The ones with the milled recievers were early rifles, and had a bad rep, were expensive to make, complicated, and Russian milling machines weren't up to the job. I haven't seen one in a long time.
I don't know when they changed to stamped recievers, but they're supposed to be more reliable. The milled ones are easy to spot because of the "lightening" cuts on the side.
Gene � The earliest AK�s had a stamped receiver, but they didn�t work. So they went to a milled receiver. I�ve never heard any complaint about milled AK�s other than they�re expensive to build and they�re heavier. There has never been any reliability issues with a milled AK. They finally went back to the stamped version when they worked out the problems associated with the stamped receivers (steel quality, stamping accuracy, welding issues, trunion design).
The Valmet isn�t just a �civilian version.� It�s a semi-auto version of their military rifle. They were made in .223, 7.63x39 and .308. The Finn�s used the 7.62x39 version which IMO is the best general issue military rifle ever built. The Valmet�s are the equal of most AR 15�s in the accuracy department and almost as reliable as a Russian AK. They�re fantastic military rifles.
