About Marshall Arms

Master Craftsman, Historian, AK Manufacturer

Ted Marshall's reputation as the premier AK builder and AK gunsmith proceeds him in collectors circles. When you meet Ted for the first time, you notice he's a polite and quiet person, until the subject of AK47s comes around, then get ready to talk about AK47s.

Some of us go beyond the mere pleasure of shooting the AK47 and delve into the never ending quest to collect the accurate parts to eventually build the ultimate historical recreation of our favorite version of the AK47. When you get to that point you are paying more for an upper handguard than most people pay for entire rifles. You're traveling 2 days out of your way to visit a shop in a town that you heard might have the magazine pouch you need to hold the mags for that rifle.

When you reach this point you look to just one person to build your AK, Ted Marshall

Ted Marshall visits Izhevsk, Russia for the 85th Kalashnikov Jubilee!
November 10th, 2004

Ted's love of the AK47 rifle goes beyond buying one off the shelf, past building a working rile from a parts kit, to include doing historical research, visiting the countries and factories where the AK47s were built, through to building his own tools to recreate every aspect of those original firearms.

Photograph courtsy of Yancey Harrington

Ted has met with M. Kalashnikov a number of times, few people, let alone AK47 manufacturers can claim that honor. Ted's through knowledge of his rifle has impressed Mr. Kalashnikov who is happy to know his rifle is now being appreciated in the United States by a devoted following of collectors

Chinese transferable AK to
Russian AKSU conversion
(5.45X39mm cal)

All of Ted's rifles are built within the laws of the US, AZ and the state of the customer. The Federal Firearms laws pertaining to the number of US made parts is one of the most challenging aspects of building an authentic recreation. Ted is a master of modifying the legal US made parts into exact replicas of the real thing. Anyone could build a quality military rifle if there were no federal laws, we'd just buy the rifles whole. The real art is getting the US parts for the AK47 to look like the originals they are copied from to the highest detail.