Kalashnikov USA KP-9: A Perfect Copy of the Russian Vityaz SMG

Russian government: "We need a compact submachine gun that we can use for police work." Izmash: "So you want tiny AK, yes Comrade? Very well, we make tiny AK for tiny boolet."

I have a couple of things to say about this gun. While I do not own it myself, many of my friends do. In Russia this gun - as Saiga 9 - has been extensively used by IPSC shooters for PCC matches. In fact for a long time this was the only gun available on the russian market that suited the purpose. We have very few 9mm ARs and Kurbatov 9mm have only recently become available (I suppose you haven't yet heard of Kurbatov 9mm) and those at a high price. So russian IPSC shooters went the familiar path of customizing and fine-tuning one more AK for their purposes. This time - Saiga 9. What came to light was a major problem with the gun. As you can imagine sport shooters are capable of putting in an enormous roundcount and fast. In less then a year some of the first Saigas had many thousands of rounds put through them. It turned out that somewhere around 5000 rounds on average a nasty thing happens. The top right rail in the reciever on which the bolt carrier rides on gets cracked and then torn up. The ammount of speculations as to why it happens has been overwhelming. The Izhmash factory has never been known to be user friendly and too eager to help civilian shooters with their warranty claims. They tend to blame the user for anything that happens. But the common theory in the sports shooting community is that the bolt carrier has too much weight on top, making it unbalanced and when the gun cycles it doesn't ride directly back but also a little bit up, which applies torque to the rails. With time this force cracks the top right rail in the reciever. The gun will keep cycling even with this part of the rail cracked and torn but it is obviously unsafe. The factory at first said improper installation of aftermarket modifications such as custom handguards are to blame. Supposedly, users pressed out the trunion pin to do this and that led to improper headspacing. But then they themselves introduced a version of Saiga 9 with the same most popular sporting handguard from one of the leading local manufacturers installed from the factory. And the gun still had the same problem even when they did this themselves. For the army and police 5000 rounds is all they will ever shoot out of a gun in a lifetime. For an IPSC shooter this is a year of active training and the gun goes out the window. To cut it short. The solution has been finally introduced from both ends. On front end of the dust cover you can see three rivets. The middle one protrudes on the inside of the gun. The role of this rivet protruding on the inside of the gun is to be in contact with the bolt carrier preventing it from shifting upwards and tearing the reciever rail. Sports shooters started laser welding metal to the downside of the rivet until the contact with the bolt carrier was positive. A friend of mine @ivanrom did this to his gun which already has the reciever rail broken and the gun keeps working no problem. Some people drilled and tapped a hole in the dust cover and put a screw in instead of the pin so that they can adjust the downward pressure on the bolt carrier. The factory basically did the same thing adjusting the rivet. This will probably make the gun run a little longer. But it is still a so-so solution. So basically what I want you to check out if you own this gun is - does your dust cover have this rivet and does the bolt carrier positively contacts the rivet when the dust cover is closed? The rivet has to leave a scratch mark on the bolt carrier. Otherwise you're likely to run into the same problem after a few thousands of rounds. If you want to see how it looks check this video and on 5:08 you can clearly see what I am talking about - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DOKOJFASHE Here Saiga 9 is the cheapest option so many people just bought a new gun and didn't bother fixing it. I don't think this gun is so cheap in US. I hope Kalashnikov USA has properly introduced the same fix to their guns and I hope their quality control and warranty service are better than those of their russian colleagues. Good luck to you with this gun =).

drum mag + army = lot of troubles drum mag + civilian on shooting range = fun factor turn to 11

It's always nifty to see Russian firearms being talked about on this channel. Good looking gun aswell

A reliable drum magazine is the "Better mousetrap" of the gun design world.

Vityaz (витязь) means "hero, knight, man-at-arms" in Russian.

Y'know, couple hundred years or a couple thousand years, down the line, there's going to be historians weeping with joy for having videos like this.

ian your camera work has improved so much over the years that old men like me can really see the internals thx so much, hope y'all are safe my day starts with you

EDD mounted, let them come.

"They wanted a submachine gun that could lay a lot of fire quickly" PPSH-41 eyes glow Soviet Red

Fun Fact: The Vityaz Magazines have stripper clip guide cutouts on the feed lips to allow 5.45 stripper clips and spoons to feed 10 rounds of 9mm into the mag. It actually works on the K USA mags too.

Gun Jesus is the best entertainments right now during quarantine I would like to say thanks for these awesome content in this difficulty time

I'm so excited seeing this covered on this channel! I own a KP-9 and it is a spectacular gun.

My best advice with these kp9/kr9 pistols and rifles, is that if you do not own one, go buy one.

Anyone else getting "fuel filter" ads on these videos?

Ian just spoiled us with an East German MPi-AK-74N. Will he be covering that relic of a rifle soon?

Kalashnikov and Dragunov son's working in the same gun Well that's curious. Seems to be a robust 9mm platform.

The wound on finger 8:08 So it's definitely AK

I spent my stimulus check on on this

Your extensive knowledge is appreciated. You’re very knowledgeable in all types of weapons.Good job Ian