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View Full Version : Rebuild WASR10/63 on a new receiver?



Aggressive Perfector
08-16-2013, 03:06 AM
Hello all, like many here it seems, I have bought a WASR 10 as my first AK and have decided to discuss it in my first post. So call me generic, the shoe fits. :P I've had this rifle for a few months and though I have already spent a lot of time and over priced steel case ammo shooting it for fun, I have decided to make some improvements on it.

Naturally, I have spent hours reading material all over the net, and getting many conflicting "facts" and opinions about this rifle, and just a little bit of seemingly good information among mountains of utter shit. I mean really, this thing does exactly what I bought it to do. It'll take down a hog (or man, dare he enter my house without permission), has good enough accuracy to hit most anything I aim at (just not necessarily hit exactly where on the target I aim) and I can put a lot of lead down range quickly. It's a damn fun gun. But it has some "flaws" I would like to fix. Like many, I think the stock is uglier than hell, the lack of dimples and mildly excessive mag wobble bother me, and hollow points have a tendency to jam/ mis-feed... I was just going to have a gun smith polish a little bit of a feed ramp in it to help with feeding the hollow points, and was going to refinish the butt stock and hand guards and call it good. But the butt stock broke while I was attempting to remove it from the receiver.

So instead of just refinishing the crappy plywood stuff, or buying the pre-finished Timbersmith plywood stocks, I'm going to put a good hardwood butt stock and handguard set from Ironwood Designs. But then that leaves the receiver... I'm thinking about buying or building a new receiver with the correct dimples and rebuilding the rifle on the new receiver. I figure when I'm done the rifle will look more correct (like an SAR) and possibly cut out the occasional failure to feed caused by the jiggling of the magazine. Thoughts?

jojo
08-16-2013, 04:03 AM
In all honesty I think that you would be money ahead to buy a cheap replacement stock from Gunbroker and sell it. Use the funds from the sale to partially fund a rifle that is more satisfactory to you. The time and money you are about to spend on Ironwood stock set and receiver will be substantial especially if you don't have access to a hydraulic press (barrel pin and barrel) and rivet jig to rivet trunnions.

ltorlo64
08-16-2013, 07:29 AM
No idea, I have an AR. I did want to welcome you to the board. Hope to see you in other posts!

Aggressive Perfector
08-16-2013, 07:50 AM
Thanks Itorlo. I have one of those as well.

In all honesty I think that you would be money ahead to buy a cheap replacement stock from Gunbroker and sell it. Use the funds from the sale to partially fund a rifle that is more satisfactory to you. The time and money you are about to spend on Ironwood stock set and receiver will be substantial especially if you don't have access to a hydraulic press (barrel pin and barrel) and rivet jig to rivet trunnions.
May be the better idea as far as money is concerned. But I'm finding myself excited at the prospect of a potential project. I know I'm more than capable of doing it, the money is where I lack. I've looked into building AK's before I got this rifle, and decided to just buy this rifle due to cost of needed tools. Still want to get into building, but it may be a while before I get the money needed. I think I may just go with your suggestion for the time being and just put a decent looking finish on a shitty stock like what the thing came with.

Russbirch
08-16-2013, 09:41 AM
What you are contemplating makes no sense to me, other than you need something to fiddle with. The WASR does what you want; cheap, loud, fast entertainment.

Buy a cheap butt stock for it on GB or, as I did on one of my WASRs, buy the Timbersmith kit. (The product is terrific and the rubber butt pad makes the WASR recoil feel really, really nice)

The money and time you can spend doing what you've described can be much better spent, IMHO, by buying a better gun. There are MANY AK variants out there that are better made than a WASR without spending an arm and a leg... even parts kits can be fun. Keep the WASR as your 'beater gun' and enjoy its nature. It is what it is.

imanaknut
08-16-2013, 12:18 PM
Welcome to the group !!! :welcome:

Ironwood makes great stock sets and you can finish them to your favorite shade of wood. To save money as others have said, you can find Romanian stocks on Gunbroker very cheaply, but some if not most will need some TLC to make them look good. Still do-able. Apex Gun Parts also stock Romanian, as well as other Euro stocks.

As for feeding hollowpoint ammo, the AK was designed to use FMJ. Most do not have feed ramps and the pointed bullet helps guide the round into the chamber. I have cut a small "feed ramp" into the 6 O'clock position of a couple AKMs that I have that improved the feed of HP. I didn't take much material out in the lower part of the barrel to greatly improve feeding of all ammo.

While all accuracy shooters will tell you that the person pulling the trigger is the biggest part of an accurate rifle, a good muzzle crown on your AKM as well as a good trigger group like the adjustable Redstar Arms trigger set will help. AK/AKMs prove to be more accurate then the legend tells of them, but there are still a couple of things to make them just a little better.

As for mag wiggle, many WASR owners have either built up the area inside the magwell with a piece of plastic or sheet metal held in by JB Weld to help keep the mag more aligned. Mag wobble has always been an issue with many AK variants but that is not much different than the rest of the rifle that uses "slot-fit" to achieve the amazing reliability of the AK.

As for replacing the receiver, I would suggest against it. Why take a working rifle and risk turning it into a pile of useless parts. Not saying it is something you can't do, only you know your skill level so I am not saying anything about that, just that you have a working firearm, and there is always a chance for an "oops" as long as we are human. ;)

If you want a nice looking AK or AKM variant, check out Atlantic Firearms, a great company to do business with. They have a nice selection of very nice looking and well built rifles.

Regardless as to what you do, welcome to the site and enjoy.

Aggressive Perfector
08-29-2013, 09:50 PM
I actually looked at Atlantics web site a few days ago. Nice rifles very reasonably priced given this years events.

As for the stock... Idecided on a timber smith. But am going to rip off the rubber butt pad and drill a hole for my spring and tool kit to go into and put the origional metal plate back on. I really hope this stock doesn't increase the length of pull as i find the standard one comfortable.