The Dog Leg Rail Gen 2 by Texas Weapon System

 

Texas Weapons Systems (TWS) designs and creates several products for the AK platform—from dust cover/rail to peep sight and leaf sight as well as hand guard. TWS is founded by Nelson Fesas and is based in Austin, Texas.

The Dog Leg Rail Gen 2 is designed to solve one of the most troublesome issues in AK design—mounting an optic properly. The Dog Leg Rail Gen 2 replaces the AK’s stock dust cover.

The dust cover of the TWS Dog Leg fits the receiver well like a steel trap while also looking cool.

The rail of Dog Leg also enables extremely low mounting, hence providing a natural platform for co-witnessing. With TWS’ system, you have the option to use either an optic or iron sight while still being able to keep the same cheekweld.

The TWS Dog Leg’s Two-Part System

Aside from the actual dust cover, the TWS Dog’s Leg also comes with a take-down button replacement (found at the rear of the receiver). This is part of the patent recoil spring guide.

The unit then has a highly close-fitting dust cover that holds zero despite of needing to open and shut because it is engineered to close tolerances as well as well finished. Compared to the stock dust cover, it is rather a much tighter fit. Note: You may need to exert more thumb pressure in order to depress the button to remove the cover.

Finally, the system comes with an add-on option which additionally makes things easier. TWS’ system has an M4-like aperture which you can place at the rear end of the unit’s rail, hence nearly doubling the sight radius. Other companies, like Krebs Custom, offer other similar options such as very cool rail plus sight combinations, but costing $310, it is double the price of what TWS is offering. TWS’ aperture will cost you only a $39 extra.

Installation

Installing the TWS Dog Leg Rail Gen 2 is rather straight forward. With an already supplied hinge pin, the dog leg system front end fits right into the rear sight block. You need to swap out its guide rod as well as add its existing recoil spring, but adding this item’s spring to the guide isn’t any different than with replacing other AKs. To do this, you can use various good methods. The “chop stick” method is a nice one to use given the spring tension.

Probably the trickiest part about installing with this dog leg is removing the rear sight. It involves tapping the leaf spring’s end deftly which has a great amount of tension. It could take some or a lot of technique If you have never done this before.

But once you have already removed the rear sight assemblage, the dust cover’s front end pops in neatly without any muss or fuss. The dust cover’s rear end contains 2 Allen screws which allows adjustment for the various different lengths of receivers as available on AK variants. The 2 screws also impacts the tension as with the take-down button. This adjustability feature is necessary given the specs’ dissimilarities on AK receivers.

(TWS explains how to do this clearly in their instructions which they have provided in the box. They also have pdf file and video instructions.)

Conclusion

The TWS Dog Leg Rail Gen 2 System enables easy co-witnessing and mounting the optic low—an AK no mean feat.

The TWS’ system is a nice option most especially if your main focus is on co-witnessing. The available proprietary feature for placing the optic fully runs the receiver in length. The dust cover and rail combined weights lightly unlike having a separate rail system. There’s no addition of any substantial weight which is a noteworthy advantage.

Probably the only limitation with this system is that you would want to have a “flip up” type of rear sight where you can optionally use 2 apertures which is available in a future version for ARs. Krebs already offers this kind of rear sight except that it is more expensive.

All in all, there really is a lot of nice things to like about this item. It has the flexibility you need with a rail system that also doubles as a dust cover. It is very solid yet light and reasonably priced. The TWS Dog Leg’s great geometry allows its user to switch between optics and iron sights easily and without having to change the cheekweld. It also allows for easy red dot co-witnessing which is not at all easy to do with other systems.

Also, (for an additional $39.99) the aperture rear site makes for a great addition that also makes shooting iron sights a lot easier.

The TWS system may not be too robust enough for other purposes most especially if you compare it to a similar Russian item from Zenit, but this item is highly priced at $399.

The TWS Dog Leg Rail Gen 2 is greatly priced at only $139.99 for 47/74 AK or Yugos. The Romanian PSL Dog Leg is at $174.99.