Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Finished the AK

Many years ago, I traded a Makarov double stack pistol for this Bulgarian milled receiver Arsenal SA93 AK. It was NIB when I got it.
For years, it wore the nasty factory blonde thumbhole furniture. I finally bought a new stock set from KVar, and recently added an Ultimak rail, a Docter red dot sight, and installed a new trigger.
It's quite a shooter, and the Arsenal brand has always been well regarded.
Here is how it used to look

and now with the new stuff

damn. I must be the only fellow with an AK. Forgot this was the AR forum.

Nah, I got one too. Ugly. Innaccurate. Not at all interesting to me. But just to have one got one in the 80s.

Doesn't much matter what you do to them, they are still an ugly tool. But they work.

No doubt about that at all.

I'll still grab my ARs period. Haven't even dug deep enough in my safe except for moving 5 years ago to even see our AK. Haven't probably shot it in the last 15 years.

For an AK, looks like you did a nice job Sam.

Jeff

Jeff, this one is surprisingly accurate. With the irons, it will give you two to three inch groups at 100 yards. With the DocterOptic sight, it groups better, and allows accurate, rapid shots out out to, and beyond 100 yards.
It's not my first choice for a social rifle. I have some nice ARs that fulfill that niche.
This will go to my Son. He likes AKs, and will enjoy this SA93 a lot.

I wish I knew something about them, I've always wanted one but the cheap ones are stupid high right now and the good ones are hard to find.

Sam, that is as close to perfect as I could imagine an AK being. Nicely done.

I have a total of about $600 this one, including the initial $75 purchase price.
SA 93's in good condition, are going for over $1000 these days. Old school, milled receiver, built like a damn tank.

mine is a milled Poly Tech from the 80s.

It will shoot around 3 inches at 100, never scoped mine. But I can shoot irons almost as good as scopes anyway so I doubt it would do better. BUT I never played with reloading. Maybe I should. Sometimes that makes a difference.

Irritating to me though, even though I've never owned an sks, i've shot at least 5-6 that were around 1-2 inches at 100 with ball junk ammo.... for what... 50 bucks at one time...

You did good on paying 75 though!

When you triple that accuracy though at 300 and realizing hitting a man size target isn't all that easy when its shooting 12 inch groups.... and then consider at 300 I could hit the head every time with an AR....

AKs are a tough platform to work with.
Fine as they are, but putting a scope on them (or any other decent sight) just makes an already hard to shoot gun even harder to shoot well. The cheek weld is all off. The mounting points are less than ideal.

Then if you get into making the gun easier to hold, like with a sling, it's another can of worms that never really works right.

Not putting down your AK, it's a great one, just explaining why they are held in lower esteem by many.

Held in low esteem or not, there are millions of folks that do right well with an AK. As a serious battle weapon, particularly at closer ranges, it can hold it's own with any AR.
The Docter Optic is there to address my failing eyesight. The factory AK sights are even more difficult for me than AR irons. It is not intended to replace my Colt Target Match HBAR.
I'd have no qualms at all about going out to investigate a bump in the night with this rifle. I have been putting in range time with it since the early nineties. Pretty much have it figured out.

Mannlicher, I like what you've done to it. Those milled receiver AK's are so nice. I've got a stamped one and really like it also. It took going though a few before I found one that really I liked. With these newer/lower mounts the cheek weld doesn't change. Mine isn't a group shooter but it wasn't made for that. With an Aimpoint 2MOA dot I can hit a paper plate at 200yds with steel cased ammo but that's about as good as I can do with it.

I'm certainly not an AK aficionado but I like having one in the safe. Mine is a Russian made Arsenal SGL20 which will no longer be imported into the USA thanks to our elected communist Obama. I imagine the price and collectability will only go up but I think I'll be keeping this one for life. I've owned a few and like this one the best so far.

AK-47: the most popular battlefield rifle ever produced. Owned and used by men, women and children, hero's and villains, freedom fighters and communist alike. It doesn't shoot groups but it's probably killed more people than any other firearm in history.

Hey if it was in the house or yard, no big deal with an AK. That would be gravy.

Still hate innaccurate guns and bad triggers. The AK is light trigger wise by way long.... but then an AR factory is long and HEAVY on top of it...

Still have an x39 upper to build on the list for the AR pile though... nephew has one and it proves the round is a really neat round, the AK just isn't the BR platform for it.

I have always wanted one but I'm not paying AR prices for one. When they were $350 or less they were much more attractive.