When I was looking for an AK a few months ago I researched them until I was seeing them in my sleep. I went to about a dozen gun store in my area and looked at every conceivable iteration of the AK47 that I could find. I looked at WASR-10, Saiga, MAK-90, AMD-65 and even the non-AK but still freaking awesome VZ-58.
Unfortunately every WASR I looked at looked like it was assembled by complete morons. The parts appeared to be thrown together and the magwell surgeries that the WASR rifles have to go through at Century to make them compatible with double-stack standard AK mags varied greatly from rifle to rifle. About half of the WASRs I picked up had sloppy fitting magazines for this reason. The WASR rifles do not have the dimples on the side of the receiver and there is a lot of speculation as to the purpose of those dimples. Some claim that these help to hold the magazine in place and prevent wobble while others say that they are only cosmetic. I do not know the answer to this but I am fairly certain that they perform some function or Ivan would have never added them since "cosmetic" additions do not seem to be a common addition from the Reds.
The Saigas were very nicely built but in their stock configuration they are more like an SKS in that they have limited magazine capacity and no pistol grip. While this can be changed I didn't want to start grinding, drilling and changing it right after I bought it.
The only MAK-90s I could find were imported pre AWB and were in pretty rough shape. I liked one but it had the thumbhole stock and slanted receiver so a standard AK buttstock wouldn't fit it quite right.
I really liked the AMD-65s but only one local shop had them and they were priced about $150 too high (according to interwebs pricing).
My favorite rifle of all was the VZ58 and went to go look at them at peachstateguns in Covington. The gun was awesome and I liked the feel of the gun. Parts and magazines do not interchange with AKs though and AK parts are plentiful around here. While I was there he showed me an AK-47 made by I.O. Inc. The gun was brand new and built in North Carolina on US made receivers with Mossberg barrels and a mixture of Galil and RPK style polymer furniture. The rifle had the Tapco Slanted Muzzle Brake and Tapco G2 trigger group. I also like that i the receiver comes equipped with a side-rail scope mount assembly It has a Lifetime Warranty and was built very solidly. It was priced at $429 which was only a ferw more $$ than the rather shoddy looking WASRs they had so I bought it.
Over the last 4 months I have shot over 1500 rounds of Wolf hp through the gun without a single failure of any kind. I've read a lot of good and bad about the IO built AKs but all I can say is that mine has been perfect for me and I will be buying one of their Bullpup AK's in the very near future. I would not spend my own money on a gun that I didn't trust implicitly.
Unfortunately every WASR I looked at looked like it was assembled by complete morons. The parts appeared to be thrown together and the magwell surgeries that the WASR rifles have to go through at Century to make them compatible with double-stack standard AK mags varied greatly from rifle to rifle. About half of the WASRs I picked up had sloppy fitting magazines for this reason. The WASR rifles do not have the dimples on the side of the receiver and there is a lot of speculation as to the purpose of those dimples. Some claim that these help to hold the magazine in place and prevent wobble while others say that they are only cosmetic. I do not know the answer to this but I am fairly certain that they perform some function or Ivan would have never added them since "cosmetic" additions do not seem to be a common addition from the Reds.
The Saigas were very nicely built but in their stock configuration they are more like an SKS in that they have limited magazine capacity and no pistol grip. While this can be changed I didn't want to start grinding, drilling and changing it right after I bought it.
The only MAK-90s I could find were imported pre AWB and were in pretty rough shape. I liked one but it had the thumbhole stock and slanted receiver so a standard AK buttstock wouldn't fit it quite right.
I really liked the AMD-65s but only one local shop had them and they were priced about $150 too high (according to interwebs pricing).
My favorite rifle of all was the VZ58 and went to go look at them at peachstateguns in Covington. The gun was awesome and I liked the feel of the gun. Parts and magazines do not interchange with AKs though and AK parts are plentiful around here. While I was there he showed me an AK-47 made by I.O. Inc. The gun was brand new and built in North Carolina on US made receivers with Mossberg barrels and a mixture of Galil and RPK style polymer furniture. The rifle had the Tapco Slanted Muzzle Brake and Tapco G2 trigger group. I also like that i the receiver comes equipped with a side-rail scope mount assembly It has a Lifetime Warranty and was built very solidly. It was priced at $429 which was only a ferw more $$ than the rather shoddy looking WASRs they had so I bought it.
Over the last 4 months I have shot over 1500 rounds of Wolf hp through the gun without a single failure of any kind. I've read a lot of good and bad about the IO built AKs but all I can say is that mine has been perfect for me and I will be buying one of their Bullpup AK's in the very near future. I would not spend my own money on a gun that I didn't trust implicitly.
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