Is slr101 based off AKM or AK74

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I was wondering if the new slr101 design is based off the AK74 much like the sgl21's or based of the akm like the slr107 in terms of the bolt carrier, bolt, ect. I know it has the 90 degree gas block and all that but does it have the larger bolt stem like the 107 or is it more like the sgl21 with the slim bolt stem based on the ak74? Is the ak74 design on the sgl21's superior to the akm design when considering it is firing the 7.62x39 instead of the 5.45 round which the 74 was designed to fire? Someone who has this knowledge or experience wtith both rifles please inform me. I've fired the sgl21 but never had experience with a bulgarian variant such as the slr101, 107, sam 7, ect. Reason being I'm stuck between getting a sgl21 or slr101. Don't mind the milled reciever weight, that is no problem to me, just wondering about the over all functioning of the rifles concerning the parts I mentioned earliar.

[mancat 2,368]

Neither. The SLR-101 is a civilian version of Bulgaria's current variant of the milled receiver AK design. Bulgaria abandoned stamped rifles for their own military/police when they moved away from the AK-74 after the USSR breakup. Their current issued rifles are milled receiver designs chambered in 5.56 NATO and 7.62x39.

 

Bulgaria incorporated some AK-74 design improvements into the design, but the rifle is more closely related to the Type-3 milled AK-47, which Bulgaria also produced in the past.

 

The stamped receiver SLR series are for commercial export only. They are not used by the Bulgarian military/police.

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I understand what your saying, but how about the internal parts, do they too more resemble that of an ak47 or are they like the sgl21 which fires 7.62x39 but resembles the parts of the ak74?

 

Just out of curiousity, is there some reason the Bulgarians abandoned the stamp reciever for the milled? Weren't the stamped better for quicker and cheaper production, in otherwords more cost efficient to provide to military and police? In incorporating some AK74 design improvements, were they trying to create something that has the best of all worlds when it comes to the ak?

[mancat 2,368]

Sorry, but I don't know why exactly Bulgaria went back to the milled receiver design. You may know this already, but... The milled design has its own set of problems and was really intended as a stop-gap design to get the original AK-47 into full production, as the AK series was intended to be a stamped rifle to begin with. The initial stamped receiver design had production and quality control problems, which delayed that design until the development of the AKM.

 

Nobody so far as I know uses the original milled receiver design other than Bulgaria - Galil/Valmet variants are a bit different. The Type-3 milled receivers were rumored to exhibit stress/fatigue failures at the locking lugs and ejector, and because of their solid-piece construction, would be difficult to impossible to rearsenal; the receiver would have to be scrapped. Communist countries did not throw away guns, contrary to what some think, so that would be a problem. Not to mention the additional weight and material required to construct the receiver. It's not an ideal design despite a couple of advantages that it does have.

 

The only reason I can think of is that perhaps the Bulgarian military believes the milled receiver variants to be more accurate/precise, but I don't know anything about Bulgarian military doctrine to know if they put as much emphasis on marksmanship as western armies do. Even if they did, the modern stamped AK families are plenty accurate for such a role.

 

In other words, I really don't know for a fact, but there's my speculation.

 

As for the SLR-101, I don't own one, but I have read plenty of reviews and tear-downs of the rifle as Bulgarians are some of my favorite AK variants. The SLR is a weird animal externally and internally. It uses an AK-74 profile barrel (gas block, sight block journal dimensions, overall diameter, etc.), but with necessary modifications for the milled receiver - the chamber stub/shank has a 23mm outer diameter, regardless of caliber, and is set up for the short locking lug lengths that were used in the milled AK-47 and AKM series. The carrier is a non-lightened AK-47/AKM type (they are the same), with an AK-47/AKM spec bolt that features a spring-loaded firing pin. The gas port is drilled at a 90-deg angle, which avoids the bullet shear issues that are common between 5.45/5.56 cartridges. The FSB is a standard AK-47 type block, with 14x1LH muzzle thread.

 

Coincidentally, the stamped SLR series was modified to use the same carrier/bolt and barrel pattern as the milled rifles. This is what sets apart the stamped SLR series and makes them slightly incompatible with the AK-74/AK-100 series, despite looking nearly externally identical to the Bulgarian AK-74 family. Those rifles are internally AKM designs, while having the familiar external AK-74 features.

[EreadM 0]

Okay thanks for providing me with exactly the info I was looking for. You might know this, but did the stamped slr's come with spring loaded firing pins? And is there any advantage to having an akm spec bcg vs 74 spec bcg like in sgl's, when using it with the 7.62 round. It seems like the 74 was obviously designed to be able to fire the 5.45. So when they made the ak103 series they just created a 74 with a large bolt face, but pretty much everything else the same. Does the larger round have any effect on the 74 based parts which seem to be lighter or slimmed down compared to the akm parts?

[mancat 2,368]

The stamped SLR series rifles also have spring-loaded firing pins.

 

The only advantage of the AK-74 BCG is that it's lighter. This allows the AK-74 to have a higher cyclic rate in full-auto, and decreases the overall weight of the gun. The overall bolt face of the 5.56/5.45/7.62 bolts are nearly identical, just with the proper cut for the specific cartridge rim.

 

Hope this helps.