TAMING THE BEAST

Want to silence an AK? You have an uphill battle. Back in Issue 26, we covered a pair of dedicated AK silencers — one from Gemtech and another from Dead Air. Since that time, a handful of other purpose-built Kalashnikov suppressors have been released, but what if you don’t want to buy a silencer specifically for an AK? That’s what this article is for.

Chances are, if someone only owns one silencer, it’s either for 22LR or for 7.62N — this piece is for those who fall into the latter category. A 7.62N silencer as a “do all” is a very common first NFA purchase. The rationale behind a 7.62N can is pretty simple: companies typically advertise them as being good for 5.56 and other smaller calibers as well.

But if you want to use your normal 7.62N silencer, undoubtedly not designed for AKs, there’s some work you have to do to overcome the issues. Threads are often not concentric to the bore — blame Soviet precision. Rarely is an AK thread pattern readily available in your standard fare silencer, and there’s no shoulder to speak of for a silencer to seat against. AKs are already so overgassed; adding backpressure from