Despite the fact that the first AK went into production over 74 years ago, new companies and new countries are beginning to manufacture their versions of Kalashnikov rifles every year. At least 31 countries produced various AK variants, and now Turkey is joining that list, thanks to Sarsilmaz.
Turkish Guns @ TFB:
Last year, this Turkish company presented its version of the AK at the IDEF defense exhibition in Istanbul along with another Turkish company, Ozyurt Arms, that demonstrated their own version of the rifle at the same expo.
This 2021 version called SAR 308 is clearly based on the AKM rifle, which was developed in 1959 and it uses Magpul-style furniture: stock, pistol grip, and handguard. The manufacturing technology for AKM was transferred to many Eastern European countries belonging to Warsaw Pact: Romania, Hungary, Poland, East Germany, and Bulgaria, so the technology could’ve been transferred to Turkey from many different sources.
At the ADEX exhibition in Baku, Sarsilmaz showed an improved version of the same rifles under the name of SAR15T. This variant features the railed receiver cover attached to the rear sight block, upper and lower handguard with Picatinny rails, and collapsible M4-style stock.
To market their new firearm, Sarsilmaz created a very interesting video with torture testing of their rifle. It is immersed in mud several times and keeps functioning without any stoppages. Unfortunately, the video is only available in Turkish.
According to multiple sources within the industry, this rifle is already mass-produced and supplied to various government customers worldwide. So far, there is no indication that a semi-automatic version will be available any time soon.
Also, there is no information regarding the possible entrance of Sarsilmaz into the US Kalashnikov rifle market. This step seems logical, especially since prices for the imported AK keep rising every year and no more cheap imports are on the horizon.
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