I bought a Maadi at a gunshow and can't seem to find any info on it. It does not have a thumbhole stock but rather a stock and pistol grip carved from one piece of wood. The stock also holds an accessory kit in it. It is the most beautiful AK furniture I have ever seen. Perfectly varnished. Also the gas tube has a ported cover on it, no furniture. It came with a certificate that says ARM semi automatic rifle and has a date of 3/2/96 on it also with an inspection stamp. It appears unfired. I paid $450.00 for it and the guy I bought it off of said that it might be a parade rifle. It's definately no plinker and not something that's issued to regular army.

The stock may be something made from the original thumbhole by cutting out the part that connects them.  I've seen a few stocks "customized" in this manner.  As far as the upper handguard, is it a ported metal peice? Those are available as aftermarket parts from a number of places.

Nothing was cut afterwards. It looks as if was done that way to begin with. If I had a digital camera.........

It's a run of the mill POST-BAN Maddi.  ARM was just one of the later names they were brought in under.  Obviously the post-ban date (3/2/96) on the certificate was a giveaway.  Marks on the gun, like the date or "ARM" are more important than the cert. so check for those as well.

The one-piece stock is almost certainly a thumbhole with  the bridge cut out.  The thumbhole profile of the Maddi was very different to the thumbholes on other AKs like the MAK-90.  It had a very thin piece of wood between the butt and the pistol grip shaped portion.  Easy to get rid of and looks natural when cleaned up and refinished.  The refinish job is probably the reason the furniture looks so good in the first place.

The good news is they are great AKMs and were built on Soviet machines set-up by the Soviets for the Egyptians.  About as close as possible to a real Soviet AKM as you can get.  

The bad news is unless there are a few US parts on that gun, it may be in an illegal configuration (I'd say 99.9% chance of that) because of the now pistol grip.  Check for US parts, but I wouldn't sweat it too much.  You can easily fix it if it doesn't have US parts in it.

Ross

Well whoever did the modifications on the stock did an excellent job of it, I can't tell that it was a thumbhole originally. It's still a nice rifle to look at and it has a nice smooth feel to it.

Jim,
I've never much worry about paying $100 too much for a rifle I liked.  For one reason, I could always remember paying $100 less than I should have on some other deal.