This Romanian PAR-1 is mostly made up of traditional AKM parts with a twist. It features a pump action mechanism rather than a functioning gas system.
Interestingly unlike most pump actions the pump on this rifle is spring loaded. Meaning that it will slide back forward after being pulled back and released.
Why?
It was made as an attempt by gun importers in the 1990s to keep selling their AK hardware while complying with the US 1994 Assault Weapon Ban, import restrictions, and various other restrictions by states in the 1990s.
That's actually kinda cool. So people could convert it back into an AK? Or maybe even a saiga?
It wasn’t designed to be easily converted by buyers, but was a way for sellers to use most of their existing parts assembled with some new parts to make something legal to sell.
To convert this to semi-auto would require drilling a gas port in the barrel, fitting a gas system, and figuring out how to put on some standard handguards or saw down the pump handguard to fit and stay affixed. I don’t think there’s any point in time when this would have been worthwhile to do compared to just getting a semi-auto AK from the start.
In terms of wacky things done to comply with laws, it’s the AK version of this:
This is mostly a guess, but I would imagine it's probably for places like the UK where semi-auto rifles are caliber restricted to .22 rimfire. If you want to shoot anything larger the action has to be cycled manually.
I've seen pump-action conversion kits for the AR platform as well.
Like, in that there probably isn't a huge application for a pump-action AK-47?
Why not?
I mean, there is a lot more variety in firearms out there than purely-functional reasons. Why have different finishes available on firearms? Why am I drinking my (sips) chocolate shake, rather than just gruel?
What the fuck were they thinking? This is terrible.
"what did we design after we ate those shrooms last night?"
This is a community dedicated to discussion around historical arms, mechanically unique arms, and Ian McCollum's Forgotten Weapons content. Posts requesting an identification of a particular gun (or other arm) are welcome.
https://www.youtube.com/@ForgottenWeapons
https://www.forgottenweapons.com/
Rules:
1) Treat Others in a Civil Manner. This is not the place to deride others for their race, sexuality, or etc. Personal insults of other members are not welcome here. Neither are calls for violence.
2) No Contemporary Politics Historical politics that influenced designs or adoption of designs are excluded from this rule. Acknowledgement of existing laws to explain designs is also permissable, so long as comments aren't in made to advocate or oppose a policy. Let's not make this a place where we battle over which color ties our politicians should have, or the issues of today.
3) No Advertising This doesn't apply to posting historical advertisements.
4) Keep Post on Topic This rule will be enforced with leeway. Just keep it related to arms or Forgotten Weapons. If you feel you have something that's worth posting here that isn't about either of those (and doesn't violate other rules) feel free to reach out to a mod.
5) No NSFW Content Please refrain from posting uncensored extreme gore or sexualized content. If censored these posts may be fine.
Post Guide Lines
These are suggestions not rules.
-Provide a duration for videos. eg. [12:34]
-Provide a year to either indicate when a specific design was produced, patented, or released. If you have an older design being used in a recent conflict provide the year the picture was taken. Dates should be included to help contextualize, not necessarily give exact periods.
-Post a full URL, on mobile devices it can be hard to tell what you're clicking on if you only see "(Link)".
-Posts do not have to be just firearms. Blades, bows, etc. are also welcome.
Adjacent Communities
If you run a community that you feel might fit in dm a mod and we might add your's.
Want to Find a Museum Near You? Check out the mega thread: https://lemmy.world/post/9699481