I have been wanting to fire an AK for some time now, but never really put effort into making it happen. When thinking about that, I decided to just buy one and get that off of my bucket list of things to do. Having no personal experience with them, I didn't want to spend too much, but wanted to avoid wasting money and regretting it. After a few months of deliberating and a little research, I started looking for what I would think is a good entry level brand/Model that could get me familiar with the Model and maybe become a mainstay in my collection.

SlickDeals had an ad come up for a Zastava N-PAP from F4U and at $480 shipped I thought it was a great starting point.

This is my first post in the AK section and I though I would share my overall experience after 200 rounds fired.

Century Arms Zastava N-PAP AK 47 7.62x39:
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s218/SHWELL11/CAI%20Zastava%20N-PAP%20AK%2047/ZavastaAK002.jpg

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s218/SHWELL11/CAI%20Zastava%20N-PAP%20AK%2047/ZavastaAK005.jpg

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s218/SHWELL11/CAI%20Zastava%20N-PAP%20AK%2047/ZavastaAK004.jpg

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s218/SHWELL11/CAI%20Zastava%20N-PAP%20AK%2047/ZavastaAK008.jpg

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s218/SHWELL11/CAI%20Zastava%20N-PAP%20AK%2047/ZavastaAK007.jpg

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s218/SHWELL11/CAI%20Zastava%20N-PAP%20AK%2047/ZavastaAK014.jpg



The AK had a malfunction after 3 rounds were fired (Pin holding Hammer in Backed out), but after a few minutes getting everything re-installed, she was back up and running and ran GREAT! I was quite impressed with how well it cycled and went through the Tula I fed it.

I did find 2 issues when firing it.
1. Cheek Slap was insane, I muscled through and paid for it with a nice bruise on my cheek for the next day
2. Hand Guard got really Hot only after about 40 rounds. By 60 it was quite much to deal with without gloves. And this wasn't cause by insane rates of fire, I was being quite civil with it.

All in all, I am quite satisfied with the purchase, and would do it all over again. I am not very experienced with the model, but I do have quite a bit of Firearms experience and this fell in line with many other "Out of the Box" experiences I have had with Quality Firearms. Hopefully I can get tons of trigger time and experience with this particular Brand/Model and invest in something with a Higher Value.

*I did switch out the Grip for one of Magpuls MOE AK grips and that seems like a great addition, though the grooved included Grip wasnt necessarily bad, just preferred the feel of the MOE.

*After Day 1 of shooting I did polish a few parts to make cycling a bit smoother, and also to eliminate a few sharp edges that cut my hand up a bit during Charging.

A few more internal pics (Sorry about size):

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s218/SHWELL11/CAI%20Zastava%20N-PAP%20AK%2047/ZavastaAK056.jpg

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s218/SHWELL11/CAI%20Zastava%20N-PAP%20AK%2047/ZavastaAK054.jpg

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s218/SHWELL11/CAI%20Zastava%20N-PAP%20AK%2047/ZavastaAK048.jpg

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s218/SHWELL11/CAI%20Zastava%20N-PAP%20AK%2047/ZavastaAK047.jpg

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s218/SHWELL11/CAI%20Zastava%20N-PAP%20AK%2047/ZavastaAK046.jpg

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s218/SHWELL11/CAI%20Zastava%20N-PAP%20AK%2047/ZavastaAK045.jpg

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s218/SHWELL11/CAI%20Zastava%20N-PAP%20AK%2047/ZavastaAK040.jpg



The Fire Select/Safety needed to be bent by hand just a bit in order to be manually moved, it was extremely tight out of the box.

The cheek slap on mine was ridiculous too. I switched the stock to an ACE skeleton stock and put an AK74 style brake on and that solved the cheek slap.

Thanks for the advice.. I think I was just reading a comment you left on another thread about it with links to the ACE and Krebs adapters (I think it was you).  I look forward to eliminating that issue and improving my ability to fire without injury (LOL)..

I fixed the cheek slap with a Wolff XP recoil spring. It seems a lot of these are overgassed. Otherwise a very nice rifle for the money.

I think you got a deal getting that less than $500 shipped.  Glad to hear a review on the Magpul grip, may pick one up.

Just picked up my NIB N-PAP today, not nearly the deal OP got but I'm still happy. Managed to hit the range for 2 mags worth before my hands started going numb, no cheek slap for me and no malfunctions either . Great gun in all respects!!!

Purchased OPAP with M4 stock, the cheek slap was brutal.  I installed Wilson recoil buffer and Troy muzzle brake and the cheek slap went away.

If your safety lever issues are resolved, Congrats...I just picked up my Zastava  under folder yesterday and also found the safety lever extremely difficult to move into and out of fire/safety. I tried the bending routine and found that I had only provided the lever another way to travel. Still tight, moving out of safety and into fire position. I now had a bent lever which was looser in the safety position and tighter in the fire position. All the while I was thinking about the bump on the lever and its relationship to the groove in the receiver. HMMM... Then it came to me I'll just copy the profile of the ball and the "lead in" that is used on the dust cover of the AR-15. Just by CAREFULLY massaging a shallow ramp coming out of the safety groove, provided a ramp for the bump on the lever to climb out onto the receiver body.  Works like a charm and now I have a straight lever and a very smooth safety lever.  Oh Yeah, congrats on a very nice rifle I absolutely love mine. After spending a day massaging her innards, I am very satisfied.

Ownership has been great. I did correct the Safety Lever by bending as well as polishing the nub a bit.

I also polished a few rough spots on the Bolt and the face of the Hammer (Lightly), and added a Recoil Buffer (Haven't tested yet).. Going to hit the range again tomorrow to see where I stand with the cheek slap at this point. I will look into the recommendations listed here to try and resolve this issue.

I really appreciate all of the input!

few new pics:
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s218/SHWELL11/CAI%20Zastava%20N-PAP%20AK%2047/HammerPolishAK.jpg

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s218/SHWELL11/CAI%20Zastava%20N-PAP%20AK%2047/PolishedAKbolt.jpg

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s218/SHWELL11/CAI%20Zastava%20N-PAP%20AK%2047/AKBuffer.jpg

So changing the spring helped?  First chance to shoot my O-PAP (or any AK) last Friday and the cheek slap was a wake up experience.   I got used to it, or just numb, but the next AM my cheek was tender.   Would love to identify a way to temper that down.

Rakin

O/N paps seem to have more problems with cheekslap than most AKs due to shape of stock.  There have been some earlier threads on this issue, some folks have sanded down the hump on the stock to reduce slap.  You may also be able to replace slant brake with another brake that helps more.

I've found that if I shoot with my nose almost touching the receiver the slap was very minimal.

What SEEMED to be the issue with me and cheek slap was the shape of the stock. When shooting from a bench, the shale of the stock made me have to jam my cheek down on the stock so I could see through the sights correctly. With a normal offhand stance, that isn't a problem, although I haven't tried shooting it that way yet. If I move all the way forward on the stock into a "nose to charging handle" stance (AR-15) equivalent, I have entry of room to see the sights. This would all jive with the "de-humping" mod to the stock, giving more room to see the sights.

Once I get a chance to try shooting it with those factors in mind, I'll see if the cheek slap is as bad. If it is, I'm gonna sand the sh** out of the stock. If THAT doesn't work, or I screw it up, then I'll be doing a stock swap.