AK parts kits gone for good?

[Circle_10]

I had a couple Vectors way back when, don't remember what the problems were with them, but I don't own them anymore. I think only the Ohio Ordnance AKs were worse, assuming we don't count all the JoeKen garbage that existed. Once Nodaks started making receivers, there was no reason to go with anything else.

Very early on Vector was welding instead of riveting their AKs together but poor customer feedback led them to abandon that in favor of doing it the correct way. I don’t think very many of the weld builds even made it out to the consumers. After that brief flub I don’t recall the Vector AKs having any problems and they seemed to be pretty well regarded.
Even my mutant build seems fine from a functional standpoint, although to be fair I haven’t shot it much either.
I remember the shitty AK brands of the day like Hesse/Vulcan and so forth and all the drama surrounding Joeken Firearms. I don’t remember the Vectors being considered bad guns at the time.

What sunk Vector Arms wasn’t the quality of their products but apparently a connection with some shady overseas business dealings involving some guy who had a contract to supply the Afghan Army defrauding the US government by misrepresenting the origin of an ammo shipment or something. I forget the details but Vector got wrapped up in it too somehow and they ended up going out of business eventually.

[SteyrAUG]

Very early on Vector was welding instead of riveting their AKs together but poor customer feedback led them to abandon that in favor of doing it the correct way. I don’t think very many of the weld builds even made it out to the consumers. After that brief flub I don’t recall the Vector AKs having any problems and they seemed to be pretty well regarded.
Even my mutant build seems fine from a functional standpoint, although to be fair I haven’t shot it much either.
I remember the shitty AK brands of the day like Hesse/Vulcan and so forth and all the drama surrounding Joeken Firearms. I don’t remember the Vectors being considered bad guns at the time.

What sunk Vector Arms wasn’t the quality of their products but apparently a connection with some shady overseas business dealings involving some guy who had a contract to supply the Afghan Army defrauding the US government by misrepresenting the origin of an ammo shipment or something. I forget the details but Vector got wrapped up in it too somehow and they ended up going out of business eventually.

The owner of Vector, Ralph Merrill was actually the guy funding those two idiots in Miami who did the Chinese ammo deal the movie War Dogs was about.

[GNXII]

Back in the day, I dabbled in a variety of parts kits for FAL, AKs etc. I bought them at decent price with the idea of assembling a fully functioning firearm that was cheaper than buying a factory built one. At one point, I finally realized that was absolutely not going to happen, so I kept one kit for spare parts for a either a factory built gun or was going to purchase one soon enough and sold the remaining kits. Made a profit on each one but spent that on buying a factory built gun on one end or another so it was a wash, which I was fine with. I saw too many home built and gunsmith built parts kits cause a lot of grief to there owners. Mind you there were ones I saw which rocked but most people didn’t want spend the bucks for a reputable gunsmith to put them together. Overall, I think the surplus market is going to shrink to next to nothing as more and more countries decide to scrap guns and melt them into metal ingots etc. Contributing to this is the plan fact that a lot of what was surplus inventory has run out! IMHO, the heyday of all cheap parts kits has passed unfortunately .

[Ed L.]

I had a couple Vectors way back when, don't remember what the problems were with them, but I don't own them anymore. I think only the Ohio Ordnance AKs were worse, assuming we don't count all the JoeKen garbage that existed.

I've heard that there are problems with Vectors. I have this Vector Yugo SBR that I bought in a shop as an SBR. It seemed very new when I bought it. I think I've only fired it two or three times and probably have about 500 rounds through it. That is very little ammo to speak of, but it seems like a quality build and functions very smoothly. A friend who is an AK connoisseur who wanted to buy it. Of course this is an example of one. I would be interested in knowing more about potential problems. Right now I am at the level of use with the gun equivalent to "well, my Olympic Arms AR has been flawless for the 600 rounds that I put through it over 3 shooting sessions."

vector SBR.jpg

[Circle_10]

I've heard that there are problems with Vectors. I have this Vector Yugo SBR that I bought in a shop as an SBR. It seemed very new when I bought it. I think I've only fired it two or three times and probably have about 500 rounds through it. That is very little ammo to speak of, but it seems like a quality build and functions very smoothly. A friend who is an AK connoisseur who wanted to buy it. Of course this is an example of one. I would be interested in knowing more about potential problems. Right now I am at the level of use with the gun equivalent to "well, my Olympic Arms AR has been flawless for the 600 rounds that I put through it over 3 shooting sessions."

vector SBR.jpg

I think it’s possible that people are conflating Vector Arms with Vulcan Arms (formerly Hesse Arms), which was another “manufacturer” that was in operation around the same time period, that put out infamously shitty AKs (and other guns).
It’s also possible that there were issues with the Vectors, but I don’t remember hearing about any. Once they listened to customer feedback and started assembling them correctly they seemed to be spoken of pretty highly on the AK forums I frequented at the time.

[SteyrAUG]

I think it’s possible that people are conflating Vector Arms with Vulcan Arms (formerly Hesse Arms), which was another “manufacturer” that was in operation around the same time period, that put out infamously shitty AKs (and other guns).
It’s also possible that there were issues with the Vectors, but I don’t remember hearing about any. Once they listened to customer feedback and started assembling them correctly they seemed to be spoken of pretty highly on the AK forums I frequented at the time.

Not in my case, I'd never own a Vulcan and wouldn't accept one if you gave it to me for free simply because I'd hate to burden anyone else with that horrible piece of crap.

Vector was a sort of odd company that made magnificent Uzi's (using Group Ind. receivers) and mostly FN or German parts that were arguably superior to factory IMI Uzi's because the receivers were better made, had a better heat treat and would last longer. Peter Kokalis famously did a "doesn't get better than this, better than the original" review of the Vector Uzi.

But they also made some of the shittiest HK clones, and had FU customer service if you pointed out the flaws. I did a review of some 53s builds I ordered from them where I paid an upcharge for many improvements over the standard model and they sent me what was still pretty much the standard model with all it's flaws. It was a detailed photo review on TOS and rather than apologize or offer to make it right they blacklisted me and said they wouldn't sell me any more firearms of any kind. They also said the only reason they weren't suing me is because "technically" everything I wrote was true and supported it with detailed photos. I later completely my "upgraded 53 group buy by simply having the smith who I hired to do the improvement that had been promised by Vector order them directly" which actually streamlined my entire process. So there is a batch of Vector 53s that actually work and don't look like crap but Vector can't really take credit for that.

A bunch of guys local to me wanted to do a Vector group buy because it was a final product rather than a roll your own deal so I ordered a few for myself. At the time I owned mostly Polytechs, a couple Norincos, a Hungarian blond, a Maadi and a few Romanians. and compared to all of those the Vectors weren't very impressive and they seemed to have a few faults but I'm struggling to remember what they were.

Now I can probably name a dozen AKs from that time that were much, much worse than the Vectors, but that doesn't really make the Vectors a quality AK. And for the price a Bulgarian kit built onto a Nodak was not much more money but did result in vastly superior firearm. I only wish I jumped all over those East German AK kits (all models) when they were on the market at ridiculously low prices. Built on a Nodak (which became available later) those would have been among the coolest AKs you could own. Who knew?

[Circle_10]

Not in my case, I'd never own a Vulcan and wouldn't accept one if you gave it to me for free simply because I'd hate to burden anyone else with that horrible piece of crap.

Vector was a sort of odd company that made magnificent Uzi's (using Group Ind. receivers) and mostly FN or German parts that were arguably superior to factory IMI Uzi's because the receivers were better made, had a better heat treat and would last longer. Peter Kokalis famously did a "doesn't get better than this, better than the original" review of the Vector Uzi.

But they also made some of the shittiest HK clones, and had FU customer service if you pointed out the flaws. I did a review of some 53s builds I ordered from them where I paid an upcharge for many improvements over the standard model and they sent me what was still pretty much the standard model with all it's flaws. It was a detailed photo review on TOS and rather than apologize or offer to make it right they blacklisted me and said they wouldn't sell me any more firearms of any kind. They also said the only reason they weren't suing me is because "technically" everything I wrote was true and supported it with detailed photos. I later completely my "upgraded 53 group buy by simply having the smith who I hired to do the improvement that had been promised by Vector order them directly" which actually streamlined my entire process. So there is a batch of Vector 53s that actually work and don't look like crap but Vector can't really take credit for that.

A bunch of guys local to me wanted to do a Vector group buy because it was a final product rather than a roll your own deal so I ordered a few for myself. At the time I owned mostly Polytechs, a couple Norincos, a Hungarian blond, a Maadi and a few Romanians. and compared to all of those the Vectors weren't very impressive and they seemed to have a few faults but I'm struggling to remember what they were.

Now I can probably name a dozen AKs from that time that were much, much worse than the Vectors, but that doesn't really make the Vectors a quality AK. And for the price a Bulgarian kit built onto a Nodak was not much more money but did result in vastly superior firearm. I only wish I jumped all over those East German AK kits (all models) when they were on the market at ridiculously low prices. Built on a Nodak (which became available later) those would have been among the coolest AKs you could own. Who knew?

Well I’ve only got a few hundred rounds through my Vector so it’s quite possible issues would surface with a higher round count. Since it’s likely going to get sold at some point here the odds of me ever firing it again are pretty low.

I do kind of remember Vector putting out questionable HK clones now that you mention it. Seemed like everybody was putting out questionable HK clones back during that sort of 2001-2009ish time period though. In fact I think that instilled in me a deep skepticism toward HK clones in general. It’s probably why I’m so suspicious of PTR’s products despite having no real experience with them. Unfortunately I’m too much of a peasant to afford the real thing.

[JoshNC]

AFAIK Vector never welded their receivers. The issue was the use of Ohio Ordnance Works receivers that were slightly out of spec. It doesn’t affect function. It is an aesthetic issue where there is a small gap between the dust cover and the safety selector when in the up/safe position. I have an early Vector underfolder built on an OOW receiver. I bought it directly from Vector in 04. It’s a very nice rifle, built with a new matching polish underfolder kit with the original barrel. All mags fit perfectly. The rivets are perfect. The front sight is straight. I like mine, even with the aesthetic issue of the selector.

I think it’s possible that people are conflating Vector Arms with Vulcan Arms (formerly Hesse Arms), which was another “manufacturer” that was in operation around the same time period, that put out infamously shitty AKs (and other guns).
It’s also possible that there were issues with the Vectors, but I don’t remember hearing about any. Once they listened to customer feedback and started assembling them correctly they seemed to be spoken of pretty highly on the AK forums I frequented at the time.

A couple friends have the same vector sbr as you with higher round counts. Excellent rifles.

[GNXII]

"Who knew?"....The lament of a lot of US Gunowners regarding a bunch of imported firearms, parts kits, ammo, "fill in the blank"...

[SteyrAUG]

AFAIK Vector never welded their receivers. The issue was the use of Ohio Ordnance Works receivers that were slightly out of spec. It doesn’t affect function. It is an aesthetic issue where there is a small gap between the dust cover and the safety selector when in the up/safe position. I have an early Vector underfolder built on an OOW receiver. I bought it directly from Vector in 04. It’s a very nice rifle, built with a new matching polish underfolder kit with the original barrel. All mags fit perfectly. The rivets are perfect. The front sight is straight. I like mine, even with the aesthetic issue of the selector.

Now that you mention it, my Vectors did have OOW receivers but one of them had a horribly canted rear sight block that couldn't reasonably be corrected and Vector didn't want to fix it so when it was time to let them go and find a new home, that was fine with me.

The only AK I sold and sorta miss is my Hungarian, those blond stocks were really kinda cool.