Another "what's wrong with this picture" lesson for those buying AK variants

[imanaknut]

Saw another at a fun show this past weekend. Was a Norinco underfolder that looked like it had been enjoyed. Priced at $900 I had to look it over. Sure enough the model number stamped on the trunion was "1 56S-1" and the bayo lug ears were ground off. With a tear I put it down and walked away.

[Moebrown20]

This is strange:






I see china, NY, I think NV and three sets of numbers.

[Hammerstrike44]

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/Vie...Item=183772623

Half of me wants to explain things to the seller, the other half is so tired of doing it I just don't have the energy anymore.

I will leave this as a puzzle to answer for those just getting into AK collecting before revealing what is wrong.

I am an honest man. However, there are AK/AKMs and then there are AK/AKMs for the collecting and shooting crowd. Most who posted identified the answers to your puzzle. Just last weekend, I went to a gun show and the AK vendors had almost any variant you could think of out when the doors opened. I got there at 9:00 thinking the show opened at 10:00 a.m. and the vendors were setting up. One of the vendors I know well explained to me he knows a "new FFL dealer, who was attempting to unload about 60 AKs he had taken in on trade-ups for AR platforms". This particular vendor catered to the law enforcement community and mostly carried ARs and Glocks with their accessories. He has a thriving little gun store in my community because he does carry a lot of retro-fitting accessories, and tactical lights, sighting, and various grips. I helped this vendor friend of mine set up and after one trip back from the van, he says "that fool has a Poly Tech "Legend" over there for ($500)". I said "there must be something wrong with it." After the show opened I walked over to this AR dealer and sure enough he had some really nice Maadis, Hungarian T-3, and the Poly Tech, with 2 30 round mags, the bayonette, threaded barrel end, but no brake. The sling was green webbing attached to near the back of the receiver. I asked him about several other AKs and their prices were right. Then I asked about the chinese AK. He said I took it in on a trade up. He had a ($500) tag on the box. I said is this priced right or can we negotiate. He actually took a tupperware container with about 50 slant muzzel brakes and various compensators and said "I'll throw in any compensator or brake you want for ($500). I did not complain, explain, negotiate or wait. I dug through the container, found my pre-ban compensator, screwed it on the barrel right there, attached the bayonette and then removed it, and could not get my wallet out fast enough. By this time a crowd had gathered and I could over-hear "thats those Poly Tech "legend" AK-47s". As I was walking away I could hear someone say hey you got another Poly Tech AK.

I make a nice little side income off of other's ignorance. I buy the WASR-10, put about ($300-$500) dollars into retro-fitting these rifles so they are "dogged out" as the tactical AK crowd calls them and sell them for a nice profit. I got into AK/AKM collecting only because my son likes them. I collect and sometimes restore old WWI and WWII rifles and especially the Mauser and its variants. When I began collecting the Mausers, there were a lot of "experts" and lots of written and web material to assist the collector. Unless you find yourself on to this forum, you may have already either over-payed someone who put some easily assembled accessories on the WASR-10, or bought a rare and valuable variant and paid pennies on the dollar and no one the wiser. Now before I get blasted, my son has the WASR-10. However he only has the 63s and 74s, which are the best of these inexpensive rifles. He also has the earlier versions of the Romanian AKs which are rare and expensive. I have been helping him collect these AK/AKMs for a few years now and some people do not know the difference between the SKSs (Russian made are now rare and we collect those as well) and the Romanian WASR-10 "sporting rifle" which today is only an AK clone. He is young and only beginning his collection and I indulge him. He has yet to show any interest in the bolt action rifles I collect. But he does know a "mule from a racehorse" so to speak. When I asked what kind of deer-rifle he wanted for this season (he has graduated from his Savage 7mm-08), he said Weatherby Vanguard .270. He uses his AKs for hog hunting on our family place. However the "Arsenals, the Hungarian T-3s and the two Chinese Poly Techs he now owns are for his children and he takes them out only occasionally. I personally own the Polish AK-74 Tantal with some accessories for my personal AK. I bought it, just like some of the others, for ($399.) and the seller did not know the caliber and kept calling it an AK-47. Just buy them up. Someday, the only AK/AKM rifles will all be American made, if that is even allowed and the magazines will be limited to five rounds. Its not your job to educate the seller. You deal with a used gun vendor at arms length unless he happens to be a personal friend. If he is selling something he claims to be worth much more that it really is ( the same auction site has WASR-10s for ($500.00) one mag, used) just walk away. If, however, he offers some rare variant and wants a fraction of its worth, carry about ($1000) on you to any gun shop, pawn shop, or gun show and as the bible states so correctly "a fool and his AK are soon parted."

[imanaknut]

Moebrown20, that "7" before and after the 56S is what was done to straight stock versions that were caught in port at the start of the George Bush the First evil feature stupidity. At first it was thought that by just changing the model name from the evil 56S to 756S7 and removing the bayo lug ears would make the rifle Bush 1 angelic.