Well, Molot finally got through all the US legal import related red tape and their VEPR 12’s are on American shores and in American’s hands. The gun arrived dripping with some sort of preserving lubricant in a cardboard box with 1 factory 5 round magazine (higher cap mags from SGM are on the way). I unboxed it yesterday, cleaned/lubricated it, and started putting rounds through it. So, far I’ve got 250 rounds of various ammo (#4 buck, #1 buck, 00 buck, slugs, and some low brass range ammo) with 0 failures of any kind. Here’s some of the features of the gun along with what I’ve found…
Pros:
-100% reliable thus far
-Hinged dust cover with a 1913 rail. I mounted a red dot and opened/closed it repeatedly and it held zero
-The action is extremely smooth; much more than any Saiga 12 I’ve ever shot
-Original Molot polymer grip. Much more comfortable than many AK factory grips out there
-Molot self-regulating gas system. This one’s key to the ‘why is this better than a Saiga 12?’ question. Izhmash has a version of this system but reliability reports are still hit or miss with the low brass ammo
-Original Molot competition magazine well. Allows for fast reloads eliminating the need for rocking and locking the mags
-Molot factory AK adjustable rear sight. This is essentially a beefed up RPK rear sight
-Molot original AK enhanced safety lever. It allows for easy disengagement of the safety when shouldering the gun
-Cost. The gun is available many places for $1000. Considering what it costs to buy a Saiga 12 and convert it to this configuration that’s not too bad
-Factory chrome lined barrel, chamber, receiver shaft and gas chamber
-Factory threaded barrel. Treads are the same as the Saiga 12 so there are lots of brakes/flash hiders available
-The fit/finish are superb. It’s as nice, if not nicer, than any AK platform gun I’ve ever seen
-Machined bolt assembly, gas blocks etc. As far as I know there is no MIM on this gun at all. Every part feels very solid
Cons:
-Bolt hold open feature doesn’t function on the gun 100% of the time (see video below for a better explanation)
-The safety was so tight from the factory that it was almost unusable. I fixed it with a little filing but just beware you may need to adjust it a bit
Here’s a video review where I test out the gas system, do some shooting with slugs from 100m, disassemble/assemble the gun, and discuss some or the features of the shotgun:
I got mine this week, and while I haven’t shot it yet, my impression has been much the same. I did find a few oddities, though.
The stock seems to be a standard laminate AK pattern, but it has a wooden buttplate affixed with two wood screws. It also has the slot for the rear sling swivel milled out, but there is no hardware attached.
I’m baffled by the decision to use a standard RPK rear sight. What’s the point of a 1000-meter sight on a shotgun? Also, why is it a satin grey when the rest of the gun is uniformly black? It just seems odd.
The pistol grip is one of the most comfortable AK grips I’ve ever used. It rocks.
The handguard retaining bracket has a sling attachment loop on each side, which is a nice upgrade.
The enhanced safety works very well, but the motion is exactly the opposite of a traditional AK, including things like a Krebs safety. It also rides hard against the base knuckle of my trigger finger. I might dip the tab in rubber to make it more comfortable.
As noted, the gun is very smooth. The build quality seems higher than the Izhmash stuff, especially lately.
Love the mag well. It’s so much easier to insert a mag than, say, a stock Saiga.
Can’t wait for the weekend so I can get some trigger time on it.
Also the badly translated owner’s manual is comedy gold. I don’t know what “personal tackle” means, but apparently I am not supposed to wrap it with the oil-impregnated paper in which the gun was shipped.
Very nice. I actually had no idea the VEPR was going to made in shotgun. It looks like they went to the trouble of bringing the weapon in the way everyone wanted the Saiga. Doing the conversion to the Saiga, while not terribly difficult, was still tedious and a chore I didn’t like (plus, who likes having to buy a gun only to immediately drop some more money on it). Hopefully Molot won’t make the gas port errors that has been plaguing the Izhmash guns.
Price seems to be $1000, give or take. Due to the magazine well, it does NOT take unmodified Saiga mags. I’m not sure if you can mod Saiga mags to work with it.
This gun’s not 922r-compliant as it comes from the factory, so we’ll have to swap out parts before using hi-cap mags, yes? With the US-made SGM mags counting as three parts, that leaves two (or three if you use a flash hider or brake) remaining. I figure I’ll replace the FCG since I really like the pistol grip.
I’ve owned Saigas and thought along the same lines as you and kept a 870 by my bed; Saiga’s in the safe. I’m still evaluating this gun but it’s the first AK platform shotty that I’m even considering swapping the 870 out for. Still need a bunch more rounds through it, a light, and my 10 and 12 capacity mags before the switch will be made though…
I’m in the same boat. I cut my teeth on the 870, and it’s still my go-to HD shotgun. IF (and that’s a big IF) the Vepr proves reliable, and I can get spare parts, and I can work out a few of the kinks (sights, buttstock), I might consider stepping it up to the role. The big draw is capacity and the box magazine. Time will tell if the other aspects of the weapon make it worthy of standing next to the pump gun.
Another factor to consider… can Hans Vang work his mojo on a Vepr barrel? Hmmm, something to consider. Yeah, Flite Control works just as well, but you can’t always get FC. A Vang barrel makes everything FC.
I’m going to be doing some pattern testing either tomorrow or next Sunday (including #1 FC) so we’ll see how that works out. That said, having a Vang comp’d barrel is a nice to have for me rather than a must have as I would plan on using it for HD primarily and my house is old with smallish rooms.
I took my Vepr out today for some basic function testing after the morning IDPA match. I put 75 rounds of assorted 7-1/2 and 8 shot through it without a hitch, with one exception that I’ll detail later on in the post. I also ran 10 rounds of generic (i.e. non-FC) Federal 00 buck and 15 rounds of Hornady TAP 00 buck without issue.
The birdshot ran fine from the shoulder, both with and without push/pull. I was surprised by the low recoil from this shotgun, it was as if it were somehow spread out over a longer impulse as compared to an 870. I was able to fire a magazine strong-hand-only from the shoulder without any real trouble or discomfort. I then switched to the CQB position (stock horizontal, on top of the shoulder) and the gun ran fine, with positive ejection and no feed issues.
As a last test, I tried to bump-fire a mag, purely to test how much reserve power the gun had available (i.e. like intentionally limp-wristing a handgun to see if it’ll still run in an awkward position). Here’s where the gun failed. Two rounds out of the five resulted in a FTE. It appeared that the bolt didn’t go back far enough to press the ejector against the case rim, and it just slammed the empty shell back against the mouth of the chamber. A fast manual bolt cycle cleared the empty and loaded the next live shell normally. I loaded the mag again and fired it normally from the shoulder, and it ran just fine. I didn’t have enough buckshot to try this test again, but my guess is the birdshot is near the low end of cycling, and limp-wristing the shotgun was just enough to cause issues. These were the only issues I had with the weapon in this outing.
I had a plate rack set up, and with the rear sight set to the ‘1’ setting it was centered up pretty well. As I expected, though, the tiny RPK sights made rapid target acquisition impossible. I was definitely slower in transitions between targets than with my 870s and their ghost rings. I pulled out a standard cardboard IDPA target and set it up at 10 yards. One round of 9-pellet Hornady 00 TAP left 9 holes in the -0 zone. That’s more than acceptable for a HD shotgun. I also didn’t notice any appreciable difference in recoil between the birdshot, Federal 00 and TAP 00. The gun seemed to digest the extra recoil. Honestly, the wooden buttplate didn’t bother me in the least.
Can’t wait to get a Micro on this thing and break out some FC #1 buck and slugs and really see what it’s capable of doing. I’m also bound and determined to get a US-made FCG and start using 10-round mags. 5 rounds just goes by so quickly in a semi-auto. I’ll withhold final judgement until I get a few hundred more rounds through the gun, but so far I’m happy with it. The funky safety worked as advertised, the gun fed and ran well, and it put pellets where I wanted them within the expectations envelope of a shotgun.
Can’t wait to get a Micro on this thing and break out some FC #1 buck and slugs and really see what it’s capable of doing. I’m also bound and determined to get a US-made FCG and start using 10-round mags. 5 rounds just goes by so quickly in a semi-auto. I’ll withhold final judgement until I get a few hundred more rounds through the gun, but so far I’m happy with it. The funky safety worked as advertised, the gun fed and ran well, and it put pellets where I wanted them within the expectations envelope of a shotgun.
Agreed with everything you said there. I think the list of us waiting for the SGM mags grows every day…
great review thanks for sharing. just got my tracing number from black horse arsenal for my vepr 12, their kinda late on receiving their orders…anticipation is killin me
Also, apparently MD Arms makes a clone of the Molot pistol grip in the USA. I believe I’ll acquire a few of these. I really really like the Molot grip.
It feels very similar which I was somewhat surprised by. I thought the heavier barrel would make it feel very front heavy but that hasn’t been my experience.
