Design Deep Dive: IK-100™ Series - Part 1

The Texas weapon systems IK-100™ series of rifles are the pinnacle of modern Kalashnikov rifles. The IK-100™ series was designed from the outset to provide the 21st century warfighter with all the capabilities they demand out of a modern fighting rifle, without compromising on the AKs legendary rugged dependability. In this series we’re going to examine the IK-100™ series’ suite of modernizations that bring the AK platform into the 21st century.

The heart of the AK rifle

When we set out to design this rifle the first question we asked ourselves was “what is it that makes the AK special?” What is it about this particular rifle that has led to it being the most prolific military rifle ever made? Arguments could be made that the answer is ease of use, or possibly simplicity of maintenance, maybe even its legendary dependability. These potential answers, however, are ultimately surface level. In order to properly answer the question of what makes the AK special, we had to peel back the layers. to find the reason for why the rifle Is so quick to learn, easy to maintain, and so incredibly rugged. The answer ultimately lies in the simplicity of the rifle’s design. More specifically, it’s the simplicity of the rifles heart, the bolt carrier group.

The Bones of the IK-100 Series

Receiver

With the heart of the rifle identified, the bolt carrier group, we set out to improve everything around it. The first step of course is the receiver, as the primary component that contains everything else. After extensive research we settled on the Sharps Brothers milled receivers. The Sharps Brothers MB47 receiver, well known in the industry for its quality, offered us a solid foundation onto which we could build the IK-100™ series.

Gas Block

Normal AK type rifles are famously over gassed allowing them to power through muck and grime, but frequently leading to an unpleasant and unnecessarily rough shooting experience. The problems with over gassing are exacerbated with the addition of a suppressor. Suppressors tend to increase the back pressure on the gas system of the rifle they're fitted to, leading to harsher operation and quite a bit of gas blowback in the shooter's face. The IK-100™ series of rifles solve these problems with our new proprietary gas block. The all-new Texas Weapon Systems six position adjustable gas block provides a massive capability improvement to the Kalashnikov platform. It allows you to precisely adjust the gas flow on your rifle to provide sufficient energy to cycle the weapon and maintain proper function, while keeping the operating cycle soft and smooth. Properly gassing the weapon also helps to reduce wear and tear on the action.

The TWS adjustable gas block has six settings, setting 0 is a closed setting, settings one, two, and three are variably under gassed for use with suppressors, setting 4 which is standard gas for normal operation, and setting 5 which is an over gassed setting for use under adverse conditions or when the weapon is fouled. The function of settings one through five are self-explanatory, but you might be asking yourself why does this gas block have a closed off setting? The reason is for use with suppressors.

Subsonic ammunition lends itself quite nicely to suppression, significantly reducing the overall sound signature of the bullet flying through the air and cartridge firing. The AK platform, however, has a rather loud action. This problem is somewhat mitigated by the smoothness afforded in high end Kalashnikov type rifles, such as our IK-100™ series, but a lot of that noise is inherent to the design of the action. The zero setting on the gas regulator allows you to shut off the gas flow entirely and fire the weapon in a sort of single shot manual operation mode. This allows for extremely quiet operation, entirely eliminating the noise created by the cycling action.

The gas regulator valve itself, the stainless steel component that actually spins in the gas block, features a zero stop system. Conceptually similar to what you might find in a high-end rifle scope. The regulator has end stops at either extreme of its travel to both alert the user that they've hit one of the limits, and to prevent the regulator from being rotated into its removal position. The detent pin on the gas regulator features a front access hole that allows you to use a standard AK disassembly punch, the sort found in a standard AK cleaning kit, to fully depress the detent pin and allow for the removal and cleaning of the gas regulator.

Barrel

All the benefits afforded to us by our gas block, especially those pertaining to suppression, are pointless if that gas block isn’t mated to a barrel of equal quality and sophistication. The IK-100™ series features a TWS designed and machined barrel. This barrel was specifically designed for use on suppressed AK rifles in conjunction with our adjustable gas block.

The TWS profile barrel features a 5/8”- 24 muzzle thread with a stop shoulder specifically for mounting any western AR10 style muzzle devices and suppressors. This eliminates the need to source special muzzle devices for the AK’s 14mm left hand threads.

Great care is taken in the manufacturing of our barrels to ensure concentricity of the threads with the bore thereby solving another common problem AK’s, non-concentric muzzle threads leading to suppressor baffle strikes. This allows the user to install any .30 caliber suppressor, no longer relegating them to purpose built AK specific suppressors.