So, a friend of mine recently purchased an AK. We went to the range, what a blast. Needless to say, someones got the bug now. Trouble is, I am way more knowledgeable on the subject of pistols than long guns. I guess I'm just asking for basic info on the platform, brands to lean towards, brands to shy away from, internals (I thought I've heard they can be beefed up). What would you guys/gals get if you were in the market? Help me out folks, thanks.
P30
For an entry level AK, the Romanian WASR-10 is sort of the default, it seems.
"PLAN FOR YOUR TRAINING TO BE A REFLECTION OF REAL LIFE INSTEAD OF HOPING THAT REAL LIFE WILL BE A REFLECTION OF YOUR TRAINING!"
You need to chose the caliber; if I were to own one, I'd go with 7.62. I have a 5.45 too and while at this point I don't care if I had it or not, it did let me continue my long arm practice when 5.56 ammo was in short supply. 5.45 remains to be the cheapest mil caliber ammo available, although 7.62x39 is not too bad now.
Century is one brand most people would recommend against. I have one of theirs and while it is devoid of major flaws, I can see why it is not anybody's favorite.
Arsenal is a default advice for high end AKs, but Arsenals are quite expensive and not fully guaranteed against production flaws. Some outfits offer worked-over AKs with various options and price ranges; Henderson Defense has a decent reputation in this regard. These two would be my choice if I were buying an AK, although I've not had any personal experience with Henderson.
I've not heard much about beefing up AK internals; AKs are arguably the most robust rifles in the world. Usually modifications include a quality sling since original ones suck, and some ergonomic enhancements - safety levers, sights, optic and light mounting options (i.e. rails). I have Krebs' safety lever, Ultimak rail [lets me mount Aimpoint Micro and light], and Vickers sling on my Arsenal; this is often considered as optimal setup for AK.
SGL-21 - 7.62x39mm
Manufactured in Russia
I shot one in a Vickers AK class and was very impressed with it. It was capable of (for an AK) a great deal of accuracy, if the idiot operating the weapon (me) did his.
If you have the will to be weird, you can always get an often overlooked Cold War classic- the VZ 58. It sort of looks like an AK, but none of the parts or mags interchange. It's an amalgamation of P-38, STG 44 and SKS. TCinVA & myself each ran one during the Vickers AK class last May, just to be different.
***Disclaimer- My VZ did stop functioning when part of the trigger mech broke, and prevented the striker from coming into contact with the firing pin. This was determined to be the result of my former FFL installing an "improved" aftermarket trigger w/o my knowledge. Czechpoint fixed the rifle free of charge, installed the OEM trigger group, and it has been flawless about 2,500 rds since.***
Last edited by Kyle Reese; 03-10-2011 at 10:18 AM.
Ran with success?Originally Posted by GermanSynergy
TCinVA & myself each ran one during the Vickers AK class last May, just to be different.
Until the walkback drill.
Keeping in mind that I'm not an AK expert:
If I wanted to buy a good AK I would buy an Arsenal model in 7.62x39 or one of the SLG model Saiga rifles that GS mentioned. The Arsenal and Saiga guns I've seen seem to run very well, they're built solidly, and they are about as close to the AK analogue of the Colt 6920 in comparison to other carbines that you can get.
I've become a bit gunshy about shopping for AKs at gunstores. At least in my area I see a lot of frankenstein builds that have issues. As an example, a buddy of mine from the local PD bought an AK recently and brought it with us to the range Tuesday before last. I was attempting to get an on-paper zero with the weapon at 25 yards and I got a burst of full-auto fire from it. I told him to take the weapon back to the dealer and have him look at the trigger group. It is a Century based AK that was way out of spec because the previous owner (unbeknownst to the dealer) had put a hammer from God only knows where in with a trigger from God only knows where and the two didn't seem to be working together all that well. By "not working together all that well" I mean that when the dealer (who knows something about AKs) looked at the parts he immediately took them out of the weapon and had a friend at a machine shop destroy the parts.
With AKs there is such a huge variation in the dimensions and quality of parts out there that modding them becomes problematic and sometimes downright dangerous. GS and I were both on the range when one of the students in the Vickers class had an unintentional discharge as he attempted to take the safety off on his weapon for a drill. He was doing everything properly and because of that nobody was hurt. The mix of parts in his gun (IIRC a blend of 922 compliant parts and combloc parts of indeterminate origin) resulted in this rare occasion (it had never happened to him before) where taking the weapon off safe caused a discharge.
I saw a repeat of that at the previously mentioned range session...another officer who had brought his relatively new AK took the weapon off safe and ended up launching a bullet...only his weapon was pointed up in the air instead of at a low-ready when this happened. I haven't had the chance to look at his weapon to figure out what was going on with it yet.
To me, it's worth spending some extra money to buy a quality AK that isn't as likely to have those kinds of assembly issues due to tinkering or some drunk peasant assembling the weapon with a hammer. When you buy one of the Arsenal or Saiga rifles you're getting good internal parts that aren't likely to turn your semi-auto into a burst weapon or a weapon that launches bullets when you take the safety off. As an added bonus, their front sights tend to be useful (rather than canted so badly you can barely zero it) and they typically don't have big important parts (like the trigger) break and jettison themselves from the weapon.
People like to think of the "AK" as a monolithic entity, but in truth they aren't. How one is made has a huge impact on the service you're likely to get from the weapon. It takes a fair amount of skilled labor to produce a good AK that doesn't have issues. As far as I've been able to see, Saiga and Arsenal seem to have the necessary skill to deliver consistently good rifles. The WASRs vary considerably from very good to truly awful, at least in my experience. These days they aren't selling for $300 bucks like they used to. The cheapest I've found lately has been over $500. For that price I'd just as soon save a little more money up and buy an SLG-21.
Last edited by TCinVA; 03-10-2011 at 11:11 AM.
Another thing to keep in mind is that not all AK's have chrome plated bores/chambers, something to consider if you plan on firing any corrosively primed ComBloc ammunition. The Yugoslav AK's do NOT have chrome lined bores/barrels (nor do their SKS's).
Something to think about.
One thing that hasn't been mentioned is that you'll need to decide on whether you want a milled or stamped receiver. Milled are "higher quality" but heavier. Heavy enough that you might as well go with something in 7.62x51 like a FAL. I'd go stamped personally - but high build quality as has already been mentioned.
The optic setup that you want is an ultimak rail with an RDS on it. The biggest limitation to AK accuracy - in the hands of someone who can shoot accurately - is the crappy iron sights.
I got to handle TCinVA's VEPR- IIRC those are milled recievers. Sweet rifle too- wish I had one.
IIRC the Soviets initially moved away from milling early AK recievers due to time involved and per unit cost, when they could manufacture more rifles with a simplified stamped reciever.
Last edited by Kyle Reese; 03-10-2011 at 01:34 PM.
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