My addiction started about a year before the first Clayco AKs were imported.I traded for a Steyr Maadi and was hooked,the only problem back then was the price of 7.62x39 ammo.Once the Chineese started flooding the market with AKs and ammo I was in good shape,until I read the SOF article on the AK74 in Afganistan.In time,this dream also came true.How did it happen to you?

Quoted: How did it happen to you?

I bought one and then shot it. (not a flashy story but that is the way it happened!)


Mark

Got my first FFL in 1987.  Checked out Shotgun News and saw the advertisements for Southern Ohio Guns.  "Polytech AKS-762s for $289.00 each complete with 3 magazines, sling, oiler, and spike bayonet."

I roadtripped down from Dayton and visited the storefront (yes they had storefront back then) and purchased my first weapon on my FFL.  

Took it to the range and ran 3 thirty round mags through it....burnt my fingers on the barrel.....traded it off.  Regretted it ever since, but kept buying them over the years.

You can never have enough AKs.....

KF

I got tired of being out gunned by the kids at the quarry I shoot at so I bought an AR15 and a AK-47. Now I can make as much noise as they do.

With the price of them being so low for so long, how can anybody not love them, at any given time during the last twenty years there has been at least one make of AK for $200-400, that is reliable, and rugged, and takes all of the dirt cheap accesories that you can stand. It would be easier to ask why there are people who haven't become part of the culture yet. For about what some guys pay for a case of Black Hills .223 you can have an AK a butt load of high cap mags and some case of Wolf. What possible excuse could anybody have for not having one stashed in the back of thier safe? I have known dozens of guys who held onto that old Raven or Jennings .32 yet claim that they won't buy an AK because they are junk WTF??!!

I can honestly blame my new found love of the kalashnikov's to Campy, staff, and it's members.  

I had found AR-15.com almost two years ago and shortly after saw the advertisments on the site mentioning their new AK boards.

Well I started reading many of the post on the AK boards, and the rest is history.  Since then I sold one of my two AR's, now own three AK's, just ordered a AK-74 kit, and crap my "AK NEEDS" are not satisfied.

I tell myself that I will be satisfied if I can just have that next AK, but there are so many variants that it's impossible.

I must say it's an awsome addiction!

Rotdorn,I remember the pic you are talking about,I saw a similar one during the last up rising in Canada.

The evil folks on this site.

I wanted to be a member of the rogue Ohio terrorist group known as the Campy-ban.

themao

Rotdorn andampy... brother devil spawn!  Learned so much from each and am world's better for it.

Since I am half A-rab...it was in my blood.

I have wanted an AK74 (not an AK47 or AKM) since I was a kid and first read about them almost 2 decades ago.

My wife gave me permission to get an SAR-2 last year, and I put together one beautiful-looking, straight-shooting AK. Ain't life great?

A friend o mine got me into it.If it wasn`t for him I probably wouldn`t have.Cause the 1st AK I ever fired had a thumbhole stock + scope. yeeech.I got him back into shooting and he got me into AK`s.And this site got me into AK-74`s.

I worked the summer of 87 hauling hay to get my dad to buy me on of those AKS imported by I think Clayco (sp).  Ammo was still kinda pricy and hard to come by so I sold it to get a SP1 Colt.  I bought a Thumbhole Maddi in 95, what a POS.  In 96 I bought a SLR-95 that I couldn't hit shit with.  Sold it for $250 that same year, oupps.  Thank God for the SARs.  Had several in 7.62 & 5.45.  All have been accurate out of the box.  Also, I have a SSR-85C that was shotting strait out of the box, just had to get rid of that POS recoil reducer.  Can't wait for the new  rifles Global Trades is coming out with in March to be available for purchase.

I was driven to madness by the AK LEGP, and just went out and bought one

I started with a SKS that I purchased in 1992.  I decided that I needed a rifle with a detachable magazine that fired 7.62x39 so I purchased a thumbhole SKS that used AK47 magazines. I traded the second SKS for a SLR-95 in 1996 (One of my better firearms decisions). I just purchased Ak74 kit and hope to add a completed AK74 to my collection soon.

Gunworld in Hilliard, Oh is next to O'Tooles restaurant, got there before dinner, saw my first SAR1. Later that winter I bought one from Frank and Karen Byrne at a Niles, Oh show, then I went to Bulletfest and joined the Campyban.

Campy made me do it Actually, I wanted an HK93 or 94 and didn't have the money so I bought an SLR-95 for $239.95 from Century Arms back in the "good old days." BTW, does Campyban=Towelyban? (hehe.)

Quoted: RS39, I think the proper term is... "I joined the Campybanned" .....hehehehheehe

Nope, still allowed on .net, even with my Mod status here. Not that I have much use for such strong attitudes coupled with weak egos.

The "Evil man from Ohio" got me hooked.

After watching RED DAWN I had to have one. Unfortunately I was only about 12.I tried to convince my parents I needed an AR15 at 15. I ended up settling for a Mini 14 because that looked more like a "normal" gun. Still have the Ruger. When I got my first decent job the first thing I did was get the AR. After the AR just didn't get me excited I bought an Sar followed by about 7 other variants over a few years. CB

It was a trade up from a SKS.

I never liked the mag system on the SKS

Looks like I started a bad thing. I coined the phrase "Campyban", and now RS39 and Hozer are hooked.

I like RotDorn's modification though: "Campybanned". Heheheheheheheh.

themao

I bought a new Russian SKS for $90 when I was 15. After that I had to have another Soviet designed rifle and it was an AK.

I owe my evil AW collection to the founder, my SKS!

I can blame Rotdorn, it runs in the family.

I just found the people here really easy to get along with, and an all around good group.  I always liked my preban Chi-com AK and my MAK-90. Then the 5.45 came out.

After that, Rot and the Campyban got ahold of my brain and my wife has not been able to deprgram me yet.

started with a Russian SKS for $75.00-those were the days!

I passed on the various butthole stocked AKs for years because I couldn't stand the stocks.

I walked into a local dealer in '99 and saw A PISTOL GRIP AK FOR $300.00!!!  I naturally asked "Is that legal(I had not found the internet yet)".  The rest is history.

Oh yea, I blame Campy for my current obsession with the 5.45X39.

Growing up reading the old Soldier of Fortune, it got me hooked on FAL's as well.

I bought my first AK, a Clayco underfolder, when I was 18.  It's been a long, long road since then and I can honestly say that I've pretty much owned every quality AK variant ever brought into the States, except for a Steyr imported Maadi.

Still waiting on my SAR-2/AK-74 project from you-know-who.........when I get that back I'll finally have an AK-74 that I've been lusting after since I first saw the one that R.K. Brown delivered to the CIA from Afghanistan lo those many years ago.

ColonelKlink told me to check our arfcom summer of 2001 right after he registered in july. i saw the ad for the AK site and had to check it out. have always been more interested in the AK than ARs, dunno why. hopefully gonna get a bulgarian kit for my birthday this year!

I supposed it started when I was in the Army.  I always thought they were junk guns.  Typical stereotype of the AK and everything.  Then one fine FTX (field training exercise) we got to use them.  I don't mean just the fam fire, "Ok here's a mag, have at it" type use, but we had one squad's worth of weapons.  They were mostly Chinese, Russian, and one East German.  The RPK was Russian (and BAD TO THE BONE!).  We lived with those things for the FTX, just as if they were our weapons, and they grow on you pretty fast.  Especially the cleaning part (or lack thereof).  

After that, I had respect for the AK as a combat arm.  I probablly never got over my "gas piston envy" and even went so far as to sell my AR and buy a Daewoo K2, just so I wouldn't have to put up with that damn gas tube BS.  At the time I was spending so much time with my M16A1 at work, that I was pretty sick of even looking at the AR type weapon.  

While I've aquired a few AR's since then (along with just about evey other type gun), I didn't bother with an AK until I bought a few of those Maddis that were cheap way back.  I sold them when I moved up here to VA, but have since replaced them with Bulgarians, Hungarians, Romainians, and Chinese.  I still have plans for a couple more as well.

Still, the one thing that has absolutely stuck in my mind since that FTX was the RPK.  I really fell in love with that thing.  Hard to explain, but it just seemed right to me.  It really isn't any longer than the old M16A1, though a tad heavier, but it really just felt right.  Yeah, gonna have to get one of those, even if I have to build it myself.

Ross

It is the preferred weapon of our enemies.  Had to find out why.   What I have learned that it is beautiful in the fact that it is so uncomplicated.