Got my PKM!

[Trent]

Found an unfired PKM converted to semi by MalCoMar, built off unissued parts, up for sale by a private collector (retiree).. and took the plunge.

What it cost my savings account was quickly made up for by elation and joy. I don't think I've *ever* been this excited about a new firearm, ever!

I've always loved the PKM.

"No worries. I am professional Russian Lumberjack!"

 

[meanmrmustard]

Smoking IZ bad for you, Comrade!
Seriously though, that is sweet. Gotta love the brass necklace.

 

[Ian]

Congrats! I'd love to hear how it shoots!

 

[Trent]

100 rounds in 6" circle at 100 yards (including 8 in the bullseye). I'm due for a new prescription on my glasses, I could barely make out the dang target (blurry).

I had some stoppages, all were failure to eject. The manual says this is normal for the first 700-800 rounds until things loosen up. I have 5280 rounds on order from AIM. Will post again after I've gone through a couple cases!

 

[War Squirrel]

I am so jealous. I look forward to more pics!

 

[WardenWolf]

I envy you. That's a beautiful gun. I've always been a sucker for Russian weaponry. Please post more pics!

 

[Dr.Rob]

In Soviet Russia PKM smokes YOU!

Seriously, that's a cool piece and very unusual.

 

[JHenry]

PKM huh?

Not impressed.

No really though thats cool as hell, how many links you got?

 

[ifit]

Awesome, wow U.S soldiers using them in iraq and afghanistan
great video of the MAC doing a review on the pkm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_F-q7MNYBE&feature=plcp

 

[MikePaiN]

I suddenly feel small & insignificant ...

 

[WardenWolf]

Funny think about the PKM: it fills the same role as our M240, but weighs 11 pounds less. That's a pretty huge difference when you have to carry that thing around all day.

 

[Ian]

I've spoken to more than a few gun cognoscenti who think that the PK/PKM is the best general-purpose machine gun ever made.

 

[aka108]

Get rid of those damn cigarettes. Quit smoking. You will enjoy that fine firearm for longer time. (I quit smoking after 47 years and can give that advice better than some lilly livered person who has never had the habit)

 

[Trent]

I'm working on quitting smoking. Down to a half pack a day, from 2 packs a day for 20 years. It's getting easier, although some days are harder than others (I run datacenters for fortune 500's, very high stress job). I made the decision about 3 weeks ago, the day my 48 year old aunt died from lung cancer.

Anyway, back to the PKM.

I'll need to get my SLR out some day and take better pictures, my cell phone camera sucks.

The rifle came with...

* Semi auto PKM w/ matching barrel
* SPARE matching PKM barrel, spare barrel bag, and sling for barrel bag
* PKM Sling
* 2x 100 round ammo cans with 2x 50 round belts in each (these clip to bottom of PKM, shown in the pics above)
* Two spare parts sets
* Sling connector for ammo cans
* ATF approval letter, manual, and declassified army PKM manual
* Ammo can sling for tripod (allows connecting 2x250 cans to tripod, in backpack config)
* 2x 250 round ammo cans with 10x 50 round links
(have 700 rounds worth of links...)
* PKM tripod with AntiAircraft accessory (this is the 2nd gen tripod, lighter than original, and has AA conversion capability)
* transport bag for tripod (with slings)
* transport bag for PKM
* Transit chest, which fits ALL of the above except tripod, which has a separate bag
* toolkit (broken shell extractor, etc)

All of the above is in mint, unissued condition.

 

[Trent]

PKM alone

PKM w/o ammo can

Spare barrel

Stuff

Unboxing

Transit case + tripod bag

 

[AethelstanAegen]

Way cool, Trent. I'm supremely jealous.

 

[Fremmer]

That's a bad ass rifle!

And I'm sorry about the profanity, but look at it ...

 

[wgaynor]

Wow!

 

[Ian]

Y'know, one video I would really like to do is a comparison of Marcolmar's semi PKM to Ohio Ordnance's semi M240...

 

[barnbwt]

Well, hell, that cool transport case alone is worth a hefty price of admission! Sweet popgun. Save those ciggies for the Uber-man photos, though!

I have a feeling there's a very similar photo of Vladimir Putin floating around out there somewhere...



There it is!

TCB

 

[Sebastian the Ibis]

Great looking gun Trent!

 

[JustinJ]

What is the purpose of the black tube running through the stock? Is it attached to the receiver or just part of the stock?

If only a slidefire would fit.

 

[Trent]

JustinJ-

The black tube that runs through the stock is part of the closed-bolt semi-conversion. There's two seperate recoil springs in use, inner and outer, one for the bolt, one for the sliding hammer block (not sure of the technical term; the hammer on this rifle is essentially a heavy rectangular chunk of steel that slides forward to impact the firing pin). The hammer "block" is held back (I'd assume where the bolt ORIGINALLY was held back) by the trigger group and when disconnected, slams forward about 3" with great force on to the back of the bolt.

It adds a few parts and some complexity to the whole design. However, converting an open-bolt belt fed machinegun to a closed-bolt semi-auto is not a trivial task.

There's some other changes to the receiver; top left rail is thicker than the original, there's a ledge welded inside and on the bottom of the receiver, there's guide rails added to the top cover to direct the semi-auto hammer, and so on. Most of those are meant to prevent machiengun parts from being used in the gun. (Technically, since the receiver is dimensionally the same overall, machinegun parts WOULD drop right in if it weren't for all of the extensive modifications done to prevent them from being added).

I can post up more detailed images of the mechanism, and scans of the ATF letter of approval which describes these changes in more detail.

FYI, the rifle has only *8* imported parts, per 922(r). Guess the AWB-language in 922(r) doesn't really "fit" belt fed rifles very well..

 

[fireman 9731]

I'm jealous.

 

[Trent]

Got the PKM's older sibling in yesterday!

Say hello to my "littler" friend:

I've never been happier that we "won" the cold war. I mean, how else would we have ended up playing with so much Soviet hardware in the comfort of our own livingrooms?!