Zastava M90 thoughts and videos

[Greg Bell]

Hey guys,

I bought a new Zastava M90 a week or so ago and I have been making some videos to document my playing around with it. It started out with noticing that the polymer mags were wildly ill-fitted to the gun. There is AK mag wobble, and then there is AK mag wobble. This was straight-up mag flop. Anyway, Zastava recommended the steel mags and they were right. There wasn't anything wrong with the rifle, but the poly mags were wildly undersized. Anyway, here are a few videos. I have now fired the first 100 break-in rounds. I have a rail system coming and I am going to see what kind of groups I can squeeze out of it at 100 yards. I couldn't do better than 3-4 MOA with irons but let me be honest, my eyes are dog poo. I am basically minute of pie plate at 100 yards on a good day without optical assistance. Drawbacks of not dying young I guess. Anyway, here is some silliness for you...


This is basically me playing around and burning through some crappy Tula-ammo to break-in.

https://youtu.be/EuSstCW1PHQ


Here is my video comparing the Zastava to a Saiga (Arsenal Legion) and ....a Sig 550.

https://youtu.be/YDlJz9z7Uq4

[Hizzie]

From everyone in the community I’ve spoken with about Zastava I’ve gotten the impression they haven’t improved much from all the bad heat treat and wildly out of spec guns.

[JRB]

From everyone in the community I’ve spoken with about Zastava I’ve gotten the impression they haven’t improved much from all the bad heat treat and wildly out of spec guns.

Which is a shame, because when they do get it right, it's a pretty damn decent AK. Especially back in the ~$400 AK era from whence my problem-free M92 and OPAP came. Sample size of two vs thousands of course, but judging by my round counts through both, I'm one of the lucky ones.

I've always been interested in the M90, I'm looking forward to seeing your full results, Greg!

Somewhat OT - I'm genuinely impressed by people that can make a 'range trip' out of 100 rounds. I have very poor self control on ammo consumption, and I think my shortest range trip ever was ~220 rounds or so.

[Hizzie]

Which is a shame, because when they do get it right, it's a pretty damn decent AK. Especially back in the ~$400 AK era from whence my problem-free M92 and OPAP came. Sample size of two vs thousands of course, but judging by my round counts through both, I'm one of the lucky ones.

I've always been interested in the M90, I'm looking forward to seeing your full results, Greg!

Somewhat OT - I'm genuinely impressed by people that can make a 'range trip' out of 100 rounds. I have very poor self control on ammo consumption, and I think my shortest range trip ever was ~220 rounds or so.

The M92 and PAPs (including the OPAP’s) were are plagued with issues. There were several builders that straight refused to SBR the M92 because the receivers were so soft.

[JRB]

The M92 and PAPs (including the OPAP’s) were are plagued with issues. There were several builders that straight refused to SBR the M92 because the receivers were so soft.

Keenly aware, and can confirm egging of FCG holes and other issues on other examples with far lower round counts than mine. I'm just one of the lucky ones, it seems.
It sucks because if not for that tendency with receiver hardening, they'd be pretty good AK's.

[Greg Bell]

My range is on my property. If I blasted that much every time I took out a rifle I would need to be a billionaire at today’s prices. I’m limiting myself to 150 handgun and 100 rifle per week.



Somewhat OT - I'm genuinely impressed by people that can make a 'range trip' out of 100 rounds. I have very poor self control on ammo consumption, and I think my shortest range trip ever was ~220 rounds or so.

[Greg Bell]

Hey! I did a follow up video documenting the final break-in rounds. I also installed a Zastava factory mount and a zeroed my Primary Arms x2 optic (awesome). Gun is running fine on a variety of el-cheapo 55grain rounds. I am really starting to dig this gun. The only thing I want to do is figure out how to run a flashlight in a way that doesn't seem too Tapco.

Hey! I did a follow up video documenting the final break-in rounds. I also installed a Zastava factory mount and a zeroed my Primary Arms x2 optic (awesome). Gun is running fine on a variety of el-cheapo 55grain rounds. I am really starting to dig this gun. The only thing I want to do is to get a decent sling and figure out how to run a flashlight in a way that doesn't seem too Tapco.



https://youtu.be/k53-_vrKbro

[JRB]

The Vickers sling for the AK is fantastic - If I got another AK today I'd have a Vickers sling ordered by this evening.

Khyber customs makes a nice barrel-clamp 1in flashlight mount specifically for the Yugo barrel profile, and it fits a Surefire G2 perfectly.
Or you can go MLOK or for a handguard and then the world is your oyster.
Based on the '99 dated M90 kit build I got to examine (should have bought it, d'oh) the Yugo M70 pattern handguards all work.

[Hizzie]

I posted pics in the big AK thread of the light setups I use. RS Regulate BM2 is for Yugo guns. Measure your barrel to be sure as I’m not sure if the OD on the M90 is the same as the 762 guns. https://rsregulate.com/product/bm-2/

I and not the biggest fan of the Vickers AK sling because of the front hardware. I much prefer a standard VCAS with Belt Fed Loop. Again I posted pics in the big AK thread.

[Greg Bell]

Just in case anyone is interested I did a quick video discussing the Zastava Factory Optics mount. Spoiler alert: it is pretty nice.
https://youtu.be/ogzhwidUhzE

[Greg Bell]

I did a little shooting this weekend with the ol' Zasty.

I really only shot 5, 5 shot groups but the results were pretty interesting.

1.Tula 55gr steel cased. With this group I was trying to use a lead sled and I couldn't get it to work with the flimsy table I was using to that group was about 5.2 inches at 100. Total waste of time.

2. Tula 55gr steel cased. I ditched the lead lead and used bags and squeezed out a respectable 2.85 inches.


3. "Frontier" 55gr brass. This stuff is $10 a box (cheap currently). I mock this ammo before I shoot it then it turns out a very reasonable 1.65 inch group.

4. "Frontier" 55. Another solid group a 2.36 inches.

5. 77Gr CBC BTHP. This was a disappointment. This stuff consistently shoots 1.5 Moa out of my AR. I was tired and hot so I didn't bother to measure it but it looked in the high twos. I should recheck this.

The accuracy is surprisingly good out of this gun. I am suspicious that the twist rate might be 1/9 or even 1/2 instead of the advertised 1/7. It really seems to like 55grain ammo (ignoring the first group that I knew would be bad because I was fighting against the lead sled.

It was in the low 90s and somehow both sunny and raining at the same time so I gave up for the day.



I then checked for differences between the recoil feel in the different gas settings and couldn't tell much difference. Honestly, I was shooting it back to back with my gall Ace in 7.62x39 so the Zastava seemed not to recoil at all by comparison.

I also got a vickers sling and attached the rails that a very nice guy on the AK files mailed me.


https://youtu.be/C-n1o5EzB6E