Calling All AK Experts

[wired]

As long as the sights are straight you'll be OK. maybe 1/4 of the time theyre not. Crude metal work on the Romanian CUGIR's. You can see it in the gas blocks and bolts. Rough as hell. Not the best AK's by a long shot. OK. Theyre the worst. Seriously, theyre pretty bad. Romania is the Mexico of Europe. When they were $219 ( and that was after 150% markup from the importer ! ) they were a OK deal if you didnt mind straightening a few things out. But, if you get one that works and shoots to point of aim thats good enough.

Want to know what I really think of Romanian AKs?

 

[Jcon268]

As long as the sights are straight you'll be OK. maybe 1/4 of the time theyre not. Crude metal work on the Romanian CUGIR's. You can see it in the gas blocks and bolts. Rough as hell. Not the best AK's by a long shot. OK. Theyre the worst. Seriously, theyre pretty bad. Romania is the Mexico of Europe. When they were $219 ( and that was after 150% markup from the importer ! ) they were a OK deal if you didnt mind straightening a few things out. But, if you get one that works and shoots to point of aim thats good enough.

Want to know what I really think of Romanian AKs?

I have one that works and shoots to point of aim. It's a SAR-1. A lot of the WASRs coming to the States at the time were garbage. I've heard they've gotten better but they are still an entry level AKM. Personally, if SHTF I'd rather take my SAR-1 with me than a cheap, beater AR-15 and people flock to those nowadays. I think despite the crudeness, when you get one that works they are going to work for you well. I couldn't shoot the testicles off a gnat with it but it's going to do a good job protecting me from any man sized object within sight.

 

[Joe13]

I have one that works and shoots to point of aim. It's a SAR-1. A lot of the WASRs coming to the States at the time were garbage. I've heard they've gotten better but they are still an entry level AKM. Personally, if SHTF I'd rather take my SAR-1 with me than a cheap, beater AR-15 and people flock to those nowadays. I think despite the crudeness, when you get one that works they are going to work for you well. I couldn't shoot the testicles off a gnat with it but it's going to do a good job protecting me from any man sized object within sight.

I absolutely love my AR, maybe not the highest end but a good one with a little help from my friends

I also love my WASR. 4 parts to take apart and clean and no little springs to replace if you lose or break one lol.

AK shoots plenty fine for what I would use it for other then playing in the woods and reliable to a fault.

 

[Jcon268]

I absolutely love my AR, maybe not the highest end but a good one with a little help from my friends

I also love my WASR. 4 parts to take apart and clean and no little springs to replace if you lose or break one lol.

AK shoots plenty fine for what I would use it for other then playing in the woods and reliable to a fault.

I feel like the AR design requires tight manufacturing tolerances to get it to be an absolute duty grade weapon. The AK was designed such that they could be stamped out in very high numbers and still achieve the reliability they're known for. When I see a crude AK, I think of it as the way AKs were designed to be but clearly the platform has benefited from the same refinement and polish that has made the AR proliferate. Arsenals or Rifle Dynamics are a good representation of that refinement applied to the AK.

 

[Joe13]

Yea my AK is a sledgehammer and my AR a scalpel.

I have other guns if I need to hit something out past 300 yards

 

[Joe13]

BTW OP:

I like your AK as is but that's just personal preference

 

[wired]

I feel like the AR design requires tight manufacturing tolerances to get it to be an absolute duty grade weapon. The AK was designed such that they could be stamped out in very high numbers and still achieve the reliability they're known for. When I see a crude AK, I think of it as the way AKs were designed to be but clearly the platform has benefited from the same refinement and polish that has made the AR proliferate. Arsenals or Rifle Dynamics are a good representation of that refinement applied to the AK.

There are no other bargain basement representatives that compare to the schlock the Romanians churn out. Every single other country that makes them , and I have handled all of them that I know of, at least try. The Romanians don't seem to even bother with bottom level quality control. While its sometimes said that the Russians designed the AK so that it could be made anywhere with no QC that is a bunch of horse puckey. The East Germans, Hungarians, Finnish, Israeli's, Chinese, North Koreans, Russians, Bulgarians, Indians, Pakistanis's, Egyptians, and I'm sure a bunch of others that slip my mind after my 9th Coors light for the day all made AK's that at least complied with or surpaseed the original Russian blueprints. The Romanians are singular in their total disregard for minimum levels of quality control.

 

[Porter]

For the price you did good, now run some mags thru it. For that price I would have bought it too.

 

[GunSmoke]

As long as the sights are straight you'll be OK. maybe 1/4 of the time theyre not. Crude metal work on the Romanian CUGIR's. You can see it in the gas blocks and bolts. Rough as hell. Not the best AK's by a long shot. OK. Theyre the worst. Seriously, theyre pretty bad. Romania is the Mexico of Europe. When they were $219 ( and that was after 150% markup from the importer ! ) they were a OK deal if you didnt mind straightening a few things out. But, if you get one that works and shoots to point of aim thats good enough.

Want to know what I really think of Romanian AKs?

I woulda preferred you lie and tell me its amazing Haha

 

[Porter]

A combloc Ak is a combloc AK, they all run. 99% of the time you wil get a reliable one. My romanian AKs run just like my Bulgarian Arsenal or Russian AKs. In a pinch I wouldn't hesitate to grab any one of them to defend my life with.

 

[308]

As long as the sights are straight you'll be OK. maybe 1/4 of the time theyre not. Crude metal work on the Romanian CUGIR's. You can see it in the gas blocks and bolts. Rough as hell. Not the best AK's by a long shot. OK. Theyre the worst. Seriously, theyre pretty bad. Romania is the Mexico of Europe. When they were $219 ( and that was after 150% markup from the importer ! ) they were a OK deal if you didnt mind straightening a few things out. But, if you get one that works and shoots to point of aim thats good enough.

Want to know what I really think of Romanian AKs?

I agree about the Romanian quality, but my Maadi Misr looks like they used a mop to spread clearcote on the stock and a rattle can to finish off the metalwork...and that was in NIB condition. I do love it with all my little black heart though.

 

[GunSmoke]

BTW OP:

I like your AK as is but that's just personal preference

Thanks, maybe I just need to get used to that style stock. It just felt awkward

 

[wired]

I agree about the Romanian quality, but my Maadi Misr looks like they used a mop to spread clearcote on the stock and a rattle can to finish off the metalwork...and that was in NIB condition. I do love it with all my little black heart though.

Yeah the MAADI paint work is bad but the actual gun underneath is as good as the Russian AKM's because the Russians set up and ran the plant.

 

[GunSmoke]

Anybody got decent trigger recommendations? Thought I'd get the ALG but looks like everywhere is out. The Fime Group enhanced any good? Or anything else I should be looking at?

 

[Jcon268]

A combloc Ak is a combloc AK, they all run. 99% of the time you wil get a reliable one. My romanian AKs run just like my Bulgarian Arsenal or Russian AKs. In a pinch I wouldn't hesitate to glad any of them to defend my life with.

This. You can't fault something that continues to work. People put way too much emphasis on the equipment doing all of the work and less on the fault of the operator of the weapon. I haven't heard a lot about Romy AKs breaking down, FTF etc. The worst I've heard about is trigger slap and canted front sight posts both of which have workarounds. My SAR-1 has virtually no trigger slap and very minimal cant on the front sight. I'll never feel like I got a bad deal on mine.

 

[wired]

This. You can't fault something that continues to work. People put way too much emphasis on the equipment doing all of the work and less on the fault of the operator of the weapon. I haven't heard a lot about Romy AKs breaking down, FTF etc. The worst I've heard about is trigger slap and canted front sight posts both of which have workarounds. My SAR-1 has virtually no trigger slap and very minimal cant on the front sight. I'll never feel like I got a bad deal on mine.

Saying you only have a little cant on the front sight is like saying your car only steers itself into a ditch whenever you let off the steering wheel. How can you effectively aim without a mile of Kentucky windage? Thats a major problem that should have been addressed at the factory and its not easy to correct either. Total lack of QC.

 

[GunSmoke]

Saying you only have a little cant on the front sight is like saying your car only steers itself into a ditch whenever you let off the steering wheel. How can you effectively aim without a mile of Kentucky windage? Thats a major problem that should have been addressed at the factory and its not easy to correct either. Total lack of QC.

I get the frustration with poor quality control. Nothing ticks me off more than getting something new that's falling apart immediately. That being said, this is a 23 year old used ak with some wear on it. It shot pretty dang good i thought. I cant say how the finish was when the original owner bought it, but fitment? This thing feels solid as a rock. I don't have much knowledge of AKs but I knew this wasnt a top o the line ak... just wanted something dependable

 

[Jcon268]

Saying you only have a little cant on the front sight is like saying your car only steers itself into a ditch whenever you let off the steering wheel. How can you effectively aim without a mile of Kentucky windage? Thats a major problem that should have been addressed at the factory and its not easy to correct either. Total lack of QC.

The cant on the sight is almost unmeasurable it's so small. Most guys shooting their $2,000 rifles with an equally expensive scope mounted neglect to correct their reticle cant and those same guys are trying to shoot 800 to 1,000 yards or sometimes more. Most guys shooting an AK are going to be shooting under 500 yards. Any AK front sight adjustment tool should give you a proper zero. Mount a scope properly and it becomes almost a non issue.

 

[ZA_Survivalist]

You're good my man!

Cugir is Romanian. I have several Romanian AK's and they all shoot very nicely.

Not to mention that gorgeous .308 Galil

 

[GunSmoke]

UPDATE: For those of you still interested in helping me out. Still Waiting on my ironwood furniture set to come(7 weeks and counting). I got around to getting that barrel nut off. My 11 year old "helped" and he scratched the front sight block good.. we did find threads so I put a slant on but there is no pin to hold it in place. I was just going to thread lock it on but you can see theres a fair amount of space left... should I leave it or put something else on to fill the gap? What say the experts?