A commoners comparo-Century WASR's
OK, I took it upon myself to do a very unscientific comparison between two of the most common Century Arms WASR-10 type AK variants, the Yugoslavian design and the Romanian design.
Why, you ask? Cause I own both and felt like it is the main reason, but also I have seen a lot of questions about these “entry level AK’s” and thought this might help folks choose which one, if either, they want.
I bought a fixed stock Yugoslavian model about a month ago, and decided I wanted to have an underfolder model as well. I couldn’t find a Yugo underfolder when I went looking, but I picked up a Romanian model for a good price, figuring if I don’t like it, I can always sell it later when and if the prices rise for these guns.
Here are the immediate differences I noticed between the different versions.
(I am not an AK guru, so I’m sure there are more that I didn’t notice, too!)
1) The Yugo has a shiny bolt and bolt carrier, which I assume to be stainless steel. The Romy’s bolt and carrier are black steel.
http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...oltcarrier.jpg
http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...oltcarrier.jpg
2) The metal for the receiver is thicker on the Yugo than the Romy (I knew this before buying, from internet research) Yugo is 1.6mm and Romy is 1.0 mm.
3) The barrel is chrome lined on the Romy, regular steel on the Yugo. (Too hard to take a pic of this.)
4) The Yugo receiver and barrel are brand new US made, the Romy’s are surplus Romanian (probably still ‘new’ just been sitting around a while)
Although it will become obvious in the pictures that the furniture is different between the two, it wouldn’t be fair to include that in this comparison, because the folding vs. fixed can have different furniture even from the same country. I will point out the different handgrips though, since they don’t change between fixed/fold.
5) The handgrip for the Yugo has fingercuts and a thumb groove, where the Romy has just the basic ‘childsized’ handgrip that traditional AK’s are famous for.
http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m.../AKbuddies.jpg
6) The Yugo has the grenade launcher sight that when flipped up will block off the gas port. This is useless, but it looks cool. The Romy doesn’t have one.
http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...SVT/AK/002.jpg http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...T/AK/003-1.jpg
7) The receiver on the Yugo has a stamped “valley” which I assume is to strengthen the area around the magazine well. The Romy doesn’t have this, but it does have an extra bit of steel welded to the inside of the ‘magwell’. Which method is better? I have no idea, but since I have no plans to use my AKs to jack up a car or hammer railroad spikes, I guess it doesn’t matter
http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...vercomparo.jpg http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...omymagwell.jpg
http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...ugomagwell.jpg
8 The forward sling loop is bigger on the Yugo than the Romy. This may be an fixed vs. folder issue, not a big thing for me anyway. The rear ones are basically the same size, with the Romy being maybe a tad bigger.
http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...tslingloop.jpg http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...tslingloop.jpg http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...rslingloop.jpg http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...rslingloop.jpg
9) The Romy came with WAY MORE STUFF than the Yugo!!! I got with the Romy.. a bayonet w/ sheath, an oil can, a magazine pouch, a sling, a cleaning kit, and attached to the gun is a cleaning rod.
http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...ends/004-1.jpg
With the Yugo I got… nothing . Not even a cleaning rod. Both guns came with two magazines in various condition, but the Yugo did come with TWO Yugo mags, which hold the bolt open after the last round.
http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...comparison.jpg
10) The process for removing and reinstalling the top cover is different between the two. The Yugo has a button on the side you depress before pushing the one on the back of the receiver, the Romy doesn’t. Reassembling seems easier with the “two button” style, to me. I have to use a small tool to get the Romy back together, but the Yugo is hands only.
http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...pcoverYugo.jpg http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...pcoverromy.jpg
11) The Romy came with a Tapco G2 trigger group, which is probably the smoothest trigger of all my EBR’s, whereas the Yugo came with a kind of gritty feeling trigger set (not sure if this is a Yugoslavian trigger or just a different US made one)
Before I continue, I have to rant about one thing really quickly. According to the internet, EVERY gun I own has a gritty, crap trigger that requires Paul Bunyan-like strength to pull and feels like nails on a chalkboard the whole time. PLEASE do not think my calling the Yugo’s trigger ‘a little gritty’ will render the gun inoperable. After 500 or so rounds, it is already improving, and I see no reason why it will not continue to do so. It has in no way affected my ability to shoot accurately at any time. I think people tend to use their trigger as a scapegoat for sucky shooting when they should just try shooting the gun more often! Rant off.
I took both guns out to the range, and shot them on a 50yd course. I don’t bench shoot, most of my shooting is done either standing up or just propping the front of the rifle on something. My reasoning is, I’m not a sniper, and probably am too old and slow to get drafted to be one. So the possibility of me ever needing to know how to shoot a battle rifle that is securely fastened into a custom cradle that won’t allow movement in a hurricane is slim to none. Therefore, no 100yd MOA measuring nonsense.
From a standing position, I started plinking away at a 50 yard target and also some shooting clays I scattered on the back berm. I have fired the Yugo two times previously, so I spent most of my time with the Romy for this part. Its always fun shooting stuff that busts apart when you hit it.. :smile:
The shooting position is different between the underfolder and fixed stock, but neither one is wickedly uncomfortable for me. I only mention this cause undoubtedly someone will try to say this somehow skews my oh-so-not scientific experiment. Whatever. I can ‘skeet shoot’ with both just fine.
The underfolder design does bother me in one aspect though, and that is when folded, you can’t easily access the safety.
http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...terference.jpg
After screwing around enough to get comfortable with both. I propped the front of each rifle on a wooden rest they have at our range.
http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...mrifleprop.jpg
I shot 6 rounds each at a fresh 6” Shoot N See target. All shots hit the target. As stated before, this is at 50 yards. You can see, I did a bit better with the Yugo than the Romy, although the worst “flier” (also called a ‘crappy shot’) was also from the Yugo. That was my fault, not the gun’s, I’m sure.
(you will see other shots in the pics on the backer paper, these are from the ‘screwing off’ part of the exercise.)
http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...SVT/AK/003.jpg http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...SVT/AK/005.jpg
Anyway, to sum it up. I think overall I like the Yugo better, but I’m not unhappy with the Romy either. Both are easy to shoot, both are fairly accurate, and both of them look really scary if they are in the hands of your enemy. I did feel cheated on the Yugo after seeing all the neato extra stuff that came with the Romy, though. Oh well….
To steal a quote from a guy named Stainless…
Hope this helps, if not, Oh Well!
