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Rockhopper wrote:Doesn't the once its a section 5 item then its always a section 5 item apply here?

Is it not the same as the 22lr conversions for our nanny state 'pretendy' AR's?

Why would it ever be section 5? A conversion kit isn’t part of any firearm until you install it in one.

Yes but the bits you are fitting the conversion kit to are part of a section five firearm?

Rockhopper wrote:Yes but the bits you are fitting the conversion kit to are part of a section five firearm?

In what way?

The conversion kit is effectively a firearm in its own right and a .22lr semi-auto is a S1 firearm here. The fact it can be either put in a proper select fire AK or our castrated straightpulls is surely irrelevant? As mentioned the concept is already proven with the .22lr conversion kits for AR's.

Usually the main problem with this sort of thing, after actually getting someone to bring it to the UK, is spare magazine availability

I do know a couple of AK owners who would be all over this like tramps on chips, but i'll not even tell them about it until a UK distibutor puts their hands up. I'm still waiting for the Steyr AUG .22 conversion kits that were at US shooting shows 10 years ago

Rockhopper wrote:Yes but the bits you are fitting the conversion kit to are part of a section five firearm?

We have section 1 straight pull AK’s here.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding what the conversion involves! The link talks about fitting it to a normal AK47, we here we are talking about fitting it to a UK straight pull version?

HALODIN wrote:I'd buy an AK if we could get this imported. Does anyone have a good relationship with an RFD that might be interested in importing them or at least look into the legalities/costs?

The companies website hardly inspires confidence .

However I would think the first thing would be to find a US exporter who has a licence to export it , and of course export it to a specific company or person over here .

Then once it is here would it need to be proofed fitted to an AK or would the proof house proof it as is .

Maybe someone who understands proofing and the export rules will enlighten us .

Getting it imported is the easy part. I would have thought most if not all RFDs and FAC holders have or can get the permission to import these as they'd be classed as S1 items once here.

Getting an exporter would be the trickier part and this can cost a lot of money, certainly enough to increase the price of the item considerably. To make it viable you'd need to import a lot of them and/or increase the price, it'd be a trade-off. Not knowing how many you'd be able to sell would be the gamble.

Proof would be tricky or impossible to do without fitting it to a suitable rifle, and yes it would need to be proofed if not imported by the end user (or if subsequently sold on or transferred at any later date). One donor rifle would be all it would take for proof, not a big issue.

Rockhopper wrote:Maybe I'm misunderstanding what the conversion involves! The link talks about fitting it to a normal AK47, we here we are talking about fitting it to a UK straight pull version?

It fits a stamped receiver AK, be it a select fire/semi auto or straight pull variant.

The vast majority of US AK owners have semi autos, this conversion would convert a 7.62x39 semi auto AK into a .22lr AK.......in our case it would turn a straight-pull 7.62x39 AK into .22lr semi auto AK.

As a sidenote not all AK's are a AK-47.......The AK-47 (the Russians never actually used the "47" part, they simply called it the Avtomat Kalashnikova, with the "47" added by the West ) was only produced for 11 years, from 1948 to 1959, before the AKM was introducd.The AKM (Avtomat Kalashnikova modernizirovanny) pattern is the most commonly encountered AK variant in the world today.

I’ve emailed them on spec, see what floats.