I was looking at one today and the guy said it doesn't.  I never heard that before.

YES IT IS CHROME DON'T YOU MEAN SA 93 OR SA 95 OR SLR 95 DO THINK THEY MADE A SA 85

yeah, there's an SA-85  and like all good commies they chrome there bores

Good.  I found a practically NIB one and while I'm not a Material Science expert, it looked chromed.

Yep, they're chromed, and a perfect job, too.
C-4; Grab it now. Maybe the best AKM ever imported. FEG makes good guns, and they have been under contract to militaries and police all over the world for many years. I paid $399 for mine when J&G first sold them shortly after the AWB. The gun was sighted-in and worked perfectly right out of the box. The bolt and carrier are numbered to the gun, as well as the action cover. It should have blonde wood (thumbhole stock) if original.

Quoted: Yep, they're chromed, and a perfect job, too. C-4; Grab it now. Maybe the best AKM ever imported. FEG makes good guns, and they have been under contract to militaries and police all over the world for many years. I paid $399 for mine when J&G first sold them shortly after the AWB. The gun was sighted-in and worked perfectly right out of the box. The bolt and carrier are numbered to the gun, as well as the action cover. It should have blonde wood (thumbhole stock) if original.

This one's an SA-85M ie. with a thumbhole stock.  But, the stock is the black Choate thumbhole one and not the blonde furniture.  The barrel is not threaded.  I'm not an AK expert, but looking at all the typical wear surfaces, I don't think there's been more than two mags through it.  The finish is perfect.  I agree that it is one of the most beautiful AK's out there.  I've already put a deposit on it.  The shop does sell some military pattern rifles but they are much more into hunting type rifles and handguns.  The guy took the rifle in on trade with two other bolt rifles from a customer.  We shot the shit and talked about the different quality AK's and he felt the SA was somewhere in the middle or lower end.  He was asking $350 and I had him put it aside.  Of course, I plan on switching out the pistol grip and stock for a black K-Var one and get a FCG for compliance.  I did this with a post-ban Polytech which also happened to have the same black Choate thumbhole and the furniture matches well.  Plus, I find the black looks more EVIL.  The Polytech had a welded on nut that I Dremmeled off and then I screwed on an AK-74 style muzzlebreak on Sept. 13 at 12:01AM.  I had planned on buying an SA-85M a while back.  This one just fell in my lap.

All of them are called SA-85M...never seen one without the M, pre or post-ban.

Quoted: All of them are called SA-85M...never seen one without the M, pre or post-ban.

SA-85M securityarms.com/20010315/galleryfiles/0800/815.htm

SA-85 securityarms.com/20010315/galleryfiles/0800/814.htm

If the above isn't correct, please explain why.

So it is a SA-85M, post-ban with thumbhole stock. Why would you mess with the fire control group? You can put a separate stock and grip on it now that the AWB is gone. Do yourself a favor and don't change anything in this rifle, particularly the FCG (it is possible that some of the recent SA-85Ms have U.S. FCG parts already - maybe someone else can confirm this, but I seem to remember that some guns were made this way in the last few years). They work like they are. Mine now looks just like the SA-85, except the pistol grip is black. The Global Trades blonde Bulgarian wood sets work very well on the Hungarian. Takes a little fitting.

Quoted: Quoted: All of them are called SA-85M...never seen one without the M, pre or post-ban. SA-85M securityarms.com/20010315/galleryfiles/0800/815.htm SA-85 securityarms.com/20010315/galleryfiles/0800/814.htm If the above isn't correct, please explain why.

Because they entered the title incorrectly when I submitted the photos to Security Arms several years ago...I am the David listed below the photo :)

Adding to your confusion is the other post-ban photo correctly labled with the M.

Also the photos are not mine, but were found during my searches and submitted becuase there were no pics of Hungarians at the time. They were the best pics of a pre and post I could find. Thankfully the owners of the photos never said anything, but this was before I knew there was an unspoken rule of posting other people photos. I was new to the internet then. I've actually tried to have my name removed from the "thanks to"...with no reply from Security Arms.

Was this answer satisfactory? ;)
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edit: just emailed them to get a correction on the title. As well as offering "unkown origin" for the submitter correction.

Quoted: Because they entered the title incorrectly when I submitted the photos to Security Arms several years ago...I am the David listed below the photo :) Adding to your confusion is the other post-ban photo correctly labled with the M. Also the photos are not mine, but were found during my searches and submitted becuase there were no pics of Hungarians at the time. They were the best pics of a pre and post I could find. Thankfully the owners of the photos never said anything, but this was before I knew there was an unspoken rule of posting other people photos. I was new to the internet then. I've actually tried to have my name removed from the "thanks to"...with no reply from Security Arms. Was this answer satisfactory? ;) . . . . edit: just emailed them to get a correction on the title. As well as offering "unkown origin" for the submitter correction.

Ouch!  I got burned on that one.  I plead guilty to believing what I read on the internet.  I assumed incorrectly that the M designated that it was post-ban.  I'd have to go look at my post-ban Polytech, but I know there is an additional designation to show that it was post-ban so I assumed the same with the SA-85M  

To recap, there is only an SA-85M.  fistpoint, Thank you for the clarification.  

Do you know the origin for the designation and what the SA, 85 and M stand for?    

Quoted: I have two preban SA85's. They both look just like the one in the bottom link. I will not say what I paid for them, but if you count the case of chinese steel core they came with as being worth $55 then I pad less for both of them than what I would have been willing to pay for a single postban.

You should do professional bargaining for being able to make a deal like that.

Quoted: So it is a SA-85M, post-ban with thumbhole stock. Why would you mess with the fire control group? You can put a separate stock and grip on it now that the AWB is gone. Do yourself a favor and don't change anything in this rifle, particularly the FCG (it is possible that some of the recent SA-85Ms have U.S. FCG parts already - maybe someone else can confirm this, but I seem to remember that some guns were made this way in the last few years). They work like they are. Mine now looks just like the SA-85, except the pistol grip is black. The Global Trades blonde Bulgarian wood sets work very well on the Hungarian. Takes a little fitting.

1saxman,

I think it's criminal to have to do anything to these rifles and I wish we wouldn't have these stupid pointless laws.

But, the AWB does not change anything about imported guns other than the fact that you can now have a threaded barrel (and folding stocks, etc. ie. more evil features) , and you don't need to have the muzzlebreak or flash suppressor welded on or otherwise installed permanently.  You still need to obey the U.S. parts count rule, period.  That rule is from the 1989 and is not going away anytime soon.  I understand that the FCG I have now is perfect, but the FCG, and especially the trigger and disconnector are easy to switch out, though it may take some filing and fitting for the selector switch.  I don't see why the FCG would already be U.S. made as they would have put a pistol grip and stock on it already.    

I'm guessing that this rifle did come in with blonde furniture originally and that the Choate thumbhole stock was put on afterwards.  Who knows, that's just a guess.  That's why I don't feel bad about modifying it since it isn't in its original state anyway.  

Thanks for the heads up on the Bulgarian furniture.  I may actually do that instead since I don't have any AK's with wood furniture.  

No problem C-4, that's what these forums are for.

SA85 and SA85M

If you look at the picture of the SA85M, note how short the gas tube is compared to a regular AKM..
Looks like they put a AMD-65 length gas tube, bolt carrier & piston, on a full size AKM don't it?

The SA85 had the regular AKM length gas tube & piston, Although I've never owned either I've seen and handled both the "shorty gas tube" & "full lenght gas tube" models.

My guess is FEG had a bunch of AMD-65 bolt carriers, gas tubes, etc to get rid of, and threw them on some sporters coming to the U.S.