[joey93turbo]

Hey guys, i'm lookin to get a cheap AK to have some fun with. I've been lookin for an SAR1 cause i've heard good things about them but today my local gun shop told me he was getting some Hess M47's in and he said they're a better AK than the SAR1 as far as fit and finish goes. They're both about the same price ($360) so which should I go for?

[Dave Markowitz]

Unless you REALLY know AKs, I would avoid anything made by Hesse. Go to gunboards.com and search through the threads about Hesse, and you'll find out about their reputation for craptacular quality.

I speak from experience. I have a Russian-made Saiga that Hesse converted to look like an AK-103. Part of the conversion involved replacing the trigger, hammer, and disconnector. Whatever parts they used weren't properly heat treated. As a result, the hammer and trigger both started to peen within about 200 rounds. I wound up replacing these three parts to get the rifle working again.

Also, the plastic butt is somehwhat cheap feeling, and the rear sling swivel is held to the stock with a fine thread drywall screw.

If you can find a SAR-1 I'd get that. I had one previously and it worked well. If you can't find one look at a WASR high-cap.

[c_yeager]

Well the SAR was put together by underpaid likely malnurished workers in a smokey factory with little care for the final result...

And the HESSE was made by a bunch of mentally disabled chimps...

You decide.

[joey93turbo]

Hahaha. I've heard the SAR is better than the WASR, is that right?

[BryanP]

The only advantage the SAR-1 has over the WASR-10 (assuming you mean the Hi-Cap variant) is that the SAR started out as a hi-cap standard AK that takes regular double-stack AK mags. The WASR-10 Hi-Cap started out as a neutered single-stack that was then legally converted to take the standard mags once it was in the USA. The only problem I've had with mine is that it didn't like some mags because of the burs at the back of the magwell leftover from the conversion. 5 minutes with a dremel fixed that and it's been great ever since. The only thing I plan to do to mine is replace the fire control group with a G2 model from Tapco to eliminate trigger slap, and that's a problem endemic to both the WASR and the SAR.