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School me, I want a AK

I own dozen ak's or so. From norinco's, izhmash 31-94's, 21's to multiple slr's and wasr's. You can never go wrong with imports. Parts kits are ok, but you have to be careful. I once owned romy g parts kit and it was total turd, after doing some research some bubba put it together in his garage. Also always inspect it with GO / NO GO gauge for heads pacing if you are looking at parts kit. Stay away from pretty much all domestic's. All this made in america stuff is great, but look at the past form I.O and century. Century imports are fine, but stay as far as you can from ras 47's, c39's, c39v2, vska, and especially anything I.O made. All of those is nothing but crap. Tons of video's online and forums. Dont know much about PSA stuff, but id rather shell out extra for combloc import. Still you can never go wrong with wasr as your 1st starter Kalashnikov. Like previously mentioned, yugo ak's have great reputation but parts are different from standard AK's. Never really messed with them, and dont really plan to.
 
5.45 is a great round. Had little trouble hitting a silhouette steel target pushing 385 with a slr104, iron sights. I’ve owned more than a dozen 5.45 rifles, some I built, and never had keyholing or accuracy issues. What amazes me is I doubt 2 in every 10 ak owners own a sight tool and properly zero their rifles. OP there are great rifles in both calibers. Do some more research about what to look for in a rifle and make an informed choice. I would personally look for an imported rifle, be it Romanian, Bulgarian etc. In either caliber, mags and ammo for both are out there.
 
5.45 is a great round. Had little trouble hitting a silhouette steel target pushing 385 with a slr104, iron sights. I’ve owned more than a dozen 5.45 rifles, some I built, and never had keyholing or accuracy issues. What amazes me is I doubt 2 in every 10 ak owners own a sight tool and properly zero their rifles. OP there are great rifles in both calibers. Do some more research about what to look for in a rifle and make an informed choice. I would personally look for an imported rifle, be it Romanian, Bulgarian etc. In either caliber, mags and ammo for both are out there.

I love these threads. All the wannabes show up and it's easy to pick out who's talking **** and who actually knows something.
 
So far there is one man who has posted in this thread that was born in the USSR, had a picture of Mikhail Kalashnikov hanging over his crib, was raised by a father who was a Colonel in the the Soviet Army, grew up stripping AK-74's blindfolded as a 3rd grader in the "Young Pioneers" and actually served in the Russian Army carrying a real Автома́т Кала́шникова.

The only man in this thread that was ever issued, shot, maintained a real Russian AK74 is Jeddak Jeddak . There are a few very knowledgeable members who have chimed it too with valuable input, along with inevitable singular (at least so far) "Muh AK" nonsense expert(s). OP, if I were you I would take the easy way out and go with what the real Russian said. That's probably the easiest and most informed decision to find in here.
 
Question? What are thoughts on the Saigas that have been converted? Not seeing anyone comment about them.
Thanks
Depends on who did the conversion and how it was done. A lot of converted ones had just a rear end conversion done, ie trigger moved forward to its proper place and a trigger guard was riveted. Usually it is not done correctly ( 1 rivet, not inserted under a mag release/safety stop).
They are perfectly functional. Properly dimpled ones bring more money than slabside ones, ala WASR. Velcro patch on the right side is a downside on some.
Fit is better than WASR.
Depending on who converted may have a threaded muzzle or not.
Arsenal SGL series are proper Russian Izhevsk made AKM rifles, based on AK100 series. Would be my first choice for an AKM/stamped AK. 3rd choice for an AK pattern rifle, after IWI Galil ACE and Vyatskie Polyany's Vepr.
 
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I know nothing about AK's except I decided I want one. Whats the difference in the various ones like AK vs AKM?
Forget AKs & ARs
Invest in Belgium Brownings
Your future grandchildren will thank me.

Ok after firing one yesterday I changed my mind,
Want to buy - Arsenal Sam7k44 with FS1913 aluminum or triangle folding brace
 
Also, if you like to keep spare parts on hand, SGL, Saiga and Vepr are known as thin stem bolt guns. This is due to them tracing their roots to AK74 and RPK74 respectively. Not a big deal. Just a different firing pin, firing pin spring and extractor. All were available when I stocked up on parts a while back.
 
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