Category: War

The 5.45x39mm RPK-74 was an evolutionary development of Mikhail Kalashnikov’s original 1940’s-vintage AK-47. The earliest AK (Avtomat Kalashnikova) rifle fired the then radically new M43 7.62x39mm round and was built around a stamped steel receiver. This 35″, 7.7-lb. infantry rifle legitimately changed the world.

Alas, those early stamped receivers weren’t quite ready for prime time, so the rifle was redesigned around a heavy and expensive milled version cut from a big chunk of forged steel. This basic rifle soldiered on until 1959 when the stamped steel receiver was finally perfected. This optimized weapon was christened the AKM (Avtomat Kalashnikova Modernizirovanny). Most of what we call AK-47s on this side of the pond today are actually AKMs. (To learn more, read the differences between the AK-47 and the AKM.)

In 1961, the Soviets debuted the RPK (Ruchnoy Pulemyot Kalashnikova). The RPK fired the same 7.62x39mm round, but it was built around a heavier, more robust stamped receiver. It also sported a longer, beefier barrel, an integral folding bipod, and a curious clubfoot stock. The RPK could use standard 30-round AKM magazines. However, it also accepted longer 40-round versions as well as two different varieties of 75-round drum.

5.45x39mm — Downsizing the RPK

By the 1970s the US military had fully transitioned to the lightweight, high-velocity 5.56x45mm round fired through the M16 rifle, and the Soviets were growing jealous. (Be sure to read about the evolution of the M16.) They tasked Comrade Kalashnikov to build them a new family of weapons around the weirdly adorable 5.45x39mm round.

The 5.45mm round featured an unnaturally long, skinny bullet and was much lighter and faster than the previous 7.62x39mm M43. By skillfully crafting the FMJ bullets with a small air space under the jacket in the tip, they also created a round that reliably tumbled on impact. This resulted in some truly ghastly effects. Speaking solely for myself, the soft-shooting 5.45x39mm round is a personal fave.

The end result was the AK-74. This firearm was built around a stamped steel receiver and was specifically designed for the new lighter cartridge. At a glance, the AK-74 can be differentiated from the previous AKM by the less-pronounced curve of the polymer magazine and the curiously complicated, yet effective muzzle brake. The muzzle brake works by redirecting some of the muzzle blast to the sides, and it will reliably clear your sinuses on the range.

Simultaneously with the AK-74, Kalashnikov’s team developed the RPK-74. Like the RPK that preceded it, the RPK-74 was longer and heavier than the parent infantry rifle. It retained the clubfoot stock and folding bipod but dispensed with the complex muzzle brake in favor of a simple birdcage flash suppressor. Though prototypes were produced, there never was a general-issue drum created for the RPK-74.

Over time, the wooden furniture was replaced with polymer, but the basic action remained the same. The latest versions of both the AK-74 and the RPK-74 feature side-folding polymer buttstocks. The end result is a mature and effective combat weapon.

Custom RPK-74 Semi-Automatic Rifle

Obtaining a semi-auto RPK-74 of your own requires diligence, persistence, a little mechanical aptitude, and no small amount of cash. A negligible number of factory guns were imported back in the Dark Ages before the various import bans took effect, but they are insanely expensive. As a result, I built mine up from a demilled parts kit.

Accumulating all the necessary parts for such an exotic rifle is still a Gordian chore. I bought most of mine from a guy who had been trying to build up an RPK-74 and gave up. The original barrel dates to before the 2005 import ban, as do most of the parts. That makes them expensive. The stripped semi-auto receiver and fire control components were domestically produced as were a handful of other bits needed to keep the build legal. The few small parts that were missing, I had a machinist buddy make for me.

Building up an AK from parts isn’t plug-and-play as might be the same chore for an AR. You have to be able to run a drill press, set rivets, and gauge headspace. I have built a couple of AKs myself at home by hand. However, given what these RPK-74 parts cost, I got an experienced buddy to build this one for me.

With the right tools, you can bodge together a Kalashnikov like this one in an afternoon. In this case, the real challenge was really sourcing the parts. If you’re interested, just haunt GunBroker and expect to pay a decent price for the stuff you need. The end result, while certainly not cheap, will reliably set you apart at the range.

The big honking 45-round box magazine is undeniably awkward, but it lasts a while. It is also interchangeable with the standard 30-round rifle mag. Feeding the rifle involves hooking the front lip of the magazine and then rocking it in place. This chore is indeed a bit slower than the same task on your favorite M4, but it does make it easier to seat a full mag with the bolt closed. As the bolt on the RPK-74 does not lock to the rear on the last round fired, this is a potentially big deal.

The trigger is long and creepy, but all AK triggers are long and creepy. Unlike the sights on the standard rifle, the rear sight on the RPK-74 is easily adjustable for both windage and elevation without tools. There is also a Combloc-standard optics rail riveted to the left side of the receiver.

The combination of the heavy rifle and the lightweight cartridge makes the overall system almost unnaturally stable and controllable. The 5.45x39mm round does not fare well at extreme ranges, particular in wind. However, when launched in quantity from a stable platform like the RPK-74, recent history has shown it to be plenty powerful to do the deed.

Is the RPK-74 the Best Squad Automatic Weapon?

The original 1961-vintage RPK was developed to replace the RPD LMG, a superb belt-fed machine gun developed during WWII. The RPD has much to commend it. On the surface at least, this seems a step backwards. However, I have a lot of trigger time on both, and the RPK is the better SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon).

Quicker to load, more tolerant of dirt, and generally easier to maintain, the RPK is the more efficient battlefield tool. The RPK doesn’t have an interchangeable barrel, but neither does the RPD. The RPK-74 is everything the previous RPK is, only half a pound lighter and more readily managed. The RPK-74 is indeed a shockingly solid SAW in my opinion.

Ihad a friend who served in combat in Europe from D-Day through to the end of the war. Like most all of those old heroes, he is gone now. However, the stories he could tell…

Mr. P was a farmer, a man of the earth. He invested his entire adult life raising his family, loving his neighbors, and glorifying God. He was the very image of a Southern Christian gentleman. The man was meek, humble, and generous. However, in his youth this stately old grandfather was a cold-hearted professional killer.

Mr. P had absolutely no use for the Waffen SS. In fact, he said, to his recollection, he and his fellow grunts never took an SS man prisoner. To hear him tell it, those SS guys earned that.

One of the more disquieting practices of the SS was that they would often post a two-man sniper team as a stay-behind element as they retreated from an area. G.I.s who were tasked with clearing an unfamiliar space would carefully advance only to find that these SS snipers would kill a handful of Americans before departing just for meanness. Mr. P said they came to expect it.

The Story

When first I met Mr. P he took me out to his barn. The man dropped out of school at a young age to keep his family from starving during the Great Depression, yet he restored old steam engines for fun.

Like many of his generation, the guy was a mechanical savant. Hanging on a nail among all of those meticulously organized tools was an old German coal scuttle helmet. The SS runes on the side were faded but obvious. What made the antique stalhelm remarkable, however, was the .30-caliber hole that poked clean through from one side to the other.

Mr. P’s unit was tasked with securing Orly Airport outside of Paris. This is one of two major airports serving the Paris area today. His commander held the unit up short of the front gate. This objective just seemed too juicy for the krauts to have abandoned without a fight.

Mr. P and another redneck Mississippi guy then slipped off ahead of the main body to recon the space. They carefully ascended one of the taller hangars and set themselves up on the roof. Peering across the airfield structures with the eagle eyes of youth, they spotted what they came for. Perched on another hangar was the obligatory SS sniper team. The German marksman and his spotter were both fixated on the front gate. They had no idea that Mr. P and his buddy were there.

Each American G.I. drew a careful bead with his M1 Garand rifle. On a three count, the two young Americans fired simultaneously, killing both Germans. In the gory aftermath, Mr. P retrieved the dead man’s helmet, cleaned it up, and shipped it home. That helmet with its distinctive hole remained hanging from that nail in his barn for decades. It is in a small local museum today.

The weapon that hapless German sniper wielded was a scoped version of the Mauser Kar98k bolt-action infantry rifle. The Kar98k was a shortened carbine variant of the same rugged Gewehr 98 that carried the Kaiser’s legions through World War 1. The Kar98k served as the standard infantry weapon for both the Wehrmacht and the Waffen SS throughout WWII.

Karabiner 98k Origins

Adopted in 1934, the Karabiner 98 kurz was an evolutionary development of the same Gewehr 98 bolt-action rifle that carried the Kaiser’s armies through World War 1. The nomenclature literally translates to “Carbine 98 Short.” The abbreviated 23.6-inch barrel also drove the adoption of a specific cartridge.

The WWI-vintage G98 fired the 1903-pattern 7.92×57mm Mauser S Patrone. However, this round was found to produce excessive muzzle flash from the shorter Kar98k barrel. As a result, the Germans adopted the 7.92×57mm Mauser s.S. Patrone in 1933. This new cartridge used the same case but offered diminished muzzle flash and improved accuracy out of the shorter Kar98k tubes.

The Kar98k is a controlled-feed design based upon the proven Mauser M98. That means the extractor snaps over the cartridge rim as the round comes out of the magazine, controlling its orientation throughout the feeding cycle. The gun’s internal magazine holds five rounds, and it is typically loaded from the top via stripper clips. The strippers are considered disposable once the weapon is charged.

Unlike the previous Gewehr 98, the bolt handle on the Kar98k is turned down. This reduces the effort required in cycling and allows the rifle to be fitted with an optical sight. Early examples were blued. Later versions produced from 1944 onward were Parkerized. Between 1934 and 1945, the Germans produced some 14,600,000 copies.

Each weapon comes with a short length of threaded cleaning rod secured underneath the barrel. As with most bolt-action military rifles, maintenance is pretty straightforward.

There is a bolt release latch on the left side of the receiver. To disassemble the rifle, just retract the bolt, pull up on that latch and remove the bolt assembly to the rear. That’s really about all there is to it.

The Kar98k comes fitted with a tangent leaf rear sight corresponding to a fixed front barleycorn. Guns made after 1939 included a pressed steel front sight hood. The rear sight is graduated in 100-meter increments out to 2,000 meters.

Early Kar98k stocks were conventional one-piece designs. Starting in 1937, the rifles were fitted with laminated plywood stocks. These stocks were cheaper and more robust than the solid sort. Laminated stocks incorporate a stamped steel cup buttplate and a sling slot. Period commentary from WWII claimed that most Kar98k stocks that failed, failed through that slot. There is a round fitting in the butt that can be used to disassemble the bolt. The Germans also ran steel rods through these holes and used that to secure multiple rifles together in racks.

Accessorizing the Kar98k

The Germans fielded a mean bayonet with the Kar98k. They also produced a cup-style grenade launcher called the Schiessbecher, or Gewehrgranatengerät, along with a dedicated cleaning kit with a pull through. Later versions of this launcher would also fit the G98/40, the MP44, and the FG42 rifles as well. Special grenade launching rounds launched wooden bullets that would automatically prime the grenades upon firing.

The Germans designed a curious prototype sound suppressor for the Kar98k called the HUB-23. The corresponding subsonic cartridge was called the Nahpatrone or “Near Cartridge.” This combination supposedly diminished the rifle’s report by about 75%.

There were three major optical sights used with the Kar98k. The ZF41 scope was a curious 1.5X long eye relief optic that mounted to the rear sight base. While the concept was sound, the optic’s small size and limited eye relief made it like shooting through a tube of Chapstick. They produced around 100,000 copies, but the ZF41 was not terribly popular.

The ZF4 was a much more utilitarian optic that was also used on the StG44 and FG42 rifles. This 4X sight featured a post-type reticle and was not fundamentally dissimilar from modern combat optics used today. It was inexpensive to produce and quite effective.

The Zeiss ZF39 was a 4X optic that utilized a distinctive turret mount. In addition, many Kar98k rifles were hand-fitted with a variety of civilian optics as they came available. As a result, there was very little standardization.

Ruminations on the Karabiner 98k

The Kar98k was really obsolete by the time WWII broke out. The American M1 Garand offered significantly greater firepower, and the subsequent StG44 represented a quantum leap forward. However, once WWII really got energized, the Germans never quite caught up. Around-the-clock strategic bombing played an outsized role in that problem. The Kar98k was nonetheless a superb bolt-action infantry rifle for its day.

Special thanks to www.worldwarsupply.com for the replica period gear used in this project.