This rifle was brought back to France from the Balkans (probably Kosovo) by a French military team in the late 1990s. It’s a neat example of a mix-master build (what is “bubba” in Albanian?), with several cool elements. The base gun is an Albanian AKM, with its bayonet missing. The front sight block has been replaced by a Yugoslav M70 or M72 type, and a Yugo M72 bipod added. To allow the bipod to fit on the short barrel when folded, the handguard has been relieved to accommodate the bipod feet. The rear sight is a windage-adjustable PRK type, but this is not useful thanks tot he taller integral rear sight on the top cover. That top cover is from a long-action Finnish Valmet, made with a Weaver scope mount rail. The scope used on this rifle is a ZRAK ON-76, a 4x optic form an M76 rifle, and it still has the 8mm Mauser BDC cam installed.
Many thanks to the French IRCGN (Criminal Research Institute of the National Gendarmerie) for generously giving me access to film this unique specimen for you! They maintain an extensive firearms reference collection as part of their mission to fight crime and international terrorism.
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