1st and foremost I am not an AK Person Period !!!!
I am guessing it is time to stray to the dark side as I just inherited huge box of 30 round AK magazines  30+ all metal and several K of 7.62X39 ammo .
Recommend a Decent AK with a milled receiver
Thanks in advance

If looking for a forged and milled part, I think only the Arsenal SAM7 is available to us new, it's an amazing gun, I have one and love it. I'm a milled guy, 3/5 of mine are milled bulgarians. Also check out the Arsenal SLR series, or get a VEPR, it's a weird market though and I'm not familiar with prices but they seem off.

Get a WASR for around $700 as the best value, if possible check it out in person beforehand, but honestly it'll probably be ok and everyone seems to use red dots anyways. :)

Getting a WASR for your first AK is solid advice.   If you check out Henderson’s Defense post on AK Abuse (ref:  https://www.ar15.com/forums/AK-47/AK-abuse-update-on-Page-11-/64-159106/) then you can hear testament on how WASRs hold up to an extreme number of rounds.   Most of us can only dream about shooting that many rounds in a lifetime.

In the past, the milled receivers were consider “better’ and I believe typically this was associate with “longer lasting” but as long as these WASRs have been holding up, I don’t know that it matters like it did.

Either way, have fun and welcome to the dark side.

2HUT8

Milled feels smoother but IMO generally overrated in an AK.

Some milled guns shoot better than some stamped guns but there is no direct correlation in my experience. I have shot plenty of both and I personally don't believe any of the hype that milled guns are better as far as real performance goes

That said they are nice and feel great, which is plenty good enough reason to own one

+1

I have two milled Arsenals and really like both. I also have a 107fr and like it as well. That said, I can’t argue against getting a WASR either. I don’t have a WASR myself but, I do have a SAR-1 that shoots great and I really enjoy it. Whichever route you go, I’d try to stick with the imports and you probably can’t go wrong.

How much you looking to spend?

The AK market is pretty damn screwy these days.

a SAM-7 is gonna run you 1200 new. Anything else decent milled is gonna be used and a little harder to find unless you stumble into an unconverted post ban SLR-95 or something similar.

Just to get and have fun with new right now? Either a Romanian WASR or a Yugo N-PAP will do ya. Their smaller pistol versions, the Draco* and M92 PAP are also solid choices.

*NOT the US made ones Century is advertising though, they're junk. The US can't seem to make a decent AK currently.

Sam7 (i like underfolders)
Slr95/sa93 (will take a little work to install correct mil. furniture