting cedar arrows with 100 grain field points and turkey feather fletching, bought from Three Rivers Archery. The bow shoots them fast and straight. There is a bit of hand shock when shooting, due to the siyahs reaching their forward position and stopping abruptly. I don't find it objectionable.

Traditionally, horsebows were shot with a thumb release. In this style of shooting the archer draws the bow using his thumb, wrapped around the string and supported by his index finger. Doing so requires the use of a thumbring made from metal, horn, or leather. I bought a leather thumbring along with the bow but found it very uncomfortable to use for more than a few shots. So, I've added another layer of leather and will be trying it out again. In the meantime, I've been using a Mediterranean release, which should be familiar to most Western archers. Shooting this way, the index finger is on top of the arrow nock with the middle and ring fingers below it.

So far my shooting has been limited to about 10 yards. If I can get accurate out to about 20, I may take the Toth bow deer hunting on private land where I can get short range shots. In Pennsylvania the minimum legal draw weight for deer is 35#. With a 40# draw and sharp broadheads, penetration should not be a problem.

Here's another pic of the bow, resting on top of my target. I shot this using some old Easton XX75 aluminum arrows I had left from the 90s.

Considering I was able to do this after a 15 year lapse, I'm happy with my shooting. It'll only get better with more practice.

Aside from shooting the horsebow and teaching my daughter how to shoot, I'm also working with a friend in processing an oak which fell on his property into bowstaves. We're planning to make a couple of flatbows at first.  I bought a copy of The Backyard Bowyer: The Beginner's Guide to Building Bows for my Kindle, and it provides some good instruction on making simple self bows and backed bows. I'll post more on this after we've made some more progress.

After Rethinking Gun Control, Next Steps

In my last post I discussed Jared Silverman’s article, Rethinking Gun Control. I wanted to follow up on that with some recommendations on what a new Jewish American gun owner might want to buy after getting some training.

In my opinion, the most versatile gun that one can own for defense is a handgun, for the simple reason that it can pull double duty as both a home defense weapon and one that can be kept with you when you’re out and about. A gun is like a fire extinguisher, it’s only useful if you have one available (and know how to use it, of course).

Luckily for the modern American gun owner there is a wide choice of handguns available for self defense. For new shooters, I recommend buying one with the following characteristics:

1. Semiautomatic
2. Firing the 9mm Luger/Parabellum/NATO cartridge
3. Made of stainless steel or have a good rust-resistant finish

Semiautomatic pistols are those which fire one bullet per pull of the trigger and which are fed from a detachable magazine which holds the ammunition (with the exception of some antique designs we won’t consider here). Common examples of modern semiautomatic pistols are the Glock 17 and 19, Springfield Armory XD-9, and the Smth & Wesson Military & Police 9. All of these have plastic frames with metal parts made of either stainless steel or finished with an anti-corrosion treatment.

I’m recommending a semiauto as opposed to a revolver because they are easier for new shooters to fire accurately, plus they hold more ammunition, which would be important if dealing with a group of assailants. They are also easier to maintain, and modern designs handle abuse and neglect better than revolvers.

I recommend choosing a pistol which fires 9mm ammunition because the 9mm is widely available, affordable, effective, and does not recoil very much, so it’s easier for new shooters to become proficient with.

The stainless or rust-resistant finish is important because it reduces (but does not eliminate!) the amount of maintenance the owner must perform.

Don’t rush into buying a self defense pistol. It’s an investment of several hundred dollars, so if at all possible, try to handle a variety of guns and see which one feels most comfortable in your hands. If possible, go to a range where you can rent and shoot them to see which one you like best.

For example, the pistols I mentioned above are all high quality, reliable designs. However, I’ve found that Glock don’t fit my hand well (which is a shame because they are extremely reliable and relatively inexpensive). When I decided I wanted a modern, polymer-framed semiauto pistol I shot my father’s Smith & Wesson M&P-9, and then handled one side by side with a Springfield XD-9, an example of which I’d fired before. After handling the S&W and the Springfield next to each other I decided to buy the Springfield because it felt just a little bit better in my hands. I’ve been very pleased with it.

After you’ve chosen what gun to buy, then you should lay in a good supply of ammo and get training. Over on The High Road, we use the expression “BA/UU/R,” which stands for Buy Ammo, Use Up, Repeat.

Part of the training you need to take is making yourself familiar with the laws in your jurisdiction regarding the use of deadly force.

Rethinking Gun Control

It is about time that an article like this appeared in a mainstream Jewish publication. It is well past the time when Jewish Americans should be carefully reexamining their support for gun control.

The author of the piece, Jared Silverman, is a Jewish attorney in West Orange, NJ. 

The news from northern New Jersey this week was not good. Several Molotov cocktails and other incendiary devices were thrown at Congregation Beth El in Rutherford early on the morning of Jan. 11, igniting a fire in the second-floor bedroom of the rabbi’s residence above the synagogue.

This was the fourth anti-Semitic incident in Bergen County within a three-week period. A fire was intentionally set at a synagogue in Paramus and anti-Semitic graffiti was discovered at synagogues in Hackensack and Maywood.

Silverman also notes that Alan Dershowitz has warned that anti-semitism is becoming increasingly mainstream.

It should not be news that Jews are at risk of violent acts from others who hate us. After all, we only have a several thousand year history of being enslaved, expelled, and slaughtered by non-Jews. Sometimes this was at the hands of thugs and others at the hands of governments. Regardless, Jews have the right to defend themselves. Having that right, they should have the means to do so.

Unfortunately, Silverman goes on to state that, 

I believe guns should be licensed and their owners properly trained. I also want to emphasis that there is a difference between ownership and the right to carry. It is difficult to get a permit to carry a concealed gun.

As Jews, we have often been the victims of officially-sanctioned oppression. Giving the same people who might someday want to do you harm a say in whether or not you have the tools to resist them is simply foolish.

Now, I do agree with Silverman that any new firearms owner should get training on how to safely, effectively, and legally use a gun. I disagree in that such training should be mandated by the government, for the same reason I'm against licensing. It is all too easy for training requirements to be setup in such arbitrary and capricious manners that they are impossible to comply with, as recently seen in Chicago.

Further, Jews should not wait until they are the victims of anti-semitism before arming themselves. By the time that happens it could be too late. On top of that, competence with firearms takes time to develop and is perishable skill. You need to know how to use it, and use it well, before the time comes when you need it.

Silverman's view on the difficulty of obtaining a carry permit is colored by his experience as a NJ resident. In NJ, it is difficult to legally purchase a firearm but damn near impossible to get a carry permit. However, in most of the United States, Americans are able to get a permit to carry a firearm as a matter of right, although in many states that right is conditioned on getting trained. On the other hand, the neighboring state of PA has no training requirement for a license to carry a firearm, while AK, VT, and AZ do not require law abiding citizens to get a license to carry a gun for protection.

Regardless of training requirements, Jews should get a license to carry a concealed firearm, as long as doing so is possible. Antisemetic crime is not confined to the home, indeed as Silverman described at the beginning of his article, Jews should be prepared to confront it at synagogue, and elsewhere.

In some of my prior posts to this blog I have stated that "Never Again" requires more than harsh language. If we as Jews are serious about preventing another Shoah (Holocaust), we have no one to depend on but ourselves.

So where do you start? The largest organization providing firearms instruction is the National Rifle Association. (Indeed, it was founded in 1871 to promote marksmanship training. The NRA only became active in gun control politics in the past 40 - 50 years.) You can find courses local to you at http://www.nrainstructors.org/searchcourse.aspx/. Information about the content of the various courses are available at http://www.nrainstructors.org/CourseCatalog.aspx.

The NRA is obviously the largest and best known organization working to protect your right to keep and bear arms. One that should be of particular interest to Jews, though, is Jews For the Preservation of Firearms Ownership. And if you think the NRA is radically pro-gun, you should check out JPFO. ;)

{Hat tip to Alphecca.}