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With the recent chat about surplus ammo prices, I'm wondering about a straight pull AK for plinking. It'd be nice to have a centre fire rifle I didn't load for or expect much from except for a bit of practice and fun.

Where would one go about locating one? I can find loads of deacts and .22 ones but not straight pull.

I know there's rusmilitary that have them on their site and I have wondered about a vz58 instead.

Any comments, suggestions or offers of second hand rifles appreciated!

Variation is not yet in though just to quash quick sale hopes!

:)

Try Oleg, at Russian Military he is a good guy to deal with once he gets to know you! I know several people who have had AKs from him - My wife was after one 12 months ago and because he had not got what we wanted he put us in touch with his friend who sold us one, like I sad a good guy :)

They're few and far between at the moment.... RusMilitary have been out of stock and awaiting delivery since early this year....

My local dealer, who deals directly with the Romanian AKM factory is in the same boat, and has been waiting several months for a shipment.

As said, Oleg at Rusmilitary is worth trying although new Saigas' (Izhmash produced civilian AK) are in very short supply due to sanctions.He also does straight pull Romanian AKMs', I have two, they are produced at the Cugir Arsenal on ex-Soviet machines and are as close as you can get to a Soviet AKM, and he has Bulgarian AKs' produced by Arsenal coming in soon.The Bulgarian produce very nice AK variants with milled receivers.
You could also try AMS Firearms, Guntrader and Gunstar etc as they do come up secondhand.I would say go for one chambered in 7.62x39 as the ammo is cheaper than .223, it's the "proper" AK round and magazines are cheaper and more plentiful.

Hmm, interesting info thanks. I'll keep an eye out and stick a variation in whilst I wait...

There was one for sale on here a bit back, I think it was Sconie that was selling it.Iirc it was a nice Saiga AK-103 with a skeleton sidefolding stock and wood handguards.

Whilst neither are particularly accurate, isn't the .223 version supposed to be more accurate than the 7.62x39 version?

snayperskaya wrote:I would say go for one chambered in 7.62x39 as the ammo is cheaper than .223, it's the "proper" AK round and magazines are cheaper and more plentiful.

HALODIN wrote:Whilst neither are particularly accurate, isn't the .223 version supposed to be more accurate than the 7.62x39 version?

snayperskaya wrote:I would say go for one chambered in 7.62x39 as the ammo is cheaper than .223, it's the "proper" AK round and magazines are cheaper and more plentiful.

It depends how you define accurate, both my AKM and AKMS will drop fig11 targets at Sennybridge out to 400m (have hit out to 500m on a good day) with ironsights and Russian milsurp ammo if I do my part which is pretty much what they were designed to do, with around 300m being the norm.The .223 variants may be more accurate, though I don't know as never shot one.Apart from the two I have now I've also had a Saiga AK-103 and a 104, which is the short barrelled carbine version, and not had an accuracy problem in the context of what they are designed for.Whilst not designed with real accuracy in mind at 100m you can hit clay pigeons no problem.

Thanks. So I'm told they are slightly more accurate, but like you I haven't shot both, just the .223 version.

I had an AK in 5.56 a few years back, it wasn't very accurate even with handloads but in all fairness it may have been the rifle itself. I ended up selling it for twice what I paid for it as they were few and far between at the time.