Hey, everybody, welcome back to gun.deals. Today on the table, I am very excited to go over this one with you, it is a Kalashnikov KP9. Let’s get this review started.
Alright, folks, as I said, this is the Kalashnikov KP9, it is a clone version, if you will, of the Vityaz, and I apologize, I’ve probably butchered that name of the Russian gun that is fully automatic, unfortunately, this is obviously semi-auto, and it’s Kalashnikov USA that actually makes this gun over here in the US.
However, a lot of these parts are interchangeable so this is probably one of the closest guns you will get to that particular classic from out there, a very, very cool one.
Some of this has been upgraded already or been added so I will go over what has been added, the features, what comes with it, what doesn’t come with and so on.
We will start at the back, so the furniture on this gun, because this has been SBR’d already. This is Zenitco furniture on this gun, this is a Zenitco stock, it’s very cool. Typically by the KP9 it will either not have a brace or it will have like a triangle brace or something like that.
Obviously, we have added a stock on this and it has been SBR’d, so this is a Zenitco stock, it has a couple of adjustments for cheek rise and things like that, get to where you like. Has a little sling attachment right here, and so on.
One of the cool things is, with any of the models, this little button back here, if you depress it and push it in, it actually folds the stock or brace, whatever you have on over like so making this pretty compact. It’s gonna be just over 18 inches, so it’s kind of a good size to put in a backpack or something like that if you need it. With this particular model, the Zenitco, you just push that little button in and it locks back in a place like that. Very cool furniture.
Moving along to the bottom right here, obviously this is the same as every other AK, you push the end to lift up your dust cover and I’ll show you how to do that in internals in just a second.
Moving along we have the safety, the safety is super smooth, I really, really like that safety, it’s kind of an extended tab on there. One of the things I would have liked to see, I know, I understand why it’s not on there, because it’s a clone, right, but I would have liked to see them put on an extra tab right here, just so I can manipulate it with my index finger right here, but it is what it is, but, yeah, very smooth, I do like that a lot.
On the top, here it does have a 1913 pic-rail already added which is super nice and convenient because typically you would have to add a side mount that would go here and sit over the top which will cost you an extra hundred dollars straight out off bat to buy that, so I like that this is already on there, big feature, I do like that. It does have some engravings for like, it’s got one, three, five, seven, I think goes up to nine or eleven, something like that, anyway, they’re marked along here, kind of like your T markings.
Moving down, the rivets all look super nice, the fit and finish is great, and obviously we have some tape because this is where the information for SBR is, so that does not come with it, but you’ve got all the riveting, it looks really, really nice, a fit and finish is absolutely excellent.
Moving down, we have this grip here, it’s very smooth, it’s just kind of polymer and even though it feels good I would imagine when my hands are kind of sweaty that I’m not gonna get a particularly good grip on this. It does flare out at the bottom. The nice thing with this furniture, especially the grip here, you can switch out to any AK grip that you like. I personally like FAB Defense grips, just a personal preference, but there‘s tons of grips out there that you can choose from.
Moving along with the trigger, it’s a single-stage trigger, the pull weight comes in just under 4 pounds, it’s about 3.8 when you put on the scale, get a little bit of take-up and you got a nice, obviously audible tactile break and then you got a little bit of lead out for the reset, tactile audible reset. It’s not a bad trigger, it’s not the best in the world, and, again, you can upgrade the trigger if you wish, but it’s not a bad trigger that comes with it, for sure.
Moving along, this mag well is actually polymer which is interesting, you do have the, obviously the paddle release which I freaking love. Paddle release, they’re super intuitive, that is metal, not polymer.
This is a KP9 mag, it kind of looks like, say CZ mag, but it’s not, this does not take CZ magazines, this is a proprietary mag from Kalashnikov, it’s a 30-round mag. These are gonna set you back about 40 to 45 dollars, depending on where you buy them. So, if you’re in the kin of the market, you’ll know, like, say Palmetto State Armory has the AK-V’s which are really fun guns based of the same firearm and they use the CZ mags which are a lot less expensive, they’re about 15 to 20 bucks, especially if you use PSA’s on branded mags, which these are not, but they do seem like good quality mags and have had no problems with them.
Moving along we do have a rear sight here and it is marked out to 200 meters and you can just adjust it the same as your other AK sights right here, just push in the detents and you can move that like so and obviously it works with your front sight right there.
Actually moving back to the charging handle, this is not a standard charging handle right here, this does have a Zenitco added on, so you just basically put this on and then you put the screw in over the original handle. It’s cool, I mean, it works really well, but so does the original, there’s no need to upgrade it, but, I mean it’s kind of a nice upgrade if you’re into that.
Also the furniture up here is from Zenitco, this is that handguard from Zenitco and so is this vertical grip. The original furniture that comes, and I rode the image in, the original furniture that comes with this is the classic AK furniture, and, again, it just have been upgraded, but as you’ve seen, that’s the classic furniture that does come with it and it’s very easy to switch out if you want to do that.
Now, below the handguard and the gas tube we do have a 9.25-inch barrel and we have a thread pitch of half by 28, so very common thread pitch which is also really nice, we’ll go over that in just a second.
Right below the brake here and below the barrel, there’s a one slot kind of pic mount right here, if, I don’t know what you might be able to add on there, but some, you can add something in there.
Just in case you’re gonna ask, you probably will, this is a modlite button, that’s what the light set-up is.
Going back to this has a brake at the front and the brake works really, really well, but you can take this off, again, the same as any AK, push that little kind of button right there and you’re just going to rotate your brake off and I really like this feature about AK’s, it makes it so simple to switch between a brake or a flash hider or whatever you want or if you want to take this brake off and have the exposed thread pitch because you want to suppress it with you Dead Air Wolfman, which we have here.
Ok, and then we can just screw our suppressor on like so, I’m not gonna do it all the way, but that would be ready to go suppressed, that’s a cool looking firearm.
Ok, so we’ve kind of gone over the exterior, again, the fit and finish is sublime and it’s really easy to upgrade the furniture and things if you want to.
To take this gun apart, obviously you make sure you are clear and then just, again, same as any AK you’re just going to depress that button in, just pass the dust cover and then it will pop up like so, actually I think this might be on a spring that the way that this kind of goes up, anyway, it is hinged, it does stay there, so it’s really nice.
You do have your guide rod and spring and you’re just gonna push your little button back and lift that out and there’s your guide rod and spring, then you’re gonna pull back on your bolt carrier group. This is all one piece, it’s kind of a heavy bolt carrier group, but, as I say, it’s all one piece with that aftermarket charging handle on there, and then you just have your standard internals.
Obviously, to take off the gas block is the same as any other one you’ve got your little lever here, pop that up and take your gas block off, but to put it back together make sure that stays up, take your bolt and put that in. There’s two little slots at the back, push it down, put that forward, and take your guide rod and spring and slide that in, and then push it forward, there’s two little slots, it goes in the back there and it sits in nice and secure, dust cover down and back on.
Alright, so let’s talk about shooting, shooting in these PSS’s are so fun, there’s almost so little recoil in these that the, you know, shooting is really quick, the follow-up shots are really quick, there’s no muzzle rise or anything like that. They’re just an absolute ton of fun to shoot, gone through hundreds of rounds of just 115 grain, it was a CCI Blazer and also gone through some Subsonic 147 grain with the Wolfman and it worked flawlessly.
If I had to compare this to the AKV from PSA, this beats it hands down, I think the quality the fit and finish is even better, it’s even lighter recalling that the AKV, which is hard to imagine, just a super, super quality firearm, very nice indeed.
Things I didn’t really like about it, the grip, I’m not a huge fan of, again, super easy to switch out, you know, and these are personal preference things. I would have liked to see a little tab at the back there so my index finger could hit it, but, again, it’s just a personal preference thing, but, yeah, other than that this thing is just so cool, so very, very cool.
