Parabellum Armament’s AK Adaptive Rail System (AKARS) provides AK shooters a way to mount optics on a picatinny rail, retain zero after firing and dis-assembly, and use an optic in conjunction with iron sights. We’ve outlined the installation steps below, to provide an understanding of how the system is installed and what makes it unique. Mounting in place of the rear sight and using a proprietary top cover and locking mechanism, the AKARS allows AK owners to mount their favorite optic on the top cover of his rifle.
Parabellum Armament’s AKARS system as supplied.A view of the AKARS rail. The “T” numbers are painted white and visible. Note the iron sight located above “T14”AKARS modified bolt cover. Note the two steel rods that insert into the rail.Notice how the assembly holding the two rods is now moved to the rear of the bolt cover. This allows the user to ensure a tight fit when the assembly is fully installed.
Installation:
For testing purposes our AKARS was installed on a Arsenal converted Saiga SGL-21 7.62×39. Before installation, we ensured that our rifle was safe and empty.
Installation; after ensuring that our rifle is safe and empty, we remove the rear sight. Flipping the rear sight straight up allows us to depress the rear sight spring and slide the sight out of position.You can depress the spring by hand, but the easiest way we’ve found to depress the stiff rear sight spring is on a drill press. We chucked a drill bit backwards and gently lowered the handle to depress the spring. This allowed us to slide the rear sight out.Once the rear sight is removed, we can take off the bolt cover. Note: While not shown in the picture, the instructions call for the rifle to be left on safe.A punch removes the front pivot pin from the AKARS rail.Note that one end of the pin is chamfered (right end), when installing the AKARS make sure you insert this end first.Holding the AKARS vertically, apply downward pressure on the spring and align the AKARS mounting holes with those in the rifle. We used a punch to align everything so we could drift the pin into place.Using a brass mallet we gently drift the pin into place.Now, we begin to reattach the bolt cover and move the two metal guide rods forward.With the bolt cover in place and the two metal rods firmly inserted, we tighten the two allen keys with the supplied wrench.Fully installed and ready to go.
Testing:
We headed to the range with an Aimpoint 4-MOA Micro on a factory weaver rail mount. Zeroing began at 7-yards, moved to 25 and was finalized at 50. After zeroing, we fired an additional 60-rounds and then used a DEA six dot cardboard target to test the repeatability of the mount. We fired 3-rounds on target 1, then removed and reinstalled the top cover, fired 1-round on target 2, removed and reinstalled the cover, fired a second round, removed and reinstalled the cover and then fired a third round. This gave us a three round group on one target; immediately adjacent to the group of three rounds fired by disassembling the gun in between each round of the group. We followed this same procedure two more times, firing a total of six groups, three of each kind. The target is posted below. You will not there isn’t a noticeable change in point of impact or change in group size. The mount works as designed and holds zero during operation and maintenance.
During firing, the AKARS allowed the operator to maintain a proper cheek-weld when using optics while still allowing use of the integral iron sight. This was a nice feature and provided the shooter with rapid target acquisition.
Some AKARS test groups. Groups were shot from the top to bottom, left to right. These groups were shot after 60- rounds went down range in a short amount of time and the barrel was very hot. Targets 1 and 3 were shot in 3-shot groups. Targets 2 and 4 were shot one at a time, with the rifle field stripped in between each shot.
Comparison:
Having access to a Gen-2 Texas Weapons Systems Dog Leg Scope Rail, we decided to compare the mounts. (Editors Note: This write up is a review of the AKARS, the comparison piece materialized on the range. I had 22 shooters waiting for me and didn’t have time to conduct the same test on the TWS.)
AKARS (left) uses three fingers to attach to the front sight versus the one used by the Texas Weapons System (right). You can see the integral rear sight on the AKARS (lower left).Top view. The AKARS (left) has engraved and painted “T” markings. The Texas Weapons Systems (right) has engraved markings that are not painted. Note optional rear sight aperture on the Texas Weapons System mount.Rear view of the AKARS (left) and Texas Weapons Systems Dog Leg Mount. Here you can the see the optional Texas Weapons Systems aperture rear. While we typically prefer aperture rears, we preferred the integral design of the AKARS. The Texas rear was too small to be fast and it blocked peripheral vision. We would like to see a large aperture rear designed for the AKARS.Side view of the AKARS (top) and Texas Weapons Systems dog leg (bottom). Note the cutout towards the rear of the Texas Weapons Systems Cover. This area provides tensions against the receiver.
Examining the covers side by side, it was noted that the rifle equipped with the AKARS was far easier to field strip then the Texas Weapons System model.
Here is a Larue mount (it looks like hell because we just used TCE to remove the rattle can finish) not working on the dog leg mount. It does work on the AKARS, see photo of ACOG above. UPDATE: According to some readers, Larue mounts work on their TWS rails. Our Larue mounts do not work on our TWS rail- see picture above. The cams hit the side of the TWS and will not close. We will try to find another one locally to see if ours is an anomaly.
Conclusion:
The AKARS is an easy to install optical mounting solution for the AK platform rifles. Compared to the Texas Weapons System dog leg mount, which we like, we prefer it. It has more contact at the rear sight mounting point, allows easier field stripping of the rifle, has an outstanding fit and finish (with the coolest logo any of us have seen) and has a quicker to use integral sight. The AKARS provides shooters a solid, repeatable method to attach optics to their AK rifles.
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