Romanian AK Magazine Kit

[ffuries]

Seeing I can't for the life of me find my steel Romanian magazines at this time, I decided to buy some more. Which means they'll magically reappear in the near future. Still have the 3 Pro Mags for it upstairs on the gun rack, but it looks so much better with real magazines on it

The kit came with 4 Romanian magazines, magazine pouch, oiler, buttstock cleaning kit, cleaning rod, sling, bayonet, and a blank firing adapter, all for $100.00. Three of the magazines were in great condition, one took some work getting some rust cleaned up, and straightening out the floor plate. Other than that one, it took longer to tear them down and put them back together than it did to clean the other 3.

Don't need the extra buttstock cleaning kit, cleaning rod, sling, or bayonet at this time. I'll hold on to them for now, but might decide to let them loose, in the near future.

Seeing CINC Household and our daughter are in Daytona with the granddaughter for her cheerleading competition, leaving the dogs and I on our own. I decided to break the magazines down, give them a good scrubbing and inspection. Even though I did it in the garage, the house smells like Bore Cleaner and Oil.

Pic 1 As she arrived in Apr 2019, minus the bayonet, I already had it.
Pic 2 Looking proper with steel magazines.
Pic 3 The extra parts in the kit.

[ffuries]

Oiler is actually a Romanian Mosin Nagant oiler, which apparently from my reading they up-cycled and used with their AKMs also.

Basa for Base (Alkaline)
Ulei for Oil

[ffuries]

Wow, prices have changed a lot over the last couple years. Nov 2019 I picked up surplus Romanian furniture for my WASR for $55.00 plus shipping. Looking around on the internet tonight and I see that surplus Romanian furniture is now running $146.00 plus shipping or higher IF you can find it. So in 4 years it gone up almost $100.00.

Glad I got my stuff before it got stupid, can only imagine what it'll be in another 4 years.

[millman]

AK shit goes for silly prices. I have a circa early 2000"s Yugo M70. I found out that the fat M76 pistol grip it has is worth about $200 or more. Just the grip. Nuts.

[millman]

I think it is Bosnian mags, (with a Fleur-de-Lis ) can bring like $600. My buddy has one that he got at Knob Creek machine gun shoot a number of years ago for like $20. It is his favorite story.

[ffuries]

AK shit goes for silly prices. I have a circa early 2000"s Yugo M70. I found out that the fat M76 pistol grip it has is worth about $200 or more. Just the grip. Nuts.

Seems like there aren't many Romanian surplus furniture sets out there. Plus the price of Russian Furniture has gone through the roof.

Not many milsurps coming in except the Ethiopian hoard, that look like Tiger Imports took a wire brush to.

I can see in the future Ukrainian/Russian War furniture sets bringing a hefty premium, if they ever get imported.

Certain magazines like the one you mentioned and the Bakelite ones seem to bring a nice premium.

[Junk Yard Dog]

I remember when the East German mags came out, they were very nicely made and around five bucks each or less. Cheaper if you bought them in large amounts. The Chinese ones were crude looking, but they worked. I don't think I came across any Romanian mags back in the early 90's when I was playing with AK's. I remember swapping out the piss yellow wood on my Maddi for East German furniture, it was dirt cheap at the time.

[ffuries]

Amazing how the prices have gone up, then again the parts are few to none lately.

Just look at the RC Mausers, they were snubbed by the K98k Gods, as inferior mutts. Some people bought them, to get parts off, then parted the rest out. Now they are a collecting niche of their own, and the prices have skyrocketed, some selling North of $1000.00, go figure!

WASR's breaking the $1000.00 ceiling, Mosin Nagant M91/30s that I bought in 2011 for $99.00 are an enigma all their own it seems. I see them selling at the $700.00 plus range on GB for days or weeks on end, then they don't sell at all with a $150.00 starting price.

Seems like the only way anyone gets a good deal, buying wise, is when the seller is uninformed and asks for a low price, or takes a lowball offer not knowing better.

At the rate its going, I'll have to start shopping at Steve's. Give him a few shoots of Moonshine, aka Blabber-Mouth, and once he's extremely happy make some low offers.

[Junk Yard Dog]

Ammo also, I could make five times what I paid if I sold what I bought 10-30 years ago. Guns also, I was buying 91/30's at $55 or less for a bit there when they were plentiful and everywhere. I understand carbine prices are climbing even more rapidly. I showed someone a picture of my M1 carbine collection that I took back in 2007 All five of them lined up on a table and it was pointed out that I had about twelve grand on the table not including WW2 bayonets, slings, cleaning gear, pouches and magazines. I show them history and all they see is money, what the hell would they do with the money that is more fun than owning five M1 carbines, one of them an M1A1? If I showed them my Garand and '03 collections I am sure they would shit.

I should have bought more RC K98k's, but they were already getting pricy when I bought mine. I already owned several original USGI bringhome K98's by then, and I was busy buying every Mosin not nailed down so I just never got around to buying more. The most expensive thing I ever did was buy a PC, get online and go seeking information on my Hungarian PU sniper. Everybody showing off all the cool shit they were buying, links to dealers, all that. Showing me guns is like dangling chocolate bars in front of the circus fat lady, I am going to want them, lots of them, and that's just what happened. Nicest AK I ever saw was the Bulgarian SLR95, milled receiver, fine finish, deep bluing. First thought in my head was who in hell took that much time and effort with an AK?

[ffuries]

With the Romanian surplus furniture and metal magazines, she no longer looks like an AirSoft toy.

Other than needing to find a few small parts IE couple slings, one bayonet, one cleaning rod, one pistol lanyard, and one replacement firing pin. All the weapons are pretty much complete now.

Now to find my next Orphaned Milsurp to occupy my time with.

[Junk Yard Dog]

Airsoft toy would e a major improvement on the Maddi's wood set. Nasty color, warped buttstock, crude. Despite looking like a reject from the Pakistan mountain gunmakers village it never failed to function and was fairly accurate. Have never seen another Maddi since the early 90's, next Egyptian rifle I came across was a Rasheed, and that one tops my piece of shit list after it pretty much fell apart. I have a couple of Hakims that are pretty good, secret to them is to carefully regulate the gas system when changing ammunition types. I have no personal experience with the Romanian AK's, but I do recall hearing some chatter about them years back that sounded kind of negative, but I don't remember what it was. Might have something to do with the Century build quality.

[ffuries]

Airsoft toy would e a major improvement on the Maddi's wood set. Nasty color, warped buttstock, crude. Despite looking like a reject from the Pakistan mountain gunmakers village it never failed to function and was fairly accurate. Have never seen another Maddi since the early 90's, next Egyptian rifle I came across was a Rasheed, and that one tops my piece of shit list after it pretty much fell apart. I have a couple of Hakims that are pretty good, secret to them is to carefully regulate the gas system when changing ammunition types. I have no personal experience with the Romanian AK's, but I do recall hearing some chatter about them years back that sounded kind of negative, but I don't remember what it was. Might have something to do with the Century build quality.

Yes, Century had some serious QC issues with their WASR builds/modifications in the mid to late 2000's. Canted sights and gas blocks, bolt hanging up on the hammer, screwed up rivets, mag-well opening oversized (Converted from single stack to double stack). The mag-well issues lead to severe magazine wobble in some guns.

Mine is a 2018 made one, and it had none of the above issues. I'd even go as far as to say the magazine lockup is comparable to my ARs. My mag-well opening is clean, found no shavings in the bore from the modification (Heard this was also an issue), no jagged edges, and from my Mk-1 eyeball seems to be symmetrical. So Century must have stepped up their game, or i got hold of an anomaly. Truth be told Century WASR builds/modifications got better and the issues are now an exception versus the norm it seems.

But you'll always have the haters out there, and you'll never be able to change their minds.

[Junk Yard Dog]

Century had issues with a lot of stuff they built, I remember similar problems with the FAL's they built in the mid 90's. The receivers were by Imbel for most of the earlier builds so they were OK, but you had misaligned sights, broken parts, that sort of thing. I never trusted them after seeing that. AR's have issues also with everyone and their brother making receivers. 90's Essential arms receiver with a mag well so sloppy that is you grab the mag while firing, or it bumps the table or rest the mag moves and the rifle jams immediately. Who can forget that SKS I have with the AK mag conversion that is such crap the mag falls out with every shot fired. I think that was a Century build also. Shortened to "para" length, and converted to the AK mag, garbage. Got that piece of crap when I bought out a whole collection back in the 90's when shit like that could still happen without requiring a major bank loan. There was a broken Marlin Glenfield .22 with that lot as I remember, I was able to fix that one, but the SKS was past help and would have required fabricating a whole new mag well design. More than I would do for a butchered SKS. After that I tell people, you want a rifle that uses AK mags? Stop fuckin around and get an AK.

[millman]

I am a member on a AK group on FB. I am not a poster, more of a lurker just trying to learn. What I see on there is, Century BUILT anything is suspect (depends on who actually built it). Century IMPORTED stuff is ok, to good to go. Depends on what it is. I have a Mid 2000 Yugo. It has CAI, but was actually built by Coonan arms of pistol fame. It has been fine for me.

[millman]

Also these days Romanian WASRs are GTG.

[ffuries]

Also these days Romanian WASRs are GTG.

True, I've got no issues with my WASR-10, except I don't have enough food to feed it as much as I would like.

Okay I had minor, insignificant hiccup, my bayonet lug was too chunky and it wouldn't accept a bayonet. When that is the only thing you can whine about, you're having to nitpick to find a complaint.

Actually thought of getting another WASR, and making it look like the ones used in Afghanistan. But like I posted, surplus furniture is getting hard to find and damn pricey.

[ffuries]

Century had issues with a lot of stuff they built, I remember similar problems with the FAL's they built in the mid 90's. The receivers were by Imbel for most of the earlier builds so they were OK, but you had misaligned sights, broken parts, that sort of thing. I never trusted them after seeing that. AR's have issues also with everyone and their brother making receivers. 90's Essential arms receiver with a mag well so sloppy that is you grab the mag while firing, or it bumps the table or rest the mag moves and the rifle jams immediately. Who can forget that SKS I have with the AK mag conversion that is such crap the mag falls out with every shot fired. I think that was a Century build also. Shortened to "para" length, and converted to the AK mag, garbage. Got that piece of crap when I bought out a whole collection back in the 90's when shit like that could still happen without requiring a major bank loan. There was a broken Marlin Glenfield .22 with that lot as I remember, I was able to fix that one, but the SKS was past help and would have required fabricating a whole new mag well design. More than I would do for a butchered SKS. After that I tell people, you want a rifle that uses AK mags? Stop fuckin around and get an AK.

Don't know who built them, but I remember reading about a batch of CETME C's builds that a lot of people bitched about. Can't recall what the complaint was in regards to anymore.

On ARs my sons (Prior Marine) Faux M4 he was having issues, as he stated to me. He was staying in SC and the rifle is with us in FL, as his in-laws are not gun people.

"Sometimes it fires fine, sometimes it fires and I can't hear/feel the click of the trigger resetting, and sometimes I have to hold the trigger back and wait for the click. Times when it doesn't click, I have to pull the charging handle to reset the trigger manually. Almost as if the trigger is stuck between cocked and fire."

So I ran the Basic Drill on the rifle with these results.

With your weapon empty and on "SAFE", pull the charging handle to cock the hammer.CHECK, PASS.

Place the safety selector lever on "FIRE". Pull the trigger to the rear and hold. The hammer should fall. CHECK, PASS

While still holding the trigger to the rear, pull the charging handle to the rear and release. Slowly release the trigger until you hear and feel an audible click or "popping" noise. This is the disconnector releasing the hammer hook as the trigger/sear grabs the hammer. NO CLICK FELT OR HEARD.

Pull the trigger to the rear again. The hammer should fall. PULLED TRIGGER NOTHING, LET TRIGGER GO AND FELT AND HEARD HAMMER FALL.

Another attempt of the Basic Drill and after pulling the trigger a few times it finally clicked when let go, and then the hammer fell when the trigger was pulled. Went through all the steps again from A to Z and the rifle failed again.

Met up with a guy from Pensacola and he ran the drill to confirm my findings, took it apart and found the Disconnector to be too thick, thus causing the issues, he checked everything else out to be sure everything else was good, reassembled it, ran the drill several times. Loaded a full 30 round magazine in it and emptied it with no issues. He mentioned two minor issues, one of the take down pins has a burr so it could only be removed and installed a certain way (He didn't have a spare in his parts box), and the slot from the trigger in the lower is a bit short. Doesn't cause any function issues, but does make disassembling/assembling the trigger assembly a little difficult.

So whoever milled out the lower didn't do it to specs.

[Junk Yard Dog]

AR issues are legendary once you get outside the major manufacturers. There was a major rush to get AR lowers and parts kits to market before the 1994 Clinton crime bill took effect. There were parts being made by fly by night outfits that never made a gun part before and they were sold before leaving the production line. Same shit again after each ban scare up to today. Specs get lost in the rush, or maybe there is a we can fix it later attitude. I sold a Colt SP-1 for thousands back after the crime bill based on the fact it wasn't a fly by night no name rifle with potentially off spec parts. Bushmaster was pretty good as I recall, I think they were a government contractor, but the memory is dim 30 years later. Not wanting to deal with all that crap I never gave up my M1A for an AR, plus I liked the punch of the .30. The man who built my M1A from a Winchester parts kit and ARMSCORP receiver was a retired USMC armorer who knew his shit. I put a lot of rounds downrange with that rifle without failures, so it paid to shell out for the work to be done by a professional.

[ffuries]

The guy that did the fix on my son's AR was a retired or prior Army Armorer, and a Vietnam Veteran. He would barely look at the parts as much as feel them. He would be talking to me, explaining what he was checking for and why, but mostly by touch. He knew his shit that is for sure. When he found the Disconnector to be out of tolerances, he pulled a good one from his parts box and showed me the glaring differences. The one in the rifle was thicker, all the way round, like it was blank that hadn't been honed into final shape and size. Due to that problem, it would drag, and get hung up.