midiwall
BANG!
And... My better half and I are just getting back from the range.
Short form
MAN this thing is FUN to shoot!
Long form
HOLY CARP this thing is FUN FUN FUN to shoot!
We have a good collection of toys, but they're mostly handguns, 'cept for our trap shooting fun-guns. This is by far the post powerful toy we own.
I've shot a buddy's AK47 at a private range in Virginia, but honestly I never really had the inkling to get one. I was too much of a "handgun guy" and couldn't see myself getting into higher powered rifles. Then about 3 weeks ago we had our most recent "Ban everything! Kalifornia has the right answer!" scare out here in WA state, and that put me on the lookout.
I talked to a few folks and got some ideas on what to buy. A lot of folks said "Saiga!" and {insert any other assembly here}. When it came down to it, there were soooo many diverse opinions, you'd think I was shopping Dodge/Ford/Chevy! Bottom line, I found myself shopping cosmetics, and I really started to like the look of polished wood furniture...
That lead me to camping out on my favorite online site (Buds) and I wandered to see what was around. The IOI _looked_ good (remember, I gave up on brand and shopped cosmetics), so I started the other side of research. Reviews.
I couldn't find a lot at all, though the most important thing I kept in mind is that when it comes to researching on the 'Net, no news is good news. People will complain at the drop of a hat, but they really have to be pushed to say anything good about something.
So, one click of the "YOU BETCHA' I'LL BUY IT!" button and it was on its way. ($524 shipped, $30 local transfer fee).
You guys know from me showing up in this thread is that one of the things I want to do is to run optics on it, so you already know that the downside of this receiver is that it doesn't have that side rail/flange. My rail options should be delivered this week and I'll write more about them then. So the outing today was all iron sights.
We started out on the 100yd range, we walked out a target, setup the spotting scope, loaded up a round and I let Sandy have the first shot. She's shot a .300 Win Mag before so I knew she wasn't gonna get spooked by any kick, but I had put us in a right-side corner at the range... The AK47 CRACK! should make her jump.
CRACK! man this thing can toss a casing! Bounced through the last lane to our right, off the wall and back onto the table. And that sound... THAT sound... oh man. Yes, she jumped
Now, this rifle got delivered with the front sight kicked WAY left, and UPS's holiday schedule didn't get me the adjustment tool soon enough, so adjust the shot, CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! It's shooting WAY right (of course) so when the range went safe, we moved up to the 50yd line so we could have some fun with a smaller manual adjustment.
We went through two boxes of Wolf 124gr FMJ and loved every second of it. We'll go back next week, with the first optics option and a sight tool, and have even more fun.
Summary
All in all - VERY happy with the purchase.
ref:
Short form
MAN this thing is FUN to shoot!
Long form
HOLY CARP this thing is FUN FUN FUN to shoot!
We have a good collection of toys, but they're mostly handguns, 'cept for our trap shooting fun-guns. This is by far the post powerful toy we own.
I've shot a buddy's AK47 at a private range in Virginia, but honestly I never really had the inkling to get one. I was too much of a "handgun guy" and couldn't see myself getting into higher powered rifles. Then about 3 weeks ago we had our most recent "Ban everything! Kalifornia has the right answer!" scare out here in WA state, and that put me on the lookout.
I talked to a few folks and got some ideas on what to buy. A lot of folks said "Saiga!" and {insert any other assembly here}. When it came down to it, there were soooo many diverse opinions, you'd think I was shopping Dodge/Ford/Chevy! Bottom line, I found myself shopping cosmetics, and I really started to like the look of polished wood furniture...
That lead me to camping out on my favorite online site (Buds) and I wandered to see what was around. The IOI _looked_ good (remember, I gave up on brand and shopped cosmetics), so I started the other side of research. Reviews.
I couldn't find a lot at all, though the most important thing I kept in mind is that when it comes to researching on the 'Net, no news is good news. People will complain at the drop of a hat, but they really have to be pushed to say anything good about something.
So, one click of the "YOU BETCHA' I'LL BUY IT!" button and it was on its way. ($524 shipped, $30 local transfer fee).
You guys know from me showing up in this thread is that one of the things I want to do is to run optics on it, so you already know that the downside of this receiver is that it doesn't have that side rail/flange. My rail options should be delivered this week and I'll write more about them then. So the outing today was all iron sights.
We started out on the 100yd range, we walked out a target, setup the spotting scope, loaded up a round and I let Sandy have the first shot. She's shot a .300 Win Mag before so I knew she wasn't gonna get spooked by any kick, but I had put us in a right-side corner at the range... The AK47 CRACK! should make her jump.
CRACK! man this thing can toss a casing! Bounced through the last lane to our right, off the wall and back onto the table. And that sound... THAT sound... oh man. Yes, she jumped
Now, this rifle got delivered with the front sight kicked WAY left, and UPS's holiday schedule didn't get me the adjustment tool soon enough, so adjust the shot, CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! It's shooting WAY right (of course) so when the range went safe, we moved up to the 50yd line so we could have some fun with a smaller manual adjustment.
We went through two boxes of Wolf 124gr FMJ and loved every second of it. We'll go back next week, with the first optics option and a sight tool, and have even more fun.
Summary
- Good:
- Built like an AK47 - aka, a TANK
- Stock's a bit short, but with the foregrip it's VERY comfy
- CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! no problems at all; and no issues with the double-stacked mag
- The trigger is like GLASS - I didn't expect that AT ALL!
- (I think) the wood finish is sharp looking
- Not so good:
- That missing flange on the receiver requires more "exotic" optics solutions
- The varnish finish was a bit rough, 400 grit sandpaper took care of that in mere minutes, with no dulling
- The plastic pistol grip had nasty seam lines. I almost put a Hogue on it, but a few more minutes with 400 grit and it smoothed out just fine
All in all - VERY happy with the purchase.
ref: