Century's Golani Sporter: the Israeli-designed AK hybrid is a solid performer (original) (raw)

Guns Magazine, July, 2007 by Holt Bodinson

If it looks like a Galil and functions like a Galil, is it a Galil? Nope, it's a Golani Sporter, named after Israel's Golani Brigade instrumental in selecting the Galil after conducting extensive field-testing with it. After a long absence from the surplus pipeline, a Galil clone in 5.56mm is being made and assembled by Century International Arms, and it's a dilly.

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Rumbling into the Six Day War of 1967 armed with the FN-FAL, the victorious Israel Defense Force came away from the fray with a great deal more respect for the Arabs' AK-47's. Their adversaries' AK's operated well in the sandy battleground while Israel's FN-FAL proved to be sand sensitive and awkward in a highly mobile environment. The result was a period of study and weapons testing to identify a replacement for the FN-FAL.

Israel's greatest ally and source of foreign aid, the United States, had already adopted the M16 and the 5.56mm cartridge. Attracted to the low impulse 5.56mm cartridge, Israel was still impressed by the reliability of the AK-47 and its gas-piston design. At the conclusion of a series of destructive field tests by the Golani Brigade involving the M16, Stoner 63, HK33, AK-47 and a design by Uziel Gal, the AK-47 was still considered the best of the lot.

Hybrid Design

What emerged was a hybrid design developed by firearms designer, Israel Galil. Galil borrowed freely and blended the best elements of the AK-47, the refined Finish AK, known as the Valmet M62, the M16 and the FN-FAL with some unique ideas of his own. The end product was so successful it was adopted in 1972 and, reportedly, saw action the following year in the Yom Kippur War.

The military Galil was produced by Israel Military Industries (IMI) in a variety of models. There was the Galil ARM with a folding bipod, carrying handle and the FN-style tubular folding stock common to all Galils, a Galil AR (assault rifle) without the bipod or carrying handle, a Galil SAR with a short 15" barrel, a Micro-Galil (MAR) and a heavy-barreled Galil Sniper. Galils were chambered in both 5.56mm NATO and 7.62mm NATO.

IMI exported Galils to a number of South American, African and Asian countries and licensed South Africa to produce the design as models R4 (Galil AR), R5 (Galil SAR) and R6 (Galil MAR). As recently as 2006, Columbia was licensed to manufacture the Galil.

In Israel, the Galil proved to be a short-lived design for general issue and was phased out in favor of the M16 and CAR-15, supplied by the United States in very ample quantities at very low prices.

Century's Golani Sporter is essentially a Galil-type AR with its sturdy folding stock, rigid milled receiver and without the ARM's bipod or carrying handle. Mechanically, it's an improvement over the Soviet AK/AKM in several ways.

The Israeli design is ambidextrous. The fixed operating handle is mounted in a vertical, rather than horizontal position, and can be readily grabbed and operated with the strong hand or the weak hand by either a right- or left-handed shooter.

Ambidextrous Safety

There's a handy, easy-to-operate, side safety (selector switch) located under your thumb at the top of the pistol grip on the left side of the receiver. It is connected to the traditional, sheet metal AK safety (selector switch) on the right side of the receiver, so the safety can be operated from either the right or left side of the rifle. On Century's Golani Sporter model, in the forward position (marked "S'), the safety is "ON" and in the rear position (marked "F"), "OFF" It would be handier if it worked in reverse.

Unlike the AK/AKM, the rear sight of the Golani Sporter is mounted on top of the heavy receiver cover. The protective sight housing contains an excellent "L" shaped, flip-type aperture sight offering either a 300m or 500m zero plus a flip-up, night-sight blade. The Golani aperture sight is a vast improvement over the open, tangent sight of the AK.

The AK-type post front sight is adjustable for elevation by screwing it up-or-down with an SKS/AK sight tool. Windage is easily adjusted by turning two opposing screws in-and-out to move the graduated sight base left-or-right. Hinged to the bottom of the front sight housing is a neat, flip-up, night sight post.

Gas System

The gas tube of the Golani is not locked down like that of the AK/AKM. Rather, the rear of the tube is mated to an integral dovetail at the top of the receiver while the front of the tube slips over a shoulder on the gas block. The tube is secured in place by the receiver cover fitting into a recess at the rear of the tube as it is locked in place. It's a practical design and much easier to disassemble for cleaning and maintenance than an AK's.

The Golani handguard is distinctive and comfortable. It cradles, but does not touch, the medium weight 5.56mm barrel, so there is plenty of cooling air circulation around the barrel. Moreover, the inner surface of the "U" shaped handguard is completely lined with an aluminum heat shield to keep the handguard cool to the touch. It's a great design when you're doing a lot of full-auto work and, not touching the barrel, it enhances accuracy.