I’m a Polack that can barely change out a lightbulb without adult supervisions, so when I got into firearms two things happened. I was immediately disappointed that the United States wasn’t importing Polish firearms and I became an avid watcher of Rob Ski’s AK Operators Union Local 47-74. Since that time there’s been a lot of high hopes that Poland’s primary arms manufacturer, FB Radom, would be able to get some of their firearms imported into the United States without being absolutely butchered in the process. At one point, I remember the ATF made promising gestures towards approving Polish made firearms, some dude in Texas (?) bought a warehouse for the then eventuality, and then the ATF backtracked. Here’s an actual picture of what happened:
Memes aside, it was reported last year that FB Radom hadn’t given up, and that they would be actively trying to get Beryl variants imported into the United States; but not through Century Arms who botched a whole batch of Beryl’s in the past. This time they would be trying to go through Arms of America. In what appears to be an early Christmas Miracle FB Radom is going to be able to import the Mini Beryl after a 4 year journey of working with Arms of America & the ATF. Unfortunately the Mini Beryl isn’t coming to the United States as it should; it’s unclear whether or not this is because of the ATF and their tomfoolery, or if it’s because FB Radom is ran by Polacks such as yours truly.
The first issue comes in the rear trunnion. Instead of getting a brace adapter of some kind, you’re getting a sling loop that will require some effort to get changed out. This might be a change that Arms America will be offering a stock trunnion option for those that are wanting to SBR the pistol. The next fun part is at the muzzle end. The muzzle device is pinned in place and there’s unthreaded barrel beneath it. So if you’re wanting to swap out muzzle devices, you’ll have to knock the pin out, replace that detent pin, and get the barrel rethreaded.
The Mini Beryl will be able to accept most 5.56 AK magazines and it is capable of shooting both .223Rem and 5.56×45. It will also accept AK-74 bolts, but not the traditional AK style piston. I’m not sure if any of the available AK-74 handguards are going to fit on this and I don’t know if/what handguards & accessories that Arms of America or Atlantic Firearms might be importing specifically for the Beryls.
Even at the listed price of $1,400 I’m really excited to see FB Radom being able to import a Beryl at all. It’s been am uphill battle for a long time with getting the ATF to approve even one of their rifles for importation. As a Polack I have to say, it will be nice being able to purchase a quality factory built Polish rifle finally.