They say necessity is the mother of all invention and the extreme poverty often found in Iraq certainly creates a need. Readers of this website are surely familiar with the inventiveness of their adversary, many of you have seen the improvised remote detonators and home brewed microchips that have been jerry-rigged to a set of batteries to trigger an IED.
Thankfully, some of these masters of improvisation work for the good guys. I worked with an Iraqi SWAT team member named Shahab who had a habit of creating bizarre chimera type weapons in his home workshop. Despite Shahab being a great soldier and a strong leader, I always made sure to stand off at a safe distance when he fired this thing out on our range.
Look carefully and you can see that he cannibalized parts of various weapons and fabricated a few of his own. He took a AK-47 receiver, a Browning Hi-Power pistol grip, and a PKM barrel, cobbling them together with what I think was a bb-gun scope. He cut the stock himself and created a M16 style charging handle that actually worked!
As a 18B, this Franken gun made me a little nervous but I never saw him have a malfunction with it much less the kind of catastrophic failure you might expect from the picture.
A co-worker rotated back into Iraq the next year to work with Shahab again, who had by now built himself a home made 40mm grenade launcher. He kept bugging my friend for a M203 grenade to “test fire” but needless to say he had to decline…
Kit Up! contributor Jack Murphy is a former Ranger and Special Forces Soldier and the author of the military thriller Reflexive Fire.
{ 42 comments… read them below or add one }
Do you know what type of magazine he was using?
The article stated it was an AK receiver, I would guess it's an AK magazine. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
It looks a little wider than an AK magazine, although he could have used one as a starting point. If he used a PKM barrel, he would have either had to cut it down and totally rechamber for 7.62×39, or make/get a 7.62x54R box mag.
either way this guy is amazing
I have feeling he was just shooting AK rounds down a larger barrel!
Forget to mention that he also modified the magazine to shorten it.
Something about the magazine looks off, like it's angled downwards or has been photoshopped. The bottom is wider that the top, the angles are odd. The bottom of the mag it not flat, it's curved. I assume it's 7.62×39?
It looks like the ejection port is a bit farther forward than the mag, wouldn't that make for a longer action?
I'd be afraid of this gun too, it looks like a monkey threw it together then beat it with a rough stick and threw it off a building. But I'm sure it's function over form.
Looks like a 30-round AK mag that's been shortened.
That definitely puts the "special" in Special Weapons and Tactics…
We always said “give an Iraqi a screwdriver,chewing gum,and a torch and he can make anything run”. I’m more interested in what kind of tools he used to make this thing. I bet its not far off our list ;)
That's Iraqi High Speed if the term does exist
Check out his kit, flare gun, bangs, even a fun meter. Shahab was kind of like an Iraqi 18B.
good point, I would prefer to have him doing a patrol with us rather than some of the IA i seen.
Shabab is definitely an asset. Anybody who can take such a mishmash of parts and cobble up a monstrosity like this and actually make it WORK…and reliably(!!!), I want this guy on our side!
He was a great guy to work with. I really feel bad for the honest Iraqis over there.
Ahhh the versatility of stamped sheet metal firearms
I've seen a lot from Sten/suomi smgs to AK-mausers to this
IDK about the rest of you, but even with the short story this weapon looks extremely photoshoped. The reciever and the RIS seem to be two different layers of photographs, as well as the top of the reciever. The magazine is at an off angle further suggesting my theory. The stock is fugly and looks inpractical.
More inportantly, look at the angle the picture of the gun was taken at, the sling looks like it is not connected and the persons hands holding the weapon are flat, but the angle of the fun looks as if the picture was taken from the top down as if this weapon was laying on it's side on the ground…
*Sigh*
adapt, improvise, ovecome
Somebody get that lad a m203 grenade!!
And a cameraman.
That is about 98% AK, with the only changes being cosmetic for the most part.
Heavier PKM barrel…..
The front site post is backwards. It look like he just made a new cover to go over the AK top so he could place a scope on top. I bet he can't even get a good cheek wield. I also think he used a RPK barrel not a PKM barrel and cut it down and add a PKM flash hider. Just my 2 cents.
well… at least he's ready for the zombie apocolypse.
is that the author on the left with the nasty un-bloused trouser?
No, that was another Iraqi wearing knock off MARPAT uniforms that even included your globe and anchor!
Good night. I never thought I would hear of Iraqis wearing knock-off MARPAT……
*right, not left
Sorry guys, if that is an Iraqi neck and hands then I'm an Asian. No shocks of hair protruding at the neck line? This is one of your American boys from Tennesee or California. He and his partner must be photoshopped too. One of your shaved Metrosexual DADT guys?
Seriously?
wow you are such experts i actually been to iraq longer then 6 fucking months the iraqis can pull off wierd shit that actually kilss us but were stcuk with a m4 thats semi automatic and jams alot the ak you can drop in muddy water and stilll fire
m4s are full-auto, buddy.
Almost all the issued M4s are 3 round burst. Only the special kids get full auto.
And I heard they are looking to change them all to select fire, semi/full auto as the 3 rd burst is why the trigger pull sux so hard.
Is this true?
Give the man props for his solution to a given challenge if not a given problem:
1. "Necessity, who is the mother of invention", alleged quote of Plato, 427 BC – 347 BC.
2."Art imitates Nature, and Necessity is the Mother of Invention (as all authours in a n, doo saye)." Excerpt from Richard Franck's 'Northern Memoirs, calculated for the meridian of Scotland' Published 1658.
3. "Necessity can just be a plain mother…" C.E.W.Wemyss, Sgt 6th I.D. US Army, Dutch New Guinea, July 1944.
Apparently Shahab is Iraqi for McGuyver!!
So, wait, the author of the story verifies knowing the guy, and seeing the weapon with his own eyes, taking the picture of it, and has multiple people who have met the same guy, and not only is the gun photoshopped, but apparently the guy holding the photoshop isn't arabic, and that every element of this picture is a photoshop.
Kids, get off the internet. As for complaints of Iraqis kludging together weapons from various bits, all I can say is those people are incredibly inventive as to ways to kill folks, for better or for worse. I saw a guy who welded together an FN FAL and a G3. No idea if it worked.
As for the M4/M16 being more trouble than its worth, I disagree. Clearly the decades of data where people have been killed with 5.56 weapons is meaningless, and the fact that we have had M16A1s from Vietnam that still function doesn't really say anything. Maintain your weapon, people. Take care of it, clean it, strip it and deep clean it as needed, replace your magazines when they go to shit, and its a great weapon. I remember reading a study from a SWAT (Soldier Weapons And Tactics) report from Iraq in '03 that said that most of the people who wanted a different weapon or a larger caliber and never used their weapons repeatedly in combat. So there's that. They see me trollin'…they hatin'…
Is it real or is it photoshopped? I don't know. Yes, the Iraqis can be inventive and have industrial capability. But they can also half-ass work with the best of them. I can count on my fingers the number of times the crew-served weapons in the towers actually functioned. It was standard for an RPK to not have a stock. When I would ask the Iraqi commander how they intended to fire the weapon, a shoulder shrug would be the normal response. Glocks and AKs are issued to the Iraqi police because weapons maintenance has not successfully been translated into Arabic yet.
If I had to bet money, this is photoshopped.
Sid, I am the author of the article and the former 18B who worked with the Iraqi soldier pictured above. I also took the photograph in question. How much money are you willing to bet? I have a Pay Pal account. Just sayin'.
Do you have video of the weapon being fired?
Read my remarks. I left open that it could be a real weapon but that my suspicion/belief is that is photoshopped. It may not be photoshopped. It may be a a real thing but does not function. I don't know. Was not there. But what I did see in Iraq is crap. And I do have the photos to support that position.
Now, on a rare occasion, you will find one high-speed low-drag Iraqi gun nut. We had one IP that had 3 flashlights mounted on his AK. But what I see in this photo is a sheetmetal cover over an AK receiver. The M-16 style charging handle is necessary because he has removed the right side charging handle of the AK. He changed out a barrel…. may be a good thing considering how shot out some AK barrels are after years of no maintenance. The pistol grip is eye-candy as it is not really an upgrade.
Now, the question at hand: does this cobbled together damn thing work? If so, great. Post the video. If not, the world is full of cobbled together crap that does not work. You can put a wing on the back of my F-250 but it will not go faster and will look uglier.
Why would I photoshop a picture and post it as if it were the real thing? I put my name behind what I write, for better or worse. You could also post the picture on one of the many Adobe Photoshop forums and get some professional opinions about the picture in question if you truly believe that.
Sad state of affairs when the internet generation can't believe that a picture of a weird as hell… rifle?….. is real but they all fear the wrath of ceiling cat.