School me, I want a AK

[John Moses]

I know nothing about AK's except I decided I want one. Whats the difference in the various ones like AK vs AKM?

Pew pew

 

[Jeddak]

To OP, another excellent option would be a SAR series rifle from Romania. @CQB27 is the ODT king of SARs.
SARs predate WASRs, harder to find, but have proper dimpled receivers and workmanship is a level above WASRs.
Need to have barrel threaded, but it is easy to do.

 

[fast306stang]

To OP, another excellent option would be a SAR series rifle from Romania. @CQB27 is the ODT king of SARs.
SARs predate WASRs, harder to find, but have proper dimpled receivers and workmanship is a level above WASRs.
Need to have barrel threaded, but it is easy to do.

I should have kept my SAR. Odd that I was just thinking about that last night.

 

[rightway1974]

I am going with the recommendation of JEDDAK. Galil ACE then a Arsenal in 7.62x39.

 

[Lionheart]

I am going with the recommendation of JEDDAK. Galil ACE then a Arsenal in 7.62x39.

Wise man.

 

[Lionheart]

OP, I will add that six months ago I was where you are now. I traded into my first AK after talking with JEDDACK, Wudee and other AK experts that have posted in your thread. I ignored some of the other posters above who have big opinions but little experience with this weapons platform.
I have owned most of the best AR’s at one point or another.
My “go-to” gun right now is an AK74. It is highly modified with an upgraded trigger, rails for optics, muzzle device, etc. Just like some of my high end AR’s were...
I was amazed at how soft it shoots and it’s accuracy. Of course it is also a proven reliable system.
Doesn’t hurt that ammo costs half of what my AR ammo costs right now. Go for it.
Hope that helps.

 

[Jeddak]

I mentioned it in passing, but I wanted to expand on it (more time today).
I stay away from Polish Pioneer Arms AKs. Their AK pistols are marketed as Hellpup in US.
They do not assemble the AKMs corretly. They use installed barrel as a bucking bar for the trunnion rivets. That results in malformed rivets and trunnion pulling out of receiver. Not good. They used to have a video on YT showing how they built AKMs. You could see wrong manufacturing for yourself.

Another is their deceptive practices. They advertise as "Radom" to imply they are (11) Fabrika Broni Radom arsenal. They are not affiliated with FB in any shape or form. They are not even using old FB jigs or presses (those went to WBP, a subcontractor for FB (11) and an excellent stand alone AKM manufacturer).

Logo for Pioneer Arms is a bowman with number 11 at the bottom.
FB Arsenal (11) has been called for decades "Lucznik", a Polish word for "Bowman" (I can read a bit of Polish). Again, attempting to mistepresent who they are.

 

[AK74U]

This should be a sticky..

 

[fast306stang]

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.

Waiting for my dimpled Saiga to come back from blackbusharmory. All sporter holes welded up, velcro patch removed, etc, etc. Not sure I'm gonna like the bill, hopefully it's less than I'm expecting.

 

[Dodge man]

Watch this video. They do test on the 7.62 vs 5.45 in Russia.