RS Regulate

It all started with an AK and an ACOG. Back in 2009, Scot purchased a Bulgarian kit-built AK carbine chambered in 5.45x39mm. Desperately wanting to mount his ACOG to the gun, he found that the mounts available at the time were inadequate. As an engineer by trade, Scot decided to solve the problem himself. After much tinkering and testing, he produced a custom mount for his gun that yielded a suitable cheekweld and sat the scope precisely centered over the rifle’s bore.

When attaching his handiwork to his friend’s Romanian SAR 2 (another 5.45x39mm AK-74-pattern gun), he discovered that his mount didn’t sit the scope directly over the rifle’s bore, unlike on his Bulgarian gun. The slight differences between various countries’ AKs caused this issue. The incongruities between the kit gun’s side rail and the SAR’s side rail meant that, while the ACOG mount worked perfectly for the former, it was in a suboptimal position for the latter.

Scot’s solution to the center-over-bore problem was to create a two-piece mounting system. The lower piece would attach to the side rail of the rifle, and the upper piece would connect to the lower, cradling the optic. By making the upper’s over-bore position adjustable—a shooter could drift the upper mount from side to side before securing it to the bottom. RS Regulate eventually released versions of this “first generation” adjustable mount for the Aimpoint Comp series and Aimpoint Micro dot sights. An ACOG-specific upper would come later.

Throughout Scot’s journey with RS Regulate, one philosophy has always guided him—and it’s why he chose to make mounts utilizing the AK’s side rail instead of developing replacements for essential parts of the firearm: “I don’t want to impact the weapon’s combat effectiveness.”

Scot’s “change nothing, utilize everything” principle has led him to create what is arguably the best AK optics mount in the world. His passion for the Kalashnikov platform is evident in his design philosophy and dedication to his products. He is one of the few individuals in the United States who is reinventing the “AK wheel” and breathing new life into a proven design that’s well deserving of it.