Zastava M70B

The Zastava M70B ("automatska puška model 70B") is the Yugoslavian designation for a AKM based rifle.

It is a shoulder fired, magazine fed, air cooled rifle capable of semi-automatic or fully automatic fire. As such, in the United States, the weapon is a machine gun and a controlled item.

Civilian versions of the rifle are available to the public. Generally these rifle are made on a US-produced receiver and a mix of surplus and newly manufactured parts. The civilian versions are not capable of fully automatic fire.

It uses a 30 round detachable box magazine. Other capacities may be used. The standard issue Yugoslavian magazines differ from most other AKM magazines in that they hold the bolt open after the last shot has been fired, alerting the firer that the magazine needs to be changed. However, standard magazines from other nations may also be used with the rifle, but the bolt will not be held open after the last shot has been fired as it is with a Yugo magazine.

It is equipped with a grenade launcher sight, but it cannot launch grenades without the grenade launcher attachment and a grenade blank cartridge. When the sight is raised, it cuts off the gas supply to the piston, allowing the full force of the grenade firing blank to enact on the grenade and preventing the weapon from cycling. Most M70 rifles are found with a recoil brake attachment, rather than the grenade launcher attachment.

The bore is not chrome lined which is unusual for a modern Kalashnikov. The reason usually given for this is that Yugoslavia did not have native chromium deposits and that access to foreign chromium supplies was limited for political reasons; however, no official reason has been cited for no chrome lined bores on the M70 or the Yugo SKS rifles. This might not be related to chromium deposits or supplies since later Yugoslavian AK models of different caliber had chrome lined bores.

Additionally, the rifle features a 50% thicker receiver than the standard Kalashnikov (1.6mm versus 1mm), similar to the RPK light machine gun, making this rifle generally more accurate than the standard AKM.

It has folding night sights.

The rear trunnion differs from that of most other AKM rear trunnions, thus the buttstock on fixed stock models has a long bolt/screw running through it that screws into the rear trunnion to attach the stock to the rifle. The prolonged upper handguard is supposedly meant to offer better protection of the gas tube, than the shorter upper handguard found on most other AKM models. And because of the grenade launching capability, the rifle has a pin/plunger that's meant to keep the receiver/dust cover better in place during the firing of grenades. The design was also sold to Iraq in the '80s, and was developed and issued as the Tabuk rifle.

Variants

*Zastava M70B1 – with solid stock
*Zastava M70B1N – with solid stock and mount for night, or optical sights.
*Zastava M70AB2 – with folding stock
*Zastava M70AB2N – with folding stock and mount for night, or optical sights.