I am a trued and blued AR man. A friend of mine wants to get an AK, so I told him I would pop the question up here for him. Whats the best brand of 7.62x39 AK to buy in the $400 to $500 dollar range? I would appreciate the advice since AKs are not my area of expertise.
Thanks
Reaper

Quoted: I am a trued and blued AR man. A friend of mine wants to get an AK, so I told him I would pop the question up here for him. Whats the best brand of 7.62x39 AK to buy in the $400 to $500 dollar range? I would appreciate the advice since AKs are not my area of expertise. Thanks Reaper

Probably right now, one of the GDI receiver build Yugo Underfolders.  Behind that (at around $400 or less) would be the Romanian SAR.  And below that is the Romanian WASR around $300 new.

Above that ($500-$800) are the Arsenals, and Veprs.

-mark

Hey man welcome to the darkside , I got my first AK from Atlantic Firearms.  Blain will give you a discount for being a member here. He is good to work with , real nice.

www.atlanticfirearms.com/programming/listview.asp?CatId=2

"Reaper's" friend wants to get an AK...not "Reaper."  

Reaper, your friend is a smart man.  You must turn to the "dark-side" also.

For now hes the enabler.......But it wont be too long till Hes sellin AR for AKs....Or atleast the rails off of his ARs.

now now boys lets not fight. I have nothing against AKs. A friend wants one and I figured I would ask the boys that know. I like the AR, it works for me and I'm good with it.
Now boys give me more ideas and connections so I can help a brother out.
Thanks
      REAPER

I used to have a WASR10 which I bought for just over 300 at a local gunshow here in Houston. For me it was a great value despite having an iffy finish and terrible wood. For what it's worth I would recommend the WASR for anyone looking at low cost AK's in 7.62x39. The wood was easy to refinish and came out looking great, and while there was nothing fancy about it, it was a solid & consistent rifle...pretty much what an AK is all about.

I ended up selling it because of a change in my style which has graduated me to longer distance scoped shooting and the WASR is naturally rather poor past 100 yards. I also felt somewhat silly using a scope on it because it's such a simple rifle. Don't get me wrong because I love irons, but I did plenty of that in the Army and am now enjoying learning about scopes...but for the WASR that just didn't feel appropriate.

In the end I bought a 650 dollar SLR105 in 5.45x39 and am extremely impressed with it. It pretty much has everything I like about the AK combined with excellent accuracy which has made longer range shooting practicle. With a 3.5 power scope I put it in the same class as my M4 with a 4 power scope, though I haven't sat down and compared groups between the two just yet.

I'm really glad I bought the SLR105...it's been an amazing rifle for me and I'm quite happy with it, but I also miss that junky little WASR too. Imho the SLR is worth the money even being twice as expensive because it is so much more accurate and has a much nicer finish...I wasn't disappointed in the slightest. As someone mentioned here in the forum the other day, the SLR is the Evil Black Rifle of the AK world.


I feel pretty strongly that you get what you pay for with two rifles but that neither is technically superior to the other. It's a great cost effectiveness comparison.

With the WASR you get a solid, dependable  but completely no frills shorter range AK at a dirt cheap price and to me its hard to argue with that. Imho a great value overall.

With the SLR105 you get a much higher quality rifle with surprising accuracy and have more logical choices for optics because of that accuracy while still having the AK reliability. At 650$ I think its a hell of a deal and compares extremely well to my Bushmaster M4 which ran me a little over a thousand dollars.




If you want dirt cheap the WASR is a great choice, but don't necessarily rule out something more expensive, at least in 5.45x39. I personally wouldn't spend 600+ on anything in 7.62x39 unless I was collecting but thats just my personal taste.






Z

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Quoted: now now boys lets not fight. I have nothing against AKs. A friend wants one and I figured I would ask the boys that know. I like the AR, it works for me and I'm good with it. Now boys give me more ideas and connections so I can help a brother out. Thanks       REAPER

Sure,we understand it's your "friend" who wants one.  We understand.  Sometimes it takes a while to admit the truth.  We're here for you man, take your time,we understand.  

Let me be the first.."Hi I'm Rich and I'm a kalashnikovic"

I would recommend teh Century Arms M70 Yugo underfolder build...well worth the money, around $400-500 depending on the source. The only downside seems to be that the barrels are not chrome lined, but they are underfolders which means they will hold value well, and the barrels are new U.S. made production, and seem to shoot quite accurately.  I recently got one myself and feel it was well worth the money.

Vector Arms AK's seem to have a big following, and Vector has a 5 year warranty that they honestly stand by and a great fit an finish. The only downside is they seem to continuously jack their pirce about $25 ever three or four months as of late.  Fixed stock rifles are around $500, about $575 for an underfolder.  Atlantic Arms is offering a discount on these rifles if you are a board member, probably the best deal on them right now.

If he wants to go cheap, go to the local gunshop and look at Romanian WASR-10's, they are usually in the $350-400 range.  On the downside they don't have "magwell dimples" so they aren't as "authentic" as the others already mentioned and may take afew minutes with a dremel to make a drum mag fit proeprly (easy to do), but on the upside they are cheaper.  Fit and finish is worse, definitely want to handle the rifle you are going to buy, but on the upside they come with a sidemount scope rail, which allows relatively easy mounting if you spend a little on Commie optics (whcih are reasonbaly piriced) or a $40 siderail moutn with a weaver rail on top (which allows universal moutning of most scopes and red dots).  Of course the finish can be fixed with a $3 can of brake cleaner for a degreaser, a $3 can of 1200 degree BBQ grill paint, and a couple of bucks of sanding paper, steel wool, and a wood finish of your choise.  Seriously, the rifle will look much, much nicer of refinished by hand!