My research has led me to the general consensus that they are hit or miss in terms of quality etc. Is this still the correct way of thinking on these?

Thanks .

As far as Lancaster, I'd say that's a fair assessment.  Early guns were very good and then, according to discussions here and other sites, they barrelled 5.45 rifles with 556 barrels and everything fell apart from there.  I have an early Romanian AKM kit build with original barrel and it's held up fine.  I guess you could see if the serial number is early.  Mine starts with several zeroes, if that helps.

lancaster is garbage.

the ole rough rider days....

I have a Lancaster Polish underfolder that's top notch. Picked it up used in '07 or '08. I don't know the company's history or timeline but I'd put the gun at easily around 15 years old so I've no idea if it's an early or later build. Either way it's an outstanding example.

The issues started in 2008-2009 when they did a bunch of Bulgarian 74 builds with crap barrels (keyhole) and soft rivets. I went through two of them: one keyholed and the other bent out the rear trunion rivets (both rifles had +/- a few hundred rounds).

This was common with their 74's at the time.

Pretty sure this was a leading cause of them going out of business (at least at the time).

All that said - never any issues I read about with the 7.62 guns.