This is a pic I found on the web, taken in Iraq, taken in 2006.
The militiaman has a Russian Type II AK-47. This was the first production AK-47 with a milled receiver and came online around 1952 and was produced probably up through 1954 as they transitioned to the Type III.
The Type II has an all milled receiver, and the buttstock attachment is different than later AK’s. The receiver for the full stock and underfolding stocked rifles have the same contour, which differs in the later models as well.
The earliest issue AK-47, the Type I, used a hybrid receiver design, where the rear of the receiver shell was stamped, but the front trunnion was about twice the length of the later AKM/AK-74 trunnions and rode around the outside of the receiver shell, connected to the receiver shell by rivets.
Iraqgunz has a thread that shows a great example of the Type I here:
The later Type III AK-47 was simplified from the Type II, and became what we consider to be “THE” AK-47. The Type III was the first AK to be licensed outside of the Soviet Union to East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, and China. The Type III’s were produced in Russia from about 1953 through 1959 or so, when the lightened, stamped receiver AKM came online. The milled receiver Type III’s continued to be produced outside the Soviet Union for decades.
BTW, I also like the dude’s snazzy, spare ammo carrying system. I don’t know whether that’s a custom deal or whether it’s a common piece of kit amongst Iraqis, but it certainly grabs my attention. It looks as though it carries at least four spare mags and includes suspenders, too.
Good informative post. What is something like that worth in the u.s. say… in 85%-90% condition? An interesting piece, nonetheless. Looks like some kind of sick s&m going on with that mask and all that leather.
Any GI bringback, transferable AK-47’s or AKM’s from Vietnam are stupidly expensive, since there aren’t that many on the registry. Not many got in before the GCA of 1968.
You’d be looking at probably $30-$40K here for a transferable Type II in any kind of decent condition.
You know, I’ve said for years that if they just allowed an exception to the '68 ban to legally import and register MGs from Iraq, they could pay for the war in tax stamps
Those are some good pics. Especially the S&M chest rig Several years ago “Soldier of Fortune” ran this pic of an Iraqi with an STG44. I bet ammo is hard to come by for him.
Hard to come by? I doubt he has any. I was on a MTT, one of the Iraqis in our batallion liked to carry around a Dragunov because he thought he looked badass, despite the fact that for the 7 months I was there he never had a single round of ammo for it. And no Iraqis seemed to think this was out of the ordinary. I never patrolled with him.
The Sgt. Major for the Iraqi Scouts in our unit (their “special forces”) carried a pistol grip Mossberg on his back along with his AK47 (with no 12 gauge ammo in the entire batallion) for the same reason.
He never had ammo for it. We always had loose 7.62x54r because it came in tins and they reused the links, I never understood him either. We had thousands of rounds of PKM ammo (they actually lost 6000 rounds of it for a couple months, dont remember where it turned up). Just using that example to show some of those guys will carry something just to be different.
I never talked to him in person, just some of the terps would laugh at him behind his back whenever we happened to pass by him. Saw him with that rifle 2 or 3 times, all while we were mounted. Still dont know why the IA didnt fix him.
Several years ago “Soldier of Fortune” ran this pic of an Iraqi with an STG44. I bet ammo is hard to come by for him.