What is the top of the line AK and down?

[JED]

Several of my friends including myself are thinking of purchasing AKs. I would like to know which ones are the best, middle, and worst. This will give us a good idea of what to get and what to avoid.


Thanks
John

[LorDiego01]

So far as I know, and I dont really like AKs per se...

Bottom Line, WASR.

Upper grade, Vektor.

Other than that, you could always browse through the trillion AK threads on the forum and get all the info you could ever possibly need.

[nfafan]

Everybody has an opinion...

Conventional wisdom; top-bottom Bush I pre-bans

Valmets (AK derivitive)
Galils (Valmet derivitive!)
Yugo AKs
Hungarian AKs (rare)
Egyptiain MAADI (license-built Russian AKM)
PolyTech Legend (milled recvr)
Polytech AKS762's
Norinco Type 56's and 84s
other CHICOM non-Norinco or Poly-branded AKs

Note that there were few if ANY Bulgarian, Polish, Czech semi AKs back then. And note that back then, the CHICOM guns - except for the Legend - were considered the bottom-feeders of AKs. My have times changed...

The current crop of AKs are a mixed story as most of todays "foreign" AKs are basically foreign "parts kits" built up on US-made receivers or with US barrels and recvrs (such as CIA's Yugos and Hung AMD65).

Seems that none of what we think of as AKs are fully foreign made - except the Romanian WASRS!
(The ugly - but functional WASRs are imported as low-cap "sporters", then hacked by CIA into the various pre-ban configs we know and love by judicious swapping of US parts for compliance. My CIA non-hacked WASR2 low-cap sporter is immaculate compared to my swapped/hacked hi-cap, WASR10.
But for me to pre-ban my WASR2 to resemble my WASR10 - I gotta swap and hack instead of CIA.)

Thus, IMHO, if you can't find or afford a true mid-'80s pre-89 pre-ban AK; get an Arsenal AK. AFAIK, Arsenal of Bulgaria's tooling in a US-satelite plant of Arsenal's - out in Nevada! They make milled and stamped receiver guns.

Think of it as a license-built AK!

http://www.arsenalinc.com/history.htm

Else, save your ducats for other toys and get a CIA Yugo or WASR - both are well under $550.00 AKs and offer tons of fun for the money.

[JED]

Thanks, that helps.

[scoutjoe]

Originally Posted by nfafan

Everybody has an opinion...


The current crop of AKs are a mixed story as most of todays "foreign" AKs are basically foreign "parts kits" built up on US-made receivers or with US barrels and recvrs (such as CIA's Yugos and Hung AMD65).

Saiga...mine was made in 2002 and has a Russian barrel, Russian receiver

Just bustin on ya...since the Saiga dosen't really count since you have to un basterize it to get an AK

[neinLG]

Actually...... You can get a converted ak-103 semi-auto. atlanticfirearms.com Bought mine there and I love it. Its a little pricey but I have never shot and equal to is ease and smoothness. After my brother shot it he has sold his wasr and intends on buying a saiga.

LG

[brian]

you can polish a turd all you want, but in the end it's still a turd.

i would be interested in seeing if the 800 dollar ak's actually shoot better than the 400 dollar kind. my bet is on no, they just look and feel better.

[Jamie Young]

I enjoy shooting AKs, but I sold off both of my WASR's because I didn't think they were combat durable. The scope rails and sights are all off and when I mounted optics on them, I always felt like I had a shoe off.

Arsenal makes the best AK IMHO.

You can always rework a cheap AK, but I would never recommend buying a cheap AK and expecting it to live up to the reputation that the AK has.

[Thekatar]

Originally Posted by brian

you can polish a turd all you want, but in the end it's still a turd.

i would be interested in seeing if the 800 dollar ak's actually shoot better than the 400 dollar kind. my bet is on no, they just look and feel better.

What is your own personal experience in using the Kalashnikov system and how many different models have you had the chance to train with?

[nfafan]

Originally Posted by Jamie Young

I enjoy shooting AKs, but I sold off both of my WASR's because I didn't think they were combat durable. The scope rails and sights are all off and when I mounted optics on them, I always felt like I had a shoe off.

Arsenal makes the best AK IMHO.

You can always rework a cheap AK, but I would never recommend buying a cheap AK and expecting it to live up to the reputation that the AK has.

Arsenal does make good AKs - no doubt about it. But for an AK-type rifle its a bit of overkill pricewise. Like the Atlantic Arms $829.00 AK103.

Now we're in AR clone territory on the ducat scale.

And, c'mon; when will any of us truly, honestly expect to see combat with our AKs - regardless of what we paid for them?