AK-47 kits worth it?

[DragBag31]

Hello,

I am interested in doing an AK build this summer and was wondering if the fully assembled kids are worth the money? I'm aware the AK assembly requires many more tools than the AR platform. Ultimately, I'm looking for something high quality and reliable.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Spyco]

What are you asking in particular? Is it the DIY kits from Atlantic Arms? Pre-Headspaced and populated barrel kits? What are you looking for?

Also, have you done any research into building an AK?

The way you have asked the question is whether or not you should just buy a completed AK or just stick to ARs.

 

[Devilpig]

AK kits are great for having a rifle put together as a clone of a particular weapon you want, such as an AMD65 or maybe a certain country's RPK or something of that nature. Unless you find something like a specific milled underfolder or you want specifically a Polish or East German rifle then go for it. One thing to note about those prebarreled kits though is that there are some with crappy ESS barrels (typically those were done to some AMD kits) and there's some gunsmiths who won't build with a barreled trunnion without pressing the barrel out and repressing to ensure headspace is to their standards, so beware of whatever rules the gunsmith you plan on shipping out to has. If you just want a basic AK, don't spend the money on a kit build, you'll be hard pressed to find all the parts and gunsmith to do the work for less than a WASR or a Fox import rifle.