New Barra AK Air Rifle Now Available

Following hot on the heels of the Barra AR, there’s a new Barra AK air rifle now available. The Barra AK is a single-shot, spring/piston breakbarrel styled to resemble an AK-type firearm.

Almost certainly, the AK’s action is the same as that of the Barra AR. It’s extremely simple. Just break the barrel, load a pellet, set the safety to off and pull the trigger to fire. No need for gas cartridges, compressors, pumps or HPA tanks. That will attract many potential owners.

Available in .177 and .22 calibers, the Barra AR is a substantial-feeling, Turkish-manufactured lookalike of the semi-automatic firearm. It weighs 6 Lbs 6 Oz and is 40 3/4-Inches long with the adjustable buttstock extended.

As befitting the intended market, much is made of the muzzle velocity specification. It’s up to a claimed 1,200 FPS in .177 and 900 FPS in .22 caliber.

The “clamshell”-like construction includes molded replications of all the firearm’s controls and features, although none of them are operational, of course. Even the safety is located within the trigger guard, rather than having a functional, AK-type lever.

Also included with the gun is a “clamp-on” synthetic bipod. This is easily removed for cocking, or when carrying, and some owners may find this another beneficial feature of the model.

Now let’s talk slings…

The Barra AK is fitted with sling swivels. These can be used to carry the gun over the shoulder for field use. That’s useful given that Barra is positioning their AK as a hunting tool. I like slings on air rifles!

But there’s a similar eccentricity in the sling mounts to that we discovered with the AR.

The rear sling swivel accepts a standard, SKS/AK-type sling with leather end loops. Good!

However the front sling loop is not wide enough for the same standard SKS/AR leather dogtag to pass through. You’ll need something narrower. Just be aware of this when buying a sling for the Barra AR.

Next, let’s look at the sighting options.

The front sight is an AK-like protected front post. There’s no fiber optic, however the post is screw-mounted into the base and can be – carefully – elevated or depressed by rotating.

As expected, the rear sight combines click-adjustable elevation and windage adjustments. However it also has green fiber optic highlights to aid target acquisition.

The Barra AK air rifle is also supplied with a Picatinny rail for attaching optical sights – if required.

I would definitely choose to mount a red dot sight that’s specified to endure potential springer recoil damage. The Leapers UTG “True Strength” platform is ideal for this, of course, as shown by the UTG red dot sight we have mounted here.

Note that you’ll need a red dot sight with low mounts. I also tried the same red dot sight that worked so well on the Barra AR. It sat waaay too high on the AK to achieve any sort of cheek weld due to the “bolt on” Picatinny rail. Don’t do this!

The Barra AR is available directly from the Barra website. The price is $199.99, including the manufacturer’s 12-month warranty.


The post New Barra AK Air Rifle Now Available appeared first on Hard Air Magazine.

 

[PapaT]

Not quite low enough to cowitness. Cool idea, and interesting that they went Turkish for it. Thanks, as always, for the write-up.

 

[Doc Holiday]

Not quite low enough to cowitness. Cool idea, and interesting that they went Turkish for it. Thanks, as always, for the write-up.

Tbh I never knew/heard about co-witness on the sights. I had to look it up . I guess I never had a gun that the red dot and open sights would do that. Looks neat.

 

[PapaT]

Tbh I never knew/heard about co-witness on the sights. I had to look it up . I guess I never had a gun that the red dot and open sights would do that. Looks neat.

The tacticool guns are where it normally happens. Looking for sight options for my M4-177 is how I learned about it.