When did AK's first come to America?

[The Exile]

Kinda curious to hear the story, I have to assume the then commies weren't exactly fond of selling their tools of revolution to a bunch of yankees as toys.

 

[mnrivrat]

To the best of my recall that would be in 1986 - 1987 . That is at least close as I had just gotton my FFL about the time China started shipping guns to the USA. My first purchases were a Polytech AK that was discounted because they had been used in a movie. Mine however was never out of its sealed bag.
I paid $250 and that included 500 rounds of ammo.
I sold it quickly and bought some new Norinco's for $265 ea. I also bought used SKS's for I think $150 or three guns. Then Some C96 Broomhandle Mauders that were well worn but complete for somthing like $65.

Non exacting answer is sometime in the second half of the 1980's.

 

[yugorpk]

It was before that. Maadi's were in the country 81-82 ish maybe 83. Thats what they used in the movie Red Dawn. OK technically the Valmet came first. Kasnar Hungarians also made it in early to mid 80's. Chinese maybe 84-85 . Then there were a select few amnesty full auto Vietnam bring backs.

I know I bought a Milled Chinese AK through Navy arms in 87 and they had been importing for a few years at that point. It wasnt cheap either. Paid $650 for it Rod and Gun in Darmstadt Germany ( Full retail ) ..

I remember paying $35 for a 1000 rounds of that crappy chinese steel core

 

[mcduck]

Those Maadis were originally priced at $2,000. That's a lot now, and a lot more in 1982. I always wondered how many were sold at that price before things started getting real.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Interarms brought in Valmets in the seventies.
Steyr-America brought in Maadis in the early eighties.

 

[lysanderxiii]

I am fairly certain a few came into the US during the late 1960....

 

[TRX]

I'm pretty sure the Valmets were first in the commercial market. I remember looking at them in the early '80s. Way out of my price range.

Only the bolt, recoil spring, and the fire control group from the Valmet directly interchange with any AKM bits; they were more like "next generation" AKs. I'm fairly sure small quantities started trickling in in the late 1970s.

The earliest "traditional" commercially-available AK I can think of was the Maadi.

 

[Walkalong]

In the early 80's there were racks of $150 AKs and $80 SKS's. Then Clinton started trying to ban things and the price went up, and up, and....

 

[MAKster]

I agree that AKs didn't become common in the U.S. until mid-1980s. That's when all the Chinese AK and SKS rifles started being sold at gun shows dirt cheap.

 

[Walkalong]

Come to think about it, you are right, that was 84/85ish, not early 80,s. I had just gotten married.

 

[yugorpk]

Oops . Forgot about the Mitchell imported Yugoslave M70's and M72's. 85-86 if memory serves me right. They were always on the high price range side along with the Kassnar Hungarians

I never saw a $150 AK from any maker until the Romanian crap and the $110 Saigas came in.

 

[Tirod]

American military had all they needed and SF cross trained on them before Vietnam. Semi auto imports were mostly Valmet which competed with the HK series in the 70's on price. From there the M1A and FNFAL were the other choices up the ladder for the enterprising contractor (aka Soldier of Fortune.)

Colt was about it for the AR15 and the cartridge was the main factor in limiting sales - everyone knew Real Men used .30 cal of one kind or another - or at least that is what the loudest voices kept repeating.

Wasn't necessarily so and even the AK downsized later.

 

[Dr.Rob]

I remember Chinese AK's in Woolworth's sporting goods department of all places, in the late 80's.

Looked through my 1981 Gun Digest, it's AK free. No Valmet, no Norinco. Doesn't mean they weren't in there before and after,

Armalite, Auto Ordnance, Colt, Commando Arms, FN-FAL, Iver Johnson, Ruger, Sig-AMT, Springfield, Wilkinson and Uzi were all there.

 

[entropy]

I remember the Valmets in the early 70's Gun Digests; first one I saw in a store was about '78. Maadis were coming in shortly after that, maybe '80, '81.

 

[bannockburn]

Earliest listing I could find for Valmet AKs was the 1976 edition of Gun Digest. The M62S in 7.62x39 was $329 for the metal stock version, $339 for the wood stock. The M72S in .223 was $349 with a resin stock and $359 with a wood stock.

 

[ATLDave]

I assure you, the Soviets weren't worried about a design that had been in service, in combat, and captured in the millions, finding its way into the hands of American civilians.

 

[bannockburn]

I recall seeing ads for Chinese SKS carbines and AK rifles in a couple of gun magazines (I think one of the early importers was Clayco out of Kansas City, Kansas), and that non-corrosive 7.62x39 ammo was also showing up in the marketplace. My brother and I split a case of it and I still have some of it around. Believe that was back in the early '80s, like '82 or '83.

 

[Sam1911]

So, what was the first time you saw or got to handle a 5.45mm -74, then?

I'm thinking very late '90s? I hadn't seen one until '02 or '03 I'm sure.

 

[buckhorn_cortez]

I used to go shooting with a guy in 1982-83 who owned a Valmet. Another friend owned an AR and I had a Mini-14. That was the first AK style rifle I saw or shot.

 

[The_Armed_Therapist]

I have an Great Uncle who brought one home after WWI. He used it to kill some of Hitler's top aides. It was given to him by a Russian general who worked directly for Lenin.

 

[Sistema1927]

Probably commercially available in quantity in the mid-80's, but I saw one in this country in 1969. Doubt to this day that it ever made it into the MG registry.

 

[yugorpk]

First AK74 I saw was in 1987 in East Berlin at the Soviet war memorial. That probably doesnt count though.

The next one was in 1998 as a semi import and was one of the first in the country. Still couldnt get ammo for it.

 

[390ish]

Saw a Clayco up for auction around here about a year and a half ago. Had a funky stock. Went for good money.


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[bannockburn]

Here's a photo from the 1976 Gun Digest that I found that had the Valmets listed. I can remember seeing a couple of M62s with the metal stock and the M72S with the resin stock at various gun shows over the years.

 

[Onmilo]

Here's a photo from the 1976 Gun Digest that I found that had the Valmets listed. I can remember seeing a couple of M62s with the metal stock and the M72S with the resin stock at various gun shows over the years.

In 1973 Bobby Onco was photographed brandishing a Vietnam captured AK47 at the Wounded Knee brew haha.
I remember the Valmet rifles being actually available for sale in 1977.
The Maadi's were available by 1980
In 88-89 the floodgates started to open.
Prior to that you couldn't find ANY 7.62X39 ammunition but for Valmet and it was priced something around $50 for twenty rounds.