AAR: Ken Hackathorn two day AK / Handgun class in KY and Gear Review
Ken Hackathorn AK-47/Pistol Class at Knob Creek, KY. Aug 28-29, 2010. AAR and Gear review
Around 12 people attended the class. Saturday started with the safety talk and ground rules. We then quickly progressed into basic carbine drills.
Some of the things we covered:
1. height over bore
2. how to hold the AK for more control
3. The strengths and weakness of the AK
4. Shooting drills that included the compass drill and el prez.
5. The quality of different AKs and magazines
6. Some history of the AK
7. Different configurations of the weapon system
8. Weapon manipulation
9. Night shooting with a rifle and pistol
A few things stood out in class:
For the most part you can use most of the same training techniques you do as you use with an AR-15. Shooting on the move was a big part of the drills. The big difference is how you manipulate the AK. The 2 big differences are how you reload the AK and how you manipulate the safety.
A lot of the AK’s in class were modified and had some sort of lever added to the safety lever to allow the shooter to use their trigger finger to manipulate the safety. This helped weapon manipulation immensely. The only drawback I could see with training with this modification is that some people may be issued a weapon that will not have this option to use so they should train without one. There were a couple of types of modified levers at class. The KREBS Custom safety lever seems to work very well for people with a smaller hand size. The safety lever also has a bolt hold over notch cut into it that is handy for ranges that require you to have your action open. I would not bother using this feature for any other reason. One of the students who had a KREBS lever forgot that his bolt was open and tried really hard to make the gun go bang when a drill started. People with larger hands seem to have an issue with their hand knocking the lever up out of the fire position. To fix this issue Joe of Superior Firearms made levers that have the shelf moved farther forward and higher on the lever.
Three different reloading techniques were taught at the class:
1. The first one involved ejecting the spent magazine with the support hand.
2. Grabbing and seating a new magazine with the support hand.
3. Then tilt the AK and reach under or over the AK to pull the charging handle with the support hand.
The second method involved:
1. Grabbing a new magazine with the support hand.
2. Placing the side of the magazine against the trigger guard then pushing forward the magazine catch and empty magazine out of the gun with the new magazine.
3. Inserting the new magazine
4. Charge the gun the same way as the first technique
The third method involved:
1. Pulling back the charging handle with your right hand
2. Grabbing a new magazine with your support hand
3. Slashing out the old magazine as described above
4. Seating new magazine and return support hand to supporting the AK
5. Letting the charging handle go with the right hand.
I found that the third method would take a lot of training and thought to do. The second method was faster than the first method. The second method was also the closest to the way you would reload an AR-15. So I think the second method would work the best for me.
Weak handed shooting with rifle and pistol was also emphasized in the class. The reason cited for this was the studies of injuries sustained during combat in the Middle East. The shooter’s off side eye was also used to aim to allow for maximum concealment of the shooter.
Aimpoint H-1’s and T-1’s ruled the class. Everybody there except for around 2 people had one mounted. The Aimpoint with its factory low mount on an ULTIMAK gas tube rail allowed the iron sights to be co witnessed with the optic in the lower 1/4 of tube. The Aimpoint's proved to be reliable as ever. I believe there was one VORTEX SPARC at the class on the first day. I think it did well and heard no reports of it going down during class but my info is limited.
There was also a night shooting component of the class done during Saturday night. Of course night sights or red dot optics were a must on both rifle and pistol. A flashlight was also a must. Most of the class had weapon mounted lights on both guns but a few people used handheld lights that seem to really hinder them while handling their weapons. I used a VLTOR SM-OCG off set weapons mount with a LED G2. The VLTOR mount proved to be rock solid. It fit nicely in front of Aimpoint without obscuring the tube. I was a little worried about the heat but the set up worked just fine. With the way I had it set up on the ULTIMAK I could use it as an index point and I could still reach the light while shooting with my off hand.
One interesting bit of information we learned at class was that white LED light was reflected back at us when there was a lot of smoke in the air. The incandescent bulbs seemed to cut through the fog a bit better.
Muzzle devices were also compared:
1. A Vortex flash hider was magical having no flash signature. It was by far the best muzzle device for low light/no light shooting. It would make position identification difficult and a shooters night vision would remain intact.
2. The AK-74 muzzle device did pretty well as it only put out a small pencil like flash. It kept the flash down low enough that it did not seem to affect shooters night vision. It did however blow a ton of smoke out of both sides. I know this because every time the guy next to me got his shot off first during the night shooting I would be shooting through a wall of fog with my LED flashlight.
3. AK-47 slant brake put out more flash then the AK-74 brake. At this point the flash could be uncomfortable to the shooters night vision.
4. Phantom mounted to a shorty AK was a cross between a rifle and flame thrower. It must have incinerated any mosquitoes foolish enough to get anywhere near the muzzle. The fire ball literally lit up the whole shooting line. After the first shot the operator’s night vision was gone and so were the other two shooters next to him.
http://i629.photobucket.com/albums/u...tingstance.jpg
We discussed about different magazine used for the AK. We found out from Ken that some people in third world countries use their AK’s and magazines as monopod stools. I would guess your mileage may vary depending on your size. The metal AK magazine seems to be one of if not the toughest magazine on the planet. I learned that the AK-47 was designed around its magazine. There were a few issues throughout the class with a few magazines that were too tight and did not fit easily into the guns. To fix the issues some people needed to work on the magazine itself. Down loading two rounds also helped some people more easily seat the magazine. While others had to practice a bit more with reloading this weapon system.
We also had 8 US Palm AK magazines that we were interested in trying out. Unfortunately two magazines that were brought to class buy the same individual had catastrophic malfunctions. Both of his magazines bottoms separated from the body of the magazine. The first occurrence happened as the shooter was loading the magazine. It only had a few rounds in it when the bottom popped off and the spring attacked him. The second failure happened on the 2nd or 3rd shot out of a full magazine. The bottom popped off and everything rolled out of the bottom. After looking at all the pieces I’m wondering if a manufacturing step was missed. I looked at the web site and found this description, “After the magazine is molded, the body and end-cap are bonded together at the molecular level, so no disassembly is possible or required.” Looking at the end caps that popped off it seems to me that the bonding process was not completed. I also find it hard to believe that a magazine would fail with only a few rounds worth of spring tension. This leads me to think that this may just be an isolated event. The individual will talk to the company and let us know what happens. On the bright side we got to see the individual components of the magazine. It seems to me that they are all well made parts and should have no trouble functioning in unison as a machine.
http://i629.photobucket.com/albums/u.../AKMagFail.jpg
I decided to use the US Palm AK Attack Rack. One of the “problems” a lot of us faced was that there seemed to be a limited number of updated ways to carry AK magazines compared to carries for the AR-15. I decided to try out the US Palm AKAR after reading a review on DVM. I found it worked very well for class and there were only a few minor things that I would like to change.
1. I got one in black which I think may have been a mistake on my part. I look ninja cool in it but I was cooking in the 94 degree temp. If I did it over again I would have picked a lighter color.
2. The admin/extra magazine pouch zipper was not easily accessible with the pull tie it came with. I will just weave up a longer zipper pull and this will fix this issue.
3. The biggest issue for me was buckle placement. I am a pretty short guy at 5’5” so the chest rig covers my entire chest and I have to buckle it up higher on my chest then maybe some other people who have longer torsos. This puts the shoulder strap buckles directly under my butt stock while I was shooting. Because I use the shortest folding stock I could find I don’t have a rubber pad on the stock. This combination led to the rifle slipping and sliding all over the place as I shot. A quick and easy fix I found that worked was to unbuckle the right buckle and tuck the buckle and strap under the chest rig. The strap over my left shoulder and around my torso was more than enough to hold the rack in the correct position. This left my right shoulder clear for strong sided shooting. It did not seem to affect my weak sided shooting as my body position is probably not exactly the same as my strong side and the sling I wore helped lock in the rifle to me. When I dig out my industrial sewing machine I will just reverse where the buckles are located from the top of my chest to under my arm pits.
The AKAR had more than enough room to carry everything I needed. Extra magazines for my rifle and pistol, granola bar (why be hungry?), and camera (for review pictures). Even with my little self the AKAR fit well and I didn’t feel like I was swimming around in canvas. The padded shoulder straps were nice and comfortable all day. I ran with the left most magazine pouch unsecured for quick magazine changes and had the 3 remaining magazines secured with the shock cord pull tabs which I found easy to manipulate even under stress. Magazine retrieval was smooth with no snagging on the pouches. This may have something to do with the sewn in insert. I could go prone and not stab myself with my gear and could easily move around at top speed without worrying about gear shifting or flying off.
http://i629.photobucket.com/albums/u...anbob/AKAR.jpg
Special thanks to Ken for another great class. I would like to thank Joe and Barry of Superior Firearms for being the best hosts. I would like to thank everyone who came out to class. You all made it a great experience. I would also like to thank Dave, Mike, and everyone else who offered me stuff to take and was concerned for me when I went down with heat exhaustion.
http://i629.photobucket.com/albums/u...b/AKpillow.jpg
Memorable quotes and thoughts:
“Hey Bob are you tall enough to reach that targets head or do we need to get you a shorter one?”
“For a second there I thought you brought a SVD to class…” “No dude I’m just short so the AK looks that long.”
“I think the “new guy” is a ringer…” (The “new guy” was in 5th group)
“Let’s go see how grandpa did.”… “Grandpa just stomped us flat”
“That was one of the greatest magazine changes I have ever seen…Then you shot the edge of the target … good job.”
“Am I bleeding?”
“AK so sharp! Magazine so sharp!”
“El Snatch O!”
“Shooter ready…? And… BUMBLE F---! “
http://i629.photobucket.com/albums/u.../AKBumbleF.jpg
“Dude I’m videoing you so don’t screw it up”
“I have fixed AK’s with a hammer, a file, and a rock”
