Greetings....

I've fairly new to the AK scene, starting with a Maadi RML a few months ago. I live in Alaska, so I've had to deal with inflated prices all around, both for guns and ammunition. The Maadi was $850 for me, and to give you an idea of ammo costs up here right now, the cheapest 1000-round case of 7.62x39 I've seen was $380. We're at the mercy of retailers up here, since none of the online dealers will ship ammo to an Alaska residential address.

Anyway, I've slowly been upgrading the features on my Maadi, starting with the thumbhole stock, which I found to be highly uncomfortable, along with the ridiculous trigger slap. A G2 FCG and new stock/pistol grip solved those problems. I like the wood handguard, but I'm researching upgrades for that as well. As most of you probably know, the PARS post-ban Maadi RML has the barrel threads turned down, resulting in a considerably thin barrel diameter. From what I have found out from other forum discussions, it seems that re-threading these particular barrels is much easier said than done. According to the information I've uncovered, the RML barrel can't be re-threaded in the standard 14x1 LH, because the barrel diameter with the threads turned down is too narrow. Some have suggested the solution is to thread it in 1/2x28 RH, which is more typical for ARs...but wouldn't that result in very few if any muzzle brake options in 7.62? I also hear that the front sight block becomes an issue when re-threading this model. A quick fix would be to just attach a thread adapter...but I've read too many reviews of people shooting them off that it just seems like a waste of money, no matter how cheap the components are.

So I will pose the questions:

1) Have any of you successfully re-threaded a PARS International Maadi RML barrel?
2) If yes, what was your method, and what components did you use?

I will post a photo later to show the current configuration, but as a description there is about 1/2 inch of barrel between the muzzle and the front sight block. From what I read, this is a pretty standard setup for the PARS RML.

Thank you for any information you can provide.