Looking at Sovietmilitary.com and Rusmilitary it appears they have great prices on hard to find parts. Looking for a nice Russian red-iodine AK47 matching stock set, but Ive heard their stuff gets caught up in Customs.  Anybody had any experience with them???

Both are good to go, lots of people myself included have ordered from them.

(although you mean http://soviet-military.com/ I'm sure)

Z

Do they ship direct from Russia?

And is this authentic AK-74 furniture for $65?

It doesn't look as "red" as it should be (maybe not a great picture) or is this something else?

There is a pretty wide variation in the varnish that Russians stocks used, remember you're talking about easily 50 million and more stocks produced over 30 some years. While the perfect red/iodine looks awesome it's not the most common color in my experience, just the one I think most of us expect to see. The stock in that photo looks fairly green which while not common is definitely a known entity.

And yes they ship from Russia



Z

Thanks...Interesting, I've never seen/heard of a green varnish variation. If the wood is sound, I'd be tempted for a red tint conversion.

Send him a pic of what you want and I'm sure he'll at least not send a green set if you're after the more red color.

I've done that before but depends on a few things really...first does the seller really know what to look for? Sometimes pictures help if they aren't familiar with exactly what you're after. Most of the time they are but some items are considered surplus and you get what you get, furniture can fall into this depending on who you're buying it from. A lot of these over seas sellers are like that in my experience, you get what you get - not a bad thing, just how business is done. Many of them don't care to go through stacks of parts and furniture looking for just your perfect color choice. Others don't mind...and you'll pay for it.

Another factor is quality of parts especially hand picked items. Sellers know good sets of furniture and other parts are worth more and that those things are what collectors are looking for...it's no accident Rusmilitary is priced the way it is, Oleg's stuff is generally very high quality and the market in the UK isn't cheap either.

Definitely tell the seller what you are after in detail because they might have it on hand just waiting to be sold, but don't be surprised if they want more for it too. It's the nature of the market and it's how these things work...plenty of deals on mass surplus items but it can be considerably more expensive if you know exactly what you want...and what you want isn't a dime a dozen.

Also never spend more than you're willing to lose outright. It's not common but it has happened that goods are seized by customs in Russia, Germany, Finland or the UK before our own customs gets a crack at it too. People have been burned in the past...again it's relatively low risk but it's part of the game. Don't throw around money you can't afford to lose, or if you don't want to wait 2-6 weeks or more on stuff. That's how the market is.




Z

Ukraine, actually.



 

I shot an E-mail off to him regarding the '74 stocks (condition, color variations, etc.)

I was curious, on what grounds would customs have (from any country) to seize a wood stock or other militia goods? I can see them opening the package and taking a look, but if there is no contraband, why not send it on its merry way?

Customs in the US can take your stuff if the value exceeds either 100 USD or 500 USD if you don't have them coming in on an import license. (I don't remember the exact dollar amount, could be either). You have to pay duty on this stuff, that's generally true across the world. Most countries let little amounts slide but if you start bringing in alot .GOV wants their slice.

In Russia military items aren't supposed to be for export, all this stuff we get is on the 'grey market' as it's called. It's not exactly illegal but it's not exactly legit either...Russia has locked up a few people for exporting too much and there's always the risk of corruption walking away with your gear. Like I said it's not common to lose stuff, but realize this isn't like going to Target and asking for a refund if you don't like what you get or it disappears for some reason.  






Yeah I know where Soviet-Military is. Sorry, I deal with a ton of places. Ukraine, England, Finland, Russia...it's all pretty much the same to me these days.






Z

You'll be amused by his English when he responds to you.



 

I'm ready!

Received a reply from Soviet-Military.com regarding the AK-74 stock:

-Brand new unissued condition.

-Colors are represented like shown in picture.

Maybe worth a gamble.

Is Z-Recto still doing his finish job? Anyone know
how to get hold of  him?

He is and did an outstanding job on two Norinco sets I sent him last month.  Both had been completely screwed up by previous owners (the underfolder was gouged all to hell by the stock) and both look factory new.  And a very reasonable price with around a 1 month turnaround time.



The only way I know to reach him is via IM at theakforum.net.  Sometimes he responds right away, other times it takes a day or two.