Contrary to popular belief I’m gonna show you a PSA 101 that works, and works well.

I purchased this rifle in June of 23 during their Father’s Day sale. It came with 10 AC Unity mags and was $799. Obviously I’m a nobody without a YouTube channel. The rifle wasn’t “cherry picked” and I have no reason to scratch PSAs back or to PooPoo them. I’m just a regular consumer.

The entire time I’ve had the rifle it’s been fed nothing but PMC X-Tac 62gr green tip. It’s what I’ve had the most of so it’s what gets shot. The rifle has been fed a case. There are no burn downs and no drop tests here. Just shooting on the back of the property, plinking steel and cardboard, and a single match. No frills here.

Lug wear: This seems to be a big point among AK enthusiast and it stems from the 5.45 guns. They had a horrible reputation at launch (rightfully so). I’ve been told by a machinist buddy that the problem is PSA not using the correct milling process for an AK trunnion. I will defer to people that know more about that process because I certainly do not. As you can see, my locking lugs look healthy.
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Trunnion lug corner: This seems to be another point of stress often mentioned in forums and YouTube. Here is mine. Once again I’m not metallurgical expert but it appears to be fine to me.
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This is obviously a serving size of one. My experience has been phenomenal with this particular rifle. My only other 5.56 AK is an SBRd Zpap 85. A rifle I’m very much fond of. The PSA has been just as fine as that gun. Arguably better IMO since the Zastava finish is trash.

Why am I discussing this now? Well, that’s easy. I follow tons of social media people in the AK realm and there seems to be a lot of hate about PSA making AKs. What these people fail to realize is the absolute NEED for a domestic AK. I was fortunate to buy quality imports when they were either $1,000 or sub $1,000. Those times are gone and aren’t coming back. If the AK “Elitist’s” had their way the AK market would be all but dead unless you bought what you wanted 10 years ago. I love what PSA is doing for the market. They’re breathing new life into stuff that would normally be a pipe dream for the every man. A Krinkov? Thousands of dollars tied up in parts kits and labor. A 100 series 5.56 rifle? Thousands tied up in parts and a conversion. It’s just not feasible for everyone.

I’m rambling now. But you get the picture. If you’re on the fence about getting a PSA AK, roll the dice. My roll has worked out well for me.

I had to send my 101 in due to light primer strikes and every now and then I’d get a weird case head separation. Shitty thing is it didn’t immediately happen; it took about 500-700 rounds for the problems to arise. Sucks because it was every bit, if not better than the SLR 106FR I used to have; and that was the main reason I bought it. I missed that rifle and I’m not paying what 106 rifles are going for now.

I’m willing to give PSA a mulligan though. I’ve got 2 of their 7.62x39 AKs that are running great and a a few of my builds have their AR parts in them. Hell, I just bought a Premium CHF 20” upper from them a couple days ago.

I finally got a shipping notification for my 101 that went in for repair several weeks ago. They stated they replaced the bolt and barrel in it, so we’ll see how it fairs this time around. If it has to go back again I’m probably going to ditch it for a KR101.

the fact is, there are people out there actually rooting for PSA to fail at the AK rifle, and the AR15 rifle as well.  
PSA had some growing pains, but PSA has survived and is thriving.

I think some of the AK/AR snobs, and Glocks for that matter, are bothered that the PSA has had the success that they have.

They will never know what they are missing because they are so convinced that PSA is trash.

The ironic thing is that these pre ban AKs were considered garbage can guns when they were originally imported.  But now that they have dried up they are demanding higher and higher prices.  Look at the SKS...LOL I saw one on GB for over 1K the other day.

The PSA Spiker got me into AKs.  Prior to that I had Norinco underfolder and a WASR-10.

Now I own 8 or 9 PSA AKs including the latest, the Krink, and I am completely satisfied with what PSA is producing.

My other AKs consist of several different Hungarian versions for when I feel like being a snob AK owner...I paid more than what I want to admit for them, but even the Hungarians were cheap AKs when they first appeared, now they are ridiculous.

Place holder for my experiences &’photographs of my PSA  AK 101.

There’s an SLR-106 on the broker right now for $3,400. It’s absolutely insane the price they’re at now. I paid $900 for a 106FR 10 years ago. Looking back I should’ve never sold it.

Edit: I stand corrected. $4,300

Prices are quite crazy right now, and I think they are going to get a bit crazier as we slowly stroll towards November.

The PSA hate seems to be very much like some corners of the HK world - I suspect so many people have so much money tied up in the name that they don’t want to see someone else come along and do it well enough for a fraction of the price.

I’m very glad PSA stuck with it in the AK world and continue to pump out both interesting historical variations and cool mall-ninja models of the AK at reasonable prices.  There’s always going to be purists but I really want more people to enjoy the AK side of things and have access to it.  Kinda tired of seeing it turn into a collector’s money race.

I doubt it will sell at that price. I think the $2000 range is what they go for now. I got mine for considerably less maybe 3 years ago, and I wouldn't pay 2k for it today, it's a reliable rifle, but the prices are nuts.

That’s essentially what’s going on. I’m glad people were able to take $200 Saiga rifles and make pure clone correct Russian guns. 15 years ago. I’m also glad PSA is giving people a chance to own variants of the AK they otherwise wouldn’t be able to get.

Of course the argument from these people is always the same. Trunnions and non dimpled receivers on the PSA rifles. I have no issues out of my trunnion and IMO a dimpled receiver doesn’t matter as much as people think it does.

I find it amusing that if a custom shop builds a kit into a complete gun it is considered superior.  But when PSA builds a parts kit into a complete gun, people want to frown upon it.

I was very critical of PSA when they first released the AK because of cast parts when they promised forged.  
They quickly fixed that problem, and have consistently addressed any problem they have with their guns since.

Just received my PSA AK-101 today back from warranty. It definitely looks like they replaced the trunnion, barrel and bolt with new ones, and looks like they refinished the receiver. It didn't have the selector scratch on the side of the receiver and it didn't have any finish wear on the side rail where I'd been taking optics off and on.

Planning on maybe sending 300 rounds through it this weekend or next.

It's a good thing the serial number is on the receiver and not the trunnion.

The good thing about these guns is the lifetime warranty. No matter what trouble you have as long as you own it, you can send it back for repair.  If I have a problem with my Saigas, PSL or SAR1, I'm SOL.

I’ve looked for a PSL extractor for 6 months. Absolute hens teeth.

I mean, I do appreciate that; but I take a lot of my rifles hunting out in the middle of nowhere. A lifetime warranty doesn’t really do me any good if the rifle goes down out in the sticks while I’m pig hunting or hiking.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to come off as crass or trashing PSA, that’s just my personal philosophy on lifetime warranties. I appreciate when a company has a great warranty, I just hope not to have to use it; especially repeatedly.

That's true. Obviously you want to hedge your bets in that case and use something with a proven track record of reliability, then test your particular example thoroughly.

But anything can break at inopportune times. The only thing the warranty protects you from is the out of pocket expense to get it fixed or replaced.

My PSA AKs are just range toys and I live right near the PSA factory. So if mine breaks and I have to send it back, it just a minor inconvenience to me. No big deal.

CLT area?

West of that, just north of Atlanta.

Ditto, because it's the same story for years with every US company that decided to build an AK, cheaped out and failed, and I really didn't want to see that happen again.

 

This has been good to watch, much like PTR they did learn from some early mistakes, and are putting out some good rifles now by all accounts. Glad somebody finally got it.

They DID get it.  But that won't stop the keyboard warriors from beating the same dead horse, that ain't even dead anymore.

People will even complain that PSA has a lifetime warranty by saying they want a rifle that doesn't NEED a warranty.  How ignorant is that?  any man made object can fail.  ANY. No matter how much you paid for it, or what label is on it.  It can still fail, and when they fail will most likely be the most inopportune time.  But having a warranty is nice because it will always be repaired or replaced...

The difference between PSA and others seems to be that people who were knowledgeable about the AK told them what they should be doing, they actually listened and did it.

You can rationalize it all you want, but having to use a warranty and be without a product you paid good money for for several weeks can be disheartening. Especially now that I'll have to spend about $300-$400 in 5.56 to see if my 101 is going to fail in the same manner that it did beforehand.

Then there comes then next question; what do you do if said company goes out of business and the product is no longer warranted? Definitely not saying that's going to happen with PSA, but it's not great to depend on a warranty.

Not as dis-heartened as i'm gonna be if one of my combloc rifles fail, zero warranty on those things.

I give PSA some shit about nitride barrels and ill-fitting handguards (and I should and so should everybody), but that warranty is nice, ain't got no warranty on my commie rifles and that's the way it's been since 1991 when I first started buying 'em.

Oh, I know; I bought one of the HD-18 SVD’s knowing full well that there likely won’t be a warranty to back it up should something fail and replacement parts will likely be a bitch and a half to find.

But, it’s been through about 500-600 rounds of S&B 7.62x54r without an issue; other than when I replaced the Type 3 dustcover with an older Type 2 cover that dragged on the bolt carrier too much and started causing an issue. Nothing a little bit of fitting with a Dremel couldn’t fix, though.

Are you suggesting that any NON-PSA AK is beyond failure?  It will never need repair or replacement parts?  It will run non stop forever?  

It's laughable that you feel the warranty is a bad thing.  What kind of cars do you buy?  How do you find one without a warranty?  Used cars only?

I don't depend on the warranty, but it's nice to know its there. And PSA even warranties their rifle beyond the original owner.

I don't think they're beyond failure, but my old 106FR and current 106CR have certainly lasted much longer than the PSA 101 thus far; and the 106CR was ran suppressed for most of the time I had it. I also don't feel a warranty is a bad thing, just that I don't want to have to depend on it to keep a rifle serviced. I can change out an extractor or a firing pin on my own, but what happened to my PSA 101 required it going back to PSA since I don't have a press setup, jigs and all that jazz to completely tear down an AK.

Let's not forget what makes AK's so popular; they're supposed to be rugged, reliable rifles that don't require much maintenance (or so the legend goes).

I have a theory about the PSA AK.  I think maybe the growing pains they have had, or at least some of them, are because they are making the AK too tight, and too precise.

They tried to build an AK like they build ARs, and that combination is not necessarily good.  But like I said, I still know so little about AKs this is just a hunch.

My 102 was sent back for accuracy issues.  Hoping to get it back shortly.

My 101 (as well as my GF4 104 and GF5 AKM) feel pretty similar as far as fitment goes to any import I've ever had, about the only differences I can see is a smoother, darker finish and you can tell that they cut some costs on minor parts by using cast MIM parts; but that's the price you pay when your tooling, factories and processes weren't bought and paid for by the USSR several decades ago, and you're trying to bring a product to market at an affordable price. The one positive thing I can say about the fitment is the front sights on all 3 of them have been more straight than most imports I've had over the years. Zastava has been about the only import that I've seen straight sights from pretty consistently.

I was wanting to chalk it up to growing pains, but I waited quite a while to purchase my PSAK 101. If I remember right I bought my 101 in early December 2023 and it had QC paperwork stating it was manufactured and inspected in October 2023.

Like I said, I'll give them a mulligan since any company can make a faulty product (especially a big box company like PSA); but we'll see how it performs now that it's been repaired. I will say that I've never had an issue with any of their AR stuff, and I've got a lot of their AR stuff. No complete rifles but a lot of lowers, LPKs, BCGs and barrel assemblies. About 2 or 3 months ago I helped a friend of my Dad's get their first AR and just told them to get one of PSA's midlength FSB uppers and complete lowers on sale. I came over and talked them through basic AR stuff and then we took it to the range to zero the BUIS and Holosun RDS they bought for it. It was a very accurate AR for not having a free float HG and just having a budget RDS on it.

PSA definitely changed something up roughly before last summer. They all the sudden dropped to $6-700 and all those seemed to be flawless. After reviews dropped they went back up to a grand.

I'm not complaining because I got one of these and it's my favorite AK.

I bet you guys wouldn't want to hear about some of the warranty work from Arsenal when the 106s first came out with a defective bullet guide. I remember some guys having their rifles disappear for months.

Nah- they just didn’t have the initial ability to do everything correct.  They were reverse engineering it as well.  All while trying to stay under a certain price point.  Plus a history of releasing products when all the kinks might not have been worked out.  They found out the hard way some lessons that the warsaw pact countries learned decades ago….

If you don’t understand why a kit built with all the parts except a few, made on actual military factory lines, are generally considered better, I don’t know what to say.  Is a kit car AC Cobra just as good as an original?  Depends on what you define as better I guess.

PSA AK’s are great for what they are- good enough indeed for most people.  So are their AR’s.  But some of us either know enough about it, have been around them long enough, or have usage needs that kind of point us towards the real thing instead.  I would absolutely use a PSA all day at the range.  But I would not use one as a serious use/duty rifle.  Just like I would not use a Dagger for duty or CCW needs.

Interesting THEORY you have there.  I enjoyed reading it.  In my experience, if your life really depended on your weapon, it was most likely issued to you.

I don't 100% buy into that theory myself. Now I'm not saying PSA is duty/SHTF ready, but I'd rather take my home build AR over the shit I was issued any day of the week and twice on Sunday IF I had to go into the shit.

If my "civilian" AR is better built, with better quality parts, I don't see why a kit built AK can't be as good or better than a factory built.

Again, that's just my opinion, and no, I have never taken my rifles into combat, nor have I taken myself into combat, but I do know how much of a turd my issue rifle was.

If you have the skills, a homebuilt AR or AK, or FAL, etc could be better than a factory built rifle. You probably took a few weeks to meticulously make sure everything was right. Factory built guns are rushed through. Time is money. They use jigs and gauges to quickly ensure proper fit.

The guys running PSA are obviously enthusiasts. They have decided to produce some of the coolest guns. It has been said by some that they are trying to make too many cool guns. They have too many SKUs.  The designs are good. They just need to focus more on QA.  QA can slow things down though.  I think the AKs have been expensive to make and they are trying to balance production numbers to make a profit on them, with making them right.

I think they have been counting on selling a ton of AKs to cover the higher cost of making them (vs the ARs that they have been making much longer and which they also sell a ton of). It's a numbers game. They have to slam these things out in great numbers or they won't be able to make them at all.

Interesting post and points, I find myself agreeing with some and not with others. Mostly the car analogy. And that fact that it conflicts with itself at beginning and end, lol.

I have participated in a Cobra kit-build, as well as dozens of other vehicles, hot rods but more so 4-wheel drives, from the ground up basically, stripped to frame and nothing else and sometimes even that was scrapped, did one 100% by myself long ago. And I can assure you, there was not a single thing on that vehicle that wasn't light-years better than it came from the factory, and that's saying something because it was a great example of old-school engineering when it rolled off the line in the '60's. So good I literally bet my life on it doing some crazy shit off-road.

What was cool about the cobra build to me, was the almost 100% universal choice of not only parts, but configuration, the owner had a unique vision for it, including the interior, and since it started as just a fiberglass tub, we were free to go wild, adding built-ins that in a real cobra could only have been somewhat ugly bolt-ons, electronics galore, custom roll cage, seating etc. And of course choice of motor/drivetrain and suspension components. In the end it was faster and handled far better than a factory Cobra ever could, sounded better, looked just as cool if not better, and was much more modular so in case of issues was far easier to service.

Great post!

My point was that you typically don't get to choose.  You take the rifle that they issued you into battle.  Would you prefer nicer newer stuff, most likely yes, but you used what was issued and liked it...
Now if we are talking Mall Cop patrol, then yes, it is perfectly acceptable to carry your privately owner Lorcin 9mm

Been waiting lol. We have sister rifles IIRC. Purchased around the same time.

Great post, 100% agree.

And if the S ever HTF's, just know I gotta spare 7.62 AK for you and one for TX-Zen and extra ammo and mags for when you want to get serious and do some real damage to the enemy.

You may actually not believe me, but I have more 7.62x39 AKs than 5.45 AKs. Zen definitely prefers 5.45, and I'm not saying there was a dirty 7.62 AK somewhere on his property other than visitors, but it may/could have happened. He did for a fact have a 107UR back in the day. Photographical evidence in the archives I'm sure.

No word yet on my 102.  Hopefully it gets sorted out shortly.

Welp, two mags in and my PSA 101 I waited several weeks on for repair still has the same light strike issue.

Maybe switch the firing pin, see what it does.

Hell, PSA might send you a bunch.

I have read where some people have switched out their PSA 101/102 firing pin out for a Beryl firing pin and had good results, but unfortunately they’ve been OOS everywhere I’ve looked issue. (Which then begs the issue, why hasn’t PSA done a redesign of the firing pin and/or bolt to permanently remedy the issue?)

Unfortunately I’m asking to send it back for a refund; I shouldn’t have to switch anything out after sending it back for several weeks for repair. I’ve generally had positive experiences with every PSA product I’ve bought, but this 101 has been an exception to those experiences. I’m thinking I’m just going to try a KUSA KR101 or save some more money for a 106FR.

If you aren't happy with PSA, I wouldn't get a KUSA.   What about a 5.56 Beryl?  Atlantic has them on sale for $1500 right now.  The only drawback to them is no siderail.

What hammer spring are you running? Can you pop that pin out and give it a quick measure?

I have a KUSA KR103 that probably has more rounds on it than my two 7.62x39 PSA AK’s; it’s been a pretty good rifle thus far, but that is just a sample size of one rifle.

I don’t really desire a Beryl rifle, I wanted a 74 sidefolder rifle just chambered in 5.56; like my 106FR (that I should’ve never sold). Nothing against the Beryl’s, just not what I’m looking for.

Just running the stock components that came in the rifle. This is a factory complete rifle that I only changed the furniture out on. It came with the Fakelite furniture and I changed it out to black polymer.

I can’t give it a looksie at the moment, I’ll have to wait until Sunday or Monday. I honestly surmise that it’s an issue with the bolt and/or firing pin/ firing pin channel within the bolt. After it began happening I started reading several posts about light strike issues with PSA 101/102 rifles, and most of them found the issue being with the factory firing pins or the design of the firing pin channel coupled with the stock firing pin. Quite a few people solved it by swapping in a 5.56 Beryl firing pin.

Yeah, so you specifically want an AK-101 clone. I can see where you are coming from there.  It looks like Arsenal, KUSA or PSA are the only way to get that out of the box.

Good luck with whatever you end up with!

Take us some pics of your firing pin and measurements please. Also share the first 2 digits of your serial number please.