I needed to purchase a few spare parts for my VEPR regardless of the its importation status. This situation just made me act now rather than continue to put it off. I still see these rifles available for their normal price online so a full blown panic for people who want to own one has not happened quite yet. I would be more concerned and perhaps I should be if this impacted ammunition imported from Russia. If that happens it would be a severe blow to the AK market in the US.
"Run fast. Shoot straight. Die proud." -Boba Fett
Trample the weak. Hurdle the dead.
"Despite what your mamma told you, violence does solve problems." -Ryan Job
Being an AR Guy, why is this so relevant when we have other brands of AKs?
Though the 7.62x39 versions use the same magazines, I'd say that AK's from different countries are not as similar as AR15's from different US manufacturers. AK whores like myself often try to by or build AK's that are clones of the real version used by the militaries in each country. The Vepr is different from most AK's in that it has a different (thicker) receiver and front trunnion. Finally, there are basically only three options now when it comes to factory AK's; Romanian, Bulgarian and Serbian (Yugo). Over the years I've purchased Chinese, Egyptian, Hungarian and Russian. They are no longer available. The bottom line when it comes to AK's (or pretty much any imported military style rifle) is that you should get them when they're available because the importation can stop in an instant.
Because the only good AKs are imported AKs. And with VEPRs being cut, that isn't like BCM or Daniel Defense going out of business, there are plenty of AR fish in the AR sea, it reduces the number of brands of quality AKs imported by a full third and reduces the number of models of quality AKs imported by even more.
Hopefully the ATF will green light the Poles, but I'm not holding my breath.
" Nil desperandum - Never Despair. That is a motto for you and me. All are not dead; and where there is a spark of patriotic fire, we will rekindle it. "
- Samuel Adams -
What he said ^^
Most US-made AK's are not as good as the imported ones. So this ban reduces another source of a good-quality AK.
There was one VEPR12 at my lgs when I visited them last week, and it was still normal price (around $850). I might just go ahead and grab it for collectability sake
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