Hi All,

I’m new to this site and to AK's but looking forward to both.  I'm trying to determine whether a Zastava AK47 and a WBP Jack are lefty friendly, and by lefty friendly I am ONLY looking at it from the standpoint of whether a lefty can shoot these without getting hit in the face by hot brass, powder, and gas.  I don’t care about the location of the controls.  From the little that I’ve heard and read, AK47’s are left friendly, and they eject empty cases about 2:00 which would seem to be pretty lefty friendly if that is the case.  However, when I was checking out a Zasatava at a local gun store lately, one of the clerks who has a Zastava AK told me that it spit out empties to the right and back and would put them right in my face as a lefty.  Needless to say I was surprised and a little concerned given that I’m interested in buying one of these.

So basically I’m wondering if he (the store clerk) is correct or maybe he is mistaken.  As a right-handed shooter, he might just be assuming or thinking that the gun is ejecting empties back and to the right, or maybe his gun is the exception.  Accordingly I would like to hear from you Zastava AK owners out there, particularly from any lefty Zastava owners.  I’m also interested in a WBP Jack, so same questions for anyone who has one of those as well, particularly from any lefties.  These are the AK’s that I’m most interested in now, but I could end up with any AK, so same question about the ejection direction of AK’s in general.  Basically, is the 2:00 ejection direction correct, and is this forward enough so that a lefty is fine shooting an AK 47.  Any help or guidance you could give would be great.  Thanks!

Guns

I’m a lefty and I have a ZPAP M70 and ZPAP92.  In regards to brass, I’ve been fine.  Never been hit in the face by ejecting cases with either.

Right out of the box, most of my AKs tend to throw brass about 2:30-3:00 at least 20ft.  I haven't had any issues when I let my wrong-handed buddies shoot them.
If you are running suppressed or tuning the gas with an adjustable piston, the ejection pattern will be different.

I'd say you could always give it a go.  Find a range with basic bitch AKs for rent and run a couple mags through one.  A yugo is going to spit the brass  pretty much the same place as any you're likely to see on the rental wall.

I have 2 WBPs and 5 yugos.  In my experience, they eject just like all my other AKs.

I haven't had any issues when I let my wrong-handed buddies shoot them.

Thanks HD2006 and giantpune for responding--very helpful and very much appreciated!  For what it's worth, I do have a MAK 90 that I've run a box or two of ammo through a number of years ago, and I had no problems with it.  And to the best of my knowledge, isn't a MAK 90 pretty much an AK with a thumbhole stock?  Also, I may consider a Kalashnikov and an Arsenal SAM as well.

giant pune,

How do you like the WBP's compared to the Yugos, and are any of the Yugos (Serbian?) Zastavas?  Thanks.

Guns OfAllKind

Yes, yugo is short for yugoslavia.  It was renamed serbia in the early 2000s.  When somebody talks about AKs, in general, yugo, serbian, and zastava are all talking about the same guns.  I have a parts kit that was build on some ancient yugo military gun.  Its a milled underfolder.  And I have some of the new production M70, M92, and M77.  These are the ones produced after zastavaUSA was formed and started importing them.  Zastava finally switched to 1.5mm receivers, bulged trunnions, and chrome lined barrels.  They are all good to go.  Watch out if you are buying used.  The older zastavas were not as nice as the current ones.

I cant say anything bad about the WBPs.  So far, they work as advertised.  They accept standard AK furniture, whereas the zastava ones need yugo pattern stuff.  But on the flip side, zastava's factory has been producing military firearms for like 100+ years.  WBP is relatively new and is primarily a commercial operation.  If you want battle proven, the zastava wins that one.

For the mak90, there are different versions.  Square back and slant back.  They are very similar to other AKs in how they are made and work.  After they got banned, the mak90 gained some elevated status.  They were considered "meh" for a while.  They work.  They are rough around the edges.  Then ones they got banned, they became "z0mg! preban mak90".  It is popular to convert the maks to standard AK configuration.  I believe one of the north holywood bank robbers had one he had converted to full auto.

Arsenal quality has been slacking lately, and their volume stagnating.  At one point, they were near the top of the AK stack.  They mostly slumped off.  The sam7 are still good.  The sam5 had a little rash of beating themselves up.  Then there was the 107r.  It was like arsenal's last stamped gun.  It was intended to compete with the wasr, in the "cheap" ak price point.  I guess arsenal cut costs just a little too much.  The 107r owners were not overly thrilled with what they got.  They were not up to what we had expected from arsenal.

When you say Kalashnikov, are you talking about Kalashnikov USA?  I would avoid them.  They are a USA company who has literally nothing to do with the russian company.  They have very little experience making AKs.  They apparently cant keep employees or CEOs.  There are law suits showing some numbers.  They owe an entire year's worth of profits to some indian MIM company for parts and to their former CEO.  So indian MIM parts, the guys assembling the guns there are all new and have no clue what they're doing, and the company as a whole has only been making rotating bolt rifles for a couple years.

Holy cow—you’re an AK encyclopedia!  This is great information and extremely helpful!  Yes, I was talking about Kalashnikov USA, so I think I’ll rule that one out. It sounds like any of the other three (ZPAP, WBP, and SAM7) would be great choices. Ideally, I’d like to have all three, but given that we’re talking about $4,000 for all of them, a couple will have to wait. If Arsenal quality may be going downhill some but SAM7’s are still good, would it be worth it to grab one of those now while they’re still good?  

I read somewhere that the life of a stamped AK receiver starts to go downhill around 100,000 rounds which is still a frick’n boatload of rounds and way way more than most people will ever shoot, while a milled receiver is still going strong. However, the barrels would likely be gone or have had to have been replaced before then anyway. Plus you could almost get two M70’s of WBP’s for the price of one SAM7. However, there’s the cool factor of the milled receiver of the SAM7.  Also, I’m not sure how much difference there would be from the standpoint of collectibility, rarity, or value appreciation, but that might be something to consider as well.

If you have any thoughts on any of these additional items, I’d certainly like to hear them if you feel like sharing them. Either way, I really appreciate all of the great information!

I dont think you can go wrong with any of the current sam7, WPB, or zastava imported AKs.  It would come down to personal preference over anything.  If you are limiting yourself to 7.62x39, I would probably vote sam7sf, zastava M70, WBP jack.  If you dont care about 7.62x39, zastava M77, M91, and M90.

I am more looking for the 7.62x39, but I’ll check out the others you listed as well.  Again, thanks for taking the time to respond to my inquiries. There’s a lot of great information here, and you’ve been super helpful!

GunsOfAllKind

I'm right handed but left eye dominant so I have to shoot left handed. I've had zero issues with my M70 with about 300 rnds through it.

Just to add onto my original comments.  I’ve put about 260 rounds through my newly SBR’d ZPAP92 with no issues from a lefty perspective.  It kicks the brass high and far, in fact I shoot with a C clamp style grip with my right arm fairly straight.  This can cause brass to hit my arm if I’m not careful when shooting AR’s.  On the M92, I never got tagged by brass.  Also no gas from the ejection port either.