[sharpshooter08]

Hey guys I just picked up a WASR-10 AK the other day and looking to get rid of the wood furniture. I wanted to find out if any of you know of some picture threads or videos of the wood foregrips being removed and replaced with either a quad rail or standard handguards.

I am knew to the AK and looking for pics with instructions or videos only please.

 

[joshuades]

I could giv eyou a rundown on how to take them off. Putting on other furniture is about if not exactly the reverse. I haven't pics, though, so I guess I'm last ditch if it comes to that.

 

[sharpshooter08]

I could giv eyou a rundown on how to take them off. Putting on other furniture is about if not exactly the reverse. I haven't pics, though, so I guess I'm last ditch if it comes to that.

Josh any chance you could take pics with a step by step instruction?

 

[fireguy]

Proceed with caution, is the message I've read.

There's a G&A "Book of the AK-47" magazine out now that might be good reading. It's not right in front of me at the moment, but it contains an article about swapping furniture on AKs. One of the take-home messages is that since many variants were built without any such thing as mil-spec tolerances, a furniture re-do often requires some Dremel work and cursing. (My paraphrase.) I hope such is not the case with the WASR-10, but if the article's predictions hold true in your case you may want to think carefully about replacing the furniture. I.e., if you just want a new look, it might not be worth the work. Having recently disasembled my Maadi AK clone and seen the "craftsmanship" that went into the creation of the wood furniture, I'd probably elect to leave it as-is.

 

[sharpshooter08]

Proceed with caution, is the message I've read.

There's a G&A "Book of the AK-47" magazine out now that might be good reading. It's not right in front of me at the moment, but it contains an article about swapping furniture on AKs. One of the take-home messages is that since many variants were built without any such thing as mil-spec tolerances, a furniture re-do often requires some Dremel work and cursing. (My paraphrase.) I hope such is not the case with the WASR-10, but if the article's predictions hold true in your case you may want to think carefully about replacing the furniture. I.e., if you just want a new look, it might not be worth the work. Having recently disasembled my Maadi AK clone and seen the "craftsmanship" that went into the creation of the wood furniture, I'd probably elect to leave it as-is.

Thanks for the tip fireguy. I actually have the ak magazine your talking about and will have to look through it again. I already have a quad rail picked out that is for WASR-10 but I will keep in mind about what you said on using a dremel in cse I run into problems.

 

[ArtFWTx]

http://www.k-var.com/shop/home.php

Some goodies to drool over.

 

[joshuades]

Josh any chance you could take pics with a step by step instruction?

I"m at work right now, if you give me until tomorrow, I could probably put something together (working evening today). If you have to dremel your new grips, make sure to go slow so as not to take too much off the parts. It's true they may need some fitting, but I've found if you're good at whittling, it won't be a problem.

 

[Clint]

Check this out too.
http://www.ultimak.com/

Especially the replacement railed gas tube.

 

[sharpshooter08]

Check this out too.
http://www.ultimak.com/

Especially the replacement railed gas tube.

Thanks clint I might keep this site in mind for a future AK buils as I like the rails and foregrips the have!

http://www.k-var.com/shop/home.php

Some goodies to drool over.

Thanks Art I actually have had a chance to look over that site but didnt see anything I like. This the for grip Im planning on getting WASR Foregrip

I"m at work right now, if you give me until tomorrow, I could probably put something together (working evening today). If you have to dremel your new grips, make sure to go slow so as not to take too much off the parts. It's true they may need some fitting, but I've found if you're good at whittling, it won't be a problem.

No problem Josh I have plenty of time to wait, and thanks again for helping me out with this.

 

[joshuades]

I'll also throw out something for you to look at. I've got one of these on mine and will put them on subsequent AKs I get.

http://www.mojosights.com/ak47_sks.html

 

[joshuades]

Okay, I've got the pictures out (new to photobucket). I'll post the pic and then explain What is going on below, because I have to figure out what pic I put up before I talk about it.

Here is the rifle broken down into its basic disassembly for cleaning. From here you can get to the handguards.

These three are a progression of taking the top handguard off. It is held in place by two flanges and you'll have to rotate the handguard around the piston tube so it will move out from under the flanges.

This one is a picture of the front cap of the lower handguard. The laver at the right side of the cap rotates to unlock from a groove in the barrel.

From there you just pull the back of the handguard foward out or the reciever.

And don't forget (like I did while doing this) to remove the cleaning rod from its storage space as it is stored through the lower handguard. The handguard gets bafflingly hard to remove like that.

This is with all the front disassembled. If you need, I can photo taking other things apart on it as well if you come across something else.

This is a pic of the mojo sights I threw a link up for. It's a plain old apeture sight and doesn't seem like much of an improvement, but it makes a difference over the blade sight that used to be there.

 

[sharpshooter08]

Awsome thanks for the post up Josh!

 

[joshuades]

No prob. If I had the presence of mind, I'd have taken the whole thing apart. When I got it, I had to figure out what did what and then put it all to pieces to see. I have to say, the retaining wire for the trigger and hammer pins are a pain in the ass to get back right. Supprisingly though, I stoned the sear engagements on the trigger and hammer and now have a smooth as silk pull on this beast. I'm at work again right now, but I might do up some more on this rifle since I've already been through putting it to pieces and know how to put it all back. It's good to know the ins and outs of every weapon you have in case you need to know it.

On a side note: please pay no mind to the penguine sheets. It's my wife's fault.

 

[sharpshooter08]

On a side note: please pay no mind to the penguine sheets. It's my wife's fault.

LOL I didnt even notice until you pointed them out! Did they come with matching pillow cases

 

[Raph]

Check this out too.
http://www.ultimak.com/

I've ordered from here several times... I really like these guys!

 

[joshuades]

LOL I didnt even notice until you pointed them out! Did they come with matching pillow cases

Unfortunately.

 

[Bubba FAL]

+1 on the PITA shepherds crook (pin retainer).

Do yourself a favor and get the flat spring steel retainer (installs like an FAL pin retainer plate) from Power Custom (AKA Red Star Arms). I believe Brownells carries them now, too. Best $10-12 you can spend on an AK.

 

[sharpshooter08]

+1 on the PITA shepherds crook (pin retainer).

Do yourself a favor and get the flat spring steel retainer (installs like an FAL pin retainer plate) from Power Custom (AKA Red Star Arms). I believe Brownells carries them now, too. Best $10-12 you can spend on an AK.

Bubba if your talking about what goes inside tokeep the tripper group from shaking around that actually came wtiht the rifle.

 

[Jack-O]

SS08,
I really hate seeng a perfectly good AK get bubba'd. If you live in Arizona there is a training company there called Suarez International. They teach the worlds best AK classes and they have some coming up pretty soon. http://www.suarezinternational.com/tech.html get to the october series of classes with Gabe and Sonny Puzikas, and you will no longer want to add things like foregrips and quad rails.

They have come as close to perfecting the art of the AK as is currently possible. The mantra is "dont try to run your AK like an AR" and they are right!! The AK makes a lousy AR, and the more you try to make is one, the worse it will work.

What works for the AR just dont for and AK. examples

-foregrips interfere with proper and speedy insertion of the magazine. besides the magazine hold has been standard practice since the gun was made.
-Quad rails add cost and bulk to the AK and are largely unnecessary considering an Ultimak rail and a single 2" piece of rail on one side will do what you need (aimpoint and flashlight right?)
-flimsy stocks are bad on any gun. forget the collapsible AR type stocks as they are too weak for a fighting AK setup. stick with a warsaw length folder or solid stock.
-forget the target sights. the AK aint a target shooter and if you get 4-5" groups at 100 you are about perfect. Accuracy standard from the military was 6"
-dont buy US made magazines. stick with chinese or european steel mags or bulgarian circle 10 polymer ONLY.

Sorry bro, not trying to rain on your parade, but if you learn to run an AK like it was intended, then all of a sudden every little design "flaw" starts to make sense. It was the best money I ever spent, and now stock AK's look like lean mean fightin machines to me. Even WASR's (mine shoots good to 500 yards with a romanian wire folder, stock sights and wolf BTW)

YOU need to learn the gun, NOT make the gun learn you.

HTH

 

[sharpshooter08]

SS08,
I really hate seeng a perfectly good AK get bubba'd. If you live in Arizona there is a training company there called Suarez International. They teach the worlds best AK classes and they have some coming up pretty soon. http://www.suarezinternational.com/tech.html get to the october series of classes with Gabe and Sonny Puzikas, and you will no longer want to add things like foregrips and quad rails.

They have come as close to perfecting the art of the AK as is currently possible. The mantra is "dont try to run your AK like an AR" and they are right!! The AK makes a lousy AR, and the more you try to make is one, the worse it will work.

What works for the AR just dont for and AK. examples

-foregrips interfere with proper and speedy insertion of the magazine. besides the magazine hold has been standard practice since the gun was made.
-Quad rails add cost and bulk to the AK and are largely unnecessary considering an Ultimak rail and a single 2" piece of rail on one side will do what you need (aimpoint and flashlight right?)
-flimsy stocks are bad on any gun. forget the collapsible AR type stocks as they are too weak for a fighting AK setup. stick with a warsaw length folder or solid stock.
-forget the target sights. the AK aint a target shooter and if you get 4-5" groups at 100 you are about perfect. Accuracy standard from the military was 6"
-dont buy US made magazines. stick with chinese or european steel mags or bulgarian circle 10 polymer ONLY.

Sorry bro, not trying to rain on your parade, but if you learn to run an AK like it was intended, then all of a sudden every little design "flaw" starts to make sense. It was the best money I ever spent, and now stock AK's look like lean mean fightin machines to me. Even WASR's (mine shoots good to 500 yards with a romanian wire folder, stock sights and wolf BTW)

YOU need to learn the gun, NOT make the gun learn you.

HTH

Thanks for the tips Jack-O but Im not looking to run my ak like an ar and I did read the same article out of G&A mag on thr AK-47, so nice qoutes btw from Gabe Saurez. Im also not looking ot put a collapsible stock on either Im putting a KVar folding stock, the stock that was recomended. The whole reason for the quad rail was so I can put a red dot sight for easier target aquasition. I familiar with the ulitmack items also but had purchased the quad rail first before I came across the ulitmak.

And for the Suarez school I fully aware of it, but all the basic AK gunfighting classes are booked for the year.