Hey all, asking for some assistance from those better versed than I on building AKs.

I have someone on another forum making an attractive offer on his AKS-74 clone plus 2000 rounds of 5.45, deal`s solid but there`s one problem with the rifle:

He thought he took the kit to a professional builder. Turns out he wasn`t and the rails are too high. He`s shot it, but couldn`t get through 1 or 2 rounds without problems. So I`m asking anyone who knows AK building and technical work better to riddle me this:

How hard would it be to fix that? Expensive? That`s all, rifle checks out otherwise.

I installed my rails a little high on the first one I ever built. I used a dremel to grind them down till the bolt slid right. I'm not saying this is the right way to fix it, the correct way would be to start from scratch, but what could it hurt to keep going and learn. I have not finished this build yet due to time, but I'm confident it will work and be safe. I will eventually get another 80% lower and rails and do it again. Building an AK is not worth the time and money unless you are a skilled fabricator. I would price your deal at at a build kit price. About 300 bucks. Worse case, you buy a Nodak receiver and do it right down the road. If your deal actually fires, a SMALL amount of grinding or polishing may do the trick. Now if they were installed crooked, that's a different deal all together.

If I was you I would try to buy the ammo, and find another rifle. You never know if there might be more issues than what you are being told.

Solid advice right there.

It's unanimous.

Wilson, there's a lot of AK experience in the posts above. ^ I would heed it.

Also have a thread up the AKfiles, they`re saying it`s not the worst thing ever. not trying to discredit anyone, of course.

Forget that thing man....unless it's just a screaming deal where the real value is the ammo, walk away.
You want to buy a new receiver and rebuild it?
I can help you with that.
I have done 6 rivet builds, the teardown is the worst part. Steel rivets don't just drive out after you drill the head, the rear trunnion rivets have to be drilled quite a ways.
I fucked up 1 trunnion from a kit doing that, not a big deal to get another but it cost more money.
Bottom line is it's not worth the effort my friend. When I was buying complete kits for 89 bucks with original barrels it was....not anymore.
Buy a Complete AK47....AK74 ammo ain't cheap anymore and .30 cal is nice.
Keep the AR, save some coin and get a -47.

It's not the worst thing. Think of it in terms of worse case scenario. If you can get it for 300 bucks, the worst you have is basically a demilled parts kit, with a barrel. If you can fix it with some lite grinding or polishing, you score. This is also a good way to think of many things in life. Worst case, whats it worth? This minimizes the risk of getting screwed out of your money. The ammo looks to be worth 450. The max value is 750 for the package.

That`s the way I`m thinking of it. I had the seller send pics of all the spots to expect problems, all very detailed with descriptions. Rivets are fine, sights are straight, mags don`t wobble, it`s just this. Worst case scenario it`s back to the drawing board, ask for help like I just did and take another swing at it. That`s all that can be done.

Hey all. So I picked up the rifle and ammo today, all`s well on it aside from the rail problem. Rivets are all great, zero mag wobble with any of the 4 included mags (more on those later), sights are straight.



The rifle looks good from the outside but there is one part on the exterior that has me going "hmm", and that`s just ahead of the gas block. There`s some finish wear around the barrel just forward the gas block. The block itself is solid but the finish loss in a circle around it has me interested. Sadly I have no good pictures of it. The LOP on the surplus folding stock is perfect, which I find a bit odd as I tend to opt for a longer LOP. The dogleg rail by Parabellum Armament is slowly growing on me (not enough to convince me to keep it) but it provides a decent rear sight solution, even if it`s a bit awkward to work with. It has a gutter with an attached rail that replaces the rear sight leaf. It`s held on with two pins, which slide back and forth. It takes some effort to reseat the whole affair when putting it back on the rifle. It sometimes takes a bit of a slap to fully reseat it.





The kit is matching (trunnion, bolt and carrier) to number 9103, and the date code sets it to 1990. Ahead of the date code is a "KO" and the infamous ((10)).




Overall the kit strikes me as a very solid rifle, and it pains me knowing the work it will take to get it back to 100% condition. The recoil spring came out without issue and was coated lightly in somesort of oil. The piston was blackened, which will need to be removed at some point in the near future but nothing hindering operation as far as I can tell.




The gas tube lever is pretty beat up, and takes repeated hits with a tool to even move. Even with it in the fully upright position I cannot remove the gas tube though. Will need to work on that as well.



Now for the really bad:
The rails. This is beyond my skill level so I`m going to let the experts look at these photos and talk. The bolt and carrier come back and forth without issue and with repeated dry-firing I haven`t yet run into the hammer sticking back like the seller described.





The magazines appear to be 3 Bulgarian commercial (the $10 specials from CDNN) and are well worn. The fourth is unmarked except for a single number "1".






The only proof mark I could find on the wood was a single number 25 or 28 inside a circle. The last number was stamped rather lightly, it`s at about a 45-degree angle to the left and just ahead of the front of the receiver.

So shoot it and tell us what it does already!

Maybe tomorrow. Been a long day.