First AK....what should I know?

[TBAR_94]

Except of course Chinese mags which are excellent. If you have Yugo mags with the follower that acts as a bolt hold open get rid of them because they are useless. When you take the mags out the bolt closes.

According to FedEx the rifle should be at my dealer tomorrow so I can see for myself, but I though Zastavas had an internal bolt hold open feature. Not at all a deal breaker if it doesn’t.

I ordered 500 rounds of Wolf to get me started. I don’t really want to trick this gun out too much, so I will probably leave the internals as they are. The only thing I might look to do is add a white light, but I might even hold off on that.

[Circle_10]

According to FedEx the rifle should be at my dealer tomorrow so I can see for myself, but I though Zastavas had an internal bolt hold open feature. Not at all a deal breaker if it doesn’t.

I ordered 500 rounds of Wolf to get me started. I don’t really want to trick this gun out too much, so I will probably leave the internals as they are. The only thing I might look to do is add a white light, but I might even hold off on that.

No internal BHO. It’s all done via the mags. And as already pointed out it’s kind of a dumb feature because the bolt closes as soon as you withdraw the mag.
I don’t own a Yugo pattern AK so I can’t say this for sure, but I believe on a Yugo AK you can clear the chamber with the safety on, because the ejector is positioned slightly farther forward or something. So that’s kind of interesting I guess.

[Alba9999]

I wouldn't this isn't a match grade rifle or anything. Part of owning a AK is learning to shoot an AK.

That is so true, but my finger is in pain after 200-300 rounds. Original AK trigger from Izhmash should be good for at least 10k rounds, ALG one not sure.

[Averageman]

Just a couple of things.
You're going to need a couple of things.
Opening up the rear sight carefully with a triangular file, then painting the rear 'V' that faces the shooter with a bright color model paint and then paint your front post and equally bright color will make shooting it a bit easier.
You can get a chamber flag if you shoot on public ranges, or cut a notch in your safety lever to hold the bolt in the open position. The charging handle fits in that notch you cut.
I could think of a couple other nonintrusive changes, if you are interested.

[Alba9999]

Just a couple of things.
You're going to need a couple of things.
Opening up the rear sight carefully with a triangular file, then painting the rear 'V' that faces the shooter with a bright color model paint and then paint your front post and equally bright color will make shooting it a bit easier.
You can get a chamber flag if you shoot on public ranges, or cut a notch in your safety lever to hold the bolt in the open position. The charging handle fits in that notch you cut.
I could think of a couple other nonintrusive changes, if you are interested.

Please continue. I thought to put front post with like night glow, after shooting in dawn hours in desert.

[SteyrAUG]

That is so true, but my finger is in pain after 200-300 rounds. Original AK trigger from Izhmash should be good for at least 10k rounds, ALG one not sure.

Unless you are getting trigger slap I'd leave it alone. And then Tapco G2 is as sophisticated as it needs to be.

[Circle_10]

Just a couple of things.
You're going to need a couple of things.
Opening up the rear sight carefully with a triangular file, then painting the rear 'V' that faces the shooter with a bright color model paint and then paint your front post and equally bright color will make shooting it a bit easier.
You can get a chamber flag if you shoot on public ranges, or cut a notch in your safety lever to hold the bolt in the open position. The charging handle fits in that notch you cut.
I could think of a couple other nonintrusive changes, if you are interested.

The current ZPAP line of Zastava AKs come with the BHO notch already cut in the safety. Although a safety lever with both the BHO notch and a tab to allow manipulation of the safety with the trigger finger is better. I have the Krebs version on a couple of my rifles

As far as adding a light goes, I think there are some Mlok hand guards for Yugos on the market. Personally I didn’t go that route though, I have regular Russian plum handguards on the rifle and got a CDM Gear barrel mount and stuck a Surefire G2X in it. There is a Yugo version of the CDM mount. It’s not hard to put on, but does require field stripping, which is easy obviously, but still kind of gets on my nerves.

There is the whole issue of things mounted on the barrel possibly affecting harmonics and changing group size or POI but I didn’t notice any discernible practical difference in firing my SGL-21 with and without the mount attached.
Personally I deliberately zeroed the rifle without the mount, figuring I would leave it off most of the time, and put it on as needed and if POI were affected, I probably wouldn’t be taking long enough shots at night, by flashlight, for the difference to matter.
In practice though I find having to field strip the rifle every time I want to put the light on or take it off to be somewhat annoying and have just been leaving it on all the time.

[Bret]

I'll take vympel golden tiger over anything else when I can get it.

Keep in mind that the more recently Century imported Red Army Standard is made by Vympel.

I don’t own a Yugo pattern AK so I can’t say this for sure, but I believe on a Yugo AK you can clear the chamber with the safety on, because the ejector is positioned slightly farther forward or something. So that’s kind of interesting I guess.

This isn't correct. They're just like all the rest. You have to take the safety off to clear the chamber. You can pull the bolt carrier far enough back to peek, though I wouldn't recommend it unless you have a flashlight.

[Circle_10]

Keep in mind that the more recently Century imported Red Army Standard is made by Vympel.


This isn't correct. They're just like all the rest. You have to take the safety off to clear the chamber. You can pull the bolt carrier far enough back to peek, though I wouldn't recommend it unless you have a flashlight.

I figured out where I saw this and it was this Forgotten Weapons video about the Iraqi Tabuk series of AKs, which are patterned after the Yugoslav type AKs.
At about 14:45
https://youtu.be/JQeFtSs4mbA

Although maybe it’s something unique to Tabuks and not Tabuks and their Yugo predecessors

[Bret]

Perhaps I'm incorrect that the information was incorrect. I have multiple Yugo AK's at home, so I'll check them to see and will report back.