[owenslee]

Re: Accurate AKs??? Yes, It's Possible

There is a hierarchy of Aks in the world, just do your research on which brands are higher quality and go from there. From my personal experience, here is my breakdown of quality, based on what I have seen:

Russian
Bulgarian
Polish
E German
Yugo
Chinese (milled)
Romanian
Egypt
Iraqi

When I was in Vietnam I had the opportunity to work with a LOT of Chinese AK's. I was assigned the task of converting battlefield pickups to "war trophy's" that met the letter of the then current ATF regs. In each case, I removed the lower handguard, cut a slot through the bottom of the chamber and bore, used a stick welder to run a bead of 7018 rod the length of the chamber, and reattached the handguard. In this form, a round could not be chambered and were legally "deactivated" and were now legal bring backs. (Yes...I know the policy today is different.) In the late 60's and early 70's these were a hot commodity among young Naval Officers.

What I observed was a very wide variation in quality between the Chinese AK's depending on arsenal of manufacture. The stamped steel receiver guns, were generally of poor fit and finish...but functional. However, milled receiver fixed stock rifles made at Arsenal #26 were...OUTSTANDING. They were superior in fit and finish to the Bulgarian milled, and stamped Yugo and Romanian AK's I own today. Some of you may remember the AK "Legend Series" that was imported many years ago with the ox blood fixed stocks and hand checkered grips. These semi auto AK's were made at Arsenal 26 and are a good find if you stumble across one at a gun show. They are a near duplicate of the high quality Chinese AK's I handled in service.

Regarding their accuracy...I cannot comment. But they were very well made.

Kerry