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Got it, cleaned it. Not so bad. I gotta say that Gunzilla (CLP I use) really chews through cosmoline, fouling, and rust. The sights appear to be lined up ok. Had a bit of a fight with the top cover, but it appears to be loosening up a bit. Not so sure about the handgrip, though. Seems a bit small for my hands.




How about mags? I see that the Yugo mags are well spoken of, but not the Korean ones. Has anyone tried the Magpul ones? I've seen them advertised, but not been able to find any. Is it worthwhile to get a drum mag?

Handgrip: If you think it is too small, you can put tape around it, like used on baseball bats, or there are numerous aftermarket grips. I have a feeling Kalashnikov designed the grip somewhat smaller to better fit people with gloves on. Also why the trigger guard opening is so big, I suspect.

Mags: East Euro metal magazines seem to be reasonably priced and work well. I bought a boatload of Bulgarian ones when I got my romy, and they work just fine. Never used Magpuls, I suspect they are quite good. For non-metal mags, most seem to recommend getting ones with metal feed lips.

Top cover: Depending on why it is tight, you can gently bend the rear face of the cover just below the hole where the button goes, the part that fits down into that slot at the back of the receiver. I don't know if this is approved armorer's technique, but I had the same problem with my Romy at first, I had to whack the cover to get it in; I just took a pair of pliers and tweaked that back edge of the cover inward a tiny bit, and presto. Nice thing about an AK is many things can be simply fixed with pliers, screwdriver, hammer, and Krylon.

Drum-mag: Probably lots of fun, but I will bet it is heavy too. IIRC, AndyC has some important advice about when to insert and when NOT to insert drum magazines on an underfolder. I don't have one, but I will probably get one some day just because it will honk off certain Senators and other panty-bunchers.

Does the action work okay? What about the fire control group (trigger)? Is the trigger a Tapco?

johncanfield wrote:Does the action work okay? What about the fire control group (trigger)? Is the trigger a Tapco?

Action is fairly slick after I cleaned it up. Looks like it's a Tapco trigger (G2 stamp on the side of it). The pull is long, but it's notably lighter than my FAL. Overall it appears to be pretty good. There's a few rust spots on the carrier and such, but no real pitting to speak of, just a few witness marks where everything is coming into contact. I would suspect that a couple of hundred rounds and a few more cleanings and it'll be top notch. The bore itself looks good.

ELB wrote:Handgrip: If you think it is too small, you can put tape around it, like used on baseball bats, or there are numerous aftermarket grips. I have a feeling Kalashnikov designed the grip somewhat smaller to better fit people with gloves on. Also why the trigger guard opening is so big, I suspect.

Fair enough. I'll have a few outings with it first before I make any final judgements.

Mags: East Euro metal magazines seem to be reasonably priced and work well. I bought a boatload of Bulgarian ones when I got my romy, and they work just fine. Never used Magpuls, I suspect they are quite good. For non-metal mags, most seem to recommend getting ones with metal feed lips.

I've seen a few Yugo bolt-hold-open mags around. I think I'll try a few of those first.

Top cover: Depending on why it is tight, you can gently bend the rear face of the cover just below the hole where the button goes, the part that fits down into that slot at the back of the receiver. I don't know if this is approved armorer's technique, but I had the same problem with my Romy at first, I had to whack the cover to get it in; I just took a pair of pliers and tweaked that back edge of the cover inward a tiny bit, and presto. Nice thing about an AK is many things can be simply fixed with pliers, screwdriver, hammer, and Krylon.

I'm not above 'cut to suit and hammer to fit'. It just seemed a little snug. Again, perhaps after a few range trips and cleanings it'll all start falling together better.

Drum-mag: Probably lots of fun, but I will bet it is heavy too. IIRC, AndyC has some important advice about when to insert and when NOT to insert drum magazines on an underfolder. I don't have one, but I will probably get one some day just because it will honk off certain Senators and other panty-bunchers.

I'm with you. I think I'll get one of those wind-up ones so loading is easier.

Your Yugo is much happier with the Tula than my MAK ;) I agree 100% on the Hogue grip though. I've got the Hogue grip on mine and love it.

Sounds like if one has an AK one shouldn't waste one's money on brass cased ammo?

Iunnrais wrote:Your Yugo is much happier with the Tula than my MAK ;) I agree 100% on the Hogue grip though. I've got the Hogue grip on mine and love it.

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I have hogue grip on my Tantal and it is sweet curvy-finger grip.

Ok, got to the range. Got some Tula FMJ, Monarch FMJ, some Hotshot FMJ (reman ammo), Hornady steel case FMJ, and..... Hornady ZOMBIE MAX! Everything fed, went bang, ejected, and fun was had. Recoil is not bad at all. Even tried my hand with the stock folded. Not so good at that, but what the heck. It also looks like the Tula shot the best of all the cheapie steel cased stuff. Most was shot between 25 to 50 yards, but I also shot the Monarch and Hornady steel case at 100 yds. Looks like the gun (and/or combination of me) is about 4 MOA. I can live with that. I don't have the sight adjustment tool yet, hence all the shots are low to the right. I eventually compensated for this at 100 yards by cranking the sight up to the 300 yard mark and then moving POA the width of the post over to the left. I'll correct this when the tool gets in.

First mag-load of Tula. I liked it.


The zombie stuff shot pretty good, actually. It had better for the price of it!


This is the 100 yard run. Shot #1 is waaayy high, so I corrected waaayyy low for #2. #3 is about right for elevation (300 yards/m?). Shots 4 and 5 are after the final corrections. I then loaded up the Hornady steel case FMJ (I think they're SST bullets) and shot 3. Obviously a bit low and a smidge to the right, but the group was pretty good. Too bad they're so pricey.


All and all I'm pleased. I do think that a peep sight would help, so I'm going to start researching that for something like a MoJo or a Krebs ghost ring.

Thanks for all the input! Not a big learning curve, but every little bit helps.

Just curious, does yours have an adaptor on the left side to mount a scope mount. I have one from
http://www.k-var.com/shop/Scope-Mounts/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
and a red dot and it is easy on and off and very accurate. Over kill- perhaps but might make a nice gun for hogs.

AndyC wrote:As an experienced AK-driver I can say that that's some decent shooting, too - nice job

Peep sights do help - so does a longer sight-radius (as another option to factor in), so you have some research to do (and some wallet-checking).

I ran across http://www.tech-sights.com today and I'm considering putting a peep sight system on my 10/22 takedown.

Would this be a viable option for an AK?

I would like to:
a) Retain iron sights w/peep or ghost rear sight.
b) Not loose the elevation adjustment to the sights.
c) Add, at a minimum, a low light front sight
d) Add the ability of putting on a red dot in the future
e) Not replace or displace any of the current gun parts.

For these reasons, the Teksights are probably out. At the least, I'd have to change the top cover and the recoil spring and I would not gain any possibility of adding a red dot later. The Texas Weapon Systems also replaces parts from stock. I'm leaning towards Mojo or Krebs because they retain the full function of the rear sight. I can then just replace the front post with a Mepro or XS sight. I suppose I can add a forearm (section for the red dot in that case.

The only thing I've found specifically for the Yugo is from Ultimak forward optic mount.




Aside from that, I didn't feel like the rifle needed anything. Perhaps a good PWS brake/flash suppressor or something, but otherwise it looked, shot, and felt fine.



The metal stock didn't really bother me that much either, so I'm not sure if I'll even bother paracord wrapping it. It does look nice, though.