How to buy an AK47
Part One - We compare two
'Bulgarian' style AK47 builds
The AK47
we all like them (why else would you be reading this?)
But how do we know which one to buy??
If I had $1 for each time someone
asked me 'what AK47 is best" or "Which AK7 should
I buy?" I would be a very rich man. No one has ever given me
a dollar though.. they usually do say thank you however so I'm
not bitter |
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Anyway
in an effort to answer this question I spent a few hours getting
this AK47 buyers guide made up. Well at least the first part...
Let's compare
two Bulgarian style AK47 rifles made here in the US, i will not mention
the builders because I am going to nag and
complain a lot about these rifles and I don't want to
make it seem like I am complaining about these builders specifically. Anyone
can have a bad day, and poor rifles do get built just as
high quality rifles are made. I happen to have found
two examples of poor quality however.
Both of
these examples are built on Romanian
'G' kits and use black plastic
furnatue whichgives them a Bulgarian or Russian 'look' The US
parts also satisfy the requirements of 922r
One aspect that makes purchasing
an AK47 difficult is the fact that the parts do not make
up the whole, if you follow me. You can take great
parts and use the to make a sloppy poor quality AK47, and on the other
extreme I've seen builders that know what they are doing take very
poor parts kits and make them into really nice rifles or pistols
One of the first things
you'll notice on these two examples is the finishes. The
top one in the pic to the right (the lighter one) is parkerized
while the other is painted.
Which
is better? as always, it depends. The Russians did
both, they basicaly first parkerized then painted, only
a few US builders do that much. Most do paint or Blue, some
parkerize and other finishes are also applied. For
the typical use of a civilian AK any of these finishes
will work just fine, so buy theone you like the looks
of.
So here are some tips, These
are in no particular order and many of the things a
collector looks for has nothing to do with what a target shooter or
action shooter might look for or need in their rifles. Keeping
that in mind here are things I look at on an AK47
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#1 & 2 - Where
the stock and receiver meet. Some will
say this is a function of the receiver. It's not, it's
a function of the receiver AND the rear trunnion.
The rear trunnion needs
to be installed correctly to light up with the rails
and receiver cover, but the sign of a good builder is the
ability to also light up this connection with a consistent and tight fit.
In this picture the #1 sample is much tighter than
the #2
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#3 & 4-
The selector markings.
Some AK receivers are marked, others aren't. I personally think english markings make
a soviet rifle look fake, sold rather not see anything. Some
collectors and enthusiasts add their own authentic markings in the native
languages as they would have been on the military counterpart
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#5 & 6-
The receiver dimples. Some have
correct dimples, some have ugly or weird looking 'dents' and
some of the most common imported sporting AKs have no dimples at
all. The dimple is important to me. It can be seen
from almost every angle and they really add to
the 'look' of the AK so missing or weird looking dimples can
really effect the overall look of the rifle in my opinion.
a 'real' Polish dimple
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a 'real' chinese dimple
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#7 & 8 -
The front trunnion.
The area where the front trunnion meets the barrel and front
handguards #7 in this photo is one of the worst (most extreme)
examples I've seen on
an AK
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#9 & 10 - Safety
fit with receiver cover .
The area where the safety meets
the receiver cover/ If
the front an rear trunnions are not installed well on
the receiver. And / or if the receiver holes are outof place,
the safety will have a poor fit. This won't affect use, but looks sloppy.
#9 is not too bad, but #10 is a poor fit
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This is the same picture as above
but with out the lines and numbers. Click small images to
see them larger
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#1 & 2 - Where
the handguard and
receiver meet. This
is a function of the front receiver
and how it's riveted to the receiver, the
sign of a good builder is the ability to make
this connection a tight fit.
In this picture the #2 sample
is much tighter than
the #1. In fact #1
looks like it's installed at an angle and shifted
over to our left
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#3 & 4- The
receiver rivets .
Some AK builders go
for accuracy to the original rifle, other builders could
care less how the real AKs looked and do their own style
of rivets, Sloppy builders tend to flatten their rivets to hide
tool marks and sloppy rivets
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#5 & 6- Magazine
well extremely oversized Look at the mag well
a tight fit means a mag that won't move and will feed better.
The sure sign of a sloppy AK47 build is a sloppy mag well
This picture shows two large openings
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This is the
same picture as above but with out the lines and numbers. Click
small image to see larger |
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#1 & 2 -
Trigger guard installed at an angle This
is a doctored
photo (the only one altered in this entire article) I
needed to exaggerate the kant of the trigger guard to
illustrate what to look for. I've never seen one
this extreme, but I have seen many of these installed
very sloppy on rifles for sale at gun shows. So flip a rifle over
and check this before buying
- #3 - Magazine
well extremely
oversized Look at the mag well a tight fit means
a mag that won't move and
will feed better. The sure sign of a sloppy AK47 build
is a sloppy mag well
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This is the same picture
as above but with out the lines and numbers. Click small image
to see larger |
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#1- White
lettering.
Some really like
this as an option. But it's easy to do this your yourself if you
want it, and can be difficult to remove if you
don't like it
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#2 -"G" Kit.
These are fine kits,
I own rifles made from these kits. But keep in
mind that a builder gets these cheaper than retail so if a rifle is built
on these kits but has a high price ask WHY that is
because these parts aren't more expensive than others
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#3 & 4 - Where
the handguard and receiver meet. This is another
view of the fit in this area. #4 is the very sloppy sample
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#5 - How
the top handguard fits. This isn't always the fault
of the builder, but a sloppy upper handguard is an eye sore,
This is a poor fitting example that looks as though it could
slip out of place easily
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#6 - The
receiver dimples. Looking
from this side, the dimple size and shape is most noticeable.Some have
correct dimples, some have ugly or weird looking 'dents'
and some of the most common imported sporting AKs have no
dimples at all.
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#7 - The
Gas Tube Fit .
Looking from this side, the
gas tube is at an angle. This is a result of the trunnion
installed poorly and throwing off all the angles of
the other parts of the rifle
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These are the
same views
as above but with out the lines and numbers. Click small image
to see larger
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#1 - How
the top handguard fits.
This isn't always the fault
of the builder, but a sloppy upper handguard is an eye sore, This
is a poor fitting example that looks as though it could slip out
of place easily
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#2 - "G" Kit.
These are fine kits, I own rifles made from these kits. These
samples the builders didn't take the time to cover or remove
the G from the original kit. Some builders do remove the 'G'
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#3 - Fit
of the Receiver Cover.
Some AK receiver covers fit tight, some just right and some are
almost always falling
off. Take a close look at this when buying
a US made AK for sure. Typically imported samples are better
fitting, but not always
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#4 & 5 - Line
of the Receiver & Barrel .
Most
of the
time this isn't an issue, but since this example
is extremely poor I'll highlight this potential
problem. #4 & 5 are lines drown along the
receiver extended out to the barrel. In example
#4 you see the typical situation where the
lines of the receiver are parallel to the
lines of the barrel and handguard,
in example #5 the poorly installed trunnion
is creating an angle in the barrel and handguards
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#6 - Receiver
Sides This
is another cosmetic issue but an important point for collectors.
The sides of the AK receiver are typically empty. No
military factories engraved things into their receivers Only imported
or US built receivers have engraving. So collectors
look for the least amount of 'stuff' Also rivets should look
tight and round. Other types of rivets, screws
and welds all distract from he overall 'look' of an AK47
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#7 & 8 - X
and Y Dimples This is another cosmetic issue
but again important to
a collector. The 'X' and 'Y' dimples are there to help keep
the trigger and hammer pins in place. Holes can be off
center and the dimples are sometimes gone. This ca affect
the operation of the rifle potentially by letting the
pins fall out
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#9& 10 - Where
the stock and receiver meet. Some will
say this is a function of the receiver. It's not, it's
a function of the receiver AND the rear trunnion.
The rear trunnion needs to be installed correctly
to light up with the rails and receiver cover,
but the sign of a good builder is the ability to also light up
this connection with a consistent and tight fit.
In this picture the #10 sample is much tighter than
the #9
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This is the same picture
as above but with out the lines and numbers. Click small image
to see larger |
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