PSA Unveils a Bullpup JAKL and Space-Age Vuk AK at SHOT Show 2024
What is the impetus behind the new Olan and Vuk from PSA?
Ever since the first reports of malfunctioning M16s in Vietnam reached the United States, gun enthusiasts have sought to build a better mouse trap.
In this instance, a better mouse trap was a more reliable assault rifle. Many companies decided to take Eugene Stoner’s most cost-effective AR-18 design and adopt it to various platforms. Some simply tacked it onto existing AR-15s, while others made all-new designs. The engineers at PSA chose the latter with their JAKL rifle.
And while I personally don’t have any experience with the JAKL, reports suggest that the gun is extremely reliable and effectively a “poor man’s” FN SCAR.
Indeed, the PSA JAKL is a piston-driven, semi-automatic carbine. As such, it isn’t as susceptible to grim and fouling as a direct-impingement firearm like the AR-15.
The only downside with most piston guns – especially long-stroke piston-driven guns – is weight. They tend to be very nose-heavy. Which is why this new bullpup lower for the JAKL is such a great improvement.
JAKL Bullpup: OLAN
A bullpup lower is the perfect addition to the JAKL rifle; It shifts the point of balance back towards the shooter, mitigating the nose-heavy nature of the design.
Although I didn’t have a chance to shoot the new prototype bullpup from PSA, the balance of the gun was vastly superior to the original model.
The most interesting part of the design is how it doesn’t require any special components. A shooter simply needs to own a standard JAKL upper. But this wasn’t the only gun PSA showed off.
PSA VUK
For AK-lovers like myself, the belle of the ball was the new Vuk. A fully-modernized take on Kalashnikov’s magnum opus.
The Vuk is a 5.56mm (and later 7.62×39 and 5.45x39mm) semi-automatic carbine that feeds from AK-pattern magazines.
Further in the vein of the AK, the Vuk operates via a long-stroke piston-driven action. This gives the gun incredible reliability and allows it to tolerate all but the worst conditions.
But the gun is more than simply a futuristic AK. The Vuk is designed from inception to incorporate all the creature comforts of an AR-15 to the AK platform.
For instance, it incorporates a monolithic optics rail along a hinged dust cover. Allowing shooters to easily mount optics without a proprietary mount. This setup also makes it so the gun retains zero if a shooter takes it apart to clean it.
Pricing and Availability
As of now, there’s no set price or timeline for either gun. Both are considered one-off prototypes that would-be consumers can vote on at PSA’s website.
Given how far in the lead the 5.7mm PSA PDW is at this time, I don’t expect either gun to be produced anytime soon. Still, if enough demand is there, I’m sure we’ll see it soon enough. As far as pricing, nothing PSA makes is ever considered astronomical. I’m sure it will be in line (price-wise) with all of PSA’s firearms.
Jim is a freelance writer, editor, and videographer for dozens of publications who loves anything and everything guns. While partial to modern military firearms and their civilian counterparts, he holds a special place in his heart for the greatest battle implement ever devised and other WW2 rifles. When he’s not reviewing guns or shooting for fun and competition, Jim can be found hiking and hunting with his wife Kimberly, and their dog Peanut in the South Carolina low country.
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