So I was heading home from work and I heard a calling from the heavens.
I found myself Here and I happened to have a gift card in my pocket from my Mom-in-law, who used to be very anti-gun.
I decided to take the plunge. Look who came home with me!
Yep, a Romanian WASR-10, Kalashnikov rifle. I won’t lie, I’m not a huge fan of the Kalashnikov Automat. They’re an ergonomic nightmare, they’re ugly as sin, their loose fitting parts make them renown for mediocre accuracy, and frankly 7.62x39mm is one of the better intermediate rifle cartridges, and that’s damning with faint praise.
Still, its one of the most common military rifles on earth, Mikhail Kalashnikov didn’t design it to be a long-distance tack-driver, he designed the rifle to be low-cost, simple, easy to use, and reliable even with the worst conditions and poor maintenance.
There is something to be said about that. Also they’re just plain fun.
Because of all of this I said to myself that one day I’d have some money to spare and I’d just pick one up just to have it. I mean it IS a Kalashnikov, and back in 2006 they were selling for around $300.
Then Obama got elected president and threatened to ban guns like this, and the prices skyrocketed. The $200 SKS rifles suddenly were selling for $600, the AK-Clones were selling for $800 or more.
Well the Anti-gun bigots declared President Obama a Failure and the prices started going down.
They’ve settled down a lot, still an SKS is now asking $3-400! So I decided to strike while the iron was hot before AKs became stupid-expensive.
Here it is!
Finally my SHTF Gun is a Romanian SKS, which is a better rifle IMHO, but it is fed only through 10-round stripper-clips into its non-removable magazine. Six-to-one Half-a-dozen to another, I think the WASR-10 AK will be a better SHTF gun with its 30-round removable magazines.
Its totally filled with Cosmoline, so it needs to be detail stripped and take a mineral spirits bath on a nice sunny day.
Its also my first “Assault Weapon” in my collection, and I’m pleased to welcome it to the fold!
Arrrrrr
WOO HOO!!!!
When are we gettin’ together to shoot that bad larry?
Whenever we’re both free and I get the grease cleaned out of it.
Also we totally need to hit the Aquarium! The wife thinks its a great idea as well!
I think you’re supposed to leave the Commielene in it. I think it’s there to hold the rattles down.
Or something.
If they don’t rattle its an offense to God and Country!
A good AK must sound like a trash can filled with loose sheet metal
Click-clack-rat-ratter-tattle-click.
I know of at least two guys who survived firefights because they heard the AK being brought to the shoulder.
As much as I dislike all products Commie, I have to admit that an AK would make a perfect starter gun. Heck, a female friend of mine shot an AK as her first gun. How she managed to live in the South for 24 years and not get offered a trip to the range I’ll never know…
The dimensions are CORRECT.
Just in case it ever matters, not that I’d know.
http://theusualsuspect007.tripod.com/SKS_Drop_In_Full_Auto_Sear.pdf
Makes them more fun as otherwise they are just a shitty battle rifle made by lazy commies.
ALL NFA/SOT/EVERYTHING ELSE rules apply but INFORMATION LIKES TO BE FREE!
Never hurts to have a blueprint. That’s only against the law if you live in the UK, so far.
Buy me a beer (NA because of pancreas) and I can explain many ways that it can have a useful removable magazine and how to properly stock it and put sights on it that are accurate. 🙂
what do you mean about “Useful”? This WASR takes standard AK mags.
I misread and thought you had an SKS too.
Nope you read just fine, I got a Romanian SKS. Its my current Go-to-Rifle until I get this AK to prove itself, then it’ll be backup-buddy-up SHTF Rifle.
OHHH Yeah that’s a fellony as it would be “Constructing an Assault Weapon” in this state….
What about this?
http://theusualsuspect007.tripod.com/Most_Variants.pdf
Has nothing to do with SKS rifles and I think in Mass. they consider AK variants “assault rifles” (quite wrongly) anyway 🙂
Just wondering…
On an AK variant thing of interest. Galils are better AKs than AKs as are Valmets (I know where a nice Galil is for sale if anybody is looking) and they have that HORRID CLUNKY Kalashnikov safety you can hear from a billion yards, but the selector switch is near silent. So the Israelis and Scandis improvered them a bit, at least, as most of the time nobody ever carried Galils on safe, from the .idf.il people I know.
On a oddly similar but different tangent, all open bolt Uzis are damn near inherently unsafe and if I had to fight with people with Uzis I would want to be at the tail end of the column 🙂
Captcha code loves me today
this one is VZ52 (One of my favorite oddball rifles to shoot)
Cheers Matey and ARRGH!!!!
Nice score! I just finished a 2-year AK build (started by building a jig to bend the sheet metal!) they are fun guns. Maybe not elegant, but simple and sexy in that WOLVERINES sort of way. I was cruising gunbroker last night and saw a decent SKS that was cheap with 15 minutes to go. I bumped the bid $5 and that was it – cant wait for it to get here!
LMK if you need a line on preban mags.
Call me a heathen, but I like my VZ-58 better, because it’s just as reliable in the crap field conditions AND it’s machined mostly from billet instead of stamped 🙂 Czechs are like russians with machine shop and bench metal skills…hee hee.
The VZ-58 IS better (tho I will admit I’ve never shot one), but what it gains in superior construction, and better (but not great) ergonomics, it looses by having non-standard parts that are only produced by single vendors.
And in the end we’re still talking about a 7.62x39mm Carbine.
Call me what you will, but the SCAR-17 is a superior rifle in every way to either. Only difference is I can GET a WASR-10, and get it for walking-around money.
I was going to go the spendy route I’d get a POF, as it’s more versatile then the FN
http://www.pof-usa.com/p308/p308.htm
Friend has one, nice set-up, He’s got all 3 uppers for his. Should be nice considering what he has in it, though.
FALs aren’t bad either. Especially set up Australian “Bitch Gun” style and Belgian Congo versions.
http://www.dsarms.com/SA58-Collector-Series/products/38/
The FAL Rocking mags are a total deal breaker. Mag changes suck so HARD with them, I don’t even want to try to learn how!
the POF is kinda cool looking, but I’m loosing love for the Stoner design. I’m really digging the FNH SCAR-17 as a 7.62×51 SHTF rifle.
If Sig would grow up their 556 rifle into a 7.62x51mm platform, I’d be all over that gun like stink on shit.
Just right now the industry is all about guns that eat from STANAG mags, and frankly the rounds I like that live in those only fit in there single-stack, meaning capacity stinks!
I dig me some .450 Bushmaster!
What’s the make on the SKS? and what’s a “Decent Price” these days?
My jaw just drops to see what a Yugo still in the grease is going for in the shops!
Chinese /26, 1979 vintage, $250 delivered. Was trolling for one during the vacation last week (hit every pawn and gun shop on the road trip) and didn’t see any under $425. Not that I really need one, just a hole in the collection.
After making the purchase, I called my dealer to have him fax his FFL to have the SKS shipped in, and he is giving me grief because he just took in a nice european one that could be mine for $170. (anyone interested?) Awfully tempting to buy both, but I’m about to dump some serious cash on another ridiculous gun project.
Good deal indeed. BTW what are you doing without a C&R FFL?
What’s the make and conditon on the other SKS, I might have a buyer….hell for $170 I might not need one, you could probably turn it around in a few days for a small profit, or a few days more for the cost of a case of 7.62×39….
Oh my good man – sore spot alert- a C&R wont help me at all. Putting off a FFL until the last possible minute because a non-licensee can do a few things that aren’t possible when licensed as a FFL. But when I am forced to make the leap, my manufacturing work requires a bare minimum of an 07FFL+ITAR at over $2k/year, and I would see enough NFA work to require the SOT as well… GRRRRRR… but it would be much faster than waiting months for tax stamp approval for each build.
I will be checking out the other SKS next week when my SKS arrives. I don’t know my SKSs too well but he said something about late model euro (I forget the country) with a threaded receiver. It should be clear that I don’t really know what I’m talking about here. IMO, the price is good even for an old chinese gun.
Got a taker. Send me an email with their info if you wouldn’t mind. Got a Buddy with a C&R who is interested.
Thanks for the heads up!
Beens seeing piles of Various 7.62×39, SKS and AK of late around Texas. Bunch of AK-74s too. 1-250 bucks for rack grade SKS variants and 375-850 for AK variants. They don’t seem to be selling as well vs ARs since the days of ultra-cheap ammo seem numbered and ARs are more versatile for tinkering and accurizing.
Just an observation. Used to be you’d see 3 to 5 times as many x39 rifles sell for every AR sold. Lately it seems about 50/50 at the shows and shows.
Capture code for this post: 8SKS
can’t make that one up
So ugly it’s cute.
Its fucking tiny! Damn thing doesn’t even reach the barrel supports on my gun safe. I needed to lean it in the corner of the safe!
Just put something under the butt of the AK and let it reach the barrel supports. Like a can of ammo 🙂
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Everybody should have one anyway (I’ve got two.) They are lots of fun.
that was my thought, and I went into overdrive when I saw the bubble pop.
I’ve wanted one of those for a while, but the prices still suck balls up here. I feel behind since I really don’t have much by way of rifles, just a .22 for small game. The guys all have at least two ARs. (Not a fan myself.) I’m debating on saving money for a predator hunting type set up before buying a fun range rifle like that one. Not sure though, if one of those jumped out at me in good condition for a decent price, I’d just have to snag it.
Why can’t I ever end up with a cheep hobby?!
Yay for snagging something pretty. I think they’re pretty at least. 😀
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Hey Weer’d, the ergonomics are greatly improved with a few bucks of tapco furniture. I put their 6 position collapsable stock on my WASR so that the whole family can shoot it comfortably, and also put their SAW-style (their description, not mine) pistol grip on. much nicer to shoot that way.
regards,
Pol
Yeah we’ll see what I end up doing with this gun. There is something about the cheap wooden AK stock, I haven’t decided. Right now the extent of “To Do” is clean out the grease, buy a sling for it, and turn some ammo into smoke and noise.
If the trigger is really bad I’ll buy a new trigger pack.
My trigger is a beaut. Smooth, clean break, love it.
The break isn’t bad at all, and its not 900lbs like my SKS, maybe a little bit mushy. Have to clean out the grease and give it a run on the range to see if it slaps me.
If you stone the engangement surfaces with a good wyoming or fine arkansas stone or the moldmaker stone kits MSC sells, you will like it better. Just remember to keep the angles or make them even MORE NEGATIVE (add 3 to 5 degrees negative, as with slick as owl shit surfaces, you won’t notice any increase in pull and it’ll be SMOOTH) on engagement surfaces or you risk a failure that could make you an Olofson. Of shoot it as it is and pretend you’re a raghead that slaps triggers 🙂
Hmmm
Have an SKS, Mosin 91/30, Mosin M44..
No AK…guess I better find one!!
And get a M1891 if you can dig one up! They’re REALLY cool.
Hmmmm well am trying to decide if one more 91/30 is to much? Fleet Farm has them for $89.00 right now…I mean 89 bucks for a BOOM stick?
What would “Darlink Woman Whom Tolerates Old Fart” say?
My youngest does need a big BOOM stick…hmmm
You can never have too many of them if you ask me. Plus they come in hex and round receivers!
Had the wife down in the armory and was questioning why I’d buy ANOTHER 91/30 when they were the “Same”. Pulled them both out and showed the dates, mumbled a bit about WWII history, and showed the really clean machining on the older pre-war hex, then the rough work on the one made while the Germans were rolling tanks across the boarder.
There are few people who holding a history lesson right in your hands and being able to run your finger over the machining marks, who won’t think that’s just cool.
Then to take a $40 spam can out to the range and splatter pumpkins on the 100 yard berm using an offhand stance and iron sights.
$90 is a steal, if you ask me! But then again I have quite the soft-spot for the commie brick-splitters.
“…take a mineral spirits bath on a nice sunny day”
Try a simple green and hot water bath
It worked on my M1 Garand
Had one for a while. Aside from the gallons of cosmoline to get out, they’re a great gun. I lightly sanded the plywood on mine with some 180 and then 240ish grit sandpaper and rubbed in a couple good coats of linseed oil. Worked wonders and no more splinters!
Be VERY aware of trigger pins walking out. I had one do that and it allowed it to double (triple?) the last round or two in the magazine. Oops.
I gotta know…what’s with the tampax?
GOOD eyes! I made sure those were in the shot! I was wondering if anybody would notice!!
http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/edu9.htm
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AK’s aren’t ugly. If they were they wouldn’t be featured on so many national flags.
Also, what else are you going to shoot into the air at the next wedding you go to?
As far as useful advice, if you don’t like the trigger, look into getting one of the Tapco aftermarket trigger sets. Thanks to them, two of my Ak’s have better trigger pulls than all of my AR15’s.
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I don’t savvy all the AK jargon. I have a Saiga chambered in .223 that I did the Tapco trigger conversion on. What would it be called in letters-and-numbers terminology?
I have a 91/30 (1943 model) and I would like to have an M38, just because.
Its called a .223 Saiga. The odd letters and number stuff is just whatever the makers decided to use as a system.
Like the Mosin Nagants you’re talking about. The first rifle made by Sergi Mosin and Leon Negant was issued to Russian Imperial forces in 1891 So “Mosin Nagant M1891” In 1930 they did a few modifications to the rifle so now M91/30 In 1938 they decided to make a carbine…can you guess the story with the M44?
The AR-10 was simply Eugene Stoner’s 10th Patent with the ARmalite company…but there’s nothing to stop another company to make a version of the gun called, say the Crusader Weaponry Broadsword
http://www.crusaderweaponry.com/weapons.php?id=5
The FAL is just “Light Automatic Rifle” in French, when the Brits adopted it they called it the L1A1 under their numbering system.
It makes sense, but not in any universal sense.
Thanks for the history lesson!
FWIW, I also have an Arisaka Type 30 carbine, so named because it was designed in the 30th year of the then-current Emperor’s reign, soon replaced by the T38, so named…well, you get the idea.
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