Bulgarian company Arsenal JSCo makes a wide variety of military assault rifles based on the famous Kalashnikov AK assault rifle. As of now, Arsenal offers close to twenty different variants, each available in two popular calibers, an older 7.62x39mm of Soviet origin and a slightly newer 5.56x45mm (.223) of American origin. Arsenal also offers a wide variety of semi-automatic only Kalashnikov-style rifles, intended for civilian and police markets, both from its main factory in Bulgaria and from its subsidiary factory Arsenal Inc in USA.
a basic 7.62mm Arsenal AK assault rifle variant with a fixed plastic furniture
Bulgaria, then a part of the Warsaw pact military alliance under the Soviet leadership, received a license to make Kalashnikov AK assault rifles from USSR in the second half of 1950s. First Bulgarian AK assault rifles were made at the arms factory in the city of Kazanlak in 1958, and by the year of 1982 one million of such rifles were made, both for domestic use and for export. These rifles were distinguished by a factory logo “(10)”, or “ten in a circle”, engraved on the left side of the receiver, near its front. It is interesting to note, that despite the advances made with Kalashnikov design in USSR, i.e. appearance of the stamped-steel AKM assault rifle in 1959, Bulgarians stuck to the manufacture of older-style machined receiver rifles, based on the Soviet “lightened AK”, also known in the West as the “AK Type 3”. For couple of decades Bulgarians also produced a licensed variant of a 5.45mm Kalashnikov AK-74 rifle, but after the fall of the Iron Curtain popularity of the 5.45mm ammunition decreased outside of Russia, and production of this variant was eventually dropped. Starting late 1990s and after the turn of the 21st century, Arsenal gradually extended its line of Kalashnikov style select-fire assault rifles, eventually designating them “AR-M”, such as AR-M1, AR-M4, AR-M17 etc etc, where “AR” stands for “Assault Rifle”. All of these rifles are still based on a “type 3 AK” steel receiver, machined from a bar stock, and use “pre-AKM” style trigger units with no hammer delay ratchets.
7.62mm Arsenal AR-M1 assault rifle
7.62mm Arsenal AR-M1F assault rifle
7.62mm Arsenal AR-M2F assault rifle
5.56mm Arsenal AR-M4SF assault rifle
As said above, Arsenal offers close to twenty of different models, each available in two calibers, 5.56mm and 7.62mm. In their basic function and design those are closely based on the Soviet Kalashnikov AK “Type 3” rifle, as made in USSR between 1955 and 1959. These models can have one of three barrel lengths, that is 215, 320 or 415 mm. Various models are produced with fixed plastic stocks, underfolding steel stocks (models with suffix “F” at the end), side-folding stocks (model suffix “SF”) and with side-folding telescoped stocks (suffix “SF”). Side-folding models, in turn, are available in two flavors, with stocks folding to the left or to the right. Versions with a right-side folding stocks are equipped with an additional Galil-style safety-fire selector lever at the left side of a pistol grip. All Arsenal AK assault rifles are equipped with open-notch iron sights, adjustable between 100 and 800 meters for full-sized rifles and between 100 and 500 meters for compact models. Optical or night sights can be mounted using either a side rail or a Picatinny rail or both, depending on a specific variant. Most rifles are equipped with extended “birdcage” flash hiders, while compact versions are usually offered with a highly effective “localizers” (flash and bang reducers) of an indigenous enclosed design.
Most “full-sized” Arsenal assault rifles can accept detachable knife-bayonets or various 40mm underbarrel grenade launchers, also made by the same company.
7.62mm Arsenal AR-M5TFB assault rifle
5.56mm Arsenal AR-M7ST assault rifle
7.62mm Arsenal AR-M9F assault rifle
7.62mm Arsenal AR-M14SF assault rifle
7.62mm Arsenal AR-M75SF assault rifle
Encyclopedia of firearms and ammunition of the XX and XXI centuries
All texts are written by Maxim Popenker © 1999-2025
