Genuine Russian AK parts kits.

[dnepro-mike]

I have access to some freshly imported very rare Russian parts kits: AKM, AKS-74U and AK-74.
All demiled from unissued rifles. All matching numbers, excellent condition.
AKM (laminated wood) and AK-74 (synthetic, plum) are have Izhmash proof marks
AKS-74U (laminated wood) have Tula proof marks.
Also correct original Russian slings, pouches and mag speed-loaders available.
Very rare and not cheap.

 

[Boghog1]

Are they inexpensive?

 

[dnepro-mike]

Are they inexpensive?

yes, quite expansive because if the rarity

 

[flintoid]

Every single one of us has access to them too.

http://www.rguns.net/gunparts/rifle-parts-AK.shtml

They've been for sale for quite some time (a few for 2 years, the refurbed Izzy AKMs are fairly recent). They're as "rare" as those guys over there have been claiming they are. "Limited Supply" has meant very little- there have been several hundred AKSUs sold and they're still selling.

I bought one a few weeks back. They are beautiful but they are expensive.

Unless you are selling kits with original barrels, or for considerably less than what rguns is pitching them for, you won't get much interest.

The Tula AKSUs are non refurbs. As original as they can get. The Izzy AKMs are refurbs much like the Tula AKM kits that hit the market last year and are still for sale at sportsmansguide sometimes. The Izzy AK-74s are non-refurbs.

I also "have access" to laminate Izhevsk AK-74s. They're kinda expensive but sure are pretty.

 

[Boghog1]

650 for a parts kit is nuts!

 

[flintoid]

650 for a parts kit is nuts!

It is. You just have to give a shit about real russian parts. I have a few Russian kits just because they're banned form import and feel like I am murdering thousands of liberals every time I pick them up. They're starting to trickle in now that they've sat in Bulgaria for so long (they've been de-naturalized from Russia in the .gov's eyes) and Bulgaria is killing off 7.62x39 as deployable firepower.

I paid quite a bit more for a PLO milled Izhevsk 1952 type 3 kit. If you want to play ball with russian kits, you gotta pay now a days.

 

[Boghog1]

The beauty of the AK is the cost along with the dependability but at those prices I could never justify an AK. are the russian really that much better? or is it a status type thing?

 

[dnepro-mike]

Hmm, they told me me it's a fresh shipment from Ukraine. I haven't seen it on their website before, but I also haven't been specifically looking either. I just learned about it today when I called-in with my Mosin-Nagant barreled action that they just re-stocked again.

I thought price was on the high side but quick search revealed that this stuff is otherwise unavailable elsewhere hence they can demand whatever they want.

SAD, I thought to spark some interest and maybe get some people ganged-up for a group buy and save some $

Every single one of us has access to them too.

http://www.rguns.net/gunparts/rifle-parts-AK.shtml

They've been for sale for quite some time (a few for 2 years, the refurbed Izzy AKMs are fairly recent). They're as "rare" as those guys over there have been claiming they are. "Limited Supply" has meant very little- there have been several hundred AKSUs sold and they're still selling.

I bought one a few weeks back. They are beautiful but they are expensive.

Unless you are selling kits with original barrels, or for considerably less than what rguns is pitching them for, you won't get much interest.

The Tula AKSUs are non refurbs. As original as they can get. The Izzy AKMs are refurbs much like the Tula AKM kits that hit the market last year and are still for sale at sportsmansguide sometimes. The Izzy AK-74s are non-refurbs.

I also "have access" to laminate Izhevsk AK-74s. They're kinda expensive but sure are pretty.

 

[dnepro-mike]

The beauty of the AK is the cost along with the dependability but at those prices I could never justify an AK. are the russian really that much better? or is it a status type thing?

Yep, it's all about the make and origin.

Can you justify paying a grand for Arsenal SGL tricked out saiga?

 

[flintoid]

The beauty of the AK is the cost along with the dependability but at those prices I could never justify an AK. are the russian really that much better? or is it a status type thing?

It's not really a status thing. It's a genre thing.

Do you want to build a AK from parts that came from a plant that was supervised by the rifle's inventor? Or do you want parts from it's red headed sister plant that had peculiar quirks?

Or do you want AK parts from a plant in romania operated by a bunch of disgruntled drunks? (I do. Because every plant has quirks that can be traced by year, etc.)

Izhevsk made all of the "new" improvements to the AKM before anyone else. Like switching to cast parts instead of mill cut parts. They switched to higher stock combs earlier. Their handguard bulges are all square. Tula wood grain is more defined and curvacious. Their shelac is darker red with more iodine. The plant fonts are all unique to their respective dies. Tula proof marks are hexagonal and circular, while Izhevsk proofs are usually triangle / angular and diamond shaped.

There are quirks to them that make them delicious to a AKM geek. An AKM part that came from The Soviet Union. Where they were invented and perfected.

The level of geekiness I have for them is immense- I refuse to build the kits that I can rivet together in 5 minutes because I won't put them on anything less than an expensive AKM replica receiver that has the correct radii on the sheet metal bends, the correct font on the FCG labeling, or the correct shape mag well dimples.


It's a AK thing I suppose.

 

[Boghog1]

Nope

 

[flintoid]

SAD, I thought to spark some interest and maybe get some people ganged-up for a group buy and save some $

Not with RGUNS. They won't ever give you a discount for quantity orders.

You can sometimes snipe these kits off of forum classifieds when people buy them on impulse and realize that they're in over their head. It also allows you to cherry pick what it will look like.

For instance- I had to return a AKSU kit to Rguns because the selector was smashed. It was electropenciled to the kit, so I didn't want a replacement- I wanted the whole kit replaced as I was paying $750 for a matching kit, not a mostly matching one. They were a pain in the ass to deal with about it.

 

[dnepro-mike]

I though we are not supposed to post links out in the open? Martha's and minions are out on the look out.

 

[flintoid]

Tula AKM kit:

Tula AKSU kit:

I haven't picked up the Izzy kit yet and probably own't. It's steep for a refurb kit. The font looks Izzy, so odds are it was refurbed in Izhevsk, or it was refurbed and not scrubbed. But the handguards and stocks aren't original to the rifle, and the paint is the shit-tastic "refurb black" paint.

If they were non-refurb kits, I'd be on it like flies on shit. They look good- don't get me wrong. But they are priced $200 too much IMO, considering Tula kits like them went for $300 last year (non matching, but with a little bit of foot work it's not hard to get them matching via trade or scrubbing).

 

[dnepro-mike]

It's not really a status thing. It's a genre thing.

Do you want to build a AK from parts that came from a plant that was supervised by the rifle's inventor? Or do you want parts from it's red headed sister plant that had peculiar quirks?

Or do you want AK parts from a plant in romania operated by a bunch of disgruntled drunks? (I do. Because every plant has quirks that can be traced by year, etc.)

Izhevsk made all of the "new" improvements to the AKM before anyone else. Like switching to cast parts instead of mill cut parts. They switched to higher stock combs earlier. Their handguard bulges are all square. Tula wood grain is more defined and curvacious. Their shelac is darker red with more iodine. The plant fonts are all unique to their respective dies. Tula proof marks are hexagonal and circular, while Izhevsk proofs are usually triangle / angular and diamond shaped.

There are quirks to them that make them delicious to a AKM geek. An AKM part that came from The Soviet Union. Where they were invented and perfected.

The level of geekiness I have for them is immense- I refuse to build the kits that I can rivet together in 5 minutes because I won't put them on anything less than an expensive AKM replica receiver that has the correct radii on the sheet metal bends, the correct font on the FCG labeling, or the correct shape mag well dimples.


It's a AK thing I suppose.

I concur...

 

[dnepro-mike]

they sure look beautiful.
I would like to add AKSU to my collection some day but living in MA gives me little hope of how soon that might actually be.
Unfortunately, I can't really afford it either, I just dropped some pretty penny on the new mill and can't spare a dime as conversio to CNC is gonna cost as much as mill itself if not more.[sad2]
Envious of you flintoid

 

[flintoid]

Envious of you flintoid

Don't be- they're nice and all but they're impractical AKs... which is an oxymoron. I paid hundreds for parts of a rifle that probably cost $35 to manufacture.

At the rate of their sales and whatnot, they'll be around for a while. I don't doubt it one bit. In fact, I bet there will be more variants imported- the Izzy AKM kits are a brand new batch, and a good sign of things to come. In the last 1.5 years, Russian kits have hit the market in mass quantity. Before that, there were only the PLO kits, which numbered in the 100's. I got a mismatched PLO type 3 that was $500 plus around $200 in missing parts.

Just start saving and you'll be able to get a kit or two. I made sure to buy the barrels for the kits while they were available. Now I can sit on them and wait to build them when I decide to pull the trigger on the custom receivers...

 

[dnepro-mike]

I paid hundreds for parts of a rifle that probably cost $35 to manufacture.

I remember reading somewhere that at the time when AKM ws replaced by AK74 cost to manufacture one gun was around 1500 rubles.
Even these days with all the mass production improvements and advents of CNC age, I still can't agree that manufacture costs $35.
Modern Russia is not like China and labor there is not cheap at all. Surely it nowhere near the level of US labor, but still not as cheap as one might think.
I'm still wondering how are we able to buy saigas for $299 a pop assuming that both suppliers and middle men make their few bucks on t as well.

 

[drgrant]

I remember reading somewhere that at the time when AKM ws replaced by AK74 cost to manufacture one gun was around 1500 rubles.
Even these days with all the mass production improvements and advents of CNC age, I still can't agree that manufacture costs $35.

Well, it probably did, believe it or not. Not all that long ago Sarkis Soghanalian was selling real AKMs to some pisspot rebels in south america for $76 a pop wholesale. That's with his profit added in too, btw.

Most of the price on US imported semi AKs is all fluff or overhead. The middlemen are making a ton of money because of all the red tape involved in just getting them here, particularly with regards to the fact that a lot of things like WASRs etc essentially have to be converted when they come off the boat in the US. All of that adds cost or adds a stage for them to make excuses about cost. The prices will never reach what they should be because demand is too high in the US market.


-Mike

 

[SKS Ray]

I remember reading somewhere that at the time when AKM ws replaced by AK74 cost to manufacture one gun was around 1500 rubles.
Even these days with all the mass production improvements and advents of CNC age, I still can't agree that manufacture costs $35.
Modern Russia is not like China and labor there is not cheap at all. Surely it nowhere near the level of US labor, but still not as cheap as one might think.
I'm still wondering how are we able to buy saigas for $299 a pop assuming that both suppliers and middle men make their few bucks on t as well.

I think one of the reasons were seeing $299 Saigas is because distributors don't want to get stuck with a bunch of them now that the new ones are coming in with handguard retainers and AK front end furniture.

Sent from my Ally using Tapatalk

 

[paulleve]

Just like every aspect of this hobby (addiction?) there are the common finds and the rare ones. Military AK's can not be imported directly from Russia, so they are somewhat of a Holy Grail to the AK collector. As Flintoid said, prior to recent years the only kits available in the states were the PLO captures and those were limited in number and pretty beat at that. I lucked into a non-matching PLO Izzy underfolder for a reasonable price back in '05, but decided a few years ago that I couldn't justify Massifying it by pinning the stock, grinding the bayo lugs, and attaching the brake on such a rare kit. As much as I wanted a Russian AK, I found someone who wanted one more and we both ended up very happy in the deal!

 

[flintoid]

I wish I could have bought that off of you. Damn.

 

[paulleve]

I wish I could have bought that off of you. Damn.

You probably wouldn't have wanted to pay what the buyer decided to offer up! In the end, the kit was paid for and I was able to put together an RPK-74 with the proceeds.

Here are a few pics of the kit, including the certificate of authenticity verifying that it was one of the PLO captures.