i have to say that, overall, the quality and finish of this cugir built .22 trainer is MUCH BETTER than the sar's and wasr's.

let's start at the front...

narrow ak74 type fsb with retainer for cleaning rod, but no grenade lancher mount point or threads. the bbl. has a nice 11° type crown, is chamfered. there is no muzzle device.

the gas block is of a new style...compound swept curve (angled type) with a flat on top and bottom of gas chamber. the bayonet mount ears have been neatly removed. the gas tube is standard romy ak74 fare and i installed a bulgarian handguard where the romy used to be. the romy handguard had the spring steel clip to hold the plastic tightly.

and while we are on the subject, all four furniture pieces appear to be a glass reinforced polymer. the buttstock has a polymer buttplate with a screw that retains it and the left-side mounted sling swivel. the buttstock and pistol grip are attached to the rifle with silver, slotted flathead screws...looks cheap, but they are hardened. the stock has molded-in metal threaded inserts to catch the screw threads.

the lower bulgarian forearm slid right in place...the romanian forearm has a horizontal rib pattern on it, no other detail. also, the romanian forearm is quite slender.

the rear sight is graduated "p", 50, 75 and 100 meters. the sight arm is only partially notched for the slider.

the trunnion bears the serial number is akt-98-00035-04...with my rifle being number 35 in the production run (a friend got number 00002, the lucky dog) and the year of import as 2004, of course.

all lettering is NEATLY DONE by a cnc engraver or eltro-chemical etching. it really looks as nice as any other i.d. work i've seen.

the receiver is identified:

     akt-98    .22 lr
armamentos, inc.   wpb, fl.
      cugir-romania

the receiver has dimples and an optic rail. all rivets are nicely set, with the front trunnion having two rivets per side.

the rifle has lower bolt rails, but they are different from akm type bolt guide rails.

the receive has the 'x' and 'y' impressions  for the axis pins...even the auto-sear akm 'y' is there!

the rear trunnion is the standard romanian akm trunnion. i slipped out the fixed stock and attached a romanian right-side folder...it screwed right in place.

the action cover is made of thinner sheet steel than a centerfire akm or ak74. the ejection port is unique, as are the spot welded in place wings that serve to hold in the bolt buffer piece.

the front trunnion is unique to this rifle and there is another block right behind the trunnion...held in place by the rivet the would have been used to hold the anti-crush tube in place. this block contains the ejector tab.

the bolt is a machined casting and contains a very stiffly sprung extractor claw(located at 10 o'clock on the bolt face). the bolt has a ramped cocking surface, similar to the carrier on an akm. the charging handle is a separeate detail and is pinned onto the bolt body.

the hammer is remarkably similar to an akm hammer and it impacts the inertia firing pin contained within the bolt. the firing pin strikes the cartridge rim at 12 o'clock.

the hammer/trigger spring is, oddly enough, a single-strand wire and identical in form to an akm spring.

the trigger and sear appear identical to those found in an akm.

a shepherd's crook wire loops over the hammer pin groove and routes under the trigger pin groove.

the recoil spring is the same as an akm, with a slightly lighter spring rate.

the receiver has a longer entry clearance slot in the upper rails to insert the bolt into the receiver. this same clearance area is filled by a plastic bolt stop/buffer that locates against the upper receiver rail and the action cover tabs.

the magazine looks to be a steel .223 30-round one that has been shortened about 1" and the feed lips removed. inside that body lives the sub-calibre .22magazine, a 10-rounder. lockup is idenditcal to any other ak47/akm/ak74. the feed lips on this little magazine are plastic.

after a fast 10 rounds of wolf match target...

3 ftf's and 1 failure to clear the ejection port...brass ended up inside the gas tube...heheh! now i now why the east germans have that huge, honking ejection port on their mpik72's!

i'll try some hi-velocity in it next and add more oil to the action...probably in need of some break-in and feed lip adjustment on the magazine.

at 100 yards (sight set to 100m setting) it was going where i pointed it (unrested offhand position).

recoil is zero. less than any other .22 semi-auto i've shot...i mean ZERO. the sights do not move.

Pics!

Quoted: Pics!

At least a pic of a similar one from somewhere on the net.

pics of the akt98 can be found here: p077.ezboard.com/fparallaxscurioandrelicfirearmsforumsfrm23.showMessage?topicID=1186.topic

that post also has some pics of the east german mpk72 courtest of stottman.


triangle66, keep me informed, if you would, of your mag conversion process.

btw, what s/n did you get?

t66, i forgot to ask..is ceiner actually selling his 30 rounders now?

link made hot.

SN # 2XX .............I knew I shouldn't have waited !

well...now we know they made at least 200 of them! heheh!

steve, the gunshow dealer that has all the militaria, slings and cool rifle accessories, has s/n 00002. that's the first one i that actually saw and got to field strip...at the last summit county show.

obershutz sold me an east german ak74 scope (zkt 4x by 25mm) and i've got that mounted to the akt98 today. i'll try and get out tonight with some hi-vel and debug it a bit.

i may also get a spare action cover to cut up. i think the east german mpik72 had that HUGE ejection port opening for a darn good reason.

i forgot to add...

i also have found some really long .22 magazines of unknown origin. they look like the hold 20 rounds! i'm going to see if i can assemble one of them into a bulgarian polymer 5.45 magazine.

see the link, madhatter...pics over there.

well. 4 of us just finished shot 60 rounds of winchester white box super-x (cheap high-vel walmart crap) thru it...and not a single malf.

resting elbows on the bed of a 1-ton truck yielded leisurely 2" groups at 50 yards. getting down to brass tacks with this thing might yield some surprises! if she goes 3/4" or less...i'll buy another one!

3 of the shooters were very inexpirienced ak shooters (having only plinked a time or two with some of mine) and they loved the little thing! everyone at work was impressed by the weight of this this.

it started out light enough, but swapping for the folder added weight, as did the zeiss optic.

ober, the scope needed 3" left windage and 4" of elevation cranked into it. ran out of elevation travel and didn't have a small screwdriver on me to reset the dial with...next trip to the range should have it spot on at 50 yards.

i'll also put this up as a separate post:

SPARE akt98 magazines (10-round capacity) are available from southern ohio guns, the folks that sell the akt98 rifle.

rs39 a few for himself and for me on monday and they are currently in his possession.

the price is $20 each.

iirc, rs39 stated that 1800 spare magazines have been imported. this figure makes sense if there are 1250  rifles in need of spare magazines.

exchange the mag, oef_vet. sog will make it right.

i just finished making an adapter (.545" bore with 22mm x 1.5mm threaded o.d. x .56" long) to allow me to install the romanian ak74 brake on the muzzle. the muzzle on mine measured .5475 o.d., so i should get a nice press fit when i install it tonight.

i also have to make the comp catch plunger and cut a spring down.

soon, i will have the most eeeevil rimfire on the planet! muwahahahahaha!

brake is on...i gotta get pics of this one up somehow...

i always refer to my bulgarian furniture/romanian ak's as "rolgarians" or "bulmanians"!!!!

i'll get some pics up after lunch.

BTW, you may want to cover up your serial number.

you're just cheesed because dave got a lower number than you! heheheh!

i posted my s/n unblocked in the pic thread that i posted yesterday, also. i guess i've been hanging around culver's csp boards too long, where everone posts their complete s/n's.

as soon as the temperature come up, i'm going to go out and re-zero mine and see what effect the ak74 brake installation had on my impact point.