- The Galil ACE, the successor to the classic Israeli
AK variant that is still in use today around the world.
So why the update?
Why even bother resurrecting an old design?
Well, the answer is a bit strange.
7.62 by 39 is a popular caliber around the world,
and tons of nations are set up to produce it.
However, there aren't that many firearms that use it
aside from AKMs.
The fins have the Sako Rk.95TP,
but that isn't even in production anymore.
So IWI answered the call and introduced the ACE,
an improvement over the old Galils in many ways
that is now available in 7.62 by 39,
making it appealing to other nations.
Now, it's no secret that I'm a fan of the old Galil.
I once called it Israel's best small arm,
and it is a favorite of mine.
I've done a video on my classic example,
but is the new model a worthy successor?
It's no secret that I'm not a big fan of the Tavor,
and I think IWI has a lot to make up for with guns
like the UZI PRO and the accuracy problems of the X95.
But what about this gun?
Well, let's check out some of its features.
First, we have a set of great sights.
The front is an adjustable post with a glowing night sight.
The rear is an AR15-like peep with two glowing dots
and settings for 300 and 500 meters.
The rear sight can also be removed.
The muzzle device resembles a simple A2 birdcage.
The stock is user-adjustable
and can be folded for ease of storage.
I do wish it used an AR15 buffer tube, though.
The safety can be operated from either side,
but on the left side it has a switch like the classics.
The elimination of the dust cover safety
results in a more well-sealed system.
The charging handle is on the left side, which is brilliant,
and the sliding dust cover resembles one found
on an M249 FNC or the old Micro Galils.
The foreign comes with the rail system
to add whatever the user desires,
and the pistol grip features a storage compartment.
So how does it shoot?
Well, I brought out 27 loaded magazines to shoot,
for a total of 810 rounds.
Let's see how it does.
Alright, here we go, first shots with my new Galil ACE
let's see how it performs.
(cocks gun)
(gun firing)
Okay, it's a really sweet shooting gun,
the recoil is mild for 7.62 by 39,
not that 7.62 by 39 is ever a high recoiling cartridge.
It does seem to recoil straight back a little bit more
than a traditional AK,
and what would really tame this would be a muzzle break,
not that that's gonna make or break my decision
to purchase it if I was in the market,
but with something like a PWS or something,
this would be a sweet shooter
and I might add one.
(gun firing)
Alright, something I immediately noticed
that I like about the Galil ACE
is that while it does have a polymer lower,
some of you guys might not like that,
it does kind of function like
a jet funnel magazine well on a pistol,
like a competition pistol.
You're not gonna get mag lock.
I've been messin' with this thing for a while,
inserting mags, taking them out,
and it's just really dang easy to rock 'em in there.
It almost guides it into place perfectly,
and a mag change with this thing is remarkably quick
and easy, and you can do the thing where you knock out
the mag with the trailing mag, if you want to.
I'm not a fan of that technique, but a lot of people are.
(cocks gun)
Also, it's very smooth.
It's hard to compare to the original Galil,
because they are very different guns.
It's smooth, but not as smooth as a Valmet,
however, I do like that the charging handle's
on the left side of the gun,
that does make things more natural for me as a right-hander.
I can have the gun up and naturally operate it this way.
You can also use that as a forward-assist, if you have to.
And I really like that safety, just like the original Galil.
(gun firing)
You know, it's throwing the shell casing out of there
with consistency, not too hard.
The original Galil really throws the cases out of there,
it's like a giant brass rainbow.
This thing, not as violent as that.
Does its job, does it right.
Let's keep shooting.
So I wanted to go ahead and get the accuracy portion
of the test out of the way earlier on,
so I used the included cheek riser
which is nice that it comes with the gun,
then went ahead and threw in my 4X Acog on top of the rail.
The rail doesn't run the top of the receiver which is nice,
so I lined it up on the back of the ranger
and fired several five shot groups at an IDPA silhouette
that I spray painted with green spray paint.
I actually ran out of stick-able targets that day
when I was sighting and various other things,
but I will say the recoil impulse from this gun
kind of posed a little bit of a problem here.
I like to get my eye pretty close to the acog
and it really wanted to flip back.
Almost got me a few times but didn't quite make it,
just kissed me a little bit on the eyebrow,
but what was really impressive was the groups.
That first one right there you saw
was a little bigger than one and a half,
this was the best one but I do consider this a fluke,
just a little under one inch,
that was the best group of the day by far.
However I would not a (mumbles) gun.
So next up we have about a one and a quarter inch group
which was pretty darn good actually,
I mean I was really blown away by how this gun performed,
but this group here is a little more reflective
of the performance I was getting that day.
This is about a one and a half inch group
so I would comfortably call this
a one and a half inch gun,
just a little over one MOA zone.
Not bad really, I was astonished.
So again that safety really comes in handy,
if you see a threat or a target or an animal
that you're hunting if you're hunting with a Galil,
I don't see why you couldn't or wouldn't.
But on a traditional AK you guys know how it is,
you gotta kind of reach over to the side
and bring the dust cover down.
Well that doesn't take five seconds or something.
It's definitely not as easy as just bringing it up
and the clicking the safety of at the same time.
Now you still have the option
to come around to the right side
and bring it down off safe if you'd like to.
(safe clicks)
but I really don't know why you would
unless you're of left handed.
(gun firing)
It's remarkably slower
when you have to come around on the other side.
(fires gun)
Well this isn't as crazy in the AR15 selector,
it's pretty close and I'm sure with some training
you could get to that point.
(fires successive shots)
(cocks gun)
Let's try some offence shots at 100 meters.
(fires successive shots)
It's almost not even fair,
the sights on this thing are so great (laughs)
I'm having a lot of fun with this thing.
A lot better than Tronian Manet sights on an AKM.
(safe clicks off)
So I figured why not bring it back to about 120, 130 meters
but I am crouching.
(fires shots)
Now it's time to take it back to 300 meters with iron sights
this is always my favorite part of any of any rifle test.
I really like trying and seeing how accurate a rifle can be
using the irons at 300 meters.
I knew the Galil would be probably better than a gun
with Tronian Manet sights like an AKM
but I really didn't know to what extent
and I was pleasantly surprised.
This gun seriously blew my mind,
it was not only very reliable
that's blown too much the test,
but I could could make this this thing dance.
I only missed a couple rounds,
I really wasted more ammunition back here than I should have
just because I kept shooting it
because I was having so much fun.
(fires shots slowly)
(fires successive shots)
(fires rapid shots)
Now we're just kinda to the reliability portion of the test
where I'm just blowing through ammo
for the sake of blowing through ammo.
Generally that's pretty uneventful unless the gun sucks
which this one does not.
Really, it was pretty uneventful,
I was just dumping magazine after magazine,
the gun was getting very very hot.
I eventually put a glove on my left hand
but wasn't that point yet.
This did keep my trigger finger working, that's for sure,
and really trying to work that trigger as fast as possible
was actually kind of interesting.
The trigger pull is probably about six pounds
which is quite nice making it very easy
to make follow up shots and the more I shot it,
the better I got as you can see
with me taming it pretty well
but then all of a sudden this happened (cocks gun)
(fires rapid successive shots)
(gun clicks)
One malfunction!
Alright, one malfunction guys, and it's a legitimate dead.
We have a very solid primer strike
that indicates to me that it was the ammunition
rather than the gun.
At this point I had 10 magazines left
and I just wanted to blow through all the ammunition
as fast as I could.
I had the glove in my left hand
so I didn't basically burn myself.
Despite the rail covers being there
it's still very very hot.
However it did not melt the covers on the gun,
which was pretty cool.
(rapid shots)
I do wish this gun was full out,
that would be incredibly rad,
but it's not.
Last mag!
(cocks gun)
(fires rapid shots)
(exhales)
So 27 magazines later, 810 rounds fired
and we have one malfunction
that was most likely due to ammo based
on the very solid primer hit,
it failed to ignite.
That's pretty damn reliable!
I didn't clean this gun or disassemble it
at all during this day and I got it extremely hot,
yet it kept on ticking!
Honestly this is the gun that I think
IWY needed to release a long time ago.
The Tavor is fine for some people
but some people don't like bull pups.
I like them but the Tavor is just not for me.
This gun on the other hand I strongly believe
is the best AK variant money can buy.
With a street price right now of 16 or 1700 dollars
the value is there.
While that is expensive, it's the best you can buy.
It has all the features of not just an AK that I want,
but of a semi-automatic rifle that I want.
That's a no brainer for me
and when a 223 version comes out,
I'll most likely be buying that one as well.
This gun gets an absolute five star review from me.
This review was a lot of fun,
it's not often that I go out
and I really just have a great day
and I drive home from the rain with a big smile on my face,
but I did this day!
Thanks for watching guys,
big thanks to Venture Munitions,
we hope to see you next time.
(fires shots)