{"id":28052,"date":"2025-10-27T08:36:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T13:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/27\/albanias-rather-odd-grenade-launching-ak\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T08:36:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T13:36:09","slug":"albanias-rather-odd-grenade-launching-ak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/27\/albanias-rather-odd-grenade-launching-ak\/","title":{"rendered":"Albania&#8217;s Rather Odd Grenade Launching AK"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mejs-video-container\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allow=\"autoplay\" width=\"580\" height=\"380\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/g-VS_ZwXxF0?controls=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>In addition to its regular ASh-78 (fixed stock) and ASh-82 (under folder) Kalashnikovs, Albania also made a model specifically for launching rifle grenades and it has some odd features. The rear sight block was redesigned to have a hinge permanently attached the top cover, and the rear sight was moved back onto that top cover. The top cover rear attachment was also strengthened. At the front, a gas cutoff was added as well as a grenade spigot. In another unusual twist, the barrel was lengthened to be as long as the spigot itself. I suppose this makes sense ballistically, but it is unusual to see.<\/p>\n<p>Albanian ASh-78 video: <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/doA3TmxUZ2Q\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/doA3TmxUZ2Q<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Many thanks to the Royal Armouries for allowing me to film and disassemble this very rare piece! The NFC collection there &#8211; perhaps the best military small arms collection in Western Europe &#8211; is available by appointment to researchers:<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/royalarmouries.org\/research\/national-firearms-centre\/\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/royalarmouries.org\/research\/national-firearms-centre\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>You can browse the various Armouries collections online here:<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/royalarmouries.org\/collection\/\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/royalarmouries.org\/collection\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The best firearms reference books: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.headstamppublishing.com\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.headstamppublishing.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.patreon.com\/ForgottenWeapons\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.patreon.com\/ForgottenWeapons<\/a><br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.floatplane.com\/channel\/ForgottenWeapons\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.floatplane.com\/channel\/ForgottenWeapons<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Cool Forgotten Weapons merch! <a href=\"http:\/\/shop.forgottenweapons.com\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/shop.forgottenweapons.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In addition to its regular ASh-78 (fixed stock) and ASh-82 (under folder) Kalashnikovs, Albania also made a model specifically for launching rifle grenades and it has some odd features. The rear sight block was redesigned to have a hinge permanently attached the top cover, and the rear sight was moved back onto that top cover.&hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/27\/albanias-rather-odd-grenade-launching-ak\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Read More &raquo;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Albania&#8217;s Rather Odd Grenade Launching AK<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":28053,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[89,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-content","category-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}