^^
My pleasure. You'll like the PAP, it's a factory rifle from a world class manufacturer. The USA-Legalizing mods are generally well done these days. I think you can buy any of them with confidence. I'd just stay away from the ones with the rail on the rear cover. The covers are way too loose to have any expectation of repeatability from any optics mounted there. If you get one with the (ugly) rail on the cover, you can remove it by drilling out the rivets, but it's better to just get one that's right and not then have the rivet holes in your cover for life. Mine came with the rail, I hated it, and was able to buy a "naked" Yugo top cover as an individual part. Bear in mind that the Yugo top covers do not interchange with any others.
Trivia for enthusiasts: The Iraqi "Tabuk" AK is a Yugo, as Saddam imported literally tons of Yugo AK's and then had Zastava assist setting up production locally in Iraq according to the Yugo design. Two Rivers Arms builds up "Tabuks" using Yugo parts, a new receiver correctly marked, and they are VERY VERY nice replica builds. These are highly prized as additions to AK collections. Two Rivers Arms also is a great source of expertise and small parts for the Yugos. The small leaf spring under the night sight of original M70 Yugos is often missing, for example, and Two Rivers had had them made as an aftermarket part. Highly recommended supplier.
As a bit of a clarification of my first long post, rifles available here fall into four distinct categories:
1: "Preban" large capacity rifles. This means that they are (A) factory built overseas and (B) were originally built with magazine wells etc. designed for double stack magazines. Examples: MAADI, Norinco, Valmet, Galil, etc. Quality is generally superb, and prices for these reflect their quality and rarity. Typically these are collectable safe queens owned by people who know what they have.
On to what most shooters have access to at more reasonable costs, Postban there are three families:
1: Factory "assault configuration" rifles assembled overseas, which are all originally built for the single stack "small capacity" magazines, and which are then "rebuilt" in the USA with the required number of US parts, and an enlarged magazine well to allow the standard magazines to fit. Examples: WASR, PAP, etc. These are all solid inexpensive shooters that are poo-poohed by internet experts and shot by the thousands by Bubbas like me.
2: Factory "sporting configuration" rifles that are then remanufactured to include the evil features. Examples: Saigas, etc. Quality initially is very good, quality post-reconstruction can be variable based on who does the work, and with what parts. Buyer knowlage is essential when buying these.
3: Parts sets from overseas built using receivers made in the USA. These are "Domestic Production" rifles and will generally use an original parts set supplemented with enough US made parts to be legal, assembled on a US built receiver. Parts sets can be surplus, or brand new production. Quality can be highly variable based on who built it and what parts were used. Quality of some is superb, quality of others is dismal. These range from shot out parts sets put together by Bubba who folded a flat with a sledgehammer over a block of steel, to craftsman built rifles from makers both famous and not so famous. Buyer knowlage is VERY essential when buying these. They can be bottom of the barrel (no pun intended) hack jobs like my own Romanian parts set that I assembled using machine screws instead of rivets on a flat that was literally hammered over a block, to absolute gems like my Tabuk built by Two Rivers Arms, to very nice rifles made by someone you never heard of using good parts and a good receiver, such as my M70 on the Nodak Spud receiver, built in a garage by someone who really knew what they were doing. These are the category that the Arsenal's fit into.
Bottom line is that if you want it to take a 30 round magazine and you want it all to have been done at the factory, you are looking at preban rifles. If you are looking at postban rifles, either the assembly will have been done overseas with modifications to accept the 30 round magazines done here or the assembly will have been done in the USA on an US made receiver. You can't have both in a postban rifle. So... pick one of the above and enjoy.
Willies Postban Choices:
Best bang for buck: PAP's and WASR's. Cheap, "go bang every time" and are generic. Buy one.
Best value in a high quality, factory-assembled rifle: Saiga, either converted or left as-is.
Best fun for the buck: Build your own using a GOOD set of parts and a GOOD US receiver. No-brainer choice is a good Yugo parts set on a Nodak Spud or similar receiver.
BEST BEST BEST? Pick one of the custom makers using a quality US receiver and good foreign parts sources and enjoy. Plan to spend $$. Builds by Krebs, Arsenal, etc., would be no-brainer choices if you want "modern" and Two Rivers Arms would be a no-brainer choice if you want "classic".
Moving on:
The VZ-58 is another excellent design, but other than it's cosmetic appearance at ten yards it has nothing in common with the AK. It's arguably a better rifle, and completely different in every way. Mechanically it has more in common with a Walther P-38 married to a M1 Carbine than it does with the AK. Only the caliber is the same and even that was an afterthought. One belongs in every serious modern military rifle collectors rack.
Gobble Gobble...
Willie
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