Interesting info on Ak's

[TC95GT]

edited to correct all caps. Thanks Andrew.

Just read this on http://classicarms.us/. Not sure if this is news to anyone, but it is to me. A little hard to read cuz it's all caps, but interesting none-the-less. The sky is falling people.

What is going on with AK rifles?.

The AK rifle market has been crazy over the last few weeks, and for good reason. I have known what the circumstances were that has created this situation but was not at liberty to post an explanation until now. This is the story as I understand it.

The main source of AK rifles into the U.S. over the last several years has been the country of Romainia and particullarly the cugir factory which was a state ran manufacturing plant. They had contracts with the importers here and were building AK riles for export to the civilian U.S. market.over the past several years they have shipped thousands and thousands of AK rifles into the U.S.

for some time now Romainia has desired and been petitioning to become a NATO member nation. One of their roadblocks has been the fact that they have been producing low priced AK rifles for export almost exclusively to the U.S. civilian market. I am told that the powers that be in washington had made it clear that as long as they continued this for profit "proliferation" of AK rifles into the U.S. that the U.S. would continue to oppose their entry into NATO. Frankly there is nothing new

about that and they continued to build for a long time simply because they needed the cash flow that the sales of the rifles provided. That is until recently. Late last year a major automobile manufacturer set up a new factory in Romainia. They could not do all of the work in house and decided to jobber out builds on some of their steel parts to a nearby factory. When cugir was approached with this opportunity to re-tool and make auto parts instead of rifles they jumped at it. It solved their political delimma while allowing them to maintain a revenue flow. As of about 45 days ago the cugir factory is done with firearms manufacturing and all of the Romainian AK products are drying up fast.

On another front. Century arms has had an ongoing and very successful project with their Yugo b-1 and ab-2 AK build rifles. Unfortunately there were only a finite number of kits to build these rifles with and those kits are now exhausted. Century's Yugo rifle project is now done. As I write this we now are out of the underfold rifles and only have less than 100 of the b-1 rifles in stock.

So what does the future hold?. My educated guess is that we will soon see some U.S. made AK rifles coming to the market. By that I don't mean enough parts to be U.S. compliant, but completely made in the uniteds states. The problem is that since no more part sets can be imported into the country with barrels intact, and since there aren't that many parts sets left here with barrels, then any new builds will also have to have U.S. barrels. Combine that with additional U.S. parts, furniture and U.S. labor. And you have a very expensive U.S. made AK rifle. I would also guess that most if not all of these rifles would have to have some type of poly stock since wood stocks made in the U.S. would be cost prohibitive. Unfortuately when these last imports sell out I really think the days of the inexpensive AK rifle are gone.

None of this takes into account the current political climate and the fact that we simply don't have a strong pro-gun candidate left in the race. This too does not bode well for the future of these types of rifles.

[EAJuggalo]

Ismazsh in Russia is still producing AK's just as they have for over 60 years, they're sold here in "sporting" configuration under the brand name Saiga. From my understanding it's not all that difficult or expensive to convert it from "sporting" to standard configuration and still remain 922(r) compliant.

[GregM]

What about police and military surplus? I see used Sig and CZ pistols here and there --- are U.S. importers allowed to buy up surplus assault rifles and modify them to suit the current laws?

[Rip Van Winkle]

What about police and military surplus? I see used Sig and CZ pistols here and there --- are U.S. importers allowed to buy up surplus assault rifles and modify them to suit the current laws?

Probably not. The ATF still has their "Once a machine gun always a machine gun" rule.

[Fast351]

Unless they were demilled before import. Then it no longer is classified as a firearm and the BATF is out of the loop.

The barrel import restriction surprises me. I didn't know that was the case, and would be interested in a source for that information.

[meltedeyes]

I fixed the all caps for easier reading and the odd spelling error:


What is going on with AK rifles?

The AK rifle market has been crazy over the last few weeks, and for good reason. I have known what the circumstances were that has created this situation but was not at liberty to post an explanation until now. This is the story as I understand it.

The main source of AK rifles into the U.S. Over the last several years has been the country of Romania and particularly the Cugir factory which was a state ran manufacturing plant. They had contracts with the importers here and were building AK riles for export to the civilian U.S. market. Over the past several years they have shipped thousands and thousands of AK rifles into the U.S.

For some time now Romania has desired and been petitioning to become a NATO member nation. One of their roadblocks has been the fact that they have been producing low priced AK rifles for export almost exclusively to the U.S. Civilian market. I am told that the powers that be in Washington had made it clear that as long as they continued this for profit "proliferation" of AK rifles into the U.S. That the U.S. Would continue to oppose their entry into NATO. Frankly there is nothing new

about that and they continued to build for a long time simply because they needed the cash flow that the sales of the rifles provided. That is until recently. Late last year a major automobile manufacturer set up a new factory in Romania. They could not do all of the work in house and decided to jobber out builds on some of their steel parts to a nearby factory. When Cugir was approached with this opportunity to re-tool and make auto parts instead of rifles they jumped at it. It solved their political dilemma while allowing them to maintain a revenue flow. As of about 45 days ago the cugir factory is done with firearms manufacturing and all of the Romanian AK products are drying up fast.

On another front. Century Arms has had an ongoing and very successful project with their Yugo b-1 and ab-2 AK build rifles. Unfortunately there were only a finite number of kits to build these rifles with and those kits are now exhausted. Century's Yugo rifle project is now done. As i write this we now are out of the underfold rifles and only have less than 100 of the b-1 rifles in stock.

So what does the future hold? My educated guess is that we will soon see some U.S. Made AK rifles coming to the market. By that i don't mean enough parts to be U.S. Compliant, but completely made in the United States. The problem is that since no more part sets can be imported into the country with barrels intact, and since there aren't that many parts sets left here with barrels, then any new builds will also have to have u.s. Barrels. Combine that with additional U.S. Parts, furniture and U.S. Labor. And you have a very expensive U.S. Made AK rifle. I would also guess that most if not all of these rifles would have to have some type of poly stock since wood stocks made in the u.s. Would be cost prohibitive. Unfortunately when these last imports sell out i really think the days of the inexpensive AK rifle are gone.

None of this takes into account the current political climate and the fact that we simply don't have a strong pro-gun candidate left in the race. This too does not bode well for the future of these types of rifles.

[meltedeyes]

Considering the ALL CAPS, the bad grammar, the mixing of past and present tense and the bad spelling I have trouble with the whole article. I'm not going to say it isn't true, but I have some reservations about it. Also nothing he said seems all that important, okay, so the factory is retooling, why was he not at liberty to say anything until now?

And if Romania could manufacture and import the AK's, why couldn't another coutry tool up and start importing them? There's obviously a market for them here, you'd think somebody would step in to fill the void if the void does actually exist. OR maybe it's a gunshop owner who is trying to drum up some business in a FUD-ish manor.

[Tutmos]

I'd say someone is looking to bump up their sales of AK's by scaring people into thinking if they don't buy now they'll all be gone. I'd also agree there is no threat of supply vanishing, there's cheap labor enough throughout the world that someone else will pick up the slack if one drops off. The only real threat is domestic legislation which isn't on the horizon right now.

On the topic of converting surplus automatic stock, is the AK a selectable fire weapon like the AR's? If they don't have a single fire mode then I'd imagine that they don't have the second seer at all, which would make it quite a chore to convert.

[chunkstyle]

Yes, a class III AK is select fire, and does have 2 sears. The lever has 3 positions, safe, single-shot, and full-auto.

[Scott]

If it is on the internet then it must be true, especially without any quoted sources .

[BRIT_in_the_weeds]

If it is on the internet then it must be true, especially without any quoted sources .

Janet Smartypants

[ttousi]

If it is on the internet then it must be true, especially without any quoted sources .

Janet Smartpants

I do believe that is Sarah of St. Cloud...............watch out she be kicking your british a33

[justaguy]

Never believe anyone that has money to gain. Romania isn't the only source for AK's. But it is on the intranet sooooo it may be true.

[TC95GT]

Never believe anyone that has money to gain. Romania isn't the only source for AK's. But it is on the intranet sooooo it may be true.

But is says "Jesus is Lord" on the front page of the website. I just figured it was gospel so I posted it.

[justaguy]

Never believe anyone that has money to gain. Unless it says "Jesus is Lord" on the front page of the website

Ok I fixed it.