Well, I got my SAR-1 yesterday.  I haven't shot it yet, but I already love it.

Finish is very nice.  I was planning on doing a stock refinishing job like the "$25 Wal Mart Special" thread in the Romanian forum, but after seing the, ahem, stock stock, I don't think it's worth the trouble.  Very nice.

I never shot an AK before, and my familiarity with the design came solely from cleaning my SKS.  But nothing prepared me for taking the rifle down to clean it all out.  I busted out my US Army Manual on the AK-47 to follow the directions on how to take it down.  5 minutes later I had it field stripped and sat there looking at the parts thinking, "That's it?!?!"  I can't get over how simple the design is.  It's almost beautiful in its simplicity.

Also, you gotta love the cheap mags.  Polish mags for $6/ea. incredible!  Everything about the rifle feels rugged and stout.  Especially the magazines.  If TSHTF and Canadians are over running our borders, torching and looting everything in sight, once i run out of ammo, I can take the empty magazines and use them as a bludgeon when I go hand-to-hand with the Canadians.

The only think I don't really like is the receiver cover, which seems to me to be pretty flimsy-feeling and would easily be bent out of shape.  Plus it feels as if, after field-stripping and reassembling the rifle several times, the botton that releases the receiver cover might actually grind away at the aperture in the receiver cover--that's how chintzy it feels.  But that is a minor complaint.  I can't wait until next weekend to give this gun a workout!

-Nick Viejo.

Be interested to hear about your first range trip.

Did you find your SAR-1 new or used ??

You seem to feel exactly the same way I do about the SAR-1 I just purchased 2 days ago.  I too was amazed at how easy it was.  I had never before field stripped a rifle and got my SAR-1 apart, cleaned, and back together in minutes.  And the finish isn't too shabby.  Very nice gun, can't wait to go to the range this week and try it out.  Only thing that bothers me is my 40 round magazine seems to wobble somewhat, more so than my 10 rounder.  Is this common?  If not, does someone have a fix?  It's not that big of a deal but I'm a bit anal retentive so it gets to me.

Don't worry about the wobble, it's common. It will probably be even more noticable when the mag is fully loaded. Of course you know what to do about that don't you?  

I got one on saturday but didn't see any good ammo deals on fmj and have to work the next few days so I'm not sure when I'm going to take it out and blast away
you're from the Buffalo area right? did you happen to get it at the gunshow in cheektowaga?