Find myself wanting a Romak 3 (PSL)

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yeah.... and I would always wish it were a PSL....:uhoh:

I may have to inquire about doing a Transfer somewhere. I think a shooting range I go to now and then does them..........hummmmm.....:)

Thanks
 
Honestly, my dream gun would be a PSL in .308 or an NDM-86 in .308. But .308 PSL's are so rare as to be unheard of (I think only 100 were ever built) and the NDM-86 is far out of my price range. I'd love to combine widely available non-corrosive ammo with that gun. But alas, it is not to be. And as built, the PSL far exceeds the capabilities of the Saiga .308 unless you dump several hundred dollars into it. I set my Saiga up with a PSL buttstock because I love how it looks and feels and the recoil plate is great. I call it the Baby Dragun. But it's not the same gun. That Saiga got me a javelina, and I intend to use it for home defense / light hunting, but I'll be using the PSL for the heavy stuff and the precision shooting.
 
Hey Ohio, I keep hearing you talk about getting a PSL...just go get one! I had one for a while and yes it was fun but my example wouldn't shoot as well as I wanted it to. I'd call it 2-3moa with the ammo I fed it and only a few under 2" groups with hand loads. Still not bad considering it's an overgrown AK. Great thing too was that the ammo was and for now is still much cheaper than 308. Personally I enjoy my LR-308 and M1 Garand in 308 much more than I did the PSL. But hey it's your money!

The PSL I had came like this from J&G:
PSL008.gif

The Garand (&1903)
M1AND1903.gif

LR-308 for the win!
101_1028.gif
 
yeah man, get a PSL! J&G has a pretty good price. 749.00$ After shipping mine was 765.80. 10.00 for the ffl and 10.00 for Oregon BGC.
 
If you get one for a decent price there's almost no way you can lose money on it. Of course the same is also true of a Saiga.

In my experience, Saiga's are more accurate. My two S308's will shoot less than 2 MOA if I pull out all the stops, (let the barrel cool, premium ammo or handloads, etc...), my PSL is more like a 3 MOA shooter with a few smaller groups. To be fair to the PSL though, I haven't used handloads in it.

Also, the PSL's are sloppily made compared to Saigas. Bad finish, bad riveting, sloppy welds and not everything necessarily in alignment. Basically typical Romanian AK quality. Saiga's may come with cheap plastic stocks and rotten triggers, (although still much better than on a PSL), but the rest of them are nicely made and much better finished and more functional.
 
Elmer, I'd disagree with that. It sounds like your PSL is a kit build. There were some kit build PSL's early on, and those were like you describe. Some of the kits were from some company with Tennessee in the name, and I think Century might have done a few as well before they started importing full guns (after getting an agreement with Cugir to produce US-legal factory PSL's). When you say, "typical Romanian AK quality", you fail to take into account that WASR's are also kit guns, and assembled in the US by Century monkeys using US-made barrels and other parts.

Real Romanian products typically meet or exceed even Russia's finest. Romanian SKS's are considered some of the best, as are their Tokarev pistols and several other products (I bought a Romanian Tokarev because research showed it was the most accurate). Their firearms are some of the most accurate and well-made of all Eastern Bloc countries. The only thing you listed that's true about new-production PSL's is the finish. The finish isn't the best. My PSL, in terms of construction, is very well made. Compared to my Saiga, it's of much more solid construction. The receiver design and construction is straight military. The only thing they changed was the trigger pin drillings (can't have the 3rd hole) and grinding the bayonet lug. It's a high-quality, high precision rifle. Romania doesn't make junk. It's the boys at Century (particularly their earlier work; their newer stuff is better) that give them a bad name.
 
Nope. Mines a PSL-54C. Also WASR's aren't kit guns. WASR's are sent over here as functional firearms and then get the magwells augured out and get fitted with pistol grips, buttstocks and US trigger groups. The Century Yugos were kit guns.

I've seen other PSL's as well and I'm not particularly impressed. A high quality, high precision rifle it is not. It's more like the cheapest DM rifle on the market and while accuracy is pretty good by AK standards, it's not up there with what you would expect from an M1A or an AR10. Maybe on a par with an FAL though.

I've got a SAR3 as well. Quality on that is a few steps above the WASR's but it's not particularly good. It's another one with a misaligned scope rail, (so far the Romanians are 2 for 2 in that department with me). None of my Saigas have had that problem though.
 
I've seen the prices on these Romaks and have been interested as well. Though I think I would seek out one of the original Russian scopes (PSO, is it?), which I've been told have a feature where they will point out IR sources. I'm not saying it's night vision, but if the scope can draw a bead on the IR emitter on someone else's night vision, that's almost as good, huh?

I also had a question:

From time to time I see rifles that look identical to the Romaks listed as Yugo or M76 variants. Are these functionally the same weapon? Quality?

I share the Balkan enthusiasm for the 8mm round.
 
for the money you can not get a better semi auto sniper rifle period. the saiga is built well however, the off the shelf model is a ...well... glorified hunting rifle. no offense but the trigger is dumb and to get this gun anything like the psl you will pay far more! oh and fudd....AR10? kind of a low blow dude. AR10 is a 2000.00$ rifle at least. any respect at all ya wouldn't put the two next to one another. geesh!
 
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An AR10 is not a $2000 rifle. There's a local shop here in Tacoma that had a new Armalite AR10 for $1500 as of last Saturday. Before the last election you could buy DPMS LR308's for just under $1000. That's only about $250 more than a PSL.

As far as triggers go, you got me there. The stock Saiga trigger is very poor, but then again so is the stock PSL trigger. To start with, the trigger on my Saiga was actually better than on my PSL, (which was about the worst conventional AK trigger I have experienced). I swapped them both out for RSA triggers though and at this point their trigger pulls are pretty decent.

It doesn't cost that much to convert a Saiga either. I'm only in this particular one about $350
http://s168.photobucket.com/albums/u186/mrfudd/?action=view&current=DSCF0256.jpg

I spent about $650 on this one.
http://s168.photobucket.com/albums/u186/mrfudd/?action=view&current=DSCF0260.jpg
 
A friend has an SVT-39 or 40 and uses corrosive Bulgarian ammo in it.

It would be a shame to use this affordable ammo in a semi-auto gun and not clean it soon, or not know how to clean the gas port and tube parts.
 
why do the bayonet lugs get filed is it not legal to have a bayonet? or is it just some bureaucratic bull that classifies it as a military weapon put in place by some dumb ass?
 
It's #2. The PSL actually manages to get into the states pretty much intact since it doesn't really fit the definition of an assault weapon. The bayonet lug is pretty much it's only "evil feature" so they file the lugs off.
 
i still dont see why a bayonet jug is an "evil feature" say i am deer hunting and i shoot one when i get to it it is still alive and kicking instead of wasting ammo, or trying to get to close to a flying hove i can just jab it a couple times with the bayonet. jk.
but seriously why do they file them off i dont think they are illegal it doesnt make the firearm anymore dangerous as a firearm. maybe i am wrong.
 
There are a list of features that imported rifles can't have. One of them is a bayonet lug. That's why you see so many imported rifles either assembled or reworked here in the states. If they add enough parts then the rifles aren't considered imports anymore and they can have the evil features. The PSL however doesn't get reworked. Even though it's very close to it's military version, so long as they remove the bayonet lug it's still importable even without US parts.

Bush Sr. did this by executive order back around 1990. If I remember right, the evil features are high cap mags, pistol grips, bayonet lugs, flash suppressors, barrel shrouds, folding stocks and grenade launchers.
 
Nice saigas Fudd, I still like the PSL better. Every .308 saiga I see now has gone from @ 385.00 to 585.00. add you're 325.00 trigger/pistol grip conversion, then a decent stock and a scope. not to mention the high, high cost of .308 ammo. Common Fudd, we're defiantly in over a grand by now. :neener: but, i'll give one...I'm going to Tacoma to get that AR10!!!!:) Thats a great price.
 
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add you're 325.00 trigger/pistol grip conversion, then a decent stock and a scope.
Click to expand...

Conversion with out counting the the stock shouldn't cost anything close to $325. Even with the stock one can easily come in less than that. A simple one can run less than $200. I did see a sweet build that looked nearly identical to a PSL that I believe the owner was into around $1K total. I have seen some other really cool ones that I can only imagine how much was spent before it was all said and done.

It is true that saigas are not the amazing value they once were. They can still be had for a decent price if you hunt around. I recently paid $450 for a .308. Thats more than they were. There are people tryin gto get som absurd prices for saigas right now and I would walk away from those.
 
If you really are interested, they had that AR10 over at Mary's Pistols on Tyler street. I'd definitely call first though as they turn over inventory quickly and what's there one day isn't often there the next.

FWIW, I spent about $200 on the stock and pistol grip on the S308 and of course I made the stock myself on the first one, (sometimes I've got more time than money). Throw in $75 for the RSA trigger on the x39 and about $85 on the 308 and you're looking at most of the cost of conversion.
 
At any rate the thread was started by a guy who wanted PSL owners to help him decide if it was worth 750.00 for him to buy it. thanks for the other input tho. i believe Girodin said it best. not exactly his words but 1000.00$$ will get ya a saiga with the bells and whistles that the PSL shows up with for 750.00. and .308 is still way more expensive than 7.62x54r. enough dick flopping tho. I spent 750.00 on my new numbers matching PSL. nice rifle. I am thrilled with it and can only recommend it. If ya feel like spending a bunch of extra $$$ and waiting ....get a saiga...I did look into this option. Just too much work time and money to get it to look almost as cool. I have no doubt the saiga .308 gets ammo on target. I personally found the Veprs to have the best finish of all kalashnikovs. saigas are ok tho.
 
The Saiga won't shoot as good as the PSL, either. They're made to different standards. Romania actually tries to get the PSL's around 1 MOA, whereas for Saigas anything less than 3 is acceptable.
 
Yeah!!! Go Mikes!!!!! Mikes! Mikes! Mikes! Mikes! hahahhahahaha!!!!! :neener:


oh man now I'm getting just petty. I'll stop it.
 
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