Images by Patrick McCarthy / Match Grade Media
Designed by Victor Kalashnikov and Yevgeny Dragunov, both men, the sons of legendary Soviet firearms designers, the PP-19 Bizon was adopted by Russian forces in 1996. Sharing more than 60% parts compatibility with the AK-74, the PP-19 Bizon has long held American fascination entirely due to the strange helical magazine used to feed this Russian submachine.
The design is surprisingly simple. Blowback operation, no gas system, no locking bolt, and classic AK controls. But the magazine is where the magic happens.
Since it’s impossible to get the real PP-19 Bizon in the United States, American manufacturing has finally given the people what they want, the Palmetto State Armory / Soviet Arms Stizon. Combining a PSA AKV with the Stuff And Things Stizon magazine system, we have our “Bizon At Home”.
SOVIET ARMS AKV “STIZON” SPECS
- Forged Front Trunnion
- Forged Bolt/Carrier
- Stamped 1mm Steel Receiver
- 10.5″ Nitrided 4150 Steel Barrel
- 9x19mm
- 1 in 10″ Twist
- Stuff and Things Inc. Stizon Flash Hider
- Picatinny Top Railed, Hinged Dust Cover
- Fixed Rear Sight
- Enhanced Extended Safety Lever
- Fire Control Group: Single Stage, Single Hook
- Soviet Arms Pistol Grip – Black
- Stuff and Things Inc. Stizon Aluminum Handguard
- PSA AK Picatinny Stock Adapter with Triangle Side Folding Brace
- Stuff and Things Inc. Stizon 55RD Magazine
- AKV w/ Triangle Brace Extended: 27″
- AKV w/ Triangle Brace Folded: 19″
| Palmetto State Armory | $1,200 |  |
ACCESSORIES
To round out this build, a few extras were added. While the flash hider used is very true to the OG Bizon, suppressors are life. Staying true to the Bizon design, PSA didn’t shoulder the Stizon’s barrel, and so mounting a suppressor isn’t super simple. Thankfully, the fix is simple.
Sovereign Development offers a tri-lug adapter that can be face-mounted, so no shoulder is needed. Pick your thread pitch, pick your caliber, and mount it up. This adapter works on a range of firearms like the PSA AKV, KUSA KP9, Springfield Kuna, and more.
Mine is just torqued on, no Rocksett or anything. So far, it’s worked perfectly. There are other options for this same type of adapter, but most of them cost a lot more money than Sovereign Development’s offering. Very happy with this mount.
Mounted to the Sovereign Development adapter is my Shadow Systems HS923 suppressor with a tri-lug mount. Why? While it isn’t clone-correct, it’s the closest-looking suppressor that is currently on my shelf. Good sound, good suppression, and it has a tri-lug mount. Good enough.
On top sits a Novus Precision PDS1 optic. This is probably the most questionable optic ever to grace one of my firearms, but drip matters. The PDS1 is a Chinese-made clone of the Russian 1P87 red dot. Developed around 2016, the 1P87 was going to be part of Russia’s modernization program to bring their warfighters into the age of red dots. Due to circumstances entirely under their control, this has mostly not happened.
Getting a 1P87 in the United States is extremely difficult, questionable legal, ethically murky, and costs somewhere around $1,500-$2,000 for a red dot that is flatly… not very good. Even in 2016, when it was developed.
The Novus Precision PDS1 is entirely legal, easy to order, and only costs about $380. And since this red dot was chosen entirely for looks and vibe, this is one of the rare times that getting the Chinese knock-off is absolutely the right thing to do.
To my surprise, the PDS1 really isn’t that bad of an optic. But more on that later.
ON THE RANGE
The Stizon is fun. It’s just fun. This is absolutely not the firearm to keep by your bed for when something goes bump in the night, but not every firearm needs to be that gun.
Instead, the Stizon is something that is clearly designed to appeal to the type of person who just needs to get dorky with things sometimes. Overall, the Stizon is heavy, kind of awkward, not well-balanced, and rattles like a muraca. But it’s so much fun.
Blowback AK 9mm is basically what you expect, not the smoothest or softest shooting PCC ever made, but it works, and it looks awesome. The PSA AKV is a solid design that brings me a lot of joy to shoot. But it’s a 9mm AK. Not super refined, has some quirks, but it works.
Stuff and Things magazine works shockingly well. For being such a weird design and then getting grafted onto a firearm never designed to use it, it’s been entirely reliable in the several hundred rounds run through it. While the Stizon ships with the black polymer magazine, Stuff and Things also sent me one of the clear poly mags to show off exactly how they work. The clear mags don’t have that cloner-vibe, but getting to see the helical magazine at work is super cool.
Downside? These mags are $160 each. Not exactly something you can afford to stack deep.
But at the same time, how many do you really need for a fun range gun? And with 55+ rounds on tap per mag, it’s not like you need to reload often.
Speaking of reloads, getting bullets into the magazine is wicked easy, if a bit odd. Using the lever at the front cap of the magazine to twist the ratcheting system open and make room for each cartridge, this is a lot easier to load than something like the Magpul D-60. But does require a lot more shaking and gentle encouragement to get the cartridges to feed into the magazine system. It’s not hard once you get used to it a little, but it’s also not fast.
Having never seen a real 1P87 red dot, it’s hard to be sure, but there is no doubt in my mind that the Novus PDS1 is a better optic than the real thing. That doesn’t mean it’s a bomb-proof optic, but it’s not broken yet either.
Major drawbacks on a real 1P87 red dots are the deep blue filter on the lens, underpowered illumination, and horrible battery life. All of these problems are fixed in the Novus PDS1 clone. Blue tint on the glass is still there, but it’s really subtle. Not perfect, but hardly there. PDS1 illumination is bright and easy to see, even in the hell desert sun of Southern Arizona. It’s winter now, so the sun isn’t as bad as it could be, but it’s still damn bright out, and the PDS1 has no problem with it.
Battery life for the 1P87 is said to be about 100 hours on a mid-high setting. Novus claims 8,000 hours on a mid-setting. I left the Novus on at max brightness for over a week, and it hasn’t drained the battery yet, so it’s definitely better than the Russian battery life. Both red dots lack any shake awake or auto off feature, but that’s not surprising for a design almost 10 years old and a clone of that design.
LOOSE ROUNDS
$1,200 for the PSA Stizon feels like a lot of money, and it is. Add the cost of an extra magazine, suppressor, suppressor adaptor, red dot, and ammo to fill the magazines, and this becomes a very expensive toy really fast.
Everything in this build was provided by the manufacturers as a part of this review, and that’s probably the only way this build would have been made. It’s hard to see myself dropping more than 2 grand on this or a similar build for what is absolutely just a really fun range gun.
That’s probably where this falls apart for most people. For a gun that has no real justification other than “It’s a lot of fun”, $1,200 (just to start) is a lot of money. If you have that cash to burn, this is definitely not the worst way to spend it because, and this is true, the Stizon is so damn fun.
If you already have a PSA AKV or KUSA KP9, the conversion kit from Stuff and Things is only $340. That gets you the handguard, flash hider, and one magazine. This makes a lot more sense in the money area.
| Palmetto State Armory | $1,200 | |
Depending on sales and when you jump on it, it might be possible to buy a standard PSA AKV and the conversion kit for less than what a complete PSA Stizon runs you.
Read the full article here