The good:
Fast shipping! I ordered it Monday morning, had it Wednesday morning.
Straight front sight. Looks perfect to me.
Overall good condition, not rusted or anything. Just the usual scratches and dents that Romanians and Century Arms guys put there.
Barrel is actually a bit over 23.5", which is correct for an RPK. Most websites say 21" for the AES-10B, which was kind of disappointing. But no, it's 23.6" or so. Hooray!
The bad:
Typical Century magwell. The included 30 round magazine flops like a fish, but the 40 rounder and drum aren't too bad. I'm just going to pretend that RPKs are supposed to fit their own magazines better than AK-47 ones. I've got a buttload of unissued condition 40s coming from CDNN today, so we'll see if 40s in general fit better.
The gun was filled with metal shavings! I hope that's not bits of jacketing from a test firing. The gas tube was full of them. But, I assume this is also a Century hallmark, and a result of the magwell job. Shavings could get in the gas system easily, and they probably didn't bother to clean it.
The guy that welded on the muzzle nut was determined to make it impossible to remove, and be functional. Put the weld right on the notch for the whatchamacallit anti-turn thing. I'm going to have to buy a replacement nut after I file the weld off.
The weld that holds the carrying handle on broke when I had the wood off. But, it seems like the wood was practically the only thing holding the handle on anyway, so it still works, just a little wobbly. And now I can remove the handle easily later, if I want to use blactical tactical shmactical furniture.
The cleaning rod bends so much going into the handguard that it needs two teams of mules, pulling in opposite directions, to get it out. It doesn't help that the middle hole is crooked by a good bit, but fortunately, everything else pinned to the barrel is straight. Looking at pictures, I imagine every AES-10B has that problem. Lining the hole in the handguard with a metal tube might help, as it mostly drags on the wood.
The ugly:
I wish someone had warned me about the cleaning kit compartment in the butt! I almost didn't get my thumb back! It took me 5 solid minutes to get my thumb out of there. I thought I was going to have to go to the hospital with an 11 pound rifle dangling from my hand. Not fun. Now I know exactly how a monkey feels when it tries to get a nut inside a box, and can't remove its hand! I wonder how many Soviet conscripts lost fingers, for this very reason?
The magazines stick. It seems to be related to rotational play. Looking at the rifle from the bottom, if I rotate the magazine as far as possible counterclockwise, it snaps in fine and comes out easy. Rotated clockwise, the mag catch gets stuck on the whatchamacallit on the way in, and I need a screwdriver for leverage, to move it again (or to rotate the mag counterclockwise). This is my first AK, but I suspect this isn't normal. It looks like the top of the mag catch is uneven. From the bottom, barrel pointed up, the right side is taller than the left. And looking at the mags, the side of the lug thingie that touches that side of the mag release is getting polished by scraping against it. So filing that down until it's even might help. It's off by about 0.12 mm, according to my caliper.
Overall:
I'd say I got my money's worth. Seems like a pretty typical Century job, functional but not refined. The sticking mag problem is the main negative, but I think that's an easy fix. Going to wait for someone that knows more about AKs to chime in before I file anything, though.
I'll have to wait until the weekend to shoot it.
Might take pictures later.
Fast shipping! I ordered it Monday morning, had it Wednesday morning.
Straight front sight. Looks perfect to me.
Overall good condition, not rusted or anything. Just the usual scratches and dents that Romanians and Century Arms guys put there.
Barrel is actually a bit over 23.5", which is correct for an RPK. Most websites say 21" for the AES-10B, which was kind of disappointing. But no, it's 23.6" or so. Hooray!
The bad:
Typical Century magwell. The included 30 round magazine flops like a fish, but the 40 rounder and drum aren't too bad. I'm just going to pretend that RPKs are supposed to fit their own magazines better than AK-47 ones. I've got a buttload of unissued condition 40s coming from CDNN today, so we'll see if 40s in general fit better.
The gun was filled with metal shavings! I hope that's not bits of jacketing from a test firing. The gas tube was full of them. But, I assume this is also a Century hallmark, and a result of the magwell job. Shavings could get in the gas system easily, and they probably didn't bother to clean it.
The guy that welded on the muzzle nut was determined to make it impossible to remove, and be functional. Put the weld right on the notch for the whatchamacallit anti-turn thing. I'm going to have to buy a replacement nut after I file the weld off.
The weld that holds the carrying handle on broke when I had the wood off. But, it seems like the wood was practically the only thing holding the handle on anyway, so it still works, just a little wobbly. And now I can remove the handle easily later, if I want to use blactical tactical shmactical furniture.
The cleaning rod bends so much going into the handguard that it needs two teams of mules, pulling in opposite directions, to get it out. It doesn't help that the middle hole is crooked by a good bit, but fortunately, everything else pinned to the barrel is straight. Looking at pictures, I imagine every AES-10B has that problem. Lining the hole in the handguard with a metal tube might help, as it mostly drags on the wood.
The ugly:
I wish someone had warned me about the cleaning kit compartment in the butt! I almost didn't get my thumb back! It took me 5 solid minutes to get my thumb out of there. I thought I was going to have to go to the hospital with an 11 pound rifle dangling from my hand. Not fun. Now I know exactly how a monkey feels when it tries to get a nut inside a box, and can't remove its hand! I wonder how many Soviet conscripts lost fingers, for this very reason?
The magazines stick. It seems to be related to rotational play. Looking at the rifle from the bottom, if I rotate the magazine as far as possible counterclockwise, it snaps in fine and comes out easy. Rotated clockwise, the mag catch gets stuck on the whatchamacallit on the way in, and I need a screwdriver for leverage, to move it again (or to rotate the mag counterclockwise). This is my first AK, but I suspect this isn't normal. It looks like the top of the mag catch is uneven. From the bottom, barrel pointed up, the right side is taller than the left. And looking at the mags, the side of the lug thingie that touches that side of the mag release is getting polished by scraping against it. So filing that down until it's even might help. It's off by about 0.12 mm, according to my caliper.
Overall:
I'd say I got my money's worth. Seems like a pretty typical Century job, functional but not refined. The sticking mag problem is the main negative, but I think that's an easy fix. Going to wait for someone that knows more about AKs to chime in before I file anything, though.
I'll have to wait until the weekend to shoot it.
Might take pictures later.
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