Pure AK features
East German 1970 MPi-KM Details
Sunday, January 24, 2010
A generous collector has offered to share these photos of his rather unique 1970 MPi-KM. This is an original matching-numbers rifle with a unique modification only seen on a few early 1970s MPi-KM rifles. The modification is a single rivet on the right-side bolt rail, above the mag well dimple, replacing a spot weld. While one might assume this was a field repair for a broken spot weld, there exists several photos of different early 1970s-pattern MPi-KM rifles with this same modification; however, not all MPi-KM from this period have the rivet. A broken spot-weld in this location should be a very rare malfunction. As such, I surmise there was some sort of deficiency with some of the factory spot welding, and rifles found to have have it were riveted post-production. All images credit Dan Erik.
Copyright © 2010 Stephen Miles
By 1970 the East German stamped-receiver MPi-KM had been in series production for six years. This was the last year of solely fixed-stock production, by late 1970 the first S1 “crutch sidefolder” prototypes were emerging. (Image Source: Dan Erik)
