Vitaly Kryuchin, the president of Practical Shooting Federation of Russia (the Russian branch of IPSC), has announced, that Kalashnikov Concern is planning to make an AK-based pump-action rifle for the competition shooters. The new rifle will be called KSZ-223 (IZh-1618). Kalashnikov will release the new rifle by the end of February 2017.
The drawing above is the only image of the new gun available right now. The rifle is dedicated for manual action rifle divisions of IPSC matches. The gun will look like a modern/customized AK-74. It will feature a telescoping stock, Picatinny rail on the dust cover and a short rail section at six o’clock, in front of the handguard.
The mechanism of the rifle will probably share many parts with the traditional Kalashnikov rifles. It would be interesting to know if the recoil spring will remain to assist the closing cycle of the action or if it will be removed to make it a more traditional pump-action. Judging from the model name (KSZ-223), I think the rifle will be chambered in .223 Remington.
Pump-action modifications of AK rifles are nothing new in the industry. Several companies made such conversions earlier. However, the mentioned conversions were mainly done to meet the restrictive legislation requirements. In the case of KSZ-223, it is designed for competition. Unfortunately, there is no information concerning the availability of the gun in the US market. We’ll be watching the development of this firearm and keep our readers informed.
