Are they any good?

I bought one several years ago, and it was a total piece of garbage. It would jam consistently no matter what it was fed. After about a year, I gave up and sold it. But, I have heard some people seem to have good luck with them. I guess it is hit or miss, just like with any Century rifle.

Yeah, probably hit or miss.  AIM reported a 25% failure rate with the last batch they sold.  Got the impression they don't wanna try 'em again.  Shopping around one can occaisionally locate a good used SAR-2 for not much more money, without the defects.  Dunno if anyone has the 5.45mm Saigas in stock at present, but they can be converted pretty easily.  

Most have had decent luck with the Century M-74, although a few of the guns have proven to be ammo sensitive.  Mine wasn't however.  Then there's always the Tantal, they appear to have improved greatly from when they first came out.

I have one - problematic.  

I picked it up as a project gun; single stack mag with thumb-hole stock set up.  It was fun to convert and when it does run it shoots OK.  Frustrating, but i picked it up for $199 at the time and got 2K rounds of 5.45 for a song, so it is what it is.

I ended up making my own dummy rounds to trouble shoot the feeding problems I was having.  Pulled some bullets, dumped the powder, fired the primers, re-seated bullets.  I immediately saw that the bolt was getting stuck on the internal rail that is supposed to help rotate the bolt.  I worked on that very lightly with some sand-paper until the bolt wasn't snagging on it and it seems to run good now...unless I oil it.  One drop of oil near the bolts body and the damn thing goes 100% FTF/FTE.

I have one SAR2 and a couple of WASR-2 in 5.45x39 all work great. Have fired many rounds through them.

I have a WASR-2 Shot it many times with no problems very accurate also.








Clayton

I bought my WASR2 double stack from AIM about 5-6 years ago. Had failures to feed initially, but it was due to the mag catch being filed down too much. I replaced the mag catch and it has fed fine since.

If I were to pick a 5.45 AK today, I'd convert a Saiga. Converting my 7.62 Saiga was a piece of cake. Everything on my Saiga from machining to finish is more refined and the action is smoother than my WASR.

I shoot Minute of Man at 200-300 yards consistently with mine.

I have a 06 wasr2 shoots fine no jams ever plus 5.45 is accurate.Sights are straight.My buddy bought one the next day not as good as mine its like nite and day they are that different.Look them over good before you buy.I got a sar 1 it was bad.After 1000 rounds trigger pin hole was egg shaped .They did not heat treat it right too soft.While you pull trigger look for pin rotation on hammer and trigger.You don't want that thats how they become egg shaped .

I decided to play it safe and went ahead and ordered a Saiga 5.45.  I wish I would have went the 5.45 route a long time ago but better late than never.