Yugo AK

[Jesse82]

So I broke down and bought a Yugo M70B1 AK today. It felt and looked better than the Egyptian & Romanian models next to it by far. Let me know what you think about the Yugo AK's.

The wood furniture is rough and unfinished. Any suggestions on how I could put a better (weather resistant) finish on it? How would I remove the furniture to finish all surfaces?

Also, do I ever need to clean the 'tube'? that holds the gas piston? Not the piston itself, but the cylinder & the piece connecting the barrel to the cylinder. These areas would get just as dirty as the piston right?

 

[MikeG]

I've been looking at getting an AK and I've heard the Yugoslav AKs are pretty good.

I'd rub the wood down with tung oil, it's more waterproof than linseed oil and not shiny like polyurethane. I don't know about stock removal.

If my experience with SKSs is any indication, I'd clean the gas system.
enjoy your AK

HTH
Mike

 

[Limeyfellow]

If its really rough I would lightly sandpaper down and then rub in BLO. Thats how I prefer mine anyway. Some are in better condition than others, but the Yugo AK47 is a good midprice ranged rifle.

 

[Jesse82]

One more thing the finish on the metal is REALLY cheap, scratches easily and looks like it could even rub off Is there anything I can do to prevent rust and wear, short of refinishing?

 

[TN-popo]

Yugos are a great rifle for the money right now.

The only negative about them is they don't come with chrome-lined bores. If that's not important to you, then they are one of the best AK "bangs for the buck" right now.

 

[akolleth]

Here is a great video on how to field strip an AK to get your furniture off, it's really simple and once you do it a couple of times it will become second nature

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qXCb0TFtHc

Here is one for removing the upper handguard from the gas tube

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4411335223804247737

The buttstock is just held on by two screws, unscrew them and leverage the buttstock out of the receiver (May need some force)

The lower is held in place by a retaining lever. Its a tiny lever on the front top of the lower handguard that when rotated holds it in place to a detent hole in the barrel. Basically you rotate the lever towards the front, which frees up the front retaining plate on the lower, which you slide forward, and then you are free to slide the lower handguard forward as well and off the AK.


* As far as finishes go, there are alot you can choose from. For a final finish I would recomend some poly urethane. Easy to apply and provides a nice solid protection layer

* as to your question of cleaning the gas tube, I would recomend cleaning it for the first time now, and in fact giving the whole rifle a thorough cleaning. After that basically once a year in an annual thorough cleaning. You have a whole ton of room in the gas tube for the piston, its not a tight fit by any means, and can build up a whole lot of crud before you would see any kind of effect. It's not something that needs cleaned after every trip to the range (unlike your bolt or piston which do)

 

[dstorm1911]

AKOLETH, the Yugo buttstock is held on with a single bolt through the center of the stock ya remove the buttpad and use a 13 mm socket to remove the stock.

 

[HorseSoldier]

So I broke down and bought a Yugo M70B1 AK today. It felt and looked better than the Egyptian & Romanian models next to it by far. Let me know what you think about the Yugo AK's.

I also picked one up a while ago. I've been pretty happy with it, generally speaking. The mag well on mine is quite tight compared to any other AK I've handled, which makes fast reloading kind of hard. Also, one of the trigger hooks was installed slightly incorrectly and prevented it from cycling properly. Took about five seconds to fix with a flat head screw driver once I figured out what was going on and its been running fine since then.

The wood furniture is rough and unfinished. Any suggestions on how I could put a better (weather resistant) finish on it? How would I remove the furniture to finish all surfaces?

Yeah, the wood is pretty rough on them. The already suggested linseed oil is a good option. I used some mahogany wood stain on mine to give it vague sort of resemblance to the classic AK laminate wood, which accomplishes the same thing.

 

[Storm]

I used Watco Danish Oil Finish for my WASR. I also used two Minwax stains (red oak followed by golden oak) before the oil. All you need to do is sand the wood, stain, and then apply the oil per instructions. It took three applications of the oil (with a rag) over an hours time followed by ten hours of drying. The result is a deep penetrating finish with a satiny sheen. It looks like a nice natural military finish, almost like I lucked out anf got some really good wood. I didn't want anything flashy or beyond what might come on an actual issue grade rifle. Here is an after photo.

 

[strat81]

http://www.gunsnet.net/Linx310/index.shtml That site will tell you how to remove the furniture.

I refinished mine with tung oil. I prepped the wood using 0000 steel wool and then rubbed the tung oil in. It's a satin finish and available at most hardware stores. I did 3 coats, using steel wool in between each coat to knock the grain down.

As for DIY options for metal, some folks have using Krylon, having ok results with the BBQ/hi-temp Krylon. For something more professional, try Aluma-Hyde II from Brownell's. Check the gunsmithing forum here for more ideas. Good luck!