I never thought I’d see the day when 5.56mm AKs made financial sense. Sure, they’ve always been a cool concept, but one that was so expensive compared to running cheap 7.62×39 ammo and cheap surplus magazines that only collectors and guys with stocks of 5.56 ammo ever bought them.
On top of that, early guns weren’t very reliable…especially compared to 7.62 guns, plus most of the options available at the time were very expensive overall, namely Arsenal and Beryl clones. Sure, the WASR-3 existed, but it, like all early WASR rifles, was seen as crude with spotty quality in terms of QA. It made me really wish there were more options, especially now with WASR-3 rifles fetching over a grande.
So when Atlantic Firearms began importing Jack 556SR rifles from WBP, I got very excited…until I began reading reports of middling accuracy. Some shooters were reporting 8 MOA guns with any ammo. Even for an AK that’s entirely unacceptable.
These new batches of rifles, though, are said to have fixed the issue by replacing the RADOM barrels with in-house built, nitride-treated WBP barrels. But is this merely lipstick on a pig, or have the Polish engineers at WBP delivered the 5.56mm AK we’ve always wanted? Let’s take a closer look at the new 5.56 Jack rifles and find out.
WBP Jack 556SR Features
For the uninitiated, the Jack series of rifles from WBP are simply AKM-pattern semi-automatic carbines chambered in 7.62×39, 5.56, and 5.45. As AKs, it should come as no surprise that they function via long-stroke piston-driven action.
This has the upside of being very robust and reliable with the downside of being both heavy and having a little more felt recoil than short-stroke or direct impingement rifles since the piston is attached to the carrier. That translates into a heavy mass reciprocating during the firing process and thus more felt recoil.
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These guns feed from the same 5.56mm AK Mags as Bulgarian, Russian, and obviously Polish guns. Speaking of which, the new Jack ships with a single, Polish-made polymer 30-round magazine in the box. The mag lacks steel reinforcements, but in my testing it’s been thus far good to go.
If you want steel reinforcements in your 5.56 AK magazines, there are several options available, both affordable, like the AC unity mags, and pricy, like the Arsenal waffle-pattern circle ten mags. Without going too far into it at this point, both worked flawlessly in the gun in my testing, but more on that later.
But before we get too far, let’s start at the muzzle and work our way back to get a full rundown of all the gun’s features.
The 5.56 Jack ships with a 16.3-inch, 1:8-twist, 4150 Black Nitrided Barrel threaded to standard AK 14×1 LH pitch. So, if you have a favorite AK muzzle device, it will 100% fit the Jack regardless of what caliber the device is for.
Speaking of which, the Jack ships with a multi-prong bird-cage flash hider that, in testing, does a fantastic job of suppressing muzzle blast. On a side note, I tried installing a JMAC custom 4C 14-1LH Slim compensator, and the gun actually recoiled downward, to give you an idea of both how little felt recoil the Jack has and why Atlantic imports these with a flash hider.
Just behind that, the Jack features a standard AKM front sight tower, which is fully adjustable for windage and elevation. Further back, the rifle ships with a mil-spec bayonet lug in case your position gets overrun by PLA infantry.
Adjacent to the bayonet lug, the Jack features the standard self-regulating gas system the AK is known for, along with the standard fluted gas tube with an integrated upper handguard retainer.
The rifle tested shipped with some very handsome blonde laminate wood furniture, but is also available in other finishes as well. If none of these suit your fancy, the Jack uses standard AKM furniture, so if you want to install RS Regulate railed handguards or a JMAC custom folding skeletonized stock, you can.
One unique thing about this rifle over other 74-based guns, is that it utilizes a 45-degree gas block instead of a 90-degree one. I’m not sure why WBP chose this, but this could eventually lead to increased recoil as the gas port naturally opens up over time. But if you’re worried that means the Jack will suddenly happen to recoil like crazy, don’t worry. This port takes thousands and thousands of rounds to open up. And even then, we’re talking about maybe a 5% increase in felt recoil.
Further back, the receiver of the Jack features an engraved Polish eagle coat of arms and a standard rear sight notch adjustable for elevation with settings ranging from point blank to 800 meters.
Just behind this, the Jack ships with a smooth dust cover and, below that, a standard AKMN side rail. So, if you want to mount an optic like my Holosun HS503 or a Soviet POSP, you can easily do so.
The first fundamental difference between this rifle and standard AKMs is on the other side of the rifle. It ships with an extended safety selector, letting shooters use their index finger instead of their whole hand to toggle it. Another extended feature is the magazine release. The extra-wide paddle makes extracting spent magazines substantially easier.
Behind all of that you have a standard AKM polymer checkered pistol grip and a fixed wooden stock…everything you’ve come to expect from legit AKs.
Rifle Performance
As I mentioned earlier, the first generation of 556 Jack rifles weren’t exactly tack drivers. So, how did this new version fare?
Infinitely better.
I tested five different loads of ammo, including 55gr steel-cased Wolf, Federal M193, Winchester 62gr M855 green tip, 55gr Norma, and 77gr SIG Performance match ammo. With the exception of the 62gr ammo, all grouped around two MOA. This might not seem like anything to write home about for you AR guys, but two inches at 100 yards is excellent for a Kalashnikov rifle.
Plus, I didn’t just test the gun at 25 yards and extrapolate the data. I actually shot the gun at 100 yards off of a Lyman bag on a shooting bench. Once I was happy with empirical accuracy data, I shot the gun at a friend’s farm at steel silhouette targets out to 400 yards and never had a missed shot due to mechanical inaccuracy. Shooter skill and lousy eyesight, sure. But nine times out of ten, steel was slammed when the trigger was pulled.
Reliability from the AK was outstanding as well. I fired 650 rounds of ammo through the gun using every 5.56mm AK magazine in my collection, including Bulgarian circle 10, Polish military, Polish civilian, Serbian AC unity standard, and AK-12 style. Regardless of ammo and magazine, the rifle just ran. In fact, I never encountered a single malfunction throughout my entire testing procedure.
Is the WBP Jack 556SR Worth it?
Has WBP fixed the 556 Jack? Is it worth the money? In my opinion, absolutely. Few AKs on the market today offer the level of quality for the price that WBP rifles, carbines, and pistols do. In many ways, the Jack and FOX rifles are like this generation’s WASRs, only much more refined.
We’ll never see the days of $350 mil-spec AKs again, but at least you can still buy good-to-go AKs from Poland at a fair price — around $1200 bucks.
