Romanian AK-47 @ $439.95

[Old Hunter]

A local dealer has these for sale. It has 16 in. barrel and comes with 2 - 30 round mags and a cleaning rod. Is this a good rifle at a good price? 7.62 x 39 cal. Your advice please.

[Bigeasy]

I had the Romainian version in .223.  It was not real reliable nor accurate.  Pretty rough.  I think the reliability was more a poor magazine fit with the reciever issue then anything else.  The 223 version used modified magazines that did not seem all that well done.  I have heard the 7.62 models are reliable, and use garden variety AK mags.  The one thing that really bothered me with that rifle was there seemed to be a weird vibration, or slap in the trigger upon firing.  Bad enough it was distracting, and uncomfortable.  Not something I have experienced with my Polish 7.62 AK.  But if you want a cheap AK, that's the ticket.  Price is decent, I paid about $100 less for mine, about 8 years ago though.

Larry

[Dances with Geoducks]

Please call them AKSs, they are not AK-47, the last AK-47 was made in 1961.

Furthering the liberal medias agenda does not serve our purpose

[a4beltfed2000]

The romanian AK series rifles are basically grouped in several varients, mostly by importers. Some are a little higher quality than others. The SAR 1 (7.62) are the best romanians out there and were broken down into (SAR 1/2/3) or 7.62 5.56 and 5.45 rifles. There were also the WISR, and MISR variants. Again not as high a quality as the SAR rifles but they do work. fit and finish is a little rough but easy to fix.

as the one poster mentioned (trigger slap) is occassional found on some rifles, and is caused by the trigger and sear being made in the US (century arms rifle tapco parts) disassembly is easy and with a little stoning easily remendied.

At 439.95, I would pick up as many as I could afford and store em. They will pay out better than any retirement account you could have......

[Bigeasy]

Please call them AKSs, they are not AK-47, the last AK-47 was made in 1961.

Furthering the liberal medias agenda does not serve our purpose

 

[NickSS]

I have a Romanian AK that had the trigger slap problem but I replaced it with a TAPCO all in one unit and that took care of the problem as well as gave me a better trigger pull.  None of the several AKs I have owned (including several Norincos, a Polish, a Finn Valmet, and a Yougoslavian one shoot all that good.  I would say that they average around 4 inch groups at 100 yards and some go larger.  However,  They are all reliable and function perfectly in 7.62 X 39.  I have had three different rifles from different manufactures in 223 and none of them functioned very reliably.  They all had the same jam which was a round coming from the right side of the magazine would not hit the chamber but hit the rear left of the barrel and hang up.  It only happened once in awhile but enough to be noticeable.

[His lordship.]

I had one for around 10 years, very reliable in 7.62 X 39, put a rubber stock extension on it and a recoil buffer.  The trigger slap starts to numb your finger after around 40 rounds or so, I changed out one of the trigger parts and that helped.  Sold it before a move to another part of the country, probably should have kept it, but that trigger slap was annoying.

It was not as accurate as any of my SKS rifles, but it was good enough to do some hunting inside 100 yards.  It seemed to be very durable, I cleaned it on a regular basis and kept the rate of fire low.

[wolfeyes]

Get a Saiga.Cheaper, and much higher quality than anything Romainian...............jh

[teddy12b]

Get a Saiga.Cheaper, and much higher quality than anything Romainian...............jh

+1.  Saiga's can be found online for less than $350.  Add in shipping & ffl you'll probably still be less than $440 and it's a bette built rifle.  The romanians are put together from old parts and called new.  I used to have one and it's wasn't accurate, but it was reliable.  The appeal of the romanian AK's is the price.

[jlwilliams]

  I agree.  The bulk of the problems with AK type semi auto rifles come from them being built up out of de-milled military guns by importers.  Now, there is nothing wrong with a well built parts kit gun.  They can be excellent.  The problems arise when the work is not done properly.  Not all the importers built their rifles with equal skill.  I had an older Yugoslavian stamped receiver rifle that shot pretty well for what it was, but I shot a friends gun once with the anoying trigger slap and it was just a way poorer rifle all the way around.

  The Saiga rifles are new manufactured in Russia, not parts kit builds.  They are built start to finish to be 'sporter' AK rifles, not adapted from Cold War surplus guns.  They are just about the best quality AKM or AKS rifles available today.  And they are cheaper than most.  If you convert them to the military pistol grip configuartaion, they handle better but the cost of the conversion brings the overall cost up. 

  A short coming of the Saigas is that they don't accept miitary surplus mags.  You can buy high caps, convert the gun to accept military mags, or just use the ten rounders.  I just use the ten rounders with my 223 Saiga (the best shooting AK type rifle I've ever shot).

  All that said, if the Romy in the local shop doesn't trigger slap (dry fire, hold the trigger back and cycle the bolt, you will feel if the bolt pushes the trigger forward) then it's not a bad price for a knock around gun that takes milsurp high cap mags.  Everybody should own an AK; they are just fun guns.

[teddy12b]

  A short coming of the Saigas is that they don't accept miitary surplus mags.  You can buy high caps, convert the gun to accept military mags, or just use the ten rounders.  I just use the ten rounders with my 223 Saiga (the best shooting AK type rifle I've ever shot).

FYI,
   There are some guys out there doing conversions on saiga's so they can use AK mags, and in the 223 version they have conversions to use AR mags.  There's no end to what people will do to their guns with upgrades especially the saiga's.

[LCR]

A local dealer has these for sale. It has 16 in. barrel and comes with 2 - 30 round mags and a cleaning rod. Is this a good rifle at a good price? 7.62 x 39 cal. Your advice please.

  That's about $339.95 more than they're worth.

[mrbgt]

I bought a wasr a few years ago for $319 , It was the low cap to high cap conversion . Century arms takes a low cap single stack rifle and turns it into a high cap . Its a good rifle , no complaints .

[Default_Required]

I have owned the same MAK90 ( Norinco AK ) for the better part of my life now and love it and its unusual accuarcy ( its good ) . But old J&G Sales baited me into one of the WASRs a few years ago, Got the rifle (WASR 2 AK-74, 5.45x39 ) for 299.00 , The ammo was Bulgarian Mil-Spec in a tuna can 1080 rnds for 120.00 and went ahead and grabbed a few extra mags all for around a 500.00 dollar bill after all was said and down . It was quite a lite rifle I want to add, accuracy was alot better then expected and recoil was very pleseant, even lower then the MAK or any of the gentle recoiling SKSs I had owned over the years. Wife loved it, Heck anyone that played with it liked it alot. Would I buy another in 7.62 ? Sure if I was AK poor and looking , I would give another WASR a try. But I wouldnt be expecting a Krebs quality fit and finish for a 300-$400 dollar range rifle.

 The new Saiga style AK that Russia is producing is probably of higher quality , I dont know first hand , But it would seem to reason. Just keep in mind that if you want the Classic AK configuration for the newer rifle stocked AK variant that it will be an after market afair , I have one down at my local shop in 308 and of all the 308 battle rifles I have handled and owned , That thing is light and has me drooling at the idea of having it follow me home and the only deterrant is that I dont want to buy factory ammo for it and it sure as hell isnt eating for the same bowl as my Weatherby ( all my brass for it is being neck sized )  

 Also I'm not 100% sure but doesnt that Saiga AK take a different then standard AK mag ? If it does that would be points against it IMHO since I have yet to see anyone other then some serious top shelf priced AK mag producers making a military quality mag for the AK , Not to say that the TAPCOs of the world are making mags that wont function . Just FYI if you are buying and using those type mags , Dont bang your rifle to hard with those mags in place they are not built to the same standards that the crappiest soviet made mags are.

[PHATINJUN]

Reed's ammo was selling New ones that are being made at the old yugo plant for less than $360. I had one in 7.62x39 that was very nice sold it for a lot more than I paid for it after I figured out bullet burners were not my cup of tea. Reed's is also a site sponsor.Kurt