#RedOktober

Welcome back to another Friday Night Lights. This one is brought to you by Rifle Dynamics from their Red Oktober Kalashnikov Championship. On Saturday night after the last match shooters finished for the day, we ran Red Oktober After Dark, night vision and AKs with lasers. Like previous installments of Friday Night Lights, this series is sponsored by ATN Corp, manufacturers of night vision and thermal optics like the THOR LT. As with all of our sponsored series, Friday Night Lights will continue to bring you unbiased news and reviews from a variety of companies.

In this first episode of TFBTV Show Time, it’s October 23, 2021, and James Reeves is hanging out with Nick at Rifle Dynamics to talk about Red Oktober, and to get an introduction to Rifle Dynamics’ newest AK, the as-yet-unreleased Rifle Dynamics 700 Mid AK, as well as the very limited edition, one of ten Model 702 AKs built to commemorate the 5th year of Red Oktober. Check out today’s video on the new Rifle Dynamics AK, and don’t forget to subscribe to TFBTV Show Time for FULL coverage of Red Oktober 2021.

To commemorate their 2021 Red Oktober Kalashnikov Championship match, Rifle Dynamics will be releasing a limited edition 2021 Red Oktober pistol. They are only making ten of these limited edition pistols.

Rifle Dynamics has been hosting their Red Oktober Kalashnikov Competition (ROKC) since 2016. Sadly last year’s ROKC was cancelled due to COVID. Recently Rifle Dynamics announced that the premier US AK competition is back on, ROKC21 is coming this October 23-24.

Zack Smith is a competitive shooter and even shoots for Taran Tactical. Just last weekend Rifle Dynamics held their annual Red Oktober Rifle match. Zack shot the match and won first place with a $500 homebuilt AK.

Red Oktober is a competition very unique in the regard that it caters specifically to the Kalashnikov platform. Debuted in 2016 at a range in southern Utah, it attracted a significant number of collectors, shooters, and builders throughout the country, even coming so far as Alaska or jumping through the hurdles of traveling from California with restricted rifles. In my opinion, the entire scene was something to really behold just due to the dedicated folk that are drawn to the platform. Unlike the AR15, it is much harder to become proficient or even get into one of the Kalashnikov derivatives due to the lesser availability of quality components, the lack of common knowledge and popularity, but most importantly the much more intricate procedures of completing an AK build. Those willing to go down this forbidding path and are serious about it have an adherence to the AK unlike most any you will probably encounter in the AR world.

Red Oktober is an entirely Kalashnikov themed competition that took place at Southern Utah Practical Shooting Range in St. George, Utah. It was primarily by Rifle Dynamics, along with a number of other industry sponsors that all pitched in to really support the two day competition. Essentially Jim Fuller from Rifle Dynamics, along with range staff from Southern Utah Practical Shooting Range saw the opportunity to create a competition in celebration of the Kalashnikov platform in the United States and brought it to reality. The divisions included Kalash Heavy (7.62×39), Kalash Light (5.56×45 or 5.45×39), Open Kalash for optics or drum feeding devices, and finally a ComBloc division for any non Kalashnikov design Soviet or otherwise within the Warsaw Pact countries.

Dead Air Armament is a Utah based company that makes a number of suppressors for a variety of platforms to include rifles, handguns, and shotguns. We’re written some posts about the company but haven’t been able to get this in-depth with one of their suppressors. Along with SilencerCo (based in the same state), they are part of a growing industry of smaller companies going after a market once only populated by the big leagues of Gemtech, AAC, and Surefire to identify a few. Although Dead Air Armament has a huge variety of suppressors, at Red Oktober they were showcasing their Wolverine PBS-1 for the Kalashnikov platform. The claim to fame is that this is the first rack grade ready suppressor for the rifle platform. Your standard ComBloc Kalashnikov rifles although very reliable weren’t manufactured to standards necessary to suppressor operation. As an example many barrels are not concentric, in addition the muzzle threads on the actual barrel probably aren’t concentric either. This means that if you had a suppressor with 14.5mm threads, even if you screwed it on the rifle, you are running a very high risk of a baffle strike because the actual position of the muzzle within the barrel might not be centered, and even if it is, the threads on the muzzle might also not be centered. Thus, a baffle strike will occur.

Sabrewerks has been making a very indigenous optics mount that replaces the Kalashnikov factory rear sight blocks. The initial unit requires some gunsmithing or least knowledge of complete Kalashnikov disassembly (removing the OEM rear sight block). Once this is removed, you now have a system on which to insert a variety of optic platforms made by Sabrewerks onto the mount. These are held in place by a very snug dovetails on the base mount, in addition to a cross pin that doubles as a gas tube retaining pin (previous retaining pin is removed with the old rear sight block). The company makes a mount for just about any optic you want to throw on the rifle, and I’m sure if you have an older scope, they’ll be able to do a custom fit for it. Every mount they make has an integrated non adjustable rear sight within it, so if the scope goes down, there will always be a back up rear sight, without the need to affix an aftermarket rear sight. Of course, this does take away the ability to co-witness a rear sight (However, some of their reflex optic mounts do allow for a co-witness). In addition, an important point about their system is that it allows removal of the top cover for disassembly without needing to take off the optics mount first.

Circle 10 AK showcased their line of muzzle brakes and flash suppressors at Red Oktober this year. In regards to their muzzle brakes, the company makes two thread sizes, 14mm for standard Kalashnikov muzzle threading, and 24mm for AK74 or a number of AKSU inspired offshoots and designs. Both thread pitches can be ordered with either right hand or left hand threading. Going for a reduction in weight, Circle 10 offers the same designs but in titanium instead of 4140 steel. In addition, there is a shorter two port version available compared to the standard three port version.

Joe Firearms is a Utah based company that specializes in outfitting Kalashnikov rifles in addition to offering their own line of AJAK-47 and AJAK-74 rifles. Most significant is their flared magazine well that is welded to the receiver, their extended magazine releases, and left hand charge. Apart from the flared magazine well, a number of these features are available all over the Kalashnikov world, however combined with a number of their other options, many other companies offer these at a much higher price point for the consumer. I thought their extended magazine release looked especially worthwhile because it is ambidextrous by way of a bar that extends on either side of the trigger guard. Many Kalashnikov aftermarket extended magazine releases are usually only operable from the right side of the firearm, instead of the left side. They also had a neat concept wherein they cut down the charging handle to a short enough length to engage with a notch on the safety, while retaining their added left hand side charging handle. A number of Kalashnikov safety’s feature a bolt hold open device but few of them allow the bolt to be activated into battery by just a flick of the safety. Their simple concept does just this.