since you all seem to know what you are talking about I have a question. I am looking at getting an AK. I am 75% russian so I would like to get the saiga. I have seen several versions, Romanian, yugoslavian, century arms. What is the main difference? I also saw an egyptian one. Are they all essentially the same just manufactured in different regions?
Take Century Arms off the list of countries. They are an Importer, one of many. They simply import rifle parts from the various countries and rebuild them according to 922r laws. The people they hire to do the work are not known for doing good work (loose rivets, mag wobble, canted sights, etc.) but they are usually the cheapest.
The different countries had their own versions of the AK-47 and Ak-74. The Egyptians are desired because the Maadi company took Russian tooling equipment to Egypt to build their rifles. So basically you have Russian rifles made by Arabs. The other countries were local machines.
You can often swap out parts from one country to another. I have seen Eastern European rifles with an Egyptian side crutch.
I would take a look at the various rifles out there (and pickings are slim right now) and read various reviews on them. Teach yourself the basics of the AK design before you buy so you can inspect the rifle.
If you get a Saiga AK, make sure it is converted. It's not hard to do yourself but if you are new to the AK platform, it will be a lot of extra work.
Good luck.
Btw, this is a Hungarian AMD-65 that needs riveting and the guts put in it.
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