Let's see what this Tantal can do!

Tantal with chest rig, before adding some other stuff.

When people first hear my name (and usually mispronounce or misspell it) a common question I hear is “Where is that from?” The answer is, it's Polish (or more appropriately, Prussian). Even today, there is a small cluster of Pakiesers in Northern Poland.

In fact, one Pakieser – to whom I am sure I'm probably related to, but not sure how – is the “Assistant Defense, Military, Naval & Air Attache” for Poland to the US State Department. Cool!

Humorist Dave Barry says this about Poland:

FIRST GERMAN: How many Polish people does it take to change a lightbulb?

SECOND GERMAN: I don't know. Let's invade Poland and find out.

MILLIONS OF OTHER GERMANS: Okay!

While it may have worked in 1939, anyone invading Poland during the Cold War would have found themselves facing the KbK wz88 Tantal, Poland's version of the AK74.

Not satisfied with the design of their Soviet “brothers” the Poles refined the Tantal by adding a burst fire mechanism and streamlining the design. Today, these rifles have been replaced by the Beryl (a 5.56 version of the Tantal, since Poland is now a NATO member) but in its day the Tantal was a highly sought after collector's piece for AK fans.

I recently picked up a Tantal, mainly because it was cheap to buy, and cheap to shoot. The rifle was about $418 out the door at Fleet Farm and I picked up a 1080 round “spam can” of 5.45x39 ammo for just $140. Compared to owning (and shooting) my AR15s, that's a steal.

In its original form, a Tantal cannot be imported into the US. Arbitrary and capricious laws require that the gun's receiver be torch cut into three pieces (destroyed) after which the gun's parts can be imported as a “parts kit.”

Importer Century International Arms (which I like to call CIA) takes these Tantal kits, rebuilds them on a NoDak Spud receiver, and installs additional parts to make them compliant with Federal import laws – aka 922(r) – another bureaucratic hurdle to owning one of these rifles is it must be assembled with a specific number of US-made parts – which, fortunately, are readily available.

Out of the box, my Tantal was a solid, reliable shooter, but I did a little bit of tweaking to make it mine. The wire stock leaves something to be desired; it's not comfortable to shoulder and has a poor cheek weld. 

Two accessories fixed this: the Tantal cheek piece from AMD65Tech and a Tantal grenade launcher buttpad from FSE USA.

Grenade Launcher? Well, the Tantal was optimized for using rifle grenades, which you can't get here in the US - but the buttpad makes the Tantal much easier to shoulder properly.

The AMD65Tech cheek piece is very simple, yet really adds a lot to getting a proper cheek weld on the gun. Installation requires carefully measuring, centering and drilling a single hole. Once installed, it puts a cheek weld right where you want it. While the cheekpiece comes with padding, I opted to make it a little more comfy with some paracord wrap.

Another improvement on the stocks was the addition of US PALM's AK Battlegrip. This grip is larger and has better ergonomics than the stock grip, and is easy to install (just remove the old grip and replace it with the new one). Those of you familiar with TangoDown's AR15 Battlegrip will like this one too.

The other area where the Tantal (and most AK rifles, I think) can be improved is the sights. The AK's rear sights don't have much potential for precision adjustment and the front sight can be hard to pick up rapidly. To fix this I installed an ULTIMAK rail with a Primary Arms MicroDot.

Installing an Ultimak on a Tantal requires some permanent modification; you have to cut the upper part of the handguard retainer to make it fit (you don't have to do this on other AK rifles). I used a Dremel and cleaned up with a file, then added some high-temperature paint on the bare metal.

The MicroDot sits just low enough to allow a co-witness with the irons and is well oriented for “shooting out of the tube” as well. In a pinch, you can center the front sight assembly in the MicroDot tube and get pretty solid hits. AK shooters refer to this as “Caveman EOTech.”

Tantal is just about where I want it.  Plum lower handguard is on order.  I'm getting the plum handguard 'cause it's cool.

So now that this rifle is where I want it, what am I going to do with it?

I'm glad you asked.

Next week, I'll be travelling to Sturgis, South Dakota with my Tantal to take JohnFarnam's Urban Rifle Course at the CorBon Law Enforcement TrainingCenter (CLETC).  On Wednesday and Thursday I'll be running the Tantal through John's Course, then returning to Minnesota on Friday.

Then, on Saturday I'll be running this rifle at the DPMS Outbreak Omega V zombie fun shoot in Morristown (joined by the rest of the QSI crew).

I figure when all is said and done, the Tantal will eat about 1000 rounds over two days of shooting, a day of travel, and another day of shooting. I'll keep the blog updated with a range report on the Tantal, John's Urban Rifle Class, and Omega.

We'll see how well the rifle (and I) hold up!