Cugir Micro Draco: When Small Isn’t Small Enough

The Cugir Micro Draco, with its 6.25-inch-long barrel, is the smallest AK pistol on the market. Made in Cugir, Romania, it is of the same quality as its bigger brothers.

How The AK Pistol Differs From A Standard Draco:

• 6.25 Inch Barrel
• Shorter Gas Piston
• U-Notch Rear Sight
• Non-Standard Handguard
• A2 Flash Hider

As far as imported AKs go, Cugir has a reputation for solidly built, no-frills, military-grade Kalashnikovs, and the Micro Draco is no exception. When you pop off the dust cover, you’ll find almost all the same guts as you would inside a standard WASR (Cugir full-sized AK), including the chrome-lined barrel. This means that reliability and durability should be non-issues with the Micro Draco as well. The Micro Draco was derived from the standard Draco which was based on the Romanian military PM md.90 short rifle. There is no military equivalent model of the pistol, as it was built from the ground up purely as a commercial export.

Small But Effective

Two small internal differences from the standard Draco are the shorter gas system and the inclusion of a buffer. While the Micro Draco uses a similar combination hooded front sight and gas block to the standard Draco model, its gas tube and piston are even shorter. The buffer prevents the extra short bolt carrier from over traveling and popping off the rails within the receiver, keeping the weapon running as it should.

7.62×39 has surprisingly good ballistic performance out of short barrels. The standard Draco with its 12.25-inch barrel only loses about 300 FPS of velocity compared to a standard AK’s 16.3-inch barrel, and the shorter Micro Draco only loses about 100-200 FPS more depending on ammo type. While this means that the Micro Draco is certainly less punchy and has less reach than its longer-barreled counterparts, its performance is more than acceptable for certain applications.

The rear sight on the Micro Draco has been simplified and moved rearward onto the dust cover. Since the dust cover is not hinged and is held in place only with spring tension, the rear sight will not exactly be sniper accurate. For a weapon of this style, however, the quick-acquisition pistol-style rear notch gets the job done just fine. If you were planning on mounting optics or other accessories on your Micro Draco, its non-standard furniture and lack of a scope rail will make it a challenge.

Customization

The Micro Draco ships with laminate wood furniture that is of nicer quality than the wood found on normal WASR rifles, but unlike a WASR or Draco the Micro Draco’s furniture is proprietary. It features a finger-stop style design carved into the wood to help prevent the shooter from blowing off their own fingers, something that is a genuine concern for guns with this short of a barrel.

Aftermarket furniture options for this design are limited but available. There are custom shops that make wood furniture and at least one producer of a tactical rail system, the latter of which costs half the price of a Micro Draco itself. While expensive, if you are trying to build the smallest functional AK possible, the addition of rails will make mounting optics and other gear much easier.

Unlike a Zastava ZPAP92, the Micro Draco’s rear trunnion has not been pre-drilled to accommodate any brace mounting hardware. There are still plenty of other AK brace options available that mount through different methods, and of course there is always the option to register and SBR it with a real stock installed.

The Micro Draco comes standard with an A2-style birdcage flash hider, mounted on standard 14×1 LH threads. This leaves you with plenty of options for a muzzle device, but with a barrel this short a flash hider is probably a better choice than a muzzle brake. 7.62×39 out of a 6-inch barrel is concussive as hell and a real flame thrower too. Half the fun of a Micro Draco is watching it breathe fire after the sun goes down.

Micro Dracos may have been designed more for fun than practicality, but that doesn’t mean they can’t excel in a PDW role. With the addition of a folding brace or stock, the AK pistol can be an extremely compact and effective weapon for defending yourself. If an AK is what you want to use to defend the narrow corners of your home or the cab of your truck, the AK pistol just might be your best option.

For more information on Micro Dracos, please visit the importer's site at centuryarms.com.

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More On AKs

• The Cugir Draco And Other Romainian AKs
• The Zastava ZPAP92 AK Pistol
• The Cugir WASR-10 Rifle
• The Zastava ZPAP M70 Rifle
• The AK-47: Rifle for the Motherland