[ArtFWTx]

Valmets and the Israeli Galils are the best of the AK type rifles. I've seen Valmets before, they're pretty rare now days. My brother had an actual Israeli Galil ARM in 5.56 imported before the ban that was a very tight and accurate rifle. The Galil was based on the Valmet if I recall. The Galil was somewhat heavier than an AR, but had a cool folding stock and came with tritium night sights.

If you like it, buy it. They're collectible now so I'm sure you'd get your money back if you ever tired of it.

Century Arms is importing Galil kits and assembling them here in the US and I've seen them around $700 at area gun shows. I held one that had everything correct except the tritium sights were past their life or were missing.

 

[ArtFWTx]

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

My AK103.com Saiga conversion gets a solid 1 inch at 100 with Wolf ammo. I sighted in my Cobra red dot on top of that gun and I was very pleasantly surprised at the accuracy.

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

Again, this is anecdotal, no figures to back it up, just impressions of guns I have handled over the last few years.
So, ultimately, the question is: how much accuracy do you really need......?

Custom1911fan, nice post, very informative. I wouldn't know from experience as you obviously write about, but it is noteworthy how opinions differ on weapon capabilities when you compare the rifle's performance on a paper target to actually seeing the weapon being used on the field either as a witness or as a target of said weapons.

Do you have any opinions on the Dragunov iterations running around also? I've toyed with the idea of buying a Dragunov copy before they are no longer importable, such as the Romanian Romak-3. You see them, and some of the pre-ban Russian Tigers (importable Dragunov sporters) from time to time at reasonable prices.

 

[ArtFWTx]

Thanks. I'll check out those forums and ask around.