Before I delve into the subject in hand, let me tell you guys a bit about my barely used TM.

A few years ago Tokyo Marui released what TM fans say is the best AKM gas blowback rifle ever. Having one myself, I can say that it is pretty impressive, but it wasn’t perfect.

Firstly, it has no wood furniture. The front handguard and stock are all made of faux wood, although I would admit that it is the nicest wood-looking plastic I have seen on an airsoft replica. Secondly and a small issue that I have with the AKM is the soft recoil spring that gives it a sluggish action when you pull the charging handle. Lastly, as probably with most if not all TMs, the muzzle velocity or what most players call “FPS” can be better. But if you can manage to look past all of these things, it is a very impressive bit of airsoft replica with very high quality materials.

So as with any normal airsofter out there in this day and age, I started to upgrade my TM AKM with the hope of having the experience of using it more fun. The first upgrades that we did were the following: We changed the stock inner barrel to a 5.98 x 190cm EDGI inner barrel which increased the muzzle velocity to around 340fps using green gas. Next, to solve the issue of the sluggish charging handle pull, we installed a Bow Master 130% spring. To improve even more the recoil effect, we changed the recoil piston to the Angry Gun heavy piston. Now, I will have to warn you guys that the combination of all of these upgrades did push the muzzle velocity to being bit hot in the UK.

A few weeks ago I received and email from my editor at Popular Airsoft asking if I would be interested in the SLR Airsoftworks conversion kit made by DYTAC to which I said yes as trying to get my hands to real wood furniture kits that turned out either too difficult to install or too expensive.

So after a few weeks that conversion kit arrived. Our good friends from DYTAC have sent me the SLR Airsoftt 4.7 inch MLOK Front Kit and the SLR AK Billet Folding stock.

On closer look, the items are all made of light weight aluminium with a matte black anodized finish. These things look really well made and they so lightweight which is the best thing as this mean that after installation, they will not add too much extra weight to the replica.

THE ASSEMBLY

My advice to players like me who have no clue in taking replicas apart is to enlist the help of someone who knows what they are doing before you think of doing this yourself.

So as the whole country stood still one Monday afternoon, Marek (Camoraids) and I set our attention into converting my AKM into an SLR.

The first thing that needs doing before we can even start is a full disassembly of the AKM to its bare bones. Or basically you need the lower receiver minus all the bits attached to it.

We started with the easiest part to install, the stock. To do this the trigger housing will need to come off as the stock mount and the pistol grip mount are in one piece. Once this has been removed, simply swap the SLR stock adapter in place, then the folding mechanism and then the billet stock. All the screws needed to do this are all included in the kit.

As for the rifle stock, it folds to the left side of the replica when held in a shooting position. To fold, pull the stock upwards or press on the recorder downwards until the lock disengages. The stock will automatically lock in place when it is on its folded position.

The front kit assembly was also very simple to do. Start by swapping the original barrel to the new one. The barrel is held in by the assembly which houses the gas block and the rear sight. The barrel goes in from the back and is locked in place by a locking plate and screw. We stumbled upon a slight hiccup at this stage as the cuts on the rear of the barrel did not align with locking plate. This was solved by removing some material from the rear of the barrel until the two are aligned for it to install into the locking plate. Once this part is placed back into the lower receiver, you can now attach the handrail.

To install the handrail, start with the inner part which attaches to the receiver. The handrail can then be attached onto this. It is best to disassemble the handrail completely before doing this. Once the handrail is in place, thread the front sight into the barrel until it is in place then install the top cover of the handrail.

To install the dummy piston will entail quite a bit of modification.

Since the front assembly is only 4.7 inches long, the gas tube which is a part of the charging handle mechanism is too long. Now, when Marek and I were trying to do this, we didn’t have any guide to help us and we started a pretty long debate. He says let cut the tube and I’m saying no, I don’t want to cut the tube. So this went on for a bit until we ended up with, “let’s cut the tube”.

We had to shorten the gas tube by around 38mm to start with, then simply filed it down until we were happy with the fit. After tidying up all the sharp bits from the area that was cut we installed the dummy piston. There are two ways of doing this as I found out when DYTAC sent me the step by step guide after we have done the conversion. The DYTAC way of doing it is the thread the inside of the tube as the dummy piston can’t be threaded through. Size of the tapping thread to use is M12 according the guide. Actually, the length to remove from the tube is 40mm which wasn’t too far from our 38mm.

Since we didn’t have the guide when we did this conversion, Marek suggested we pin the piston in the same place as the original. Since Camo have the tools to do it, we went for it. First, Marek had to remove some materials from the part of the piston that will go into the tube to make it fit snuggly. Then with the piston in, he slowly drilled a hole to fit the original pin to lock the piston in place. He also filed some material off the end of the tube as it was catching the side of the gas block.

With everything assembled and working, we test fired the AKM SLR. This is when we found out that the spring guide is now too long for the recoil assembly. So again without the benefit of any information, we agreed that we need to shorten the spring guide. I still wanted to use the BOW 130% spring for better recoil. We took off around 38mm, same as the material we took off the gas tube, from the top spring guide. This solved the problem and the replica worked like a charm. The guide advises that you to cut the stock spring by 100mm and keep the spring guide as is.

The finished product looks great. It gave the AKM a modern look and the performance was not compromised with the modifications done. Note that we also had to shorten the EDGI barrel I have previously installed to fit nicely into the outer barrel.

I am impressed with the quality of the products that we used in this build. The weight of the replica is now concentrated in the receiver and the added parts did not add much to the overall weight that’s to the lightweight materials used. With the shorter length, the replica is now a perfect weapon to use in CQB battles but still retained its performance for outdoor skirmishes.

Big thanks to Mark from DYTAC for sorting out the kits for us and a very massive thanks to Marek and CAMO for helping me out with this build.