Today I have Kalashnikov USA’s KP-9 (which is a virtually exact semiauto copy of the Vityaz SMG) out at the range. I chose the most suitable ammo to try it out with; slightly rusty steel-case Tulammo. And it just ate it all up. The KP-9 does not have the best trigger or the lightest recoil (although neither is actually bad), but it simply runs like flawless clockwork – and it easy to hit with to boot.
Reproduction
PSA/H&R Clones the Department of Energy Colt 9mm SMG
Palmetto State Armory, under their Harrington & Richardson brand, has released a particularly neat model of 9mm AR. They talked about doing this “at some point” at SHOT Show 2024, but lo and behold it’s […]
General Purpose MGs
History of the PK, PKM, and Pecheneg w/ Max Popenker
I’m happy to be joined once again by Russian small arms historian Max Popenker, for a discussion of the development of the Kalashnikov PK machine gun. This is universally regarded as one of the best […]
Select-fire Rifles
XM29 OICW Mockup
The OICW – Objective Individual Combat Weapon – was part of a program in the 1980s and 1990s to replace the whole lineup of uS small arms with a consolidated group of new high-tech ones. […]
You might try the ALG recoil spring. Got one in my AKX-9 and it makes the recoil softer while still working with every flavor of ammo I’ve tried.
As for that missing witness hole in the magazine: drill one.
And as for boring to shoot: get further way and fire while moving, but you knew that 🙂
Is their much blowback from a south paw view?
While undoubtedly effective etc. It appears somewhat overkill (including looking rather like a Christmas tree) for an sub machine gun. Was it considered worth it by its Russian customer i.e. acquired in volume by them and did any other countries buy / use it – was it widely exported and used as a standard gun by other than Russia?
They are not very used in Russia itself too…
Mostly for parades and commercials.
In the presence of the AKS-74u and “normal” SMGs, this is useless trash and an extra headache for the chief of armaments.
E.Dragunov (father of one of designer of Vityaz) designed sub-machine gun yet in 1970s. It was unable to met high requirement set back then, but was revived in 1990s resulted in PP-91 also named KEDR (Construction [of] E. DRagunov):
https://modernfirearms.net/en/submachine-guns/russia-submachine-guns/pp-91-kedr-klin-eng/
it does fire 9×18 cartridge and is smaller (shorter – both overall and regarding barrel) and lighter than Vityaz