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Portland area AK build party?
- Thread Starter jefe
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ohsht.jpg This is exactly what I was waiting for. Sign me up! I've got a single gun needing to be built: it's a barrel-less Romy kit, virgin Montana Rifleman barrel, and a fully heat-treated Polish blank + rails. I live in Puyallup so I can't host, and I have no tools to contribute either... sorry :/
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I'm looking for a build party and can offer my workshop for a small group but will need others to share their tools and knowledge. I'm in Beaverton and have a large, warm, dry workshop with basic hand tools and plenty of light/power.
I'm looking to build an AK variant or possibly a FAL from a parts kit. Feel free to drop me a line if you want in
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Shotgun news has a bunch of ads showing various kits from French sub machine guns to AK's and FAL's.
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Beware of those you invite, some might come to push their anti gun agenda.
I Built This AK-47. It's Legal and Totally Untraceable.
Forget 3-D-printed guns. Inside a "build party" where anyone can make a rifle that no cop will ever know about.
By Bryan Schatz
| Thu May. 23, 2013 3:00 AM PDT
The wooden and steel parts I need to build my untraceable AK-47 fit within a slender, 15-by-12-inch cardboard box. I first lay eyes on them one Saturday morning in the garage of an eggshell-white industrial complex near Los Angeles. Foldout tables ring the edges of the room, surrounding two orange shop presses. The walls, dusty and stained, are lined with shelves of tools. I'm with a dozen other guys, some sipping coffee, others making introductions over the buzz of an air compressor. Most of us are strangers, but we share a common bond: We are just eight hours away from having our very own AK-47one the government will never know about.
The AK-47, perhaps the world's best-known gun, is so easy to make and so hard to break that the Soviet-designed original has spawned countless variants, updated and modified versions churned out by factories all over the globe. Although US customs laws ban importing the weapons, parts kitswhich include most original components of a Kalashnikov variantare legal. So is reassembling them, as long as no more than 10 foreign-made components are used and they are mounted on a new receiver, the box-shaped central frame that holds the gun's key mechanics. There are no fussy irritations like, say, passing a background check to buy a kit. And because we're assembling the guns for our own "personal use," whatever that may entail, we're not required to stamp in serial numbers. These rifles are totally untraceable, and even under California's stringent assault weapons ban, that's perfectly within the law.
Among those ready to get going at this "build party" (none of whom wanted their names used) are a father-son duo getting in some bonding time and a well-bellied sixtysomething with a white Fu Manchu who "loves" the click-ack! sound of a round being chambered. Assembling a Romanian variant is a builder wearing a camo jacket and a hat embroidered with an AR-15 rifle above the legend "Come and take it." His knuckle tattoos read "PRAY HARD."
<broken link removed>
We crowd in as our three hosts, all expert gun assemblers, hand out waivers with a list of questions: Are you a convicted felon? Ever been dishonorably discharged from the military? Addicted to drugs? Mentally unstable? The guy in camo looks up and, to much laughter, says, "So it's all 'No,' right?"
The hosts collect our paperwork without checking IDs. We don eye protection and gloves, and soon the garage is abuzz with the whir of grinders, cutters, and drills. Sales of receiverswhich house the mechanical parts, making a gun a gunare tightly regulated, so my kit comes with a pre-drilled flat steel platform. Legally, it's just an American-made hunk of metal, but one bend in a vise later and, voilà, it's a receiver, ready for trigger guards to be riveted on. Sparks fly as receiver rails to guide the bolt mechanism are cut, welded into place, and heat-treated. The front and rear trunnions, which will hold the barrel and stock, are attached to the receivers.
Building an AK from parts requires no background checks or serial numbers. Byran Schatz
Now I need a hand. A stout guy with caramel skin, tired eyes, jet-black hair, and a penchant for peppering his sentences with F-bombs assists me. He starts hammering the barrel into the front trunnion. "If this were an [AR-15] and we did this, we'd be crying doing so much damage," he says. "But an AK, you can drop this thing in bubblegum, drag it through the mud, smash it against the ground, pick it up, pull the charging handle, and keep shooting. That's why they're so popular."
Durability and simplicity are why AKs have become the most widely distributed guns on the planet since their 1947 debut. They began proliferating in the late '50s, when the Soviets permitted "fraternal countries" to manufacture Kalashnikovs at will. Soon they spread from one hot spot to another, their reputation for ruggedness and reliability growing along the way. Now there are as many as 70 million in circulation. Colombian drug lord Pedro Guerrero and Saddam Hussein's son Uday had them plated in gold. Both <broken link removed> and Mozambique display them on their flags.
"Remember that thing I told you about why people do this: These builds can happen only because they aren't blown out to the public and law enforcement."
Many kits come from stockpiles in former war zones. "I can guarantee you this one has bodies on it," says one of the hosts as I peer down the barrel of a Yugo RPK. It's lined with grit and soot. My host says the AK I'm building is an Egyptian "Maadi" that came to the United States via Croatia, likely having been shipped there during the Yugoslav wars. He tells me some wooden stocks come with tally marks notched in them.
We prep the metal components in a sandblaster and submerge them in a phosphoric acid solution to protect the steel from corrosion. Finally, we grease and assemble them, semi-automatic firing controls included. Owning a gun that can shoot full auto, like these did in a past life, is effectively illegal under federal law. But you can buy a souped-up stock that will harness each shot's recoil to help trigger the next, a bit of clever engineering that mimics automatic fireand stays on the right side of the law. Adding one would be a simple future modification.
The first guy to finish is all smiles, but he has a question: "Say some Johnny Law comes up who don't know bubblegum about this law, and I've got an AK without a serial numberthen what?"
"There's a series of laws that make this legal," says one of the hosts. "Just print those up and have them with you in case Johnny Law does come by."
Firing my new AK. The rifles are popular because they workevery time. Martin Schatz
The next morning I do exactly that before tossing my AK in the trunk and heading to a gun store so busy I have to take a number. I pick up a barrel cleaner, a 10-round magazine, and 40 bullets before driving out to Jawbone Canyon, federal land northeast of Los Angeles. I park on a bluff, walk to a spot where I can aim at a mountain of scrub brush and sand, and load five rounds. I empty the magazine in seconds. Their reputation has been rightly earned: AKs are popular because they workevery time.
I'm left wondering: Seeing how easy this is, are build parties monitored? Do hand-built weapons ever surface in crimes? Are the cops worried? When I call local law enforcement representatives from Los Angeles, Orange County, Santa Ana, and Garden Grove, they say they've never heard of such a thing. "That doesn't happen here," says Bruce Borihanh, an LAPD spokesman. But a cursory browse of online gun forums is enough to show that, well, clearly it does. There seems to be one about every month. Plus, I just attended one less than an hour's drive from his office.
I'm reminded of what one of the build party hosts said before I left: "Remember that thing I told you about why people do this: These builds can happen only because they aren't blown out to the public and law enforcement."
People are selling AKs like mine on Armslist.comthe eBay of firearmsfor as much as $1,600. In most states, there are no records tracking such private sales. California residents have to go through a certified dealer to sell them legally. But since this AK is untraceable to begin with, who's to know how I choose to unload it?
Between you, me, and Johnny Law, here's what happened to my homemade AK. Back in my garage I use a grinding wheel to cut the receiver in half and the other components into pieces. I put the scraps back in the cardboard box the kit came in and leave it for the garbage truck.
I Built This AK-47. It's Legal and Totally Untraceable.
Forget 3-D-printed guns. Inside a "build party" where anyone can make a rifle that no cop will ever know about.
By Bryan Schatz
| Thu May. 23, 2013 3:00 AM PDT
The wooden and steel parts I need to build my untraceable AK-47 fit within a slender, 15-by-12-inch cardboard box. I first lay eyes on them one Saturday morning in the garage of an eggshell-white industrial complex near Los Angeles. Foldout tables ring the edges of the room, surrounding two orange shop presses. The walls, dusty and stained, are lined with shelves of tools. I'm with a dozen other guys, some sipping coffee, others making introductions over the buzz of an air compressor. Most of us are strangers, but we share a common bond: We are just eight hours away from having our very own AK-47one the government will never know about.
The AK-47, perhaps the world's best-known gun, is so easy to make and so hard to break that the Soviet-designed original has spawned countless variants, updated and modified versions churned out by factories all over the globe. Although US customs laws ban importing the weapons, parts kitswhich include most original components of a Kalashnikov variantare legal. So is reassembling them, as long as no more than 10 foreign-made components are used and they are mounted on a new receiver, the box-shaped central frame that holds the gun's key mechanics. There are no fussy irritations like, say, passing a background check to buy a kit. And because we're assembling the guns for our own "personal use," whatever that may entail, we're not required to stamp in serial numbers. These rifles are totally untraceable, and even under California's stringent assault weapons ban, that's perfectly within the law.
Among those ready to get going at this "build party" (none of whom wanted their names used) are a father-son duo getting in some bonding time and a well-bellied sixtysomething with a white Fu Manchu who "loves" the click-ack! sound of a round being chambered. Assembling a Romanian variant is a builder wearing a camo jacket and a hat embroidered with an AR-15 rifle above the legend "Come and take it." His knuckle tattoos read "PRAY HARD."
<broken link removed>
We crowd in as our three hosts, all expert gun assemblers, hand out waivers with a list of questions: Are you a convicted felon? Ever been dishonorably discharged from the military? Addicted to drugs? Mentally unstable? The guy in camo looks up and, to much laughter, says, "So it's all 'No,' right?"
The hosts collect our paperwork without checking IDs. We don eye protection and gloves, and soon the garage is abuzz with the whir of grinders, cutters, and drills. Sales of receiverswhich house the mechanical parts, making a gun a gunare tightly regulated, so my kit comes with a pre-drilled flat steel platform. Legally, it's just an American-made hunk of metal, but one bend in a vise later and, voilà, it's a receiver, ready for trigger guards to be riveted on. Sparks fly as receiver rails to guide the bolt mechanism are cut, welded into place, and heat-treated. The front and rear trunnions, which will hold the barrel and stock, are attached to the receivers.
Building an AK from parts requires no background checks or serial numbers. Byran SchatzNow I need a hand. A stout guy with caramel skin, tired eyes, jet-black hair, and a penchant for peppering his sentences with F-bombs assists me. He starts hammering the barrel into the front trunnion. "If this were an [AR-15] and we did this, we'd be crying doing so much damage," he says. "But an AK, you can drop this thing in bubblegum, drag it through the mud, smash it against the ground, pick it up, pull the charging handle, and keep shooting. That's why they're so popular."
Durability and simplicity are why AKs have become the most widely distributed guns on the planet since their 1947 debut. They began proliferating in the late '50s, when the Soviets permitted "fraternal countries" to manufacture Kalashnikovs at will. Soon they spread from one hot spot to another, their reputation for ruggedness and reliability growing along the way. Now there are as many as 70 million in circulation. Colombian drug lord Pedro Guerrero and Saddam Hussein's son Uday had them plated in gold. Both <broken link removed> and Mozambique display them on their flags.
"Remember that thing I told you about why people do this: These builds can happen only because they aren't blown out to the public and law enforcement."
Many kits come from stockpiles in former war zones. "I can guarantee you this one has bodies on it," says one of the hosts as I peer down the barrel of a Yugo RPK. It's lined with grit and soot. My host says the AK I'm building is an Egyptian "Maadi" that came to the United States via Croatia, likely having been shipped there during the Yugoslav wars. He tells me some wooden stocks come with tally marks notched in them.
We prep the metal components in a sandblaster and submerge them in a phosphoric acid solution to protect the steel from corrosion. Finally, we grease and assemble them, semi-automatic firing controls included. Owning a gun that can shoot full auto, like these did in a past life, is effectively illegal under federal law. But you can buy a souped-up stock that will harness each shot's recoil to help trigger the next, a bit of clever engineering that mimics automatic fireand stays on the right side of the law. Adding one would be a simple future modification.
The first guy to finish is all smiles, but he has a question: "Say some Johnny Law comes up who don't know bubblegum about this law, and I've got an AK without a serial numberthen what?"
"There's a series of laws that make this legal," says one of the hosts. "Just print those up and have them with you in case Johnny Law does come by."
Firing my new AK. The rifles are popular because they workevery time. Martin SchatzThe next morning I do exactly that before tossing my AK in the trunk and heading to a gun store so busy I have to take a number. I pick up a barrel cleaner, a 10-round magazine, and 40 bullets before driving out to Jawbone Canyon, federal land northeast of Los Angeles. I park on a bluff, walk to a spot where I can aim at a mountain of scrub brush and sand, and load five rounds. I empty the magazine in seconds. Their reputation has been rightly earned: AKs are popular because they workevery time.
I'm left wondering: Seeing how easy this is, are build parties monitored? Do hand-built weapons ever surface in crimes? Are the cops worried? When I call local law enforcement representatives from Los Angeles, Orange County, Santa Ana, and Garden Grove, they say they've never heard of such a thing. "That doesn't happen here," says Bruce Borihanh, an LAPD spokesman. But a cursory browse of online gun forums is enough to show that, well, clearly it does. There seems to be one about every month. Plus, I just attended one less than an hour's drive from his office.
I'm reminded of what one of the build party hosts said before I left: "Remember that thing I told you about why people do this: These builds can happen only because they aren't blown out to the public and law enforcement."
People are selling AKs like mine on Armslist.comthe eBay of firearmsfor as much as $1,600. In most states, there are no records tracking such private sales. California residents have to go through a certified dealer to sell them legally. But since this AK is untraceable to begin with, who's to know how I choose to unload it?
Between you, me, and Johnny Law, here's what happened to my homemade AK. Back in my garage I use a grinding wheel to cut the receiver in half and the other components into pieces. I put the scraps back in the cardboard box the kit came in and leave it for the garbage truck.
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Interesting article. Hasn't put me off a build party though. Anybody still game?
- Thread Starter
- #9
i'm still game. sorry i didn't immediately respond.
as i noted, i can contribute tools necessary to finish a receiver blank and to spotweld rails in blank and bent receivers.
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Sounds good
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you should post on akfiles i know some members on there are in pdx and around just tell them bubbazan68 sent you when you post 
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May be in the same situation. Not sure if I can get a kit/blank receiver in time (depending on when), but would at a minimum like to join and watch/help. Otherwise about the only thing I would have to contribute are your basic hand tools, small drill press, and some snacks.
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I might be able to make it. I need to get my kit from my folks place. And I need to buy a flat. I have basic tools, drills, some air tools, small mig.
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Here's a good list of available kits, where to find them, and prices: <broken link removed>
Unfortunately, the hard part is finding a barrel. The virgin Romanians have dried up and the US manufacturers seemed to have stopped making AKM profile barrels. Your best bet are forum classifieds... and they're kinda pricey.
Oooh, wait I found one! US non-chromed for $130 (chromed are out of stock): AK-47 US Made 7.62x39mm, 16" Barrel, New (EUR)
I'm still down for the build party, as long as somebody can do virgin barrel assembly.
Unfortunately, the hard part is finding a barrel. The virgin Romanians have dried up and the US manufacturers seemed to have stopped making AKM profile barrels. Your best bet are forum classifieds... and they're kinda pricey.
Oooh, wait I found one! US non-chromed for $130 (chromed are out of stock): AK-47 US Made 7.62x39mm, 16" Barrel, New (EUR)
I'm still down for the build party, as long as somebody can do virgin barrel assembly.
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I don't have any skills, I don't have any tools, and I don't have anything to build
However I would be interested in stopping by to see how it's done and to pick up some tips.
However I would be interested in stopping by to see how it's done and to pick up some tips.
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The only essential part I have is beer. Love to join.
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For those interested in home building AKs, this fellow has been selling an excellent tutorial CD over on Gunboards for many years. Its a good source of info.
WTS AK-47 Type Rifle Build CD
Keith
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Ok guys, it looks like with have some interest going. How about a meet up over a beer to kick us off and plan a way forward? We can draw up a list of the skills, experience and tools we need and then see we where are given the people involved?
How does sat June 1st work? Around early afternoon on the west side of town?
Drop me a PM.
How does sat June 1st work? Around early afternoon on the west side of town?
Drop me a PM.
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Great suggestion Bulldog.
Not to hijack your idea, but to be fair to all (East / West / Couve / South), why don't we meet at a place with good beer, plenty of space and reasonable eats.
I suggest the Lucky Lab on 9th and Hawthorne. Awesome thing is we can bring our dogs too. I don't know of any other bar where we can do that.
Not to hijack your idea, but to be fair to all (East / West / Couve / South), why don't we meet at a place with good beer, plenty of space and reasonable eats.
I suggest the Lucky Lab on 9th and Hawthorne. Awesome thing is we can bring our dogs too. I don't know of any other bar where we can do that.
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