Falling In Love with the AK, Losing that Loving Feeling for

[PattonWasRight]

Now tell us how much you love the 357Sig vs ? Or your 45 vs the shitty 9mm!!!

LoL! Yep!

[Bret]

The same bolt, carrier, and magazine in the SLR 106 series is in the Bulgarian 5.56NATO milled series- which they've sold internationally since the 1990's and issue to their own troops for NATO joint exercises.

The width of the bottom of the bolt was only about 0.020" less than the distance between the magazine feed lips. The other 5.56x45 AK variants have significantly more space. If everything had been built perfectly square, they would have worked, but they weren't. I'm guessing that the milled versions didn't have the same issue because there was less variance. It's a lesson learned for me. A semiauto version of a real military rifle is much more likely to run reliably than a semiauto just created for civilian sales.

[Doc Safari]

Are 5.56 AKs as reliable as 7.63x39s? That's the question to me.

From what I've read, the AK's inherent reliability is due to the tapered case walls of the 7.62x39 round ... the tapered sides are inherently more feed and extraction reliable

I still regret selling a pencil barrel Colt Law Enforcement carbine for a couple of Arsenal 5.56 AK's. They were among the most unreliable firearms I've ever owned.

On the other hand, I owned an IMI Galil that ate everything. So I think it may depend on manufacturing quality, magazines, ammo selection, etc., but 5.56 AK's definitely do not seem to be as reliable as 7.62 ones.

[PattonWasRight]

I still regret selling a pencil barrel Colt Law Enforcement carbine for a couple of Arsenal 5.56 AK's. They were among the most unreliable firearms I've ever owned.

That's what seemed to jump out to me about AKs as I researched them. Even a good reputation was no guarantee you couldn't have a bad apple. Bummer that you had two bad apples.

[hile]

I know nothing about what's good in AK land. So, if one wants a good AK -- think the AK equivalent of BCM or Daniel Defense in AR land -- where should one look as far as brands/models/etc?

[RetroRevolver77]

The width of the bottom of the bolt was only about 0.020" less than the distance between the magazine feed lips. The other 5.56x45 AK variants have significantly more space. If everything had been built perfectly square, they would have worked, but they weren't. I'm guessing that the milled versions didn't have the same issue because there was less variance. It's a lesson learned for me. A semiauto version of a real military rifle is much more likely to run reliably than a semiauto just created for civilian sales.

They did sell the 107 series overseas and they already built 5.56 milled guns for military use. There was nothing out of the ordinary for the 106 other than having a stamped receiver instead of a milled one along with fitting existing components. All the parts for 106 they already had in production and were military tested. Now, they should have test fired these rifles initially instead of just throwing them out the door. It's obvious they didn't until after issues were found and addressed on subsequent production runs. Basically though, they should have just paid for the specs we used on the proto-type because it did require some fitting of the various components. We did assist them after they ran into issues with the first batch and they made some changes to the design based on our recommendations.


7n6

[hotrodder636]

Starting point = Arsenal

There are cheaper entries but typically speaking Arsenal 7.62 AKs are pretty spot on.

I know nothing about what's good in AK land. So, if one wants a good AK -- think the AK equivalent of BCM or Daniel Defense in AR land -- where should one look as far as brands/models/etc?

[Rayrevolver]

I have checked off 2 bucket list guns in the last 2 years, MP5 (K-PDW clone) and AKS74U (sorta). Decided having "extra" Noveskes was silly and bought those 2 instead.

Got my first AK about a month ago. KVAR has the SLR106UR pistols on sale which drove some sales on Gunbroker as well. So far so good with initial reliability with the supplied Circle 10 mags, both suppressed and unsuppressed.

Full disclosure, suppressor rod was not centered off the bat. The suppressor adapter indexed off the muzzle, not the FSB with detent thing. I was set to send it off to ADCO but noticed the muzzle just looked off. So I measured and it was just a little high on one side. I did some redneck "squaring" of the muzzle with a Lee case trimmer. My suppressor adapter (Griffin 24x1.5 to 1/2x28) and rod are now centered.

I have some Polish 5.56 mags waiting for me to get them out of state. Going to try a red dot on a Ultimak. Only other thing I want is the adjustable piston so I can set it up for 100% suppressed shooting.

Sure, the 8.5" barreled 5.56 is anemic and hard on the suppressors, but its nice to learn another platform, manual of arms etc. Neither of these things are going to replace my 11.5" AR.

[RetroRevolver77]

I have checked off 2 bucket list guns in the last 2 years, MP5 (K-PDW clone) and AKS74U (sorta). Decided having "extra" Noveskes was silly and bought those 2 instead.

Got my first AK about a month ago. KVAR has the SLR106UR pistols on sale which drove some sales on Gunbroker as well. So far so good with initial reliability with the supplied Circle 10 mags, both suppressed and unsuppressed.

Full disclosure, suppressor rod was not centered off the bat. The suppressor adapter indexed off the muzzle, not the FSB with detent thing. I was set to send it off to ADCO but noticed the muzzle just looked off. So I measured and it was just a little high on one side. I did some redneck "squaring" of the muzzle with a Lee case trimmer. My suppressor adapter (Griffin 24x1.5 to 1/2x28) and rod are now centered.

I have some Polish 5.56 mags waiting for me to get them out of state. Going to try a red dot on a Ultimak. Only other thing I want is the adjustable piston so I can set it up for 100% suppressed shooting.

Sure, the 8.5" barreled 5.56 is anemic and hard on the suppressors, but its nice to learn another platform, manual of arms etc. Neither of these things are going to replace my 11.5" AR.

Did you have any issues with the Polish magazines? They are narrower than the Bulgarian ones.

7n6

[Bret]

Starting point = Arsenal
There are cheaper entries but typically speaking Arsenal 7.62 AKs are pretty spot on.

I'm going to have to disagree with you here. For what they charge, Arsenal should equate to quality. However, they don't. For starters, the finishes on their rifles stink. The quality of what comes out of Bulgaria is good (other than the problems with the aforementioned 106 series), but they have monkeys in Nevada converting the rifles to hicap 922(r) compliant configuration. For example, the 107UR that I purchased from them had a front sight / gas block that was cracked on the bottom due to some dumb monkey drilling the pin hole in at an angle. Instead of starting over with a new one, he just drilled another hole in the cracked on and installed the pin. After much hassle, they did replace it. For another example, the 104UR that I received came with a bent top cover due to poor packaging. Instead of replacing the top cover with another serialized to the rifle like the original one, they just installed another. The installation job on the retaining pin looked like crap. Obviously the person doing the job didn't care and there was no QC to make sure it was done right. I fixed that one myself.

Arsenal does have the best configurations. That's why AK whores like me put up with their hit or miss QC and their poor customer service.

Personally, I'd say that a better starting point for half the price would be the Zastava AK's. I have about eight, two of which had problems when they arrived. To their credit, Century replaced on rifle and fixed the other correctly. They even had a good attitude about it.