The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

snayperskaya wrote:I have had a Saiga AK-103 and a 104 and currently have a Romanian Cugir Arsenal AKM and an AKMS underfolder.The Romanians are equally as accurate (I can drop Fig11s at Sennybridge out to 500m using ironsights with ease) as the Saigas and if anything the Saigas are finished a bit better.Saigas need a feed ramp/mag catch modification in order to accept milspec AK mags whereas the Romanians will take milspec mags from the word go as the have a correct AKM feed ramp fitted.My AKM has full Soviet laminated furniture fitted along with the correct Soviet 1000m rear sight and slant muzzle brake and is as close as you'll get to a Soviet AKM,as is my AKMS which I've also fitted a genuine Soviet stock to.
The Romanians we get are not to be confused with some of the ones the Yanks get, they had a version that originally have single stack mags and the mag well was opened up by the likes of Century who often did a half-arsed job of it.
Bulgarian AK's are very good quality with milled receivers, but sadly the one that Oleg at Rusmilitary is bringing in with the full length barrel is a .223 which is just wrong in my view.I personally wouldn't hesitate to buy another Romanian AK as my two have behaved pretty much flawlessly........But personally I would never fit a side charger thing as for me they spoil the look but each to their own I suppose.

My AKM, with Soviet laminate woodwork etc and Tula Arsenal Bakelite mag



AKMS with Soviet stock and handguards etc and Izhmash Bakelite mag


Saiga AK-103, I added a feed ramp to this one


And lastly my Saiga 104, with laminate handguards and pistol grip and a rare aluminium 30r paratrooper mag, these were experimental and not widely issued.It is topped off with a PK-A red dot sight.

snayperskaya wrote:Saigas need a feed ramp and the mag catch modifying as they are sold as a sporting rifle and a military feed ramp was deemed unnecessary and the Saiga specific mags have an additional bit of material at the front of the mag that acts as a ramp to guide the round up into the breech.On a Saiga there is an additional rivet (more of a hardened pin) on the left side that starts the bolt turning whereas on a military AK this is done by a protrusion on the feed ramp itself.
I don't mind the x39 Bulgarian AK Oleg is bringing in but I would prefer the full sized version in x39 as with that milled receiver you could make a nice type 2 AK-47 replica out of one.

The original AK-47 had a type 1 a/b receiver which was stamped, this was unreliable due to poor welds on the bolt carrier rails etc.Production switched to the type 2 a/b milled receiver, these were produced on adapted Mosin Nagant tooling and finally the type 3 a/b receiver ran until 1959 when the stamped type 4 a/b receiver was used for the AKM.Virtually every licensed and unlicensed copy of the AK is built on the AKM variant.With the a/b prefix a is for a fixed stock and b is for an underfolding stock.

snayperskaya wrote:He certainly is

There's a couple of Russian rifles I'd like to aquire before I'd be in the market for another AK so the Bulgarian can wait.

breacher wrote:VAL silent sniper ?

snayperskaya wrote:

breacher wrote:VAL silent sniper ?

I wish!!!, that and a Vintorez!.