Romania or China
- Thread starter hittman
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i have a norinco stamped model and it does fine. i will say the chinese use the thickest metal of the stamped variants and have a double hook trigger group, buddy swears by the chinese barrels. i ain't no expert but i've shot a poytek legend (milled) and it was a dream! i always thought that the front runners were (in no particular order) chinese, russia and bulgaria.............
Stump Buster
Single-Sixer
ARSENAL INC... Bulgarian made with a forged & milled receiver.
led
Single-Sixer
China, hands down.
Later,
Stephen
Later,
Stephen
DGW1949
Hunter
The Romanian versions often have a canted front sight and/or a canted gas bloc. The former is aggravating, the latter will cause premature wear. The major supplier of Romanian AK's has been Century Arms International (AKA CAI) who incidentally, also did at least some amount of the final assembly work which included a lot of their own USA-made parts, most of which were/are not up to spec. The fire control parts are particularly troublesome in that the trigger pull is among the worst of all AK's, and as-issued, exhibits an annoying trigger slap. You may also note that those annoyances are relatively easy to fix....but...is almost impossible to reassemble due to the infamous "shepherd's hook" multi-tasked, woven, spring-thingy they chose to use.
Still though, they are as reliable as any other AK, and if the front sight aint TOO badly canted, it's design does allow for quite a bit of adjustment.
The only China AK's that I've worked with were the older MAK-90's. As a group, they were excellent. The only negative I found was that some of their parts are different-enough from their European counterparts that they don't interchange and at the time, were hard to find. That may or may not be a problem today though.
That's all I know about that.
DGW
Still though, they are as reliable as any other AK, and if the front sight aint TOO badly canted, it's design does allow for quite a bit of adjustment.
The only China AK's that I've worked with were the older MAK-90's. As a group, they were excellent. The only negative I found was that some of their parts are different-enough from their European counterparts that they don't interchange and at the time, were hard to find. That may or may not be a problem today though.
That's all I know about that.
DGW
eveled said:
i saw that....pretty handy fellow.
i have found when getting after market parts like rails, foregrips etc you will need to look for "chinese" versions since the metal is thicker and a slight difference in specs are needed but i have not had any problem finding items for my mak90.
Chinese AK's are some of the best AK's ever imported to the US. They came in as new complete guns, and were nicely finished. After the import ban, everything was brought in as demilled military parts kits in varying condition, that were built with enough US parts to be compliant. The quality ranges from atrocious to pretty good. Most of the Romanians were built by Century Arms, and many have QC issues. That being said, any AK is an AK, and if it was assembled correctly it should outlast several generations of shooters.
MOUNTAIN WILLIAM
Blackhawk
Bulgarian with a milled receiver.
(edit for pics)
(edit for pics)
cruzerlou
Buckeye
Arsenal Inc. A.K. are the best you can buy .They cost more that other brands,but you get what you pay for .My Arsenal SA M 7-SF will hover at 1" 3 shot groups at 100 yards with a fixed 6x32 compact range finding scope on it and just plain old Wolf ammo,
I've fired thousands of rounds through it and never had a FTF, FTE .
This is a milled gun with a right side folding tubular stock and a M-60 style removable flash hider .
It's one of less than 350 made and I paied $1250.00 for it in 2005 .
A lot for an A.K. but well worth the cost .
It was built here in Las Vagas with all Americian made parts except for the bbl, which is imported from Bulgaria.
Here's a couple of pics of it first is the stock gun, second is after I added some aftermarket parts to make it a better patrol rifle .
Lou
I've fired thousands of rounds through it and never had a FTF, FTE .
This is a milled gun with a right side folding tubular stock and a M-60 style removable flash hider .
It's one of less than 350 made and I paied $1250.00 for it in 2005 .
A lot for an A.K. but well worth the cost .
It was built here in Las Vagas with all Americian made parts except for the bbl, which is imported from Bulgaria.
Here's a couple of pics of it first is the stock gun, second is after I added some aftermarket parts to make it a better patrol rifle .
Lou
RJ556
Buckeye
The Bulgarian AK's talked about in the above posts are not AKMs. An AKM has a stamped receiver. The Bulgarians above have milled receivers, which cost more to manufacture. If it is worth it to the buyer, then all is well. RJ
RJ556
Buckeye
Modrifle, what exactly is "Hybrid" about the milled Bulgarians, that makes them like an AKM? The SA M7 has the smaller diameter barrel like the AKM and some models use some of the same type accessories as used on some AKMs, but they are built like any other pinned barreled milled receiver AKs.
Just what you have stated. They are very nice, but are improved over the original AK design. From the ones I have seen they use the smaller barrel and later style gas block design. Being built by an American company who is doing the needed R&D to build the best I would expect this. Not sure which bolt design they use as I have never looked. As I stated if it is worth it to the buyer, enjoy, but $1200 for a milled gun or stamped gun is way more than any rifle in that caliber and platform is worth to me. I have an excellant Type 56 that is a pefect $300 gun. I would pay that kind of money for an original Polytech but only for collector purposes. Just my opinion.
If we want to get to brass tacks none of these guns are AK-47s or AKMs or Type 56 rifles, they are commercial semi auto versions build to look like the real thing.
If we want to get to brass tacks none of these guns are AK-47s or AKMs or Type 56 rifles, they are commercial semi auto versions build to look like the real thing.
RJ556
Buckeye
I use to own a couple of the Arsenal models, an SA M5, 5.56x45 and an SA M7, 7.62x39. They were both very accurate (for an AK), but I sold them and all of the rest of my AK collection. I only kept one of my AKM type builds, which is a Hungarian AMD65 (sort of) with a full length AKM barrel and AKM type fore end. The barrel appears shorter than it really is because the muzzle brake is fake and the barrels muzzle is actually even with the end of the brake. I also installed an AR rear sight, which works well with my old eyes. It shoots good (but not quite as good as the Arsenals) and handles pretty well also.
MMichaelAK
Single-Sixer
The Saigas out of Arsenal in Las Vegas are hands down, the nicest AK 47 you can buy off the rack. I spent a lot of time asking questions at a website that will remain nameless, and short of building exactly what you want to the specs you want, it is THE way to go.
So I bought an SGL21-61 and compared to some other very nice AKMs (sorry Century, you didn't make that cut) I'm very happy with it.
Since then, I have begun building my own and wow, talk about an eye opener! Made me appreciate Arsenal even more.
So I bought an SGL21-61 and compared to some other very nice AKMs (sorry Century, you didn't make that cut) I'm very happy with it.
Since then, I have begun building my own and wow, talk about an eye opener! Made me appreciate Arsenal even more.
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