IUHoosier429
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A few of you might have seen a similar thread over on the Files. You might also be familiar with Miles from TFB. I've had the pleasure of meeting him, staying in touch a bit, and he also sold me one of his AKs.
Miles helps run Silah Report, which is a pretty incredible trove of AK and small arms history/cultures/trends/news from the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia. He is also just a bit nuts in the fact he travels to and reports from some pretty gnarly places ... went from SHOT 2020 to Syria in the course of a week or so. He has shared with me some pretty crazy stories about spies, terrorists, and other dicey situations he's found himself in.
Anyway, that brings me back to the point of this thread. SR recently offered some threads from Kurdish YPG and YPJ fighters. I snagged a fabric handguard wrap, and some of the history behind this practice can be found here: https://silahreport.com/2020/01/20/black-aluminum-in-cloth-syrian-m16-m4-fabric-wraps/. Pretty interesting piece of "BFPU" memorabilia, akin to trench art stocks and other storied stuff we AK fans seek out.
This is early-pattern YPG/YPJ uniform material. These wraps are usually made out of damaged uniforms, and mine smells quite sandy if that makes sense. The little notch is a cutout to make way for the rear sight, which the finger of fabric slips under:
Stitching and Velcro work are by no means precision, but you can't expect much more from a cottage hobby operating with limited supplies on the front lines:
Not an optimal attachment, but this thing was already on my bench and I didn't want to root around in the safe:
The wraps serve no real purpose other than to look different; a clever reuse of supplies. Kinda goofy, kinda dumb. But definitely unique. Kinda like those paracord wraps, paki tape, or those custom high-speed MOLON LABE AR dust covers I see the public range operators using.
Some cool Afghan-made morale patches SR tossed in:
Wrap in action (not me):
Miles helps run Silah Report, which is a pretty incredible trove of AK and small arms history/cultures/trends/news from the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia. He is also just a bit nuts in the fact he travels to and reports from some pretty gnarly places ... went from SHOT 2020 to Syria in the course of a week or so. He has shared with me some pretty crazy stories about spies, terrorists, and other dicey situations he's found himself in.
Anyway, that brings me back to the point of this thread. SR recently offered some threads from Kurdish YPG and YPJ fighters. I snagged a fabric handguard wrap, and some of the history behind this practice can be found here: https://silahreport.com/2020/01/20/black-aluminum-in-cloth-syrian-m16-m4-fabric-wraps/. Pretty interesting piece of "BFPU" memorabilia, akin to trench art stocks and other storied stuff we AK fans seek out.
This is early-pattern YPG/YPJ uniform material. These wraps are usually made out of damaged uniforms, and mine smells quite sandy if that makes sense. The little notch is a cutout to make way for the rear sight, which the finger of fabric slips under:
Stitching and Velcro work are by no means precision, but you can't expect much more from a cottage hobby operating with limited supplies on the front lines:
Not an optimal attachment, but this thing was already on my bench and I didn't want to root around in the safe:
The wraps serve no real purpose other than to look different; a clever reuse of supplies. Kinda goofy, kinda dumb. But definitely unique. Kinda like those paracord wraps, paki tape, or those custom high-speed MOLON LABE AR dust covers I see the public range operators using.
Some cool Afghan-made morale patches SR tossed in:
Wrap in action (not me):