jennymikeb
Member
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Picked up new AKM at IO in person
On Friday, 11/6 I had an appointment for a pre-arranged tour of IO in Monroe NC and was able to pick up my new AKM in person. I am very pleased with the product and their shop was professional. I have a bunch of photos but for some reason can not post them. Maybe its because I just joined in July. Any help on this appreciated, I would love to share them.
For comparison sake, in my life I have owned the following AK's:
One Pre-ban Norinco AKS (bought 1988, sold shortly after Clinton laws came in)
One "386" Norinco hunter (bought 1993, sold same as above)
One Century Norinco MAK-90 (bought 1995, sold to buy a new sofa)
One kit-built Bulgarian AK74 5.45 (built 2003 still have it)
One WASR-10/63 7.62 (Bought 2006, still have it)
One STG-2003C 5.56 (Bought 2007 still have it)
This experience being stated, I am no expert but more an advanced enthisiast. The gun, as bought by me from IO, is probably as close to a real military AKM as I have seen commercially available in the US market.
The gun itself:
The gun is a Romanian pattern based on the Pistol Mitralieră model 1963. The gun has a US made receiver (marked "Elk River, Houston TX Model ERDT"), a new US barrel, tapco trigger parts, tapco magazine, tapco slant muzzle attachment and the balance of parts were scrubbed / sanitized military - including the front trunnion which has had the original military markings milled off. I was told that making new trunnions is currently possible but too expensive for the gun-buying public to afford.
Their build process and shop:
I was expecting to see a parts kit being assembled on a bench by a guy who is earning a paycheck, but I was pretty surprised to see how they did it. It is a fact that some of the parts come from military surplus sources, but they have actually set it up into a small factory production line and the guns come out the end as new products. The "Kits" were actually just masses of military parts that ended up separated into grades (pass/fail) and placed into bins for reconditioning or recycling into scrap. Therefore, rather than a single parts kit sitting there you would see a plastic tote full of bolts, a plastic tote full of pistons, a plastic tote full of pins, a Gaylord full of stocks, etc. They have pretty sophisticated jigs, hydraulic presses, lathes, milling machines, etc. set up as you would expect to see in any machine shop. The shop smelled like a mix of cosmoline, mineral spirits, and gear oil. I estimate that they had about 40 guns available for shipment or being packed and another 50 - 60 work-in-process. The finish is black phosphate, I was told that this is done by an outside contractor.
The parts I saw:
I would estimate that 80% - 90% of the MILITARY parts I saw were of Romanian origin. The rest were NOS East German with a scarce few Soviet parts (like my forearm) here and there. I would add that the few Soviet parts I saw were in reject bins and were (a) very old; and (b) almost completely worn out from third world use.
I had mine customized:
Since I was there as a guest and had only one chance, I elected to purchase some options. I had the forward-grip / handguard replaced with a Soviet pattern palm swell handguard. I elected to have a brown/orange bakelite grip installed and installed a brown plastic East German gas tube cover. Now all of the wood parts match, red-glue birch laminate and the grip and gas tube cover match, dark brown.
Shooting impression:
I experienced no stoppages in shooting the gun using either of the good magazines. I tried the TAPCO magazine and I used a new military magazine and lubricated the feed lips first. A third magazine I tried from Promag failed to function all together. I fired at slow pace (it is a factory-new barrel and needs to break-in) three boxed of Wolf 123gr. steel case FMJ made 2007. The gun printed slightly low (3" - 3.5") at 50 yards but on center in the X axis. At 100 yards it was on center in both the X and Y axis. I am near sighted so I do not shoot as once as I once could. I found that the gun shoots about 1.75" groups at 100 yards with four of five rounds, every time I had one that flew outside the main group. I think a more advanced shooter with handloads could do better. Temps were in the 50's, cloudy with no wind.
Anything I would change?
Well, it went bang every time, nothing came loose, no pins walked out, it didn't jam and I hit what I pointed at. A good all around buy. The top cover is a little loose in the front, but that's it.
Last edited by jennymikeb on 11-09-2008 at 02:32 PM.
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