Mini-review: Midwest AK-SS Extended Handguard + Aimpoint C3
Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2012 9:48 am
So, I've had this rifle for a while now; it was my first AK build in fact. Bog standard Romy kit rivet built on a US receiver. Last year I added one of my Wolverine stocks to it with an ACE folding mechanism and receiver block on the theory that every AK I have should also be serving as an advertisement for my products when I am at the range. I bought the Aimpoint back in February intending to mount it using a TWS rail, but it turns out the Romanians appear to have mis-machined the front trunnion such that the barrel will never line up with a receiver mounted top rail (the side rail is accurate to the bore, but not compatible with a stock that folds to the left).
Since I wanted to mount one of the new, extended, super-smooth handguards from Midwest Industries anyway, the easiest solution to my problem was to order the version that comes with the topcover mount for a standard 30mm Aimpoint. On the first attempt, they sent me the cheese grater (fully railed) version by mistake, but when I contacted them, they got the correct unit along with a pre-paid return label for the other shipped right away. Finally had time to get it all installed Thursday.
The installation instructions for the rail were easy to follow in a step by step order. My only complaint is that they specify locking the forward hand guard retainer back in place on the barrel once the original lower hand guard is removed, and as it turns out, the MI unit cannot be installed until the retainer is removed from the barrel entirely. So, out came the air grinder and cut off wheel, making this a one-way conversion. The MI hand guard set essentially clamps around the barrel and appears to be extremely secure. There is a pair of set screws that are tightened until they just make contact with the gas tube, eliminating it as a source of rattling, as well as providing an extra measure of anti-rotation to the hand guard. The upper guard/optic mount attaches to the lower with 4 countersunk screws and pulls up very tight against the lower and the rear of the gas tube. They include a tube of blue (removable) thread locker to be used in assembly along with all allen wrenches required.
Once installed, the Aimpoint mounts low enough such that the standard AK sights will provide a low co-witness. Since I had previously installed a Mojo rear aperture sight, I reinstalled the original military leaf rear sight along with a narrower than stock "target" front post that is manufactured by Tech Sights (which I discovered is too thick at the wrench flats to fit my AK front sight adjusting tool). Zeroing at 25 yards (which should give roughly a 200 yard zero and 1.5" high at 100), I found that the best way to achieve zero was to first fire a group using the iron sights. Then, holding the iron sights at the center of the target, the Aimpoint was adjusted to align the dot with the center of the group. After firing a few more rounds and fine tuning the dot zero, the iron sights were brought into alignment with the dot, and another group fired to verify zero of the iron sights. I still need to verify and fine tune the zero at longer range, but we had other things to do and no spotting scope with us. So I'll take care of it another day, knowing that at least I should have a reasonably close zero for now.
A big plus of this hand guard setup, is that it is not totally covered with rails as the previous version is. It came with 3 sections of rail that I can mount anywhere that I want to put a rail, while leaving the remainder smooth. Since I only want to occasionally mount a light, I used one of the smaller sections of rail up front at 6:00, and left the rest off. There are also several attach points for a QD, push button sling mount. And of course, the extended length of the lower hand guard gives a lot more flexibility in terms of hand placement than most other AK hand guards.
Anyway, I'm happy overall with how this rifle turned out, given that I couldn't have it with the red dot mounted over the receiver on a TWS rail like I originally wanted. I'm hoping to do quite a bit more shooting while the weather holds this summer, and plan to add to my initial impressions later on.