Cloning a Type 56 AK
• Utilizes a de-milled Type 56 AK parts kit
• Built by Two Rivers Arms
• Matching serial numbers
If you saw my crate of Polish AK-47s in UN12 Issue 013, you can probably tell that I have a thing for the AK platform. I really love building them. There is something about taking the parts, actually drilling and riveting them together and ending up with a functional (usually) firearm, that is so rewarding.
I have built well over a hundred AKs for myself, for customers, and for friends, but there are times when even I know I’m in over my head. De-milling, grinding, drilling, and squishing rivets are all pretty doable. Even the occasional barrel population (with the right tools) is something anyone can be taught to accomplish. Welding, however, is a different story.
That brings us to the latest firearm to be presented in the Clone Life section of UN12. My Vietnam War trophy “bring-back” Type 56 AK. The parts kit started life in China and some point traveled all the way to the jungles of Vietnam, where an enterprising GI found it and brought it home along with several other firearms. As these were not properly registered machine guns, they were considered contraband and were technically illegal in the United States.
As the story was relayed to me, an elderly veteran not knowing what to do with his illicit collection turned them in to the local police department, hoping they would find a place for them in a museum. Let this be a cautionary tale for all of you. Police departments are not museums and have no interest in holding guns for the public to learn from. A company was hired to destroy all the seized firearms the department had acquired over several years and this firearm was one of them.
So how did I wind up with such an amazing piece of history? I frequently source my parts for clone builds from several outlets, but this parts kit came from a very unique source: Everygunpart.com. They source parts kits from companies contracted to destroy guns for law enforcements agencies all over the country. Now, before you get upset, hear me out. They work with companies that are hired by departments that do not or cannot resale firearms that have been confiscated back to the general public.
We all wish and believe that the firearms should be sold whole and intact, but unfortunately that’s just not a reality for lots of departments. Some agencies shred or melt down the firearms in whole, while others just require the serialized portion be destroyed and the rest of the parts to be sold.
That’s where Everygunpart.com comes in. They acquire parts kits from companies that gently de-mill the firearms so the parts can live on, either by repairing an existing firearm or, in my case, building them back in to a complete firearm with a “new” receiver.
I routinely search Everygunpart’s website for available kits and accessories for build ideas, and one day I came across this beauty. While it was one of the more expensive kits, I immediately knew this was a rare “unicorn” that had to be added to my collection. Unfortunately, when I received my kit, I immediately tore it open to inspect it, so I do not have any good pictures of the kit in the packaging to share.
After contemplating it for several months, I came to believe this was a rebuild job for the professionals; I simply did not possess the skills to bring it back to life. I wanted it built to like-new condition with barely a hint that it was ever destroyed. So I sent it to the experts in the game, Two Rivers Arms in Oklahoma. Known as one of the top AK builders in the country, these expert AK builders are best known for their amazing Iraqi Tabuk clones.
Two Rivers Arms took my kit and fabricated a repair section for it, welded up the offending machine gun features (sad, I know), and rebuilt this historical piece back into a Title 1 semi-automatic firearm that anyone can own in the United States. Once the receiver was re-built, they completely re-blued the firearm to match its original finish and returned it to me. This was not a quick process, as rewelds tend to take longer to complete than traditional stamped builds. Quality work takes time, and everyone involved knew that we had one chance to make this kit shine.
If you look closely at the side of the receiver, you can faintly make out the ghost of where the third pin hole used to be. When I purchased the kit it did not include a stock, so I set forth acquiring an aesthetically correct stock that would match the patina of the handguard. Lucky for me, the stock I found happened to match the original handguard almost perfectly. It’s an amazing feeling when you find a matching piece for wood with the same kind of finish and level of patina as the original.
My highly anticipated Two Rivers Arms rebuilt AK finally came back to me after a couple years later. I told you: It takes time. Was the wait worth it? All I have to say is that what I received back is truly a work of art. The pictures really tell the story of how complete this rebuild was. The ability to keep this piece of history alive so future generations can have a connection with an event that happened more than half a century ago makes all the cost and wait time to see it finally completed well worth it.
Sources
EveryGunPart
URL: everygunpart.com
Two Rivers Arms Company
URL: tworiversarms.com
