I went to my dealers today to put a npap under folder on layaway. Unfortunately he had sold that, but he did have an ATI M70 for the same price. I don't know anything about it, but from what I could see it looked fairly well built. From the fact it had the original grip I guess it has an American barrel. It had night sights which was a big plus as well as the correct gas block with bayo lug.

On the down side, the barrel was us made (maybe a plus if chrome lined?) and the receiver was kind of strange. Why no one copies a lower exactly is beyond me. Plus the trigger guard had screws, not rivets.

I mainly was gonna get this as a truck gun so historical accuracy isn't as important. Does anyone have any experience with these? Can anyone confirm the barrel is us made and if it's chrome lined? I put it on layaway, but should I trade it out for the Npap?
Thanks in advance.

Screws no no no don't do it

I would hold off on that and wait on another PAP.

Fuck ATI and their half ass screw builds on milled receivers that are far different than the original design.

Kinda what I was thinking. I probably would have left with it had I not seen those.

Stamped AK's have 2 trunnions, while milled AK's have no trunnions. But somehow these ATI milled guns have a trunnion. I wouldn't buy one with your money.  GARY

Man that is weird. I wonder why ak builders just don't build the damn thing like it was originally done. Not even for historical accuracy but for simplicity's sake. They can't save that much money changing the design,and its not like they're starting from scratch.

I just saw a pic of these new milled M70's from them. They list it as a gen2 receiver and from the looks of it they don't have a screwed in rear trunnion anymore. They do, however, have a strange ball mill lightening cut.

That was my memory of it. The cut looked weird, but the only screws I can recall were on the trigger guard. By itself it may not be great, but probably no biggie.

I emailed ATI to see what the barrel specs are for the hell of it. I messed with it for a few minutes and it felt well built. It reminded me of my Polish 1960 I got a few years ago.  Historical accuracy isn't paramount in this one for me. I just want something I can stash under my back seat JIC I may need it. If it had a chrome barrel, that might actually be a plus as I live in humid south Texas.

I keep going back and forth on this but I have some time to decide still.

A CHF barrel without chrome > chrome-lined non-CHF barrel

Explain.

In terms of quality and accuracy I see your point. What I'm really worried about with this one is corrosion resistance as I plan to put it under my back seat and forget it for months at a time. In that regard I'd have to give the edge to a US barrel.

CHF: longer lasting, more accurate
CL: more corrosion resistant

A patch of preservative down the barrel will do a lot to prevent corrosion on a CHF barrel, but there's nothing you can do to increase the usable-life and accuracy of a non-CHF, CL barrel.

I live in a humid, salt-aired area and I've never encountered rust issues with any of my non-CL guns. That's been with running a Remoil impregnated patch down the barrel after cleaning. After reading THIS thread I started using  " One Shot " so I expect I'll continue to see nice, corrosion-free barrels.

What data do you have that shows hammer forged barrels are more accurate?

ETA: I just want to clarify that I'm always seeing people makes this claim but do not provide evidence. Conversely, people tend to claim their non-hammer forged barrels are more accurate then their hammer forged companions.

I think it has to do more this the lack of the chrome lining as they're supposed to be more accurate than chrome lined. I would think that in this application it would be close to a negligible difference.

^^^This. I wasn't saying that a CHF barrel is more accurate, rather that a non-chrome-lined barrel is. CHF is simply more durable.  I don't have any links to data at hand at the moment, but the short-story is that a steel barrel can be bored precisely for whichever round you intend on chambering, so what you bore is what you get. If you want to chrome line a barrel, you have to bore it out to a slightly larger diameter to compensate for the depth of the chrome, then go about applying the chrome. The goal is to have an even layer of chrome and to end up with the correct overall bore for the round you're chambering. The problem is that you don't always achieve that goal. There will almost always be areas where the chrome is unevenly applied and this affects accuracy.

Does chrome-lining destroy accuracy? No. For match-grade accuracy, competition shooters choose stainless steel or melonited (or whichever nitriding process they prefer) barrels over chrome-lined because "what you bore is what you get". At that level of precision shooting chrome-lining is detrimental to accuracy. What about a battle rifle? Well, on a 3 MOA rifle the difference between chrome-lined and non-chrome-lined isn't significant, at least not from a practical standpoint.

The purpose of my post was simply to point out that chrome lining, on a semi-auto rifle that'll likely never fire corrosive ammo, is of dubious benefit to the OP, whereas a CHF barrel provides a tangible benefit to any owner/shooter. Of course, just because my guns don't rust in my humid, salty environment doesn't mean someone else's won't, so YMMV, but  as I said in my previous post, you can take steps to prevent that, but there's nothing the end user can do to replicate the benefits of a non-chrome-lined, a CHF barrel.

I hope all that makes sense.

It looked to me that you were trying to say that a CHF barrel is more accurate. Maybe I was just misunderstanding you. But people make this claim all the time on here and elsewhere without any real basis, which is why I asked.

Yeah, I guess I could have been clearer. I was referencing my earlier statement that a CHF, non-chrome-lined barrel > a non-CHF, chrome-lined barrel. CHF alone should have no effect on accuracy that I'm aware of (other than  preserving your rifling over the long-term, of course).

The barrels are US made.  I do not know if they are chrome lined.  The entire rifle is parkerized.  The receivers are fully milled units now and properly heat treated.  They are no longer using screwed in trunnions.  The trigger guard and and pistol grip trunnion are mounted with screws rather than rivets.  They are solid AK's.  A bit on the heavier side but they are Yugo based and milled so that is to be expected.  Their customer service and warranty are good, so if you have an issue, it should be taken care of.  Front sights and gas blocks are perfectly aligned on every one of them that I have seen.

Their 922 compliance parts are the barrel, receiver, and US made magazine.

Thanks. That's what I was looking for. The one I saw looked good, I just noticed the screws on the trigger guard and wondered about the barrel. Like I said the lightening cuts were weird, but I'm not going for a 100% clone.

Have you shot one/ would you buy one for $600?

Thanks

I have shot one and for $600, yes I would buy one.

Awesome. Thanks for the opinion. I'll give it a shot when I get some coin to pay it off