Effective Flash Hiders And Thread Adapters for Pinning AK104/SLR107CR

[w3453l]

From looking around I found that the AK-104/SLR-107 CR variants have 12.36" barrels in their intended length.

Is there any effective flash hiders available that could be used to pin to the barrel to make it to 16"?

I saw the CNC Warrior extended 4-piece Bulgarian style brake, but it's not what I'm looking for. It seems it would make the rifle front heavy which defeats the purpose of what I'm trying to do.

I have an SGL 21 and 103K style Saiga conversion (original front sight block pushed back to the gas block) that I would like to have converted to AK 104 configuration. I believe the only way to remove the pinned 74 style brake on the 103K would be to cut off the muzzle brake with the threaded portion of the front sight block and barrel underneath it. The rest of the sight block would have to then be pulled off. This should leave enough room for the 104 style gas block.

From looking around, the longest flash hider I could find was:

http://bemeyers.com/product/240f-flash-hider/

The website says it is 4" OAL, but I believe some of the length would cancel out with the end of the barrel.

I did also find that CNC Warrior makes an adapter to go from 24x1.5 to 5/8-24 RH. This would let me use an AAC Blackout FH.

This brings up the question:

How reliable are thread adapters?

Are they solid, and can they be trusted?

If there are any other suggestions for different Flash Hiders I would appreciate any guidance.

Thanks

[Aries144]

ghjkl

[w3453l]

The thread adapter is really a last resort thing. I understand that it's a lot of room for things to be out of line going from one thread pattern to another, and then attaching yet another extension on the end of the barrel. Especially with something as inconsistent as an AK.

If I were to have the barrel threaded for M15 x 1, what would be shortest length of barrel (from gas block to muzzle) needed or recommended to have to work with?

[Spooky130]

Chris Butler at AK USA made an extended 104 style brake that brought the barrel up to 16". I think K-Var had something similar too.

[english kanigit]

Thread adapters are sort of like lug-pattern adapters for vehicles: they work, sort of, if there are no other options available.

I have an SLR-107CR. I had a YHM Phantom pinned to it for a while as a 'place holder' of sorts. It was a great all around unit and did OK with the flash suppression. I now have a 3-prong Surefire flash hider pinned to the barrel making for 16.1" of barrel length. It is stupidly effective as a flash hider, perhaps even more so than the SOCOM762-MINI that attaches to it! The big difference between shooting at night with and without the can is not the flash. There is far more smoke and ejecta in the air that will be lit up by my weaponlight when not using the suppressor. If I use the can a lot of that will stay inside it for a little while.



I got this gun several years ago and started making the plans for suppressing it. Obviously those plans take time. As a place holder a buddy of mine with machine shop access cut off a bit of barrel. I threaded it with the M14x1LH die and TAT whereupon we used and end mill to cut through that flash hider and a bit of barrel to allow pinning it in place with a piece of drill rod.


https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/56338680/LF.net/Photo%20Dec%2001%2C%2017%2004%2040.jpg


I did the math on this so that when the time came I could cut off the YHM Phantom and still have enough barrel length left to pin the longer Surefire flash hider in place for an OAL of barrel greater than 16". When my Form 4 was about 5 months in to the wait I contacted a local AK shop, Two Rivers Arms, about finishing the project for me. Initially I just wanted them to press the barrel out so that I could send it off for concentric threading on a lathe. What I didn't know is in their move to a new building they had a lot more room and had picked up a lathe. They offered to do the whole job for me at a very good price which I gladly agreed to.


I've used this gun now in two different 'Run&Gun' competitions with great success. I regularly work IPSC-torso steel targets out to 500yds without issues.
Here is it's current incarnation:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/56338680/LF.net/Photo%20Sep%2007%2C%2015%2024%2032.jpg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/56338680/LF.net/Photo%20Nov%2027%2C%2023%2024%2031.jpg


It sounds like an obnoxious pellet rifle. Contrary to what the internet says a suppressed AK will not in fact light your eyebrows on fire because of the vents in the gas tube...

Ek

[w3453l]

That is very similar to what I have in mind for my AK. The Surefire flash hider was the first one I looked at, but I thought it might be too short; I'm starting with a rifle that already had it's barrel cut a little bit.

When I checked Surefire's website they said that the FH has a 3.81" OAL. Can you tell me how much length it added to your barrel with it installed and pinned on? Either way I'm going to be really close to the 16" length.

The other option I've found was the BE Meyers 240F with an OAL of 4". I'm pretty sure that one will do it after I took some measurements yesterday, but I will still have to have them confirmed by a gunsmith since I based the measurements off the assumption that the front sight block will be able to be pulled off. I'm also assuming the bit of barrel that was under the front sight block will still be able to be threaded.

Speaking of re-threading a barrel: would there be any reason why an SLR107 or Saiga barrel would not be able to be threaded for M15 x 1 threads?

Thanks again

ETA: I've decided that I am not going to go with the thread adapter idea

[english kanigit]

Measuring from the face of the muzzle to the tip of the tines on my SF3p-762-M14x1LH gives a total of 2 9/32" of length added.

I cannot help you with the threading of the M15x1. I believe it would depend on whether the barrels fell within the Min/max outer diameter that a tap could fit. If you want to use a suppressor though running a tap by hand to thread the muzzle is a bad and potentially expensive idea. If you needed a bit more length it sounds like that BE Meyers could work. I believe the Vortexes too are a touch longer than the Surefires.

Ek

[Aries144]

ghjkl

[jamesavery22]

Thread the barrel at 5/8x24. Tons of options then.

Surefire, YHM, both have really long 7.62 flash hiders.

[w3453l]

15x1 won't work because your muzzle is only 14.5mm in diameter. If you already have a 24x1.5 threaded collar, then an adapter would be, by far, the easiest way to do this. If you aren't planning on using a suppressor, this will be fine for a flash hider. If there is a misalignment issue (unlikely, since flash hiders have MUCH larger internal bores and also less length for a round to pass through), it should be correctable by filing on the back of the flash hider and/or adapter to bias them/it back in line with the bore. This is actually a procedure recommended by the Finnish suppressor maker Reflex for use with their 14x1L AK suppressor, since AK threads are often not concentric. Just buy a long aircraft drill bit that's just under .311" in diameter to use to check bore alignment. This will be good enough.

Of course, if you plan on mounting a suppressor at any point, you'll need to work up something with a gunsmith to ensure all is concentric.

That's right, my mistake.

I was thinking of 5/8 x 24, but that comes out to ~15.8xx mm in diameter. Don't the SLR 107's and SGL's have 15 mm diameter barrels? If that's the case wouldn't that be too loose of a tolerance?

[Aries144]

ghjkl