Thoughts on the AES-10B

I just purchased 3 AES-10Bs from Classic Arms....$399 + shipping ea. After examining these rifles, here are my observations. All 3 have chrome bores, so it appears these are Romanian military barrels...not US made. The receiver is a WASR style, low cap that Century has opened up to take Hi Cap mags. The fit of the mags I own seems to be fairly snug, with minimum wobble. Included with my guns were 2 mags each...a 30 and a 40. They appear to be Romanian and may have been refinished as they look nearly new. The wood appears to be a birch laminate for the butt and the lower hand guard. The upper hand guard is a solid piece of birch and is newly made. The other wood may be newly made, but there is plenty of sanding still to be done. It appears all wood is raw and unfinished. The pistol grip is plastic and US made. The receiver is Romanian made and is so marked. The front trunion is the bulged type and well attached to the sheet metal receiver. The rivits are not smashed or crushed. The top cover is smooth and all three have been force matched to their receiver serial number...ie, the original number has been ground off and then the receiver cover has been restamped. The bolt appears new..the bolt face is not scared or pitted. The serial number on the bolt appears original and the receiver and most every other part has been marked/stamped at the factory to match the number on the bolt. The bolt carrier has been force matched with that number as well..... ie lightly ground and restamped. The gas Piston is Tapco and has not been pinned to the op rod. I might need to use locktite on the threads. The trigger group is not Tapco and the trigger pull is a nice 2 stage, single hook trigger. I wouldn't mind that trigger system in all my AKs....much better than the Tapco G2. There is a carrying handle, but the weight of the rifle reminds me of a heavy barrel match M-1A with an oversized stock....like I used to shoot in Hi-Power matches before the AR-15 took over. In other words, the carry handle isn't all that necessary. The guns have a film of grease almost everywhere. When I ran a patch down each bore, I got grease and some small metal shavings when the patch came out....this from all 3 barrels. Perhaps the gas port was drilled after the chrome process and the tiny shavings are the remains from drilling that hole. I don't think these guns have been test fired at the factory. The gun is crudely finished....this is not a polished and shiny Valmet AK by any streach of the imagination, but a solid working AK with a slightly heavy barrel and a bi-pod. Oh, there is also a scope rail riveted on the left side. Aside from the rough finish...these are ment as military style guns after all...the weapons appear to be worth the $400 price. Once this lot is sold out, I suspect they will appreciate in value rather quickly. I think they are under priced right now by at least $100....
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/win308/DSCN0036a.jpg

My AES10b from Classic - I bought the shooter's package which was supposed to come with an extra 40 round mag, sling, hard case, and 100 rnds ammo. The extra 40 round mag was a very well used 30 rnd mag. The sling was totally molded and cracked leather. The hard case was the typical zip lock baggie variety. The 40 rnd mag that came with mine looked brand new - at least brand new paint - with the pitting obvious underneath the paint. The seam on the mag was bulged in between each weld by the rust that had been eating it up. You can't push the follower down because of all the rust. There was sooooooo much WD40 (or whatever penetrating oil they used) leaking out of the mag it soaked the foam lining of the case. My top cover has also been ground and restamped. My trunion was engraved with by a 6 yr old (or monkey) with an electric engraving pencil! The bolt and carrier appear to match and not forced. The gas piston on mine is not riveted - if yours is like mine you will not have to locktite it because the gorillas at Century WELDED it through one of the river holes the ground it down and painted it. Oh, That's not all they welded!!!!! They welded the bipod to the barrel and the barrel nut!!!! Hey, someone ought to tell those idiots this IS post ban. My receiver and barrel was full of metal grindings from where they ground the magwell opening and ground the mag supports off (way too much for mearly drilling a gas port). Not sure if this is some secret CENTURY mod but the first 1" of the upper right top rail (from the trunnion) was ground off as well. They did do a better riviting job than is the norm for Century. I called Classic and they are going to send me a replacement plastic bulgy mag and sling (they said they did not have any metal 40 rounders). Oh, they also stopped selling the shooters package because someone told them it was illegal to ship 100 rounds of ammo in the same case as the rifle :-/ My barrel pin nad been bored out to 8mm - not surprising with all these mismatched parts. I sent a Romy RPK kit back to IO because I have been waiting since last November for the barrel and it would have cost me around a hundred more dollars to build it myself - now I'm not so sure that was a good decision!!!!!

Dude- send it back!

I've been taking mine out shooting every day for the last week and so far my only complaints are:

1. Cheapo finish comes off easy. Paint wore off rear sight notch and is a bitch to align on a sunny day.

2. Carry handle fell off somewhere on the range. Is really a useless appendage.

3. Had to adjust (whack with a mallet) the FSB.

Otherwise, it's a blast to shoot at the 18" gongs and clay pidgeons. Will put accuracy to the test when I mount my SUIT Trilux this weekend.

http://www.akfiles.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29533

Got me one from J&G's and reworked it, then I rescued one from a pawn shop Ima rework that one too.

for the money you cant beat a AES 10B.

They have small problems but nothing us hobbiest cant overcome, heck its fun upgrading these rifles...think of the AES 10B as a diamond in the rough, quite a jem when all the rough edges are polished off.

Mojo00

I sure like the way the wood turned out on your gun. Good job!

The receiver is a WASR style, low cap that Century has opened up to take Hi Cap mags. Once this lot is sold out, I suspect they will appreciate in value rather quickly. I think they are under priced right now by at least $100....
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/win308/DSCN0036a.jpg


The receiver is a single stack 1.6mm RPK for the AES10B. Way to thick to be a WASR. Century opens up the magwell and adds the compliance parts afterwords. The trigger is also Tapco but it is not stamped like other US compliant Century rifles due to an agreement with Tapco for its US parts market

I myself invested in a few peices as well. For $399 this is the best value in AKs since the sub $100 kits a few years back

I agree with you as well about the underpricing. I think these rifles will jump at least $150 before the end of this year as the Yugo M72 RPK is now discontinued from Century and Classic arms just dropped the preorders off its page, AES -10B's and Yugo M72's are set to do some major price hike's in the next 3-6 months

win 308

i have some rare 3 strap pad unissued soviet rpk slings coming from russia if you want 1 for your rpk let me know and i will send a pic.

I also picked one of these up from J&G. After cleaning it up, picking up a laminated wood PG, refinishing the wood, and some paint sticks on the markings I think it looks pretty good for the price. Didn't take too long to sight it in as well. Great for a blaster!

Looks good AZG3...Id like to get me one more before they are all gone forever

I also picked one of these up from J&G. After cleaning it up, refinishing the wood, and some paint sticks on the markings I think it looks pretty good for the price. Didn't take too long to sight it in as well. Great for a blaster!

yeah I looked at their price today...379$... 20 bucks cheaper than everyone else.....

I just recently saw an article that the founder of JG passed away...srry to hear

Bigmegina....thanks for the thought, but a sling came with each of the 3 guns....so I'm OK in the sling department.

I took all three to the range today, and each functioned without a hitch. The adjustable rear sight was GREAT as I needed to come right a couple of clicks on two of them. One was dead on. Accuracy with Golden Tiger wasn't bad either...not Camp Perry accurate for sure, but not too shabby for a stamped battle rifle.