When did AKs become available?

[THE DARK KNIGHT]

Just wondering out of boredom, when did the typical semi auto AK rifles become available in the USA? late 80's? Early 90's? Was there anything available earlier? What was the first kind to arrive? How about eastern bloc ones, were they available prior to the fall of the USSR?

 

[Shear_stress]

A few vet bringbacks were floating around aready when the Valmets started to hit the shores some time in the 70s. The Maadi was being imported by Steyr by about 1984 and was expensive (retailing for $995--in 1984 dollars), as was the ammo. I'm not sure when the first Chinese AKs started to come in, but it was around the same time (they were imported by Clayco).

 

[444]

Are you talking about semi-auto AK clones ?

I had a Norinco in about 1985

 

[Quiet]

Semi-auto only AKs started being imported into the USA around the late-1970s.

During the early-1980s, you could get Chinese (Norinco & Poly-Tech), Finnish (Valmets) and Yugoslavian (Mitchell Arms) semi-auto AKs.

Early-1990s, started to get Egyptian, Hungarian, Romanian and Russian semi-auto AKs.

 

[hank327]

The first semi-auto AKs that I remember being imported were the Steyr Maadis that were made in Egypt on Soviet tooling. They looked exactly like the AKMs the Soviets were using and as Shear Stress pointed out very expensive. This was around 1983 or 84 and these guns were used in the movie Red Dawn that came out about that time. Shortly after that is when the Chinese Aks started coming into the country. The first of these that I saw were the Claycos with a fixed synthetic stock version and an underfolder available. I bought one of the Clayco fixed stock models and still have it. Around 85 or 86 is when the other Chinese Aks from Norinco, Polytechnics etc started pouring in and the prices dropped. About the only European Aks I remember seeing before the ban by Bush Sr were the Hungarian AKMs. Those pre-ban Hungarians are some really nice Aks.

 

[CZguy]

I remember seeing semi-auto Chinese AKs at gun shows in the mid eighties for around $340.00.

 

[THE DARK KNIGHT]

Are you talking about semi-auto AK clones ?

First sentence of my post.

Thanks for the answers, guys.

 

[Dr.Rob]

Knows you could buy a folding stock AK at Woolworth's for like $279 while I was in college in the late 80's. oh those were the days. Thing is, ammo was pretty scarce for them.

 

[benEzra]

I almost bought a Chinese AK at my local Wal-Mart around 1989, an indication of how mainstream they were by that time. IIRC, price was under $400.

 

[John Parker]

Ammo was expensive during the '80's. All of it was being bought up in Egypt, Poland, and China and sent to a certain Central Asian country.

 

[Sebastian the Ibis]

I loved the gun rack at woolworths. Unfortunately I was only 8 then, and beaver traps were the most lethal item I could buy.

 

[armoredman]

Had a Hungarian on the ship in 88. Had a no namer in 85, don't remember what happened to it.

 

[Omaha-BeenGlockin]

Almost bought a Norinco AK when I was on a trip to Phoenix in '89---price was $289. Should have done it. This was just shortly before that scumbag shot up the schoolyard in Stockton---then things went all crazy.

Actually Christmas '88 ----now that I went and looked up the dates.