Nothing to be ashamed of buying and enjoying an AK variant. They are fantastically rugged, reliable, effective and powerful rifles.
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Banned
Nothing to be ashamed of buying and enjoying an AK variant. They are fantastically rugged, reliable, effective and powerful rifles.
Member
Great looking rifle.
Former LEO (12 years)
Paramedic
B-TOMS
TCCC
TECC
Member
да, nothing wrong with AK rifle.
Member
Totally understand this sentiment. A child of the '80s, I have a real soft spot for pre-89 rifles. I've had/have serval Norincos, Polytech, Serbian, Egyptian, Finnish (Valmet), and Bulgarian AKs. I must say that as much as I love to play with the Chinese guns from a nostalgic place, they are to some of the worst shooters from a practical standpoint. They are the guns that gave AKs a bad name (at least for me). They work from a functional standpoint, but hitting what your aiming at has always been a some what dicey proposition with the Chinese guns. Beautifully blued finish that'll rust if you don't get the finger prints off of it. The paint of the Bulgarians/Egyptians is a bit pedestrian, but it doesn't rust. I prefer the parkarization of the Finnish guns.Originally Posted by lawusmc0844
From a bustin' clay pigeons at 100 yds standpoint, the Bulgarian guns are the only ones that predictably answer the mail for me. For the record, the Valmet would probably do it too, but I sold the one M76 that I had NIB. It did have what I thought was a particularly wide front sight though. It was huge. The M92 PAP SBR that I have seems to be particularly accurate too, but admittedly I don't have a bunch of time behind it yet.
As far as quality goes, The internals on some of the Chinese guns appear to have been finish machined with an angle grinder. My Poly Legend ("tip of the spear" Chinese AK) had an obviously canted front sight (sold it NIB too). My Norinco underfolder appears to have some sight alignment issues as well. No side mount scoping options either to work around the problem. The gun works and goes bang every time though.
I'm just commenting on rose colored glasses we remember some of the older guns with. Everybody puts the pre ban HKs on a pedestal too now that we have a bunch of clones on the market to compare them too. People nit pick over weld quality and talk about superior HK weld quality. The weld quality on the HK91/93/94 was nothing to write home about. As a matter of fact, it used to be the subject of a lot of harassment from a welder friend that I had (who liked ARs) as I was/am an HK fan boy. He'd say the welds looked like chewed up bubblegum. The cocking tube on one of my HK91s is slightly canted. It doesn't touch the triple tree or anything but it isn't perfectly centered.
Op, that's a beautiful Polytech. Fun shooter and great collector. I think those particular side folders are fairly rare. I'm still looking for a red plastic/bakelite side folder Polytech. I'd love to fine a nice Clayco too.
Member
Apologies in advance to OP if thread gets off track.
With AKs, I don't expect any to be precision machined, 1 MOA rifles. I bought an Arsenal because I was so impressed with my buddies SGL-21, and Arsenal USA is a local company lol. He says his sights are slightly canted but being an AK boot I never noticed. We both could hit steel consistently with stock iron sights from 400m, amazing. Thousands of rounds with just 6 of his Tapco ribbed mags and not a single issue. When I got my SLR107FR earlier this year, Saigas were already long sold out but I heard good things about Bulgarian so not a big deal. The shop had 8 in the store and me and my buddy who is way more knowledgeable about AKs personally inspected each one. Even with Arsenal, some had noticeably canted sights, rough machine marks inside, imperfect rivets and one even had an improperly cut, crooked magwell. I got the one with an even serial # (I don't like odd numbers, don't ask me why lol) but most importantly everything looks straight, perfect rivets and no visible tool marks.
Still working in CA, I didn't get to shoot mine until Memorial weekend. The paint became very soft after a 3 mag dump but fortunately lightly scratching the gas block revealed a nice parked finish underneath, no rust like Rob Ski's rifle. Not a big issue because I'm going to camo it eventually anyway. Most importantly the irons were almost dead on from the factory, just had to adjust to the left.
The only Chinese AK I've come across so far is a 5.56 version that comes with 300rds of old yellow box Norinco 223 (good stuff in my experience) but no magazine, and asking price is over $2K, no thank you. If I do find a 7.62x39 one, I will do the same inspection on it as well. Blued finishes look sexy but yes they can rust easily, I got plenty of Aervoe for that.
Banned
The AK is the most rugged and reliable assault rifle to this day, hands down, no questions asked. It does what it is intended to do: provides an incredibly rugged, easy to maintain, easy to clean, low-maintenance, ultra reliable weapon throwing rounds accurately and lethally down range to around 300 meters.
Unlike the AR platform, it is not designed for pieces to fit tightly, does not require nearly as much maintenance and cleaning to be reliable. It does not shit where it eats and has enough slop in tolerances to be able to withstand a wide variety of environments and conditions.
Senior Member
Euro, congrats on a very nice rifle.
Member
Totally agree on everything. Arsenals are by no means a turn key approach to a perfect gun. It was good that you got to inspect a bunch prior to buying. I've got a 107FR, 104FR, and a SAM7R. I rolled the dice and got lucky with good guns (no inspection period). I had an SGL 31-61 too that was pretty awesome. There are a bunch of Norinco 84s (5.56) out there that don't seem to be moving. The mags are the long pole in that equation. If you're feeling the itch for a 5.56sih AK, jump on a 5.45x39. Even though 7N6 is banned now, you can still get ammo fairly cheap. Great shooting caliber, legit military pedigree and accessories (mags..).
Sorry OP, once you drink the Kool Aid, this stuff just becomes normal AK talk. Can't have a thread without it...
Last edited by JPB; 07-02-16 at 20:47.
Senior Member
This is why my AKs are Swiss....551s, 552s, 553.
Member
Yes, AK is a great rugged, reliable rifle. However, ARs have proven to be very reliable as well. Doesn't need to be cleaned, just more heavily lubed, which is not a problem for me. You can think what you want about InRangeTV's mud tests but it looks like the direct gas impingement and tighter closed tolerances of the AR is actually an advantage in muddy conditions. Both systems have their pros and cons, I love both but if I had to chose it would be dependent on the AO. CONUS would be AR of course, Afghanistan AK, etc...
Looks like OP is banned, dont know why but it seems to be real easy to get banned here. Thread is definitely going off the tracks now lol.
I think the price of 5.56 AK mags is the main reason. The same place where I saw the Norinco 84 had (10) 5.56 mags for the same price as the 7.62x39 (10)s. I could be wrong but to me, why get a 556 AK for $1K and expensive mags for it when I can get a decent AR between $500-1000 and can get quality mags from $8-15?
Oh yes, 5.45x39mm was actually my first choice for AK. I always thought the Russians were smart to adopt it and I can probably fit the mags in M4 mag pouches. I've already spent extra money on getting universal mag pouches since the damn 7.62x39 mags have to be so curved like that lol. I only went with 7.62x39 because my friend and roommate has it already for his SGL-21. We both use ARs, Glock 19s and now AKs so it makes more logistical sense to use the same caliber.
Original Swiss or from Exeter? Haven't followed any SIG products since I sold my GSR Revolution 1911. Hopefully they're better than what I heard about the SIG 556 rifles.
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