Gord
Member
None of my searched results have really given me any leads (probably because of caliber) so...
I'm in the market for an AK-pattern rifle, with November looming (actually, it's high time I got one anyway - I like the ergos) but, being that 7.62x39 is so high and still rising, I'm looking to jump on the 5.45x39 wagon and ride that baby all the way to the end of the line.
Yeah, I know, foreign ammo, surplus availability, etc., etc. - heard all the arguments, certainly doesn't seem to be stopping anyone from buying K-31s and GP-11. At least 5.45 is being made commercially in Russia. I can buy 2k rounds of 5.45 for the price of 1k rounds of 7.62, too, so I should be able to accumulate a nice pile of ammo before anything drastic happens.
Anyway - my local shop has a WASR-2 for $389, and it's not a bad little gun, but... it's a WASR. I have absolutely no experience with AKs, but on all the WASR-10s I've fondled, the mags seem to wobble quite a bit more than I feel comfortable with. The WASR-2 has a less pronounced wobble, but it's still there and it still feels like a little more than I'd like. I've handled two or three higher-end AKs with magwell dimples and the wobble is hardly there at all.
Thing is, I really don't want to spend $600 to $700 on an AK. I realize that the glory days of $200-250 WASRs are over, but all I can seem to find is those for $350-400, and high-end US AK builds for $600 on up (and the "on up" part goes by pretty quickly, too). I can think of a lot of guns I'd rather spend seven to eight hundred bucks on than an AK.
I don't need pretty, I just need functional and a mag that doesn't have twenty degrees of lateral wobble. Is there a 5.45 AK with dimples and a receiver untouched by Century's horde of liquored-up dremel surgeons out there for $400-500, or am I really going to have to choose between a sub-$400 monkey job and an $800 blacked-out monument to Why Didn't I Just Buy An (AR, FAL, CETME, PTR-91, and so on)?
I'm in the market for an AK-pattern rifle, with November looming (actually, it's high time I got one anyway - I like the ergos) but, being that 7.62x39 is so high and still rising, I'm looking to jump on the 5.45x39 wagon and ride that baby all the way to the end of the line.
Yeah, I know, foreign ammo, surplus availability, etc., etc. - heard all the arguments, certainly doesn't seem to be stopping anyone from buying K-31s and GP-11. At least 5.45 is being made commercially in Russia. I can buy 2k rounds of 5.45 for the price of 1k rounds of 7.62, too, so I should be able to accumulate a nice pile of ammo before anything drastic happens.
Anyway - my local shop has a WASR-2 for $389, and it's not a bad little gun, but... it's a WASR. I have absolutely no experience with AKs, but on all the WASR-10s I've fondled, the mags seem to wobble quite a bit more than I feel comfortable with. The WASR-2 has a less pronounced wobble, but it's still there and it still feels like a little more than I'd like. I've handled two or three higher-end AKs with magwell dimples and the wobble is hardly there at all.
Thing is, I really don't want to spend $600 to $700 on an AK. I realize that the glory days of $200-250 WASRs are over, but all I can seem to find is those for $350-400, and high-end US AK builds for $600 on up (and the "on up" part goes by pretty quickly, too). I can think of a lot of guns I'd rather spend seven to eight hundred bucks on than an AK.
I don't need pretty, I just need functional and a mag that doesn't have twenty degrees of lateral wobble. Is there a 5.45 AK with dimples and a receiver untouched by Century's horde of liquored-up dremel surgeons out there for $400-500, or am I really going to have to choose between a sub-$400 monkey job and an $800 blacked-out monument to Why Didn't I Just Buy An (AR, FAL, CETME, PTR-91, and so on)?
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