Dumb question? ssr-74-2

Is the SSR-74-2 available yet? Sory if this has been made public yet or not, but I couldn't find any info and the Arsenal website says it's "going to be out early 2004", and didn;t know if they were available yet. Thanks~

It might help if you ask Arsenal USA, not Arsenal Inc.

Red Bear,

Yeah buddy, the Arsenal USA company of Texas is a totally different firm than Arsenal Inc of Nevada.

Arsenal USA has been saying that they would offer their new SSR-74-2 model for a very long time now, and every time they set a date, it gets delayed again.
They seemed to first be leaning towards this new model being produced here inthe US, but the latest statements made by Jimmy Streetman (of Arsenal USA) seem to now be pointing towards these new models being built in Bulgaria (but probably not done by the Arsenal Co. of Bulgaria, but maybe another Bulgarian firm). Arsenal USA is probably planning to bring them in as politically correct models, that will then receive a conversion process similar to what companies like Century Arms and Arsenal Inc do on their WUM and SLR-101S series guns (converting them into 922r compliant high capacity mag shooters).
Arsenal USA did recently release a half dozen or so of their SSR-74-2 guns, but were not part of the standard production run of this model. They just made some in house specimens using some parts kits they had, and mounting the components to their new 1.6mm thick receivers. Again, while these were labled SSR-74-2, they are not part of the actual planned standard production, which will come later. How much later?,......probably not worth asking them, since they hardly ever meet their set deadline. On a related note, I saw some photos of one of these half dozen or so SSR-74-2 released guns. The photos were posted on another forum, and they were of one of these SSR-74-2 guns that the poster had pretty much just gotten home with. He offered great photos, and while the gun looked nice, it had a terribly slanted barrel assembly (you know what I mean, the front sight looking canted and all). I know that the assembly was probably already that way when taken off of the demilled gun that the components came off of, but Arsenal USA has been offering guns since 1999, which is at least a year or so before Arsenal Inc of Nevada started offering any of their weapons. Yet Arsenal USA continues sending guns out with these cantedly looking barrel assemblies. By now, Arsenal USA has received quite a few complaints about their barrel assemblies being this way, so why they continue to avoid making them right after all these years, I don't know.

Just to remind you that Arsenal Inc of Nevada (which does have ties with the Arsenal Co. of Bulgaria) is also in the process of offering their own stamped steel AK variants. If these turn out to be anywhere as good as their milled SAM-5/7 and SLR-101S series, the other companies (such as Arsenal USA) will have a lot to worry about :)

IMO, Arsenal Inc is the premier off the shelf post ban AK manufacturer :)

OK, well, let me ask this then... What does Arsenal INC. offer in the form of a AK-74? Kinda what I'm lookig for, and thanks so much for clearing that up for me, I honestly didn;t know!

As I mentioned above, Arsenal Inc is currently in the works to offer us their first stamped receiver AK-74.

It seems like their plan involves bringing in politically correct stamped receiver AK's from the Arsenal Co. of Bulgaria. Then once they are in country, they will most likely receive a similar conversion process to that done to their milled SLR-101S model (making them into 922r compliant high capacity shooters). They had said that they were only about three months away from releasing these guns, but that was over a month ago. So hopefully, they should be offering their first stamped receiver variants within the next 1 1/2 to 2 months. Again, if these new guns show the same quality as their milled receiver guns, they will probably be the most demanded specimens on the AK market. Arsenal Inc is really that good :)

It's kinda sad that Arsenal USA has been saying for so long that they would be releasing their SSR-74-2 models, and thus far have not started up their production of them (except for the few experimental models they recently released).

When Arsenal Inc of Nevada says they will release, they usually stay pretty close to schedule. So it's highly unlikely that they will play the "major delay" game that other firms like to play (as Arsenal USA is known to do). If Arsenal Inc says these new Bulgarian AK-74's will be available within the next few months, it will almost definitely be offered then. While Arsenal Inc "could" run into an unexpected bump in the road, they really are usually good about coming through on their promises :)

As for the SSR series of guns offered by Arsenal USA, except for their Gordon Technologies builds, they have never really held a consistant quality build status. Their earliest Arsenal USA builds were done by an outside firm, Gordon Technologies, under contract. The earliest SSR-99, K-101, and SSR-99P models that were built by Gordon Technologies are probably the most consistantly well made Arsenal USA brand rifles that were ever offered. Once they dropped Gordon Technologies as their builder, and then started their own in house assembly, their reputation went from real good, to real spotty. So whether it's an SSR-99, SSR-99P, K-101, SSR-56, SSR-85, SSR-whatever, if it was made by their own in house staff, I would feel iffy about it (IMO). Some are fine, but their builds have had more than their fair share of reported problems. Don't know if their planned imports will be any better, but one has to remember that Arsenal USA's own in house staff will still have a hand in converting them once in country, and that is where the "iffyness" may still come into play.

While any company can send out a fluke now and then, Arsenal Inc of Nevada has had a very low percentage of reported problems. Even if one goes to their Arsenal Inc forum on the Migeta board, you will see that their customers reports are very rarely negative in any way (and there is no censorship on that forum). Not the same if you go to the other website that has Arsenal USA's forum. It's pretty easy to find negative reports about Arsenal USA rifle builds (even though that board frowns on members putting up negative reports about board sponsers products).

The other advantage that a lot of folks don't notice, is that Arsenal Inc has thus far only built their weapons using only all brand new components. They have not used any components that have come off of used demilled guns, or new demilled guns. Only new components are used in their builds.

Also, Arsenal Inc guns are authorized (licensed), and made to Arsenal Co. of Bulgaria specifications. The other companies may buy components from all over the world, but Arsenal Inc sticks with just using brand new Arsenal Co. of Bulgaria components, and Arsenal Co. of Bulgaria licensed US made components. The Arsenal Inc weapons are even branded with the Arsenal Co. of Bulgaria trademark, which just goes further to prove what kind of relationship Arsenal Inc has with the mother factory in Bulgaria (Arsenal Co. of Bulgaria).

Hope this helps :)

It helps a lot, and I'll be looking forward to hearing from Arsenal INC real soon! Thanks again!

A follow-up.

I noticed that the person that made that recent purchase of one of the few released Arsenal USA SSR-74-2's, had another negative thing to say about it.

He stated the following on another gun board forum:

"the receiver is a bit long, resulting in a gap of about 1/8" in the front where the top cover is installed. Mine could actually pop up & come off. I've already corrected this by shimming in the rear (yes, I DID check other top covers... same issue with three different ones)."

*Note: This is after he had already stated that the front sight housing on this gun was badly canted (and had very good photos to prove it).

These sorts of things are just not too uncommon with the Arsenal USA rifles. With only half a dozen or so released of these guns, one would expect them to make sure that they would represent very well. I mean, it's hard to imagine that Arsenal USA would not take advantage of making sure that these few released specimens would end up making a good impression on those that may be interested in the upcoming production series of this model. Instead, what have they done?,............ just add to their growing reputation as a company that offers iffy quality.

It's a real good thing that this person that purchased this gun is very honest in his evaluation (he should be commended). He gave his evaluation without actually showing any anger or making it seem that he is in any way slamming Arsenal USA's product. Most folks would be pretty pissed off if they had purchased a rifle with the problems noted above. Arsenal USA is probably no longer considered a green-horn in the U.S. AK business world, but you would not believe that based on their lack of quality consistancy.


It's just another reason to make sure folks don't confuse the very high standard Arsenal Inc. of Nevada Company with the less than high standard Arsenal USA firm ;)