MODERNIZIRIVANNY LCT: PHASE 3!

Having already made my way through a variety of LCT Airsoft’s ‘Z-Series’ Zenitco-themed Kalashnikov modular accessories, I found myself reconfiguring the system a few last times to make use of what was left and gather my thoughts on what worked best and what I liked most.

Over the course of three games through June and July in a variety of outdoor CQB and open field sites, I tried three different iterations of the LCK74MN AEG employing the remaining unused components.

Initially for our trip to our Yangmei outdoor CQB I decided to go ‘the whole hog’ and make use of the PBS-4 silencer (Part No. PK259, weight: 0.851kg) which attached directly to the 24x1.5mm threads on the front end of the muzzle, adding around 200mm to the overall length but more importantly putting a lot of heft on the front end of the rifle.

The PBS-4 definitely completes the look if you’re going for a specific unit that use silenced AKs, and it looks totally badass, although I did find myself having to adjust the HOP unit!

It seems the sheer weight on the front may have actually impacted the point of impact just like the ballistics of a real rifle get affected by a silencer. It is a pretty hefty piece of steel and excellently made as you’d expect, and there are also tracer unit ready variants available (the PK259T) for those of you who have the need for illuminated tracer rounds in game. The weight penalty made it a bit more fatiguing for me to make use of it, especially in a faster moving CQB style game, and the additional length obviously made it more cumbersome in that environment, so it’s definitely an accessory you’d want to consider the use case of.

On the same day I’d also elected to try out the lighter weight ‘sport’ style handguards to at least offset the added weight of the silencer; the lower sport handguard (Part No. ZB_10L, weight 0.094kg) as well as the upper sport handguard (Part No. ZB_31L, weight 0.113kg) were a great deal lighter than the previous iterations I’d tried, largely as they are very slimmed down by comparison, with simple extruded cross sections with no added external rails and relying on the Russian equivalent of M-LOK geometry with just open slots and herringbone cuts to allow for venting heat in real steel use or attachment of appropriate accessories. I left these vanilla as I only have picatinny rail-fitting-compatible foregrips at present, but the slimline nature of them made it easier to handle them regardless at least.

Retaining the ergonomic pistol grip (Part No. ZRK_3, weight 0.172kg) of the previous iterations, along with the trigger guard with additional ergonomic extended magazine release (Part No. PK343, weight: 0.056kg) and internal magazine

“ON THE NEXT OUTING TO OUR LONG RANGE OUTDOOR XINDIAN MOUNTAIN SITE, I SWAPPED OUT THE STOCK TO MAKE USE OF PP19 STYLE POLYMER TELESCOPIC SIDE FOLDING STOCK. I’LL ADMIT AT THIS POINT THAT THIS WAS MY DELIBERATE INTENT TO ‘SAVE THE BEST FOR LAST’” spacer (Part No. PK170, weight: 0.021kg) which I haven’t had any need to remove, I did however decide to add further ergonomic advantages in the guise of the magazine well side guide fins (Part No. PK041, weight: 0.105kg). These have stayed on since their installation as they offer such an advantage during reloading that I can’t imagine not using them in future; they admittedly may not be to everyone’s taste in terms of the aesthetic and being an unusual addition, but adding them and the internal spacer made reloading so consistent and easy it’s absurd, you can almost throw the mag in and get it positioned correctly by comparison with a raw stock AK platform. I did elect to use the magazines separately in these latter instances, but even with the magwell guides installed you could still make use of the magazine couplers (Part No. PK300, weight: 0.060kg) if you affix them with the two magazine feed-heads set further apart to account for the increased offset required by the magwell guides.

On the rear end of this iteration I decided to install the PT3 telescopic stanchion stock (Part No. ZPT-3, weight: 0.515kg) which features a triggerstyle adjustment mechanism to its rear, with the majority of its length merely comprising the very slender telescopic stanchion; the trigger actuation allows this main strut to collapse or extend to suit the required length of pull, although this stanchion arrangement is admittedly a little loose. However, a tightening thumbscrew is included on the underside of the rear outer section, and this allows the whole assembly to be set in a much more rigid fashion, although of course doing so reduces the convenience of adjustment as it must be loosened again to change the position with the rear trigger release function.

A floating cheekpiece is also included, allowing for effective use with higher offset optics where required, with four different overlapping countersink positions and a large thumb screw retainer wheel on the rear right side of the stock. The mounting base of the stock also includes an integrated ambidextrous sling loop allowing for convenient attachment to your sling or load bearing gear, and of course it can still make

Outside And In

use of the standard left side folding hinge system. I found the whole setup reasonably comfortable in use with the low lying red dot I’d had mounted on previous iterations and it’s great for CQB use although being quite slender in terms of cheek weld.

On the next outing to our long range outdoor Xindian mountain site, I swapped out the stock to make use of PP19 style polymer telescopic side folding stock (Part No. PK409, weight: 0.426kg). I’ll admit at this point that this was my deliberate intent to ‘save the best for last’ as I saw things from the outset of this project! I’d kind of fallen in love with this stock when seeing it on the PP19 AEGs at LCT Airsoft HQ during my visit with Bill at the tail end of last Summer, and figured I’d best experience it at the end of the project lest it colour my opinion of the other options.

They’re very much the eastern Bloc equivalent of the much-vaunted ACR stock of AR fame; a wide, comfortable cheek weld, sturdily built but lightweight adjustable telescopic polymer box section, with a ruggedised butt pad for grip and an enclosed swinging lock lever that can be pushed to the right side while looking forwards along the gun to allow adjustment between six equally spaced settings totalling 60mm of length of pull variation. The frontend section of the stock also includes a double sided QD sling point insert that runs through the whole width of the stock, and again the side folding system functionality is retained This was indeed a great setup that allows ease of indexing behind the red dot and fast shouldering or transitions between shoulders without any snag-points or added features that might impede comfortable use; it really pairs nicely with the AK-handling and just looks great and very modern yet clean and simple to my mind, as well as being fairly rigid despite its adjustment.

The final iteration was for use at our recent return to ‘Pewniversity’ in Miaoli; doing medium range CQB movements I had reverted to using the full length picatinny rail bearing classic handguards (lower handguard Part No. ZB_30, weight; 0.268kg, upper handguard Part No. ZB_31C, weight; 0.110kg) as these are more utilitarian for my purposes than the more slender sport handguards. As I wasn’t sure if

STUB-RAIL AND T1-STYLE RED DOT SIGHT STILL BEING USED, AND THE ORIGINAL MUZZLE DEVICE INSTALLED, I FOUND THIS SETUP TO BE A VERY COMFORTABLE AND ADEPT SYSTEM FOR CLOSE TO MEDIUM-RANGE CQB WORK” we would be playing indoors or outside, I reinstalled the previously used remote pressure-switch-triggered weapon light on the far front end of the right side rail, with the pressure pad once again attached under the top rail on the left side for my support hand thumb to actuate the light remotely and comfortably, while also once again making use of the full size vertical grip mounted just beneath on the bottom picatinny rail (Part No. ZRK_6, weight; 0.115kg).

I also elected to switch out the pistol grip for the matching PP19 styled variant (Part No. PK408, weight; 0.096kg) and I personally found this to be quite comfortable despite being a lot more slight than the previously used heavy-duty ergonomic pistol grip. It does have its own integral polymer trigger guard and standard magazine release unit, so you lose out on the additional trigger-finger actuated magazine releases, however the light weight and handling are very nice nonetheless.

One other consideration is the fact that the polymer trigger guard and magazine release front end mounting point is substantially thicker than the previous pressed steel tang of the LCK12 QD trigger guard, and as a result to transfer the magazine well guides over I had to scavenge longer versions of the trigger guard fasteners from elsewhere due to the additional thicknesses the fasteners had to attach through.

Once I had all that together, again with the rear sight replacement stub-rail and T1-style red dot sight still being used, and the original muzzle device installed, I found this setup to be a very comfortable and adept system for close to mediumrange CQB work. If I were to field it in a more MilSim environment I would be tempted to drop off the red dot and revert to using the side-rail cantilever scopemount with the replica ACOG or similar magnified optic for the purposes of positive target identification and observation, and that perhaps pairs better with the prior ZPT-1 or ZPT-3 butt stocks, as they have adjustable cheek pieces for comb height to get your eye behind a less forgiving scope and within its associated eye box.

A Satisfying Journey

All told it’s been an interesting and ultimately satisfying journey through making use of all the different butt stocks, handguards, pistol grips, vertical grips, magazine well accessories and optics mounts. The ZB_13 side-shoe-mounted cantilever scope-rail is definitely a solid and repeatable option in terms of retaining zero and offering great capacity for heavier optical sights or similar arrangements; of course it requires removing to get access to the top cover for installing batteries under the top cover where required, but it’s nonetheless a great option for putting a decent and useful sighting system on for longer range use.

For the most part in my use however the rear sight replacement rail with a red dot affords a much more suitable close to medium-quarters usage without the same ‘tunnel vision’ thanks to the further forwardmounting of the sight which allows for a lot of situational awareness but also rapid shouldering and target acquisition without a magnified optic to contend with.

The full length picatinny-railed handguards are definitely preferable to me in terms of mounting a vertical foregrip along a variety of potential positions, as well as a weapon light further forwards to avoid casting so much of a shadow of the barrel. You could mount a torch to the underside of the barrel instead perhaps, and coupled with the overall aesthetic of the PP19 stock and pistol grip as well as the magazine-well guides as I think it offers the best looking and most comfortable handling setup for me personally and retains its usefulness in the majority of environments and game types I would use it in out here in Taiwan.

Eliminating plenty of OpFor in our games in which I’ve used it, it has offered the great out of the box accuracy and HOP consistency once I’d tightened up the slider retention screw. Similarly the rear sight replacement rail just required a sliver of metal pressing into the gap at its front edge to ensure it no longer swung upward or otherwise interfered with the position and zero of the mounted sight of choice.

Hopefully these articles have provided an insight into just some of the vast and ever-growing array of components available in LCT Airsoft’s LCK / AK range as well as their Z-Series Zenitco-themed range. It’s been an exciting journey for me just being given such a wealth of accessories to play around with and reconfigure to my heart’s content; while the systems aren’t as readily interchangeable as the Heckler & Koch themed push-pin systems of earlier articles, there is arguably a wider range of components to allow a lot more niche or personalised reconfiguration of your LCT AK to suit very specific loadout requirements, or just personal preference for how you want to set up your own AEGs.

My thanks again go to our friends at LCT Airsoft for furnishing me with such a wide range of their products to play around with to my hearts’ content; I wonder what they’ll come up with for us all next? AA