The placement of the AK-47's rear sight was moved even further to the rear, giving the operator a longer sight radius. It also possessed longer handguards that were not interchangeable with the Soviet type. The M64 was fed from modified AK-pattern magazines and was manufactured with a device that left the bolt open after the last round in the magazine had been fired. The stock of the M64 was also fitted with a heavy rubber recoil pad to help absorb the recoil. As the recoil from the rifle grenade could dislodge the standard AK dust cover, this was replaced with a new design that utilized a spring-loaded bolt. This design would later be incorporated into Zastava's M59/66 derivative of the Soviet SKS carbine. The sight functioned as a gas shutoff to enable the safe launching of a grenade when locked into place. It was also equipped with a ladder sight for launching rifle grenades, which was folded against the upper handguard when not in use. The M64 had a threaded barrel which resembled that of the AK-47 but was slightly thicker and not chrome-lined like its Soviet counterpart. For example, while the right side of the receiver was almost indistinguishable from that of the AK-47, the left side of the receiver had a raised step. The first domestic Kalashnikov rifles submitted by Zastava for military field trials were designated M64 and incorporated a milled receiver based heavily on that of the AK Type 3 but with several cosmetic differences. Unlicensed production of an AK-47 derivative commenced in 1964. At this point, there were enough AKs in Zastava's possession for its engineers to study and effectively reverse engineer the weapon type. By the end of the year, however, the Yugoslav government had obtained more early pattern AKs from an unidentified Third World nation that was receiving Soviet military aid. Zastava was able to make metal castings of the two sample AKs, but could not glean enough technical data to reproduce the weapons or their associated parts. In 1959, two Albanian soldiers defected to Yugoslavia with Soviet AK-47s, which were promptly passed on by the Yugoslav government to be inspected by Zastava engineers. South Sudanese soldier with an M70 in 2016īeginning in 1952, Yugoslavia's defence industry had been experimenting with new automatic rifle designs, mostly patterned after the German StG 44, an unknown quantity of which had been captured by Yugoslav Partisans during World War II. Both the original M70 design, as well as commercial variants of the weapon without select-fire capability, known as the Zastava PAP series, are still produced by Zastava for export. It became the standard issue infantry weapon in the Yugoslav People's Army in 1970, complementing and later superseding the Zastava M59/66. Developed in Yugoslavia by Zastava Arms during the 1960s, the M70 was an unlicensed derivative of the Soviet AK-47 (specifically the Type 3 variant). The Zastava M70 ( Serbian Cyrillic: Застава М70) is a 7.62x39mm assault rifle. 30-round AK-47 detachable box magazine, 40-round RPK magazine, 75-round RPK drum magazine
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