БИЗОН/BIZONReview by Roman StepanovI am no writer, no profesional Gun Magazine author, just your everyday guy. And this is my review of a gun
(please forgive my grammar and spelling)
First let me tell you that this small machine gun gave me many hard ons.
Yes, its that good.
When I first heard of the rumors of 9mm AK I said, no way. No such thing possible. But Viktor Kalashnikov (son of the great Mikhail Kalashnikov) and Aleksei Dragunov (son of great Eugene Dragunov) thought it was far from impossible. They had many ideas even in the early 80s for this little beast.
A lot of internal agencies complained about over-power of AK74s and AKMs. During the raids on organized crime members, and other "bad guys", the fire fights usually ended up in hundreds of 5.45 and 7.62 holes all over the battleground. Looked sexy, but that was in the city where behind the walls a peacful civilians walked everyday to work, school and home.
The agencies like MVD and KGB wanted something with less kick, less destructive power, and more then anything - A SHIT LOAD OF AMMO at once. Mikhail Kalashnikov let his son take a bite at this issue.
Viktor and Aleksei began their work with looking at some of the world leaders at that time. German MP5, Izraeli Uzi, American Calico. They all had big pluses and minuses. But mp5 stood out a lot more then anything. Those who fired it or operated with it - know what I'm talking about.
The MP5 seems almost flawless. Beautiful design of shape, comfortability, and ease of use. But however, it is way over priced. There is still records of jaming, and sensitivity of ammo.
Izhmash brought numerous models of the HK SMGs to their plant for inspection. Funny how most of them were provided by MVD that their confiscated from criminal families, and even some were found in Afghanistan. no need to go to details here hehehehe
Anyway, Viktor shot many of them, and wanted to make a better version of it. Again, the artists went to work with genious ideas. Why design something from scratch, if you already have the original well respected weapon.
They took the AKM reciever in the original work, and later moved to AK-74M and AK-100 series reciever and top cover.
First was things first - They put together a stick magazine prototype pretty damn quick. It wasn't a big headache. Re-chamber the existing ak reciever for 9mm, make new short 9mm barrels, and cut out a new bolt. Piece of cake.
The real challenge now was the magazine. They looked at stick magazines and thought that this wasn't it. Firing from prone, or resting it on the uneven surface was not cool. The magazine would get on the way. So they looked at Calico and said - BINGO
When I asked Viktor Mikhailovich, what was more pain in the ass to design, magazine or the rifle?
He looked pale for a minute and with a deep sigh said - FUCKIN MAGAZINE.
Indeed fuckin, this thing rules. It is so reliable and robust, its insane to hear about the places and weather conditions when they tested the poor thing. Seriosuly poor, it went through hell of snow, sand, dirt, BMP tracks, BTR wheels, and even the VOG25 shock impact. I'm not sure in what type of situation you gonna get shot with a GP25, while storming some barricated suspect. But they did it anyways.
Loading magazine is not your simple click, click, click, click
You have to place the round in the one end, roll the spring at the other. Loading 64 rounds recomended with 2 people before you go to the mission. But during some sick emergency you can do it yourself just fine.
Viktor Kalashnikov himself invited me and my friends to test it for ourselves. We first went to the museum of Izhmash in Izhevsk, where we celebrated his happy 60th birthday with him. We also took out some of the prototypes of the display glass, and played with them for a little.
After celebrating his birthday, we went to the private shooting range, and took the Bizon2 with a PBS silencer with us.
This one was chambered in 9x18 Makarov. The Bizon comes in 4 different calibers. 9x17(380) 9x18makarov 9x19(para) and the weird old 7.62x25 that uses the stick mag.
We had a good thousand rounds of military surplus, and members of Krechet(SOBR) team came along to party with us. (good times lol)
Viktor Kalashnikov told us how he developed it, and how proud he was that this indeed was one of the best SUb Guns on the planet.
And it was!!!
IT FREAKING IS THE BEST!
First in the honor of his gun Viktor Mihailovich shot it himself. He smacked a Kobra sight on it, and just unloaded it at the target at 50 meters. The paper target took most of the rounds with a pleasant smacking sound.
Holly shit, we inspected the target and couldn't believe the accuracy of this thing. Most of the shots laid on the target, and the guy was dead for sure. But remember Viktor unloaded the Bizon in one long burst. Pulled the trigger once, and didn't let go untill the empty click sound.
we spent good 4 hours playing and shooting that thing. We also shot all this on video. High quality mini DV (Canon XL1, and GL2) from all the angles, and closeups. To be kind enough Viktor took the Bizon apart, and showed us how simple it was.
Again, just like the older family member AK-47, this thing was simple and gorgeous.
I loaded a full 64 round mag, and tried it for the first time. First on semi-auto with a silencer on. New clean target at 50 meters. Plink, Plink, Plink - damn!!!! It was like shooting a .22. I couldn't even smell the gases. We used regular - non subsonic ammo.
When you shoot an MP5, or even M4 with a Gemtech Supressor, you get that cloud of nasty fumes shoot back at you. But not with Bizon.
However the great Krechet guys put like 8 liters of WD40 in it. That was the only fume coming out of the Bizon. And not from the PBS silencer. Form the god damn bolt lol.
I didnt mind at all. That wasnt part of the design. I quickly ignored the over oiled slides, and felt in love with the gun. Not a single jam, or mis fire. All 64 rounds when in clean. Especially after i switched to full auto by selelcting it like any other AK. Same function, design and beauty of it.
With a skeleton folding stock, Bizon turns into this little cute toy that you can put behind your coat, and nobody will see it.
After the day was almost over, Viktor Kalashnikov wanted to show off the Bizon's quality by challenging us. We placed a human size poster target 50 meters away, and wanted to go nuts on it.
We each loaded 3 magazines with 64 rounds, and were ready.
The test was simple. You attach the 64 round magazine to the Bizon(which was actually cliped easy. Like a giant AK mag), load it, switch it on full auto, aim at the target, pull the triger and DON'T LET IT GO.
He went first. Ptssrooooooooooooomssssssss -all rounds peppered the target. We ran there to see the target, and counted 30+ bulletholes on the paper. NICE!
I went next, and sprayed the target in less then 3 seconds. The firing rate was perfect. Not too slow like Sten gun, and not too fast like Micro uzi pooooof your mag is gone. It was the perfect in between.
We looked at the target, and counted almost all of them on the target. The gun hasnt moved around at all, it was like a drill.
A M A Z I N G
I take it over the MP5 any time of the day.
I will let the photos continue this story
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b95/RussianBTR/bxcv.jpghttp://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b95/RussianBTR/IMGere2.jpg(Viktor Kalashnikov)
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b95/RussianBTR/IMG_3701.jpghttp://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b95/RussianBTR/vikbzn.jpghttp://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b95/RussianBTR/8a.jpghttp://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b95/RussianBTR/Viktor.jpgRomanS
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b95/RussianBTR/bzn3.jpghttp://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b95/RussianBTR/Viktormag.jpghttp://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b95/RussianBTR/bcvv.jpghttp://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b95/RussianBTR/roma45.jpgRoman and Viktor inspect the target
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b95/RussianBTR/roma4hj.jpgThe group (far left standing, Alexsey Dragunov)
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2002-9/53088/Brad23.jpg Dinner
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b95/RussianBTR/meviktor.jpg
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