Thread: Interested in the AK- Where do I begin?

There are some knowledgeable AK guys on our sister site, www.rifleforum.net. I am not one of them.

Also try www.akforum.net. They have subforums for practically every AK subvariant I've ever heard of.

Lastly, if you want to learn to run an AK, stroll over to www.warriortalk.com. Some of the guys who post there are a bit on the mall ninja side, but Paul Gomez, especially, has posted some great stuff about really running an AK.

Hey man I am a bit of an AK Nut you can check out my latest AK/M4 Project in the Long gun picture thread. As far as where to start, well like you said there are about a million AK variants out there and twice as many opinions about them. My personal preference is to get a simple inexpensive Romanian WASR 10 you can find them for about 350 and then the customization is up to you. I mean to can buy them already with the Composite parts but if you do it yourself you can add what you want. The reason I say Get the Romanian is firstly that they are available, some of the other variants can be hard to find, second they are inexpensive a lot of people will tell you that is because there not milspec and blah blah blah but I am well past 5000 rounds on my WASR and it has never given me any issues and that is the story time and time again. Also almost all the accessories fit the WASR and indeed were made for them. If you need any help at all just PM me and I can help you out.

their is a site or forum its ak47.net but the best aks are the ones that have a stamped receiver well some say that those suck but i guess their right like mine is a stamped and the other kind is the machined receiver and also look t=for some dimples on the side of the rifle where the magazine goes cause most rifles have it and keep the mags from wobbling side to side like the SAR-1. the WASR dont have this dimples they have a small plate welded on the inside on both walls and also check that some AKs accept hi cap mags and double stacks cause some cant take the double stacked and you have to get other types of mags and since the some WASR-10 were Produced During assualt weapons Ban they have a nut welded on the front and cant put muzzle breaks on it so to see the types of civilian AK-47 go here

http://www.gunsnet.net/Linx310/model.htm

just copy and paste

So would something like this be a good one?

http://gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewIte...m=85730952#PIC

That doesn't look too bad. If you happen to have a Dunhams sports near you, they carry a few different AK's at reasonable prices. I picked up a WASR-10 hi-cap from them as my first gun a while back. Looks like the one in that auction, but it had 2 mags with it for $350. Last week they had them on sale for $300. These Romanian AK's tend to get some bad press by some folks online, but I haven't seen any of the so called "common problems" with any of the current models (such as wobbly mags, canted front sights, etc.) The only thing I didn't like about mine was the look of the laminated stocks they came with which look exactly like those in the auction pics. I stained mine a darker color and refinished them to a more pleasing tone for my eye.

Maybe it would be a good idea to get a real Russian made rifle I.E. Saiga, and add AK furniture later?

The Saiga might be a decent choice. However, altering it will require a number of parts changed to be 922r compliant. Ditching the factory stock for a pistol grip no longer makes the gun an imported sporting rifle. Then you have to have fewer than 10 imported parts on the gun. So folks generally replace the buttstock, pistolgrip, trigger group, fire control group, grip nut & screw. Its possible to do, but I know I'm not to handy when it comes to working on a riveted gun. I'd be more inclined to get an AK that was already compliant with the crazy BATF rules. I would only consider a Saiga if either (A) I didn't want to change a thing on it, or (B) I wanted a project to keep me busy for a while.