I ordered my first AK, a new CIA WASR-10 from Gunbroker. I am primarily an AR guy and my experience with AK's includes firing one 30 round magazine and 48 hours of research before my purchase. I also bought a few extra Polish steel mags and a case of ammo to get me started.

What else do I need to know?

The new Romanian built WASRs are pretty good rifles. It will serve you much better than those Century built RAS garbage.

Yeah, my local shop has a RAS gun but based on what I read they aren't all that good. I was also considering the DDI but again, most of what I read leaned towards the current WASR imports being the better buy.

This purchase was a "get it while I can" kind of thing. I also figured it would be wise to get an import while available due to the current political climate.

Any particular mags significantly better than others?

Any surplus magazine will serve you equally well. At that point it boils down to preference. The Polish steel magazines are a fantastic start.

Just did the same OP, I got mine from a member in the EE though, and it's had a few rounds through it. 2015 model. Went to shoot it this weekend and the rifle range was under construction...

Mine came with a couple polish and some magpul mags, and I bought 8 more polish of the EE.  One of them will have to be filed down to fit, but other than that one outlier they all look good.  Not as much mag wobble as I expected from reading around, but this is my first AK experience so maybe I just don't have much to compare to.  Let us know how it performs once you take it out!

I'm not too fond of the furniture on mine, might look around for some surplus wood with a cleaning kit trapdoor, but no hurry.

Yeah, if I cant find any good looking surplus wood furniture its going to get some Magpul or Arsenal. I would love to find some surplus though.

You need a romanian drum mag just because

I have a bunch of Bulgarian 30 rounders I think I paid $5 a piece back in the day.

AR guy here too. Just got a WASR and am pretty happy so far.

My front sight was drifted " almost " all the way left. The tinniest bit more, all I had left, got me a zero.

If you think you might need some movement or to drift it in the future, Id just get a good front sight tool.

Apex had some great wood pieces. I bought them and dyed them for mine. They also have a ton of ak stuff

Those polish mags are redone mags with a thick paint on them might have to file them a bit.

Chinese drums are for collectors, not shooters.

There is speculation that Romanian drums are actually made in china anyway.

Surprised they can still be found. Congrats, the WASR-10s are solid.

Buy at least two of every mag you find. Lol that's what I do. Most work flawless regardless of country.

My WASR seems to like the Romanian surplus mags the best, guess that since that's what it came with that's what Century used as reference when they opened it up. Hungarians are also a very good fit, and I've not found a mag that won't run 100% if it fits at all. Filing on surplus mags is common for best fit.

As for furniture, if you bought a new WASR without a trap door you should have the Beechwood furniture which is better than average. You'll have to spend a few bucks to buy better. Mine was a 2013 with the plywood stock & trapdoor and mismatched handguards. A few coats of linseed oil improved it but never looked great. But didn't matter cause I wound up with a quad rail and a folding CNC Warrior stock. So I'd recommend shooting it for a while and figure out how you want to config it before you invest in better wood.

IMHO Ironwood designs has the BEST furniture, which looks great on a milled receiver.

I have one of the backloading 'Made in Romania' drums, just a range toy but a lot of fun. I'd also recommend getting a few 20 round mags as well, they're handy for bench shooting or 'confined spaces'. The Hungarian Tankers are the gold standard for 20s, but there are also Magpul MOEs, Tapcos & Korean steel 20s. There's threads on how to cut down a surplus 30 to a 20 as well, I've done it with a few shop tools and my fabricating skills are minimal.

The recoil spring on my WASR got pretty weak after 1k rounds, didn't really notice it til I picked up a Draco pistol. So I replaced it with a Wolff spring, made a noticeable difference.

There's also a lot of talk about the bolt hanging up on the hammer of the G2 trigger group. I filed the back of mine down just a bit. Plenty of threads on that as well. I also did the 15 minute polish job with some Eagle One cloth after a few hundred rounds and it really smoothed out the action.

Grats on your acquisition.

I am picking up a Zastava m90np this weekend. If I was going 7.62, it would be a current gen WASR-10.

Whats the general consensus on the Magpul MOE mags? I'll pick up surplus mags along the way but are the magpuls GTG for reliability?

Now if the seller would just ship me the rifle......

General consensus is they work fine, but are less rugged than surplus mags.  I have a few that came with my wasr, they seem fine.  The locking lugs are plastic, so they would be more prone to shearing/wear than surplus mags. The second generation have steel locking lugs, so are probably good to go (but expensive). Generally you can find steel surplus mags for around the same price as the MOEs if you look around a bit, so there's not much reason I can find to go magpul.

Reliability is fine, and if you don't treat your gear like shit so is their durability. That said, polymer isn't steel, so the MOE's locking lugs simply can't withstand the same abuse. The question is whether you'll subject them to that level of abuse.

My only issue with MOE mags is that they're not really a good value. If you want lighter, all-polymer mags, Tapcos are just as strong and reliable as MOEs and they can usually be had for about 1/2 -  2/3 the price. Coming from the AR side of the house it's easy to dismiss Tapco, but their AK products actually aren't half bad. Plus smooth-side Tapco mags look better than Magpuls.

Yeah, Tapco definitely has a poor reputation in the AR world. Good to hear their AK stuff isn't too bad.

Thanks y'all, looking forward to shooting it.

Good choice with the WASR , check out the ALG AK trigger, IMO for $45-$50 it's the best upgrade you could do. Be careful with AK's they can be addictive, I haven't shot any of my precision rifles in 5-6 months thanks to them

Com-block surplus.

 

Sights are straight, no problem at all getting it zero'd. Mags seat and release fine after rounding off the sharp edge on the mag catch. The "C" marked trigger is very nice, much better than I was expecting. Shoots about like I expected, 4-5 MOA with irons and obviously very reliable. Throws brass, I mean steel, about 12'-15'. The only thing I have plans to change is upgrade wood to good surplus stuff and change the grip out for a US Palm. The plastic grip it came with is TINY.


AK 47 by X Ring, on Flickr

I ordered a RAS 47 before I did my homework. Luckily I didn't shoot it and my gun dealer bought it back, no re-stocking fee.  He was able to Find me a WASR 10 for about $650 with bayonet lug and slant brake. I should have it in a couple of days.

I run a WASR as my primary... I have had many AK's over the years .  I chose the WASR for my cut-up weld and custom rifle because I got it cheap. it is almost unrecognizable now  one thing I can add is I hate the mag wobble with surplus mags, so lately I have been running the gen2 and the gen3 P-mags.. they fit great and drop free.

What type of sling is that?

It's the Way of the Gun Proctor Sling.