Thread: Ak parts kits
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Old July 30, 2013, 05:53 PM   #5
barnbwt
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Join Date: May 17, 2012
Posts: 1,085
Don't forget the all-important conversion to semi-auto as well as applicable denial features (which prevent f/a components from being re-installed). The primary reason for swapping the barrel is to get it above the legal 16" limit here in the States (unless you are doing a pistol). If new to gun building, it would behoove you to check up on the legal aspects of the subject; it's not very complicated, but a handful of unintuitive rules must be followed during the process (for instance, you don't want to have a completed receiver and original parts on hand without first procuring a longer barrel and semi-auto components, since it could be argued you were building the gun with a full-auto SBR in mind )

Luckily, AK builds are very well documented and understood, and the ATF has been very clear on what they find acceptable, so there is no need to worry about getting their approval on your build, or anything (so long as you stick to an approved configuration for your build)

By far the best deals (if you can call them that) on the scrap metal we call "parts kits" are found in private sales, as far from Gunbroker as possible (AK kits are going for north of 500$ over there for some dumb reason). You may endeavor to keep your costs as low as possible, but go into this knowing you are unlikely to save yourself money, especially considering the time your will put into it. It will probably be ugly, have sticky extraction or feeding issues, and probably rust from where you bled on it at some point.

However, the experience and understanding of the process you will gain will pay enormous dividends should you decided to build another weapon at a later date (you will ). Any even your worse-than-Century-drunken-monkeys abomination will be ten times cooler than your friends fancy-pants Surgeon rifle

weaponsguild.com and weaponeer.net are excellent resources for homebuilders (not the same thing as gunsmiths, and definitely not machinists--think more like Bubbas making cool stuff that actually works )

TCB
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