Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and today we are taking a look at a Zastava M91.
This is the commercial civilian import version
of the Serbian Army's current M91 precision rifle.
And it is the replacement, actually it's the replacement
a couple steps away, from the M76.
So after World War Two Yugoslavia ended up with a substantial amount of German war materiel left over.
Enough so that they decided to standardise on the 8mm Mauser cartridge, and they kept that cartridge for several decades
Eventually developing the M76, which was this kind of interesting east-west hybrid.
It was an AK action, a basic Kalashnikov action, scaled up to 8mm Mauser,
and that was what they used as their designated marksman's rifle.
However, in the late 1980s they decided to get away from that, change over to 7.62x54 rimmed,
and started development on a similar rifle that would use the 7.62 cartridge.
This was adopted in 1991 as the M91, and it is not quite this rifle.
When this was originally developed, the first versions of the M91 actually used a milled receiver, as did the M76.
It was only in 2012 that the Zastava factory decided to switch over to using a stamped receiver on the M91.
So they developed a large-scale stamped receiver, at which point this rifle kind of
moves over from being very similar to the M76 to being very similar to the PSL,
which is a Romanian Kalashnikov action scaled up to 7.62x54 rimmed.
So, in concept as this exists today, very similar to the PSL.
Uses a 10 round detachable magazine that is proprietary to it.
There are a couple other elements on this rifle that have been changed,
just a little bit, to make it acceptable for commercial importation into the US.
So let's bring the camera in close, take a look at those, and then we'll pull it apart and show you how it works.
You can clearly see the Kalashnikov heritage here. We have a Kalashnikov safety.
We have a Kalashnikov magazine release system,
although the latch on this is actually extended nicely out to the side there.
So, at least if you're right-handed, it's a little more convenient to get to than a typical AK.
The optics mounting rail is typical of Soviet and Eastern Bloc countries, with a detachable scope here.
This is a very tight mount because I tightened it down.
When I first got this, this mount was actually a little bit loose, scope was a little bit wobbly on it,
so I clamped it down to to ensure that that would work properly.
What we have here is a POSP 4x24, so a 4x power magnification, 24mm lens at the end.
The scope itself is a POSP 4x power magnification by 24mm lens, conveniently labelled in English.
It does have an illuminated reticle, so there's your switch to turn the reticle illumination on and off.
Since the scope is the same type that was used on the PSL and the SVD, you'll see the same basic military reticle there.
You have hash marks for windage on the the main horizontal line there, and then in the bottom left
you have a ranging indicator that allows you to use the height of a full-grown man
as an estimator for range from 200 out to 1,000 metres.
Externally speaking, you have a BDC cam on the rifle that goes out to 800.
On the receiver here we have the serial number up top, and "Zastava Arms, Made In Serbia".
These are Serbian manufactured guns that are then imported into the US,
as I said, with a few configuration changes to make that legally possible.
One of those is an import mark here, Zastava Arms USA, out of Illinois.
"Read owner's manual before use" is not typically marked on the military guns, nor interestingly is the model or calibre.
In a military context you don't need the calibre written on it, because you only have one option,
and you don't really care what the model designation is. So technically speaking, this is the PAP M91 SR.
As for configuration changes, we have a plain muzzle nut here that is tacked on to the front sight block with a little weld.
Typically this would have had a flash hider on it that is very reminiscent of the Soviet Dragunov flash hiders.
This also in military service had a bayonet lug on the bottom of the front sight block.
That has been removed to comply with US import requirements.
And it also originally had a set of flip-up luminous night sights, which have not been installed.
You can see that the front sight block is milled for them, and in theory if you found an original
flip-up front sight you could, I'm sure, install it right in there, but they don't come into the US that way.
The handguards are slightly different on the commercial version than on the military issue.
The commercial has bits of Picatinny rail on the top and bottom,
Not entirely sure what you're supposed to do with the top one,
the bottom one is certainly convenient for mounting a bipod.
In military service these were available initially with wood furniture,
and then when the stamped receivers were introduced in 2012
they went to a black polymer furniture that looks otherwise pretty similar to this.
And the buttstock is, as far as I can tell, identical to the military pattern.
So you can push this cheek rest back and rotate it up into position, and it'll pop forward and lock in place there.
It's got a post here for a sling.
Unlike the Yugo M76, which had a standalone pistol grip and traditional wood stock,
the M91, both in its wood and polymer furniture versions, has a Dragunov style thumbhole stock.
The rear iron sight here is very standard AK sort of pattern, goes out to 1,000 meters.
You can see this hole here on the bottom of the rear notch, that was for the flip-up rear luminous night sights,
which are, like the front sights, not installed on this commercial version of the rifle.
One cool feature here that you do get on the M91 because this is a holdover from the M76,
but you don't see it on similar rifles like the PSL, is an adjustable gas system.
So this has a three position adjustable gas system.
I can use a cartridge to lift up this spring and then rotate this to position 1, 2, or 3.
2 is the standard, normal use position.
1 is ... a smaller gas port. So if it's very hot and your ammunition is going to be generating more gas pressure, you use 1.
3 is for adverse conditions. So if you are putting a suppressor on the rifle, that would probably a good time to use position 1.
The manual does suggest using position 3, which is the adverse setting, for the first 200 rounds
that you put through. Presumably to break in the action.
Disassembly is just like a standard Kalashnikov. We're gonna push the spring guide in,
top cover comes off. This has a smooth top cover and it does have the serial number stamped on there.
That is clearly a factory serial number.
Interesting to note, we do also have what appears to be an assembly number electro-penciled in there, 232.
This is a little greasy inside, but pull the recoil spring guide out.
There's that. Just like an AK, it's got a nice joint in the middle.
Pull the bolt back.
There's your gas piston and bolt carrier, this is just an AK scaled-up, and the bolt.
The rear trunnion is a little different from typical AK rear trunnions you may be used to,
in that it actually has this extension to slightly lengthen the receiver, and that extension is what the recoil spring clips into.
At the front we have what's colloquially called a bulged front trunnion, typical of heavy use
versions of the AK like the RPK light machine gun, or in this case, the calibre scaled-up DMR version.
Popping this lever up allows us to take off the upper handguard, this can be pretty tight.
you can actually use the rail here as a bit of leverage.
Flip that up.
And there we go.
The gas tube is totally normal, it just has this little spring tab coming off the front.
Note we have our serial number, and we also have our assembly number there.
Moving to the gas piston we can take this out. This is the adjustable element.
So depending on where you set the gas system out here, you have your
small gas port, medium gas port, and your large gas port.
And then the lip here
actually locks this into the gas block so that it doesn't move.
Just like that.
The M91, like the M76 before it, is a rifle that forces us to consider the difference between a designated marksman's rifle
and a sniper's rifle. We tend to think of a sniper's rifle as one where every time there is a design
choice to be made the answer is whatever gives it better accuracy.
And the result is a purpose-built, sub minute of angle, extremely accurate, extremely precise,
rifle that kind of doesn't have to pay attention to any other design goals.
Well, the M91 did have to pay attention to other design goals.
It needed to be something that was reasonably inexpensive to produce, something that could be built
from the existing technical knowledge without having to design a whole new rifle from the ground up,
and something that could serve as basically an ad-hoc combat rifle if the situation required it.
So that's why you see things like an easily detachable optic,
the iron sights, which are very much like Kalashnikov iron sights, basic combat iron sights.
That's why you see it being based on the Kalashnikov platform, which has some downsides.
Namely, it's not a free-floating barrel, you've got a big ol' long stroke gas piston system here, connected up to the barrel.
I'm sure folks are interested in how it shoots, and I'm interested in how it shoots too.
So we are going to go ahead and take this guy out to the range and do some filming there.
And we'll have that video posting tomorrow.
So if you're watching this right when it comes out, you can check out that video tomorrow.
If it's been a little while since this video came out,
you can go ahead and I will link the shooting video from the very end of this one,
you can click over there and see how we did at the range.
Thanks for watching.