Red Oktober пять: Champion Kalashing

The Red Oktober Kalashnikov Championship has been described (correctly) as something that’s as much a cultural event as it is a competition. 

We see no reason to dispute that…which is just one reason we are backing the whole not-so-commie adventure.

What’s Red Oktober? It’s one the biggest and most attended (if not the biggest and most attended) AK action shooting match there is, and as you can tell from the name it definitely has a Cold War-era vibe. That said, the idea that the event is for AKM, AK47, and AK74 shooters is not entirely accurate. The match is for COMBLOC weapons1…so break out that PPSh-41 if you’ve got one. 

Red Oktober Equipment Divisions

The ROKC "Kalashnikov Championship" is an AK-centric competition.
The ROKC “Kalashnikov Championship” is an AK-centric competition, but you can run any ComBloc weapon you like (within reason). 📷 Pro Gun Club. 

1Well...most ComBloc weapons.

Red Oktober Kalashnikov Championship 

ROKC

Now in its fifth year (they had to cancel it last year), 2021’s ROKC will be held October 23 -24 at Pro Gun Club in Boulder City, NV, not too far outside Las Vegas. 

ROKC 2021
Interested in ROKC? Then you’ll also want to take a look at our Ultimate AK Gift Guide. Or that’s what we think anyway.

As Rifle Dynamics says,

“Every year we get attendees from all over the country and the world who want to come and celebrate the Kalashnikov platform. There will be plenty of vendors and sponsors to check out, costumes, machineguns, tanks, giveaways, food trucks, AKs, and friends.” 

The Pro Gun Club is in the desert between Las Vegas and Boulder City.
The Pro Gun Club is in the desert between Las Vegas and Boulder City, just south and west of Interstate 11 in Clark County, NV.

Satellite view of Red Oktober match host range: Pro Gun Club, outside Las Vegas.

GunMag-Warehouse-Rifle-Dynamics-Red-Oktober
Learn more about the event or sign up to compete on the Rifle Dynamics website.

Past-Rifle-Dynamics-Red-Oktober-participants-and-competitors -on-the-range

Red Oktober Competition Divisions

ROKC divisions are basically predicated on caliber, optic, and the number of rounds allowed inside the magazine: not necessarily, it should be noted, magazine size.

Heavy Open Division: this is the biggest division, involving a “heavy class” gun.

  • Must be chambered in 7.62 or bigger
  • Any style of optic: что бы ни 
  • Unrestricted accessories

Past-Rifle-Dynamics-Red-Oktober-participants-and-competitors

Heavy Division: competitors in the Heavy Division must shoot something along the lines of a standard AKM.

  • Must be chambered in 7.62 or bigger
  • Iron sights only
  • Magazines may be loaded with no more than 30 rounds
  • Magazines must be rock-and-lock style insertion

Light Open Division:  much as heavy, but chambered in somethings smaller.

  • Must be chambered in something smaller than 7.62×39, i.e. 5.45 or 5.56, etc.
  • Any style of optic: что бы ни 
  • Unrestricted accessories

Light Division:  Similar to the Heavy Division, but with smaller calibers. 

  • Iron sights only
  • Magazines may be loaded with no more than 30 rounds
  • Magazines must be rock-and-lock style insertion

Peashooter Division: Pistol caliber weapons, i.e. 9mm, 9x18mm, 7.62×25, etc. 

  • For pistol-caliber weapons, i.e. 9mm, 9x18mm, 7.62×25, etc.
  • As of this writing I’m not sure about accessories and optics. It’s probably an Open class, but I will confirm. 

Clip Fed Division: This is for those of you shooting something that feeds from an actual clip.

  • Weapon must be clip-fed, i.e. feeds from a stripper clip like a Mosin, an SKS, or the like.
  • As of this writing I’m not sure about accessories and optics. It’s probably an Open class, but I will confirm. 

Past-Rifle-Dynamics-Red-Oktober-participants-and-competitors

Past-Rifle-Dynamics-Red-Oktober-participants-and-competitors

ComBloc Weapons

For clarification, you can shoot most ComBloc guns at Red Oktober — not all of them.

combloc-weapons-at-Red-Oktober
AK variant? Good to go. Rocket-propelled flamethrower? Not so much. Finnish SMG? That’s a tricky one, it could go either way. We’d have to ask Match Director Brian Nelson.

What is COMBLOC? 

COMBLOC (also ComBloc) is a term used to refer to the Cold War ere Communist Bloc countries, i.e. pretty much anything that was part of the Soviet Union. Plus a few more. 

These nations have also been referred to as Eastern Bloc; until 1989 or so that was more than a dozen polities. Those were Russia of course, and also Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belorussia, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. Plus “allies” (socialist republic satellite states) like Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania.

And of course, Donovia and Limaria.  

Nowadays the term is sometimes used to refer to the “political entities” of the Russian Federation. There are nearly a hundred of those, including a couple dozen republics, e.g. Dagestan, Ingushetia, Karelia, etc. 

Plus of course Veishnoriya and the Skolkan Alliance.

Some people use the term to refer to any communist nation. Think China, Laos, Vietnam, and even Cuba. Most of us tend to stick to the Eastern Europe context.

So basically if you have a gun that looks like the kinds carried by most of the bad guys in war movies since the 60s, you’re likely good to go.

Here are some more helpful pictures to guide you in your weapon selection. 

ComBloc-weapons-AKS-74U-Hind-pilot-Afghanistan
This Hind pilot’s AKS-74U would be something you could use in a ROKC match.
ComBloc-weapons-RPG7
This Ручной Противотанковый Гранатомёт (RPG) would not be something you could use in a ROKC match.
ComBloc-weapons-VSS-Vintorez
An integrally suppressed VSS Vintorez might not be ideal for some of Brian Nelson’s courses, but you could probably get away with it.
ComBloc-weapons-KPVT-heavy-machine-gun PC Gabrial Chaim @gabrialchaim
A 14.5 HMG would not be ideal of ROKC courses, at least not as they’re scored now….though with sufficient notice Brian could probably come up with something. 📷 Gabriel Chaim, @gabrielchaim. 

See you there? 

Past-Rifle-Dynamics-Red-Oktober-participants-and-competitors

Past-Rifle-Dynamics-Red-Oktober-participants-and-competitors

Past-Rifle-Dynamics-Red-Oktober-participants-and-competitors

David Reeder's Wu Tang name is Lucky Prophet. He is a retired AF veteran, former Peace Officer, and current Tier 2.5 writer-operator. Over the course of his career, he has worked a variety of military and lE billets, served as an Observer-Controller at the National Homeland Security Training Center, a MOUT instructor, and an MTT tracking instructor - all of which sounds much cooler than it really was. Although he only updates his website once in a very great while, he can absolutely be relied upon to post to social media (@reederwrites) at least once a month. -Ish.

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