Hello all,

Firstly, let me throw out there that I'm shopping in the 350-450 dollar price range for an AK.  I've got all sorts of rifles, including the wonderful Yugo SKS with NATO grenade launcher.... now I want an AK.  I was looking around at the Romanians at Southern Ohio Gun <http://www.southernohiogun.com/newproducts.html>.

What do you all think of these?  I know that the Romanians are widely considered poop on the quality of construction scale, but are there any dealers out there that have something better in this price range?  I've got a few bills that are burning a hole in my pocket, and when that happens, I buy guns that I really don't need.  What about purchasing a US made reciever and then a parts kit?  Does this usually yield a better weapon?

I mainly want this thing for plinking and historical nostalgia of the days of the Soviet Union.  I've been on a bit of a history firearms binge lately and the AK is certainly compliment to the AR :)

I'd like to place an order soon, so help me out with this if you have the time to toss in your .02.

Thanks.

I have a Romanian WASR-10 that I bought for about 329 and I love it.  Not one failure at all. Also I refinished it.

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Check out Vector Arms. They make a much finer weapon than the WASR, and aren't much more money. People seem quite pleased with their Vectors. Honestly, I wouldn't buy a WASR, just too many horror stories...

I haven't heard of any "horror stories" recently.  There is the occassional canted front site and the occasional need to run the rifle through a few hundred rounds to wear it in.  Other than that I haven't heard any horror stories.  I haven't seen what my 100 yard groups are, but I can hit a small water bottle at 100 everytime with a scope on the thing.  I haven't had one failure to feed or fire or eject.  Just my 2 cents.