Photos Kalashnikov Weapons

FoxBat said:

is the anbakan 94 AN-94 considered part of AK series ?

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J0h1F said:

I have to say that I personally was impressed by the quality of East German AKM's after all mocking of the accuracy of the AK action you can hear on the internet.
FDF has these GDR-made MPi-KMS assault rifles (FDF designation RK 72 TP) as tank crew weapons and wartime reserve (though nowadays there are so large stocks of the Finnish rifles too so these GDR rifles would be issued only to troops with a dire need for a folding stock), and they're almost as accurate as the Finnish Valmet/Sako rifles. With the standard Lapua/Sako/VPT JVA 0316 ammo they can usually do well under 2 MOA, some reaching close to 1 MOA. The use as tank crew weapons comes from the time FDF operated T-72M1 tanks which came with racks for East German folder AKM's, and the use has continued to this day with the Leopard 2A4 and 2A6. An added benefit over the Finnish rifles is the chromed bore and gas system which can tolerate the use of corrosive Combloc surplus ammo which was bought in bulk in the early 1990's for the reserve Combloc AK's and Norincos. Of course that lowers the accuracy quite a bit, and the mercury-containing primers resulted in the ammo being banned from peacetime use altogether. But regarding the quality, I guess German engineering is German engineering even if from GDR.
Here's an image of one in use by a tank crewman:
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Of course then there are the Valmet/Sako rifles which are uniformly sub 1 MOA rifles unless they have been worn out. The FDF accuracy standards were the main reason why they don't have a chromed bore or gas system, as the standard Combloc chroming process resulted in too variable quality and half of the Mk 0 chromed barrels had to be scrapped because they didn't meet the standards. Some 10 000 or so rifles were equipped with the chromed parts but most are not. Valmet tried to develop a more accurate chroming process, and succeeded well, but FDF regarded it as too expensive and henceforth the Finnish rifles don't have chroming in the pressurised parts.

The latest iteration is the Sako RK 95 TP, which takes some improvements from the Galil (which itself was based on the Valmet RK 62). The prototype RK 90 was a lot more Galil-esque, with a thumb-operable selector on the left side of the receiver and a spring-laden dust cover (as in the FN FNC and Galil ACE) instead of the traditional combined dust-cover-selector, but these improvements were seen as unnecessary and were scrapped from the final production variant. The main improvements over the RK 62 are the largely improved sights, top cover tightening screw (to fasten the rear sight even if the top cover is beaten and worn), a FN-style muzzle brake which helps a lot in recoil compensation, a semi-upturned charging handle (at 45 degrees), longer handguard, AR15-style bayonet lug, strengthened receiver and a new folding stock with a straight barrel to stock line as well as a mounting face for optics side rail.
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The Valmet RK 62 has also received a new upgrade by FDF which changes the old tube stock to a new AR-compatible tube with a Magpul CTR stock and sling attachment points at the rear face of the receiver. The M1 upgrade also adds a side mount for the optics, and a new front rail for tactical lights. The front rail may also be equipped with a longer rail which facilitates the use of different vertical and angled foregrips. The current iteration of the upgrade is called the RK 62M, though it is still in prototype stage (has been since 2013), and the final variants are to be showcased late this year. There's also an M2 upgrade which includes more modifications to the receiver to mount an aluminum free-float handguard replacing the M76 polymer-glass-fibre mix handguard, but that's still in the works.
This is the RK 62M (M1) with a private purchase longer front rail:
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There's also the stamped variant Valmet RK 62 76, which probably is more well known to the Americans and other foreigners alike, as that was sold to civilian personnel in different configurations as the Valmet M76.
Unlike other stamped AK's, the Valmet RK 62 76 is fully compatible with the parts of the milled Valmet RK 62 (and with the trigger group, with other milled AK's as well). Other AKM-based stamped rifles have different sizing with the selector while the RK 62 76 is made to conform with the milled variants as required by the FDF so it could use the same spare parts with the RK 62. FDF also required identical tolerances, accuracy and durability from the stamped rifles as from the milled rifles, and that caused the RK 62 76 to become actually more expensive than the milled RK 62 was - even though the stamping was originally introduced in the USSR to lower the production costs of the AK rifles. The stamping machinery of the RK 62 76 receiver was mothballed into FDF arsenals in 1983 and remains there to date if the need for quick new production runs arises (while more expensive than milling, it was still faster than milling and used a lot less steel making it the preferable wartime production method). The RK 62 76 was also lighter at 3.27 kg while the RK 62 (with M76 handguards) weighs 3.5 kg.
The existing RK 62 76 rifles are mainly in wartime storage now.
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This is the standard JVA 0316 ammunition which is in use in FDF, it's stored in airtight zinc boxes which have these 30 round cardboard boxes inside. It is almost the same thing which Lapua and Sako sell nowadays as their 7.62x39 FMJ, but with Berdan cases/primers. The older batches may be marked as made by VPT (Valtion patruunatehdas, 'State munitions factory'), but that's just Lapua prior to its rebranding.
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I personally own a Sako M92S, which is the civilian variant of the Sako RK 95 (it was never imported into the US because of the assault weapon ban and 922r). It lacks the folding stock (though variants exist with the folding stock and folder-specific selector too), the first batch has a lightened bolt carrier and a prototype front sight (which lacks the night sight height adjustment), while the second batch has those similar to the RK 95 (but with the non-folding stock) but its muzzle brake is changed so it can't be used to fire rifle grenades.
Regarding its quality, the plastic parts are of exponentially higher quality than those in the Colt LE6920 I own and they don't even require heat shields (same applies to the RK 95 TP; the heavy barrel helps in keeping it cool), and the trigger is the lightest factory trigger I've ever encountered (it's the same in FDF rifles which have the newer two-stage trigger group). With the Sako 7.62x39 FMJ it can shoot consistently under 1 MOA at 100 metres.
Here's an image of one (not mine though), this is from the second batch.
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There are also rarer variants of the Sako/Valmet assault rifles like the early prototypes (Valmet 1958 prototype, Sako 1958 prototype, Valmet RK 60, Valmet RK 62 PT, the stamped Valmet RK X prototype), the Valmet RK 71 which is also made as the civilian Valmet M71 model, the Valmet 7,62x53R sniper rifle prototype which resulted in the Valmet Petra/Hunter hunting rifle models, the Valmet M78 LMG and its M78/83 DMR variant which were never adopted by the FDF, the Valmet M82 bullpup prototype and then the aforementioned Sako RK 90 and RK 92 prototypes.

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