My boss just conned me into buying an AK-47 with him. Supposedly "new" Romanian. Are these any good? I know the AK's as a whole have many positive points but are the the Romanian rifles good, bad or so-so as the breed goes? Are they new manufacture or unissued military? Anything I should know about AK's? I've owned SKS but never the AK. Boss is ordering the .223. I wanted to stick with the 30 caliber for some reason. I doubt I will ever shoot anything in it but milsurp ammo with the standard FMJ.

Any thoughts, suggestions or info anyone cares to share will be appreciated.

Pecos, I think you will enjoy the ak 47. I sure do enjoy my Romanian. For the price of military surplus, or the Wolf new manufacture, You can not reload as cheap. I use the 123 grain russian Hollow points for deer hunting. it certainly does the job. I try to keep shots within 200 yards.I cannot compare the Romanian to any other makes as I do not have any experience with them. My only problem is with the short lop. I will be buying a stock from Cabelas. this will take care of that problem. I alsop installed a recoil spring buffer pad, this quitened the metallic sound of the recoil spring.
John

I have been told that the Russian made AK47's are a better made firearm than the Chinese made ones. Is this true??

Thanks!!

Pecos, good choice staying with the 7.62x39 over the .223. My brother-in-law has an SKS and it does the job on deer or anything else better than the "poodle shooter" round, as the .223 is described by Jeff Cooper. Personally I much prefer the Ruger Mini-30 than any of the Ak variants but if the price is right, go for it because they certainly seem to be able to be able to handle abuse and still perform.

Pecos,
I just bought a sar-1 in 7.62 cal. They are a pretty good deal for the money, but they are a little rough looking. I believe they are new manufacture as mine has 2002 engraved on the receiver and all the numbers match. A couple of things to look out for are a canted front sight and gas tube. Some of them lean off to one side or another. And mine had a feeding problem, in that the bolt was stripping the top round out of the mag as it was supposed to, but the bolt carrier was hitting the next round in the mag and pushing it into the front of the mag stopping the bolt from closing completely. Once I figured out what was going on it took me all of ten minutes to fix it. It runs flawlessly now, never missing a beat. I have only shot Wolf ammo out of mine and to be honest they are not very accurate, but they are fun. Check out this link, it's about Romanian sar rifles.
http://linx310.nothingbutguns.com/

Larry

Pecos,just remember that the AK is made sloppy so it will work all the time in any area,they tend to have pretty accurate bbl's.The best ones on the market now are the Rom's, if you could find onr of the early imported Russians that would be better folowed by the
East German ,Bulgarin/Hungarain,and the Chech models.
Stay away from the 40 round mags fun to play with but they get in your way,make sure you pull the gas tube/top hand guard and clean out any grease that may be in there before you shoot it,if you don't like the rear iron take a look over at Mojo sights they make a replavement peep that is realy good have a couple my self.

THANKS GUYS! I think you've given me enough information to hit the ground running. I don't live far from San Marcos. Do any of you know Linux310? P45

I may be wrong but I do not think any shot that accurate. Mine all function fine but shot a big group. But they are fun and cheap to shoot.

Accuracy? I cannot, obviously, speak to the accuracy of the AK-47...but I can testify that my Chinese SKS shot circles around my Ruger Mini 14. Any way I compared them, the SKS was always about 1" smaller group. But then I have never seen a Mini-14 that was very accurate to begin with.

I will be amazed if the AK is very accurate. They surely were not built for it. Neither were the SKS for that matter, but most SKS owners report good accuracty none the less.

Being on the receiving end of a number of rounds fired by these contraptions, admittedly at ranges of 200 yards or more, I got the distinct impression that they were not particularly accurate. Certainly not as accurate as the M14 I had acquired from a Special Forces outfit via some "trading"!! But, it may have been the operators who were not accurate, rather than their weapons. Never had a chance to try one on a KD range....

I own a MAC90 (Chinese), Bugarian SLR-95, Chinese SKS (Early production not the new ones) and a Yugo SKS. As for accuracy, the SKS's beat out the AK-47's any day of the week. If you can get a scope to stay perfectly in place on your SKS, you will find them to have impressive accuracy. I have shot sub 1/2" groups from my Chinese SKS at 100 yds! The problem is that the scope stays in place for only ~10 shots before minor machine work is necessary again.

As for quality of production, my old Chinese SKS and MAC90 are beter made than the Yugo SKS- the Yugo is simply heavier built. The Bulgarian SLR is in a class all by itself when compared to any AK-47 or SKS. However, even an ugly SKS is more accurate than a Bulgarian SLR.

Shawn

Said I wasn't going to go here again but I find myself here none the less! Of all the variants that I have seen and shot, the Chinese were the best, accuracy wise. Still not on a par with the SKS but better than the Russian, etc. Ammo is different story, the Czech stuff was best, followed by the Russian and then the Chinese. Lot of variation round to round in the Chinese stuff. And just for clarification, the AK47 is the full auto or select fire version, the AK74 is the 22 caliber variety, the MAK90 variantsare the semi only version of the AK's. Now, having said all that, whom amongst will never, ever, forget the very distinct "pop-pop-pop-pop" of the AK when on the receivig end??? I hope to never ever hear one again with me in front of it!
Regards,
'Trapper'

Pecos45 You might want to get a couple of the 75 round drums, they work real good. Also you can take apart the 5 round magazines, compare the follower to a 30 rounder and modify it, or just put a 30 round follower in the 5 rounder, depending on the length your mag capacity will increase to 10 or 15 rounds. Makes for a lighter, handier rifle while in the field. Check local laws on magazine capacity while hunting.

http://www.eaacorp.com/firearms/saiga/rifles/saigawoodt.shtml

$229 at cdnn.what do you guys think for a first rifle purchase for plinking?

[ 03-02-2003, 12:14: Message edited by: BLOWSOMETHINGUP ]

Pimp it out! 24k Gold accents, carbon-fiber mags, custom red anodized bayonet in the shape of a pitchfork, tac-light with strobe, triple lazers, mother-of-pearl stock, all the good stuff!

You could probably sell it for a nice profit in San Antonio

Romanian SAR 1 is the best. Period.