wasr 10 or build your own ak?

jeepsrt8

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To start off i have searched the forum for post like this and was un lucky. the question i have is am i better of purchasing a wasr 10 for 600 or trying to build my own? i live in Massachusetts so have to follow our silly laws. i have read online alot of bad reviews about the wasr and am very skeptical to spend 600 on an ak that was made by a drunk in Romania. the wasr for sale does accept the 30 round magazine and the wood is in great condition. if i am better of building my own ak any help on where to find the lower and parts kit would be most appreciated. thank you in advance for the help.
 
From what I have AK are a hell of a lot hard to "build" than an AR. Not sure what your experience level and/or access to tools is, but it's no simply task....

Lots of people on this board speak highly of sagias. After owning a WASR, I bite the bullet and bought a Polytech side folder. I love it.
 
wasr are hit or miss, the newer ones seem to have less problems. thing with building or assembling one yourself is decideing at what point do you want to start.
Do you want to start with a flat reciever and bend it yourself , buy all the parts or a parts kit? you will need tools and jigs.
Price out some parts kits and then you need to be 922 compliant ect ect. If you where to build several, say with friends investing in the jigs and tools wouldnt be so bad
to just one you may be better off knowing what to look for in a better wasr 10 or step up and purchase a norinco or polytech or such..
There are TONS of stuff on the internet with reguards to building firearms as for NES a member did post a great build post. Like you my search comes up nil.
Start here http://www.ak-47.us/AK-Build.php
 
If you buy the WASR just make sure you get to inspect and handle it a little before buying and check for the usual like canted sights. Most of the newer ones should have a Tapco trigger group so trigger slap shouldn't be an issue.
 
All the mags will likely wiggle because they machined them out. If it has a tapco trigger, it means it's post ban. No biggie, it just means you will pay half as much. I bought mine, refinished the wood, replaced the cleaning kit, etc. It shoots well and is a lot of fun. It's definitely not my 300 yard rifle but it's tops for a SHTF gun.
 
thank you for all the help. the gun has no canted site and has a tapco trigger but is it worth 600 for a romanian wasr? years ago they went for 400 and less is this one over priced?
 
thank you for all the help. the gun has no canted site and has a tapco trigger but is it worth 600 for a romanian wasr? years ago they went for 400 and less is this one over priced?

You can probably find cheaper, but they have risen in price in the past few years. Check out the NES Classifieds button at the top.
 
thank you for all the help. the gun has no canted site and has a tapco trigger but is it worth 600 for a romanian wasr? years ago they went for 400 and less is this one over priced?

They were selling for around $800 or so during the Obama scare. $600 seems to be about the norm from what I have seen in local stores lately but you should be able to find them for less.
 
after quite a bit of research both at the computer and in the stores, i decided to do a Saiga build instead of walking the WASR road. you can pick up Saiga 5.45 or 7.62 rifles for $350-$400 then buy the parts needed to swap them into an AK for under $200 and the cheapest WASR i've been able to find in stores runs $595. the Saiga build appealed to me greatly because i love to tinker and customize. there is a huge amount of resources regarding the build and the parts seem pretty plentiful so to me it was a no-brainer.
 
I'm looking at a norinco m91. I just put a Romm. bottom grip on my sar 1. Me and my friends call that grip the donkey dick grip. And got two stock sets for $30.00 shipped. Also put a rpk rear sight on it too.
 
don't rule out the wasr 10's
I have a wasr 10/63 that can actually group well @ 100 yards
The key to most AK variants to shooting well is taking the time to find a ammo it likes not all 762x39 is the same. Adjusting the sights (front sight) and to remember that its principal design is to be used by peasants. To be stored in a field, washed off in a puddle and lubed with bacon fat.
I have a MAK 90 that shoots really well with just about anything...the wasr 10/63 not so much
The wasr 10 and my SKS love the yugo milsurp ammo BUT its corrosive so I don't shoot it much. I don't really want to clean my guns that much. Bore swipe and oil, cant be bothered with more than that.
At close to 50 cents per round non of the US manufactured stuff shoots better
The new production PPU and PMC also shoot well.
My wasr 10/63 can keep most shots in the 6" black ring of a SR1 target @ 100 yards........sadly my wasr kick the snot out the garand today
both shot off sandbags on a bench
600.00 seems to be the current market for the new ones. Shop around deals can be had.

ak47.net will keep you up late
One of the best things I did was take the time to Zero my ak/sks with these http://www.ak-47.net/store/target.php made short time of shrinking my groups. Just a little fine tuneing @ 100 yards
Remember the russian military acceptable accuracy was somwthing like 10 shots on a 16" square target @ 200 meters
 
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building an AK is not as hard as a lot of people make it out to be. Practice does make perfect, though. I've been building them off of a bench vise, bolt cutters, and a few simple jigs. I buy my receivers 100% made from Nodak or 74uLLC. They are righteous receivers that do not disappoint.

The cheapest AK I've built was for $200, with compliance parts and the economy NDS receiver. I had a friend sell me a barrel assembly for decent money and then I used spare parts for the rest of the gun. So, in reality, it cost more than $200, but that's what I fronted for it. The rest was paid for my inability to stop buying AK crap.

IMG_1190.jpg


I also put stickers all over it, covered it in motor oil and gasoline, and then lit it on fire.

as some people can attest to- not all of my guns run 100% out of the "shop door." It's not a plug-and-play process, sometimes, especially when you are dealing with parts kits. This one needed some ejector tweaking in order to get it running like a top. It's the second rifle built off of a NDS receiver that needed ejector tweaking.


A WASR will give you an AK on a receiver where the magazine dimples are substituted out for spot welded magazine guide plates. When people tell you to try out a magazine in a WASR, they are stupid and just repeating what they read on the internet like a talking head. Because all WASRs are the same- they all have magazine slop because of the spot welded magazine plates. I used to say the same shit until I realized every WASR has this.

The only thing you can/should check on a WASR is the front sight to rear sight alignment. Once again, people on the internet will tell you that Monkeys work at Century Arms and that they are responsible for these sight alignment problems. Wrong again, dummies. WASRs are built in Romania, and the barrel components are pressed onto their barrels over there, not in Vermont. There are a very few select CAI WASRs that have US barrels, but they are far and few between- those are the rifles where these supposed idiot monkeys aligned the barrel components for pressing.

And you know what? I've seen a few of them and they look great.

So- lesson of the story? Unless you are going to build a bunch of AKs, or are having a custom builder build you a collectible AK off of a rare parts kit, or you somehow have every tool needed to build one up, hunt down a used WASR for decent money, check the front sight to rear sight alignment, buy it, and enjoy your AK.
 
build, build, build.

WASR-10's are huge PoS's compared to a built saiga.

this can be true. A WASR works, though. And that's all some people are looking for. I haven't seen one that jammed up on AK ammo that wasn't hollow point (which is the dumbest 7.62 ammo I've ever seen).

A Saiga is a damn nice gun in itself. If you can convert it, then you'll still have a damn nice gun.
 
building an AK is not as hard as a lot of people make it out to be. Practice does make perfect, though. I've been building them off of a bench vise, bolt cutters, and a few simple jigs. I buy my receivers 100% made from Nodak or 74uLLC. They are righteous receivers that do not disappoint.

The cheapest AK I've built was for $200, with compliance parts and the economy NDS receiver. I had a friend sell me a barrel assembly for decent money and then I used spare parts for the rest of the gun. So, in reality, it cost more than $200, but that's what I fronted for it. The rest was paid for my inability to stop buying AK crap.

IMG_1190.jpg


I also put stickers all over it, covered it in motor oil and gasoline, and then lit it on fire.

as some people can attest to- not all of my guns run 100% out of the "shop door." It's not a plug-and-play process, sometimes, especially when you are dealing with parts kits. This one needed some ejector tweaking in order to get it running like a top. It's the second rifle built off of a NDS receiver that needed ejector tweaking.


A WASR will give you an AK on a receiver where the magazine dimples are substituted out for spot welded magazine guide plates. When people tell you to try out a magazine in a WASR, they are stupid and just repeating what they read on the internet like a talking head. Because all WASRs are the same- they all have magazine slop because of the spot welded magazine plates. I used to say the same shit until I realized every WASR has this.

The only thing you can/should check on a WASR is the front sight to rear sight alignment. Once again, people on the internet will tell you that Monkeys work at Century Arms and that they are responsible for these sight alignment problems. Wrong again, dummies. WASRs are built in Romania, and the barrel components are pressed onto their barrels over there, not in Vermont. There are a very few select CAI WASRs that have US barrels, but they are far and few between- those are the rifles where these supposed idiot monkeys aligned the barrel components for pressing.

And you know what? I've seen a few of them and they look great.

So- lesson of the story? Unless you are going to build a bunch of AKs, or are having a custom builder build you a collectible AK off of a rare parts kit, or you somehow have every tool needed to build one up, hunt down a used WASR for decent money, check the front sight to rear sight alignment, buy it, and enjoy your AK.

good post, i figured they all had the mag slop but like you said i was regurgitating intardweb stuff. love that rifle looks pretty cool
 
good post, i figured they all had the mag slop but like you said i was regurgitating intardweb stuff. love that rifle looks pretty cool

Magazine "slop" will vary from one magazine to another. I have magazines that vary in width by 2mm. That's enough to either fit tight in a receiver or foot loosely.

Unless you are going to be using only 1 or 2 magazines in a rifle and you bring them to the gun shop to try out, you will have no guarantee that a rifle doesn't have this so called slop. It's not even really that bad of a deal, it's more or less an issue that exists within the head of an OCD owner.

and thank you for the compliment. I appreciate it.
 
I dont know how bad the slop needs to be to affect function? If it locks up and the bullets feed whats the issue.......its a ak, aint suposed to be tight.
Like flint says mags can differ also. I have 40 rounder that wobbles badly but functions 100%
 
I dont know how bad the slop needs to be to affect function? If it locks up and the bullets feed whats the issue.......its a ak, aint suposed to be tight.
Like flint says mags can differ also. I have 40 rounder that wobbles badly but functions 100%

The magazine would have to wobble to the point of where it could move enough for the bolt to collide with the magazine lips.

From my sloppiest gun to my sloppiest magzine (mag well large, magazine narrow), it's 5mm. And this is on a bolt that has a larger magazine lug (Hungarian) that outsizes typical romanian lugs by a few millimeters.

Also- the Romanians narrowed this lug on their bolts to work in single stack magazines. So your clearance is going to be a lot more than that of my "old automatic" gun parts that don't get touched by bench grinders.

In other words: if your magazine has so much slop that your bolt collides with your magazine lips, you've probably already encountered other problems in your gun. Like the magazine just folds over and falls out of the well.

I have yet to hear/read/see/experience a WASR where magazine slop causes function problems. If someone has seen this, or has a rifle that has this problem, I will fly out to see you, give you one of my Russian AKM kits, and $500 to get it built.
 
Magazine "slop" will vary from one magazine to another. I have magazines that vary in width by 2mm. That's enough to either fit tight in a receiver or foot loosely.

Unless you are going to be using only 1 or 2 magazines in a rifle and you bring them to the gun shop to try out, you will have no guarantee that a rifle doesn't have this so called slop. It's not even really that bad of a deal, it's more or less an issue that exists within the head of an OCD owner.

and thank you for the compliment. I appreciate it.

An AK with too tight of a mag well will never be an effective combat gun, you'll die trying to reload.[smile] I'll take a loose mag well any day.

When I did my builds, I took every mag in and out of every gun so there wasn't any question that they ALL fit.
 
An AK with too tight of a mag well will never be an effective combat gun, you'll die trying to reload.[smile] I'll take a loose mag well any day.

When I did my builds, I took every mag in and out of every gun so there wasn't any question that they ALL fit.

+1

Your builds are the most professionally assembled AKs I've ever held. They are beyond impressive.
 
as a little update i am still looking for an ak. i could not justify spending 600 for a wasr 10 when a brand new ar 15 sells for around 800. i found one for 500 but it looked like it was used as a baseball bat. if anyone can point me in the direction of one i would be very greatful or if anyone builds them i would love to purchase one. thank you for all your help and knwoledge.
 
IF the mag wobble is something you just can't handle, check this out.

 
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