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Posted: 2/5/2007 5:35:23 PM EDT
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hisAny idea what the story might be behind a kit like this? The date seems to late to have been a PLO weapon. The rifle is all serial number matching and in excellent condition. Any idea what this might be worth? http://neverenoughguns.com/RussianAK.jpg http://neverenoughguns.com/RussianAK2.jpg http://neverenoughguns.com/RussianAK3.jpg http://neverenoughguns.com/RussianAK4.jpg Thanks Bret |
I'd wager its a remarked Romy kit. There are places that will put Russian type markings on recievers and trunions for relatively little money. Some people like to build "Clones" of various types of Russian guns. Here's one we did awhile back that's actually built on a Bulgarian kit and Arsenal USA receiver:
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If it is they must have also used a different forend and marked it to match the rest of the kit. The bulged forend isn't Romy, but everything else screams Romy. Also, if anyone was going to re-mark it why not go with a known PLO year? The triangle is even different then all of the Romys I have assembled and that is quite a few. hinking.gif |
| Man, your guess is as good as mine. IMHO "matching numbers" and "original markings" sorta lose their value when we are the ones forcing the numbers and markings to match, and the reality is that we've got parts from three different countries cobbled together to make a semi-auto gun that looks pretty much like the full auto one you saw on www.spetznatztotallyrulez.rus. But eh, the customer pays, the customer plays. |
any idea on what kind of price that engraving would cost to mark a virgin trunion to match the US recievers number? did you do the work |
The whole idea of a clone is to make it appear to be something that it is not. The wood, etc.. don't mean anything as to what it may be if it is just built up to appear as though it is Russian. Since you have no way of knowing what it actually is if the owner doesn't tell you then the value should be lower. Depending on the receiver used and how good the build appears in person and whether it is actually authentic Russian wood I would figure a starting value of about $500.00 and consider it a remarked Romy build. |
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On the Romanian kits, some just had an open triangle. The Russian arrow in the triangle is differrent to the ones on the Romanians. Your arrow seems to be russian, but might not be original. Someone could have had an arrow engraved into an open Romanian triangle. But then the gas block doesnt have a G marked on it either. The gas block has a different blueing on it, compared to the rest of the parts. Kinda hard to tell. |
That work was done by Tom Sawyer Mfg, which has now been bought out by Orion Arms. They did excellent work with quick turnaround times and affordable prices. I haven't used them since the name change so I don't know if that has changed or not. www.orion-arms.com/ |
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My Red Army issued AKM was built in 1982 (1983 issue). All AKM's that we had (all with triangle and arrow) had two digit year stamp, and I never seen full 4-digit year stamp. Also, the triangle was not the perfect one, and was little narrow, but not that extream narrow that the one on your gun. |
Actually they still manufacture them. Izhmash has them listed on their website. They even list what each rifle comes with. www.izhmash.ru/eng/product/akm.shtml |
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Cool, the stamping on the right rear of the dust cover on that one is a much closer match to mine than a Romy. I compared the dust cover of the rifle in question to about eight of the Romanian ones I have and they didn't quite match. I just wish they showed a pic of the other side. |
Those are ones that have already been made. The Russians still have plenty of AKM that are unissued and stored away. After 1977 they focused on ak-74 production. |
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