OK. I know y'all love to hammer any business that screws up on you. And there's times that's deserved. But to get a balanced perspective you have to see what shops have done WELL too!

Had I come to this board I probably would have shied away from the first AKM I wound up buying. JoeKen does seem to have their share of detractors here. But being ignorant of all this shared knowledge, I bought the gun from a dealer at a Gunshow just based on it's price and the quality I saw in it compared to the WASR's and fancier AKM's I saw there. This thing cost me $365. Not a bad price. More than a WASR and much less than the fancier AKM's. So I saw it as a good value for the money. It has a black Duracoat finish, five year warranty and was amde from a Romy kit and has a G2 trigger group, US made compensator and US satin black plastic furniture (Finished like you'd see on an AR15, but definately AKM in style.) Built on their Ewbanks rec. The G2 trigger group has very good feel and a light pull. Very nice for squeezing off rounds at a target nice and steady. I took it out for the third time today. 500 rounds through it now. No failures of any kind. It came with a ProMag 30 rounder that so many here dislike. It's eats up everything from it and the two other ProMag mags I have as well as  the steel Romy Mags. No problems with any magazine I have used so far in it. It's just a great little carbine and will plant consistent groups more accurately than I can. I'm very happy with it. It made me a fan of AK's.

So there's my good experience with this rifle. What I'd like to see here in any replies is your own good experiences with your rifles and where they came from. This would be guns that you didn't build yourself.

Also. I got my box of goodies in from Copes today. The Romy kit they sent me has a bicentenniel serial number! (1776!!) How cool is that? It doesn't even look like it's ever been used besides a test firing. The finish is close to 100%. Got my trigger groups, pistons, flats and rivets too. This is my second order with them and  they've been great. Now I can get busy on my tooling!

And thanks for all the great info and humor posted here. I've learned a lot!

I like the look of the Vulcan rifle, but I just don't like the people who make them and their reputation.

For the most part Ewbanks seems to be a decent reciever. Congrads on your rifle. If it functions, it's good. WarDawg

honestly if it comes with a 5 year warranty i dont see how you can lose, unless of course they go out of business in those 5 years

that being said, their stuff is the same price as a vector which also has a 5 year warranty

reguardless i would make sure its good and "broken in" before that warranty was up, so if something is wrong with it, they could fix it

I spoke to the dealer I got it from recently at a local gun show and told him how much I liked it. We had a pretty good discussion about them. He said he had only two customers contact him for warranty problems in the last year on them. In both cases the finish was peeling off the barrels in fingerprint sized pieces. He thinks that someone there was just careless about handling the pieces before the Duracoat was applied. He said  they replaced both guns with new ones. No mechanical issues with them at all. He gave me  the impression he was being very open about it. He even said they were great business for him because of that success rate.
Mine has a few edges with the finish wearing off. But I would never expect any finish to survive long at the rail edges, where the safety lever rides on it or at edges that get in contact alot when using and handling the gun. I just consider  that normal. I didn't want a garage/cabinet queen gun. I wanted one to enjoy at the range and use it hard if I felt like it. That bit of normal wear just adds to its good character for me.
As far as breaking it in? I'm having fun! I'm getting out to shoot every other week. I ran four 30 rnd. clips through it pretty quickly today at the range. Hot enough I couldn't keep my hand on the forward part of the handgrip. (For some reason it stays cooler towards the rear.) She was smok'in hot after that quick 120 rounds. It was great! I honestly find I can shoot it better by just standing there and shooting off hand as quickly as I can line up that fuzzy black bullseye in the sights. I wound up keeping 3/4's of my shots in the black with only one flyer. That's aiming at a grapefruit sized target at 25 yards indoors in low light. I'm far sighted too. I can have a good sight picture or a sharp bullseye. But I can't see both like I did when I was younger! I really just love the way it shoots! It plants t hem very consistently and evenly. This thing is way more fun than the M16 I shot while I was a submariner. I'd call it just as fun as the M14 I qual'd on while on Carrier duty. But of course it's smaller, handier and far less expensive to own and shoot. I really love that Yugo SKS I have as well. That feels like the M14 did to me. Nice substantial rifle. But there is just something about a Kalashnikov. Some elusive character about it. It's like it was distilled down to a very basic and elegant form. Well evolved. Or is  that "intelligent design"? From a mechanical engineering standpoint, there is great beauty in that. I'll take KISS machinery over Rube Goldberg stuff any time. There's just no denying the genius in it's design.
I'm really looking forward to building those kits now. Heck, HF even had their spot welder on sale today. Got that too!
I'll make my male die first and use that and a couple flats as shims to jig up the female parts. Now that I have the Tapco flats here, it'll be simple to lay out. I had to buy enough steel to make six dies though! I'm seriously considering taking time to build them all and then sell five sets just to use up this steel. It's just not in sizes that I usually use in my business and I don't know what else to do with it.
This is a great way to enjoy a January!

I got an AK from century international arms. I was rather upset with it. The sucker jams consistantly. I really don't know why. I have tried a variety of mags and cleaned it with no succes. My dad said that it just needed to be broken in. After 500 rounds it still jams. It is better but only by a bit.

It came in a bundle pack(2mags,bayonet,ect...) and the bayonet didn't fit and one of the mags was rather quite abused. It was heavely scrached and covered in a thick coat of greece. I tryed a different bayonet and it worked so I don't know what the deal was on that. I e-mailed century about the mag and it took them about a month to respond to me.

My last complait is that the bolt would always come off the rails and get suck in the back as if it had a bolt hold open. This was fixed with a recoil buffer. No problems since.

This could just be my gun or it could be a century thing.

I still like the function and simplicity or the AK. And when mine shot with out jamming it was very fun and enjoyable. I have since gone all the way and  bought an Arsenal. I get it tommorow so I hope it is as good as everyone makes it out to be.

Well..... I was hoping to see more positive responses here. Sorry to hear Century sent you a poor one.

I did check out Atlantic Arm's AKM's just now. They are beauts! Mine is a dead ringer for their classic style with black poly furniture. But mine only cost $365 and came from a Romy kit. That's still significantly lower than their gun. But I would be fairly certain that the attention to detail in the build of the Atlantic Arms rifle would be a notch or two better so you get what you pay for there. And they're using kits that are considered "higher up the food chain" than the Romy too. When I bought mine I had $400 in my checking account to play with. So I was out looking for the best I could get for under that amount with tax and such. ;-) I lucked out. No regrets.

Much of the problems I see detailed here on this site tells me that it's a great idea, when possible, to get your hands on the rifle you want to buy in person. Make a trip to a shop that carries them and get your hands on it and be sure of what you're getting.

Quoted: I have since gone all the way and  bought an Arsenal. I get it tommorow so I hope it is as good as everyone makes it out to be.

That's one of the reasons I never suggest "entry level" (I'm being nice here Johno) AKs for someone's first. Alot of people would have walked away from the AK based on their one and only bad experience. I'm glad you decided to give the AK another chance and think you will be very happy with your new Arsenal.

I got it,cleaned it, then brought it to the range. Shot perfectly. It is like a dream come true. I sleep with it as if it was a teddy bear dreaming about the next AK I plan to get.

Good night, sleep tight, and if the bed bugs bite, shoot em.

Quoted: I got it,cleaned it, then brought it to the range. Shot perfectly. It is like a dream come true. I sleep with it as if it was a teddy bear dreaming about the next AK I plan to get. Good night, sleep tight, and if the bed bugs bite, shoot em.

I love AKs and all man but thats a little overboard.....Do you atleast make sure its unloaded.....and wear protection.

Oh and when you grow up you can buy a big boys AK...........A VEPR

No, it is tucked away in the safe. That is where it is every night.

I seriously looked at the VEPRs and I liked the arsenal better. I wanted an underfolding stock, milled reciever,made in the US, and the general AK look. Arsenal had what I wanted and VEPR didn't. Don't get me wrong the VEPRs are still very nice and I still may get one. You can never have too many AKs, right?