Palmetto State Armory to Offer Gen 2 AK, 7.62x39mm AR in 2016
Matt Korovesis 01.21.16
Palmetto State Armory (PSA) is a huge name in the AR-builder world. Next to companies like Brownells, they’ve probably supplied the largest number of Americans with parts to assemble their own modern sporting rifles. Aside from their AR offerings, they’ve shown a willingness to expand into other platforms. At SHOT Show this year, they announced that they’ll be launching a second generation of their AK-pattern rifle, the PSAK-47, and a 7.62x39mm AR, dubbed the KS-47.
In contrast with the first-generation 7.62x39mm PSAK released in 2015, the second-gen model will feature 100-percent American-made parts. The first generation’s front trunnion and bolt carrier were foreign, poorly-made cast components and as a result the PSAK failed to catch on. PSA plans on offering PSAKs with both billet and forged front trunnions.
Despite the use of better components in the second-gen PSAK, the price for the basic model with polymer furniture will be $649. Other variants with beech-colored wood, red-colored wood, and Magpul polymer furniture will also be offered. They will have slightly higher prices, falling roughly in the $750 to $800 range. The PSAKs on the show floor were equipped with Bulgarian-pattern side rails, but a PSA rep indicated that they will also offer rifles without side rails for those who want them.
The KS-47 is a 7.62x39mm AR built using the AR-15 platform (many other 7.62x39mm ARs are based off of the AR-10, complicating parts interchangeability). The KS-47 feeds from standard AK-pattern magazines and features a flat magwell that runs nearly flush with the bottom part of the upper.
The rifle’s magazine release is located outside of the trigger guard and is easy to operate without being oversized. Several of the 7.62x39mm ARs I’ve shot have sloppily incorporated the mag release, either making it too loose or too difficult to operate. The KS-47’s felt great.
Thanks to the fact that it’s AR-15-spec, the KS-47’s lower should work with just about any 7.62x39mm AR-15-pattern upper. The gun will first be offered with a 16-inch barrel and with a standard polymer AR handguard, though PSA is working on variants with KeyMod and other handguards. The KS-47 will retail for under $1,000.
Perhaps most interestingly, PSA is working on incorporating an AR-style last-round bolt hold-open for the KS-47. They hope to make it work with all AK-pattern magazines. The first KS-47s will not include the bolt hold-open, but they plan on incorporating it into later designs.
Second-generation PSAK-47s and KS-47s should be available directly from PSA within the next few months.
I've been a history and gun enthusiast since I was a kid. I love to shoot just about anything, from silenced bolt-action .22s to fully automatic heavy machine guns, and I love even more when I get to write about them. My main interests are modern small arms and the military small arms of World War II and prior conflicts, with a particular focus on Russian and Finnish firearms. Reading about guns like the Mosin-Nagant rifle in books and on the internet got me interested in collecting, shooting, and writing about them, and I hope to do the same for others through my work.
Stalk me on Instagram by clicking here.
