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Old October 19, 2012, 08:56 PM   #1
Sarge
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WASR 10/63 Range Report

I traded into a ‘new’ 2008 WASR-10/63 about a week ago. It’s just the basic Romanian AK-47, probably made in the same CUGIR toaster factory where my late-lamented SAR-1 was built. It has the plain, threaded muzzle with a nut on it. The wood on the WASR is uglier than that which came on the old SAR-1’s.



The WASR’s G2 trigger and is infinitely better than any SAR trigger I ever handled. Five times over the RCBS trigger pull gauge reveal an honest four-pound trigger. If you can finesse a trigger, it is two-stage. The first stage takes just over three pounds to 'set' and the final stage is not quite another pound. The final stage could be crisper... I'll look at it after it wears in and see what can be done about that.

The first outing proved the rifle pretty accurate for an AK, putting three shots of Tula FMJ in just over a half-inch at 50 yards- and that G2 trigger really helps. Problem was, it shooting five inches to the left at the limit of sight adjustment. So I knocked everything loose and straightened the front sight base out. This of course involved cutting the barrel nut weld, which was a simple matter with a fine Demel cutting wheel. Boys, that Front Sight Base was ON there! Even with the pins out, it took some PB Blaster, creative block and punch work to get it moving. I ain't bitching though... had to light a torch to straighten the FSB on the old SAR.

If I’m OC about anything, it’s iron sight zero. I centered the front sight and slogged out in a downpour to confirm the windage correction. At 110 yards I fired three shots, two of which landed in a 5" bull. The rain underscores the beauty of the AK. I had no problems with optics loading up with water, compromised iron sight co-witness, etc. Just blow the water out of the sight notch and keep on hammerin’.

There was just enough barrel showing through the holes, after the adjustment, that re-drilling was in order. I hogged the FSB holes with a 7/64 bit, cleared the proud barrel material and got a good snug drive-in with the OEM pins. While I had it apart, I also re-crowned the muzzle with a fine silicon ball and finished it off with some 400 grit silicon carbide paper. Most Century AK muzzles look like they were crowned by a drunk chimp with a chainsaw file. This one was no different. I’ve re-crowned several of them and accuracy usually improves 70-100 percent. Things got better immediately, with three rounds of Tula in about 2 inches at 100 yards. I simply can’t shoot stock AK sights any better than that.



I was pretty satisfied with this gun… except for one sharp edge on the dustcover. SOB bit me. Needless to say, that dustcover got a file taken to it in short order. I also discovered when you don’t have Band-Aids in the truck, electrical tape and a napkin will do.



The front post, as delivered, lacked parallel sides and the top of it was sorta lopsided. This was not helping me shoot it well. So I pulled the front post, checked it in a drill and worked it down to about 0.055", taking care to get the top flat and stone off any burrs. It got the standard cold blue baptism before being reinstalled and smoked with a lighter, to kill any glare. I re-zeroed it late today. The group is 5 rounds of Tula FMJ fired over the range bag at an 8” bull, at 196 yards. It measured 3 1/4 inches.



Re-crowning the muzzle & cleaning up the post made for substantial improvements. These rifles really aren’t supposed to shoot this well, particularly with five buck a box steel-cased ammo. No, I can't do this on demand. But when I can do it, if feels really, really good.
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Old October 19, 2012, 09:57 PM   #2
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Thanks for the report---I love WASRs. People can complain all day about them but if you inspect the rifle first and don't mind the finish they're fantastic rifles.
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Old October 19, 2012, 10:51 PM   #3
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You're welcome. Nice rifle, plouffedaddy! Does that CTR sit down into your shoulder a little better than the OEM monkey stock?
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Old October 19, 2012, 11:39 PM   #4
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I bought an 08-ish century wasr once. I got it during obamascare 2009 immediately following his inauguration and payed the amazing low price of $800+ tax....eventually I found out what was going on there and never went back to that LGS again. I had many of the same issues you did, poor accuracy and canted front sights. lacking a lot of DIY knowhow it never crossed my ind to go as indepth to accurize as you did. I had a 4 rail handguard on it so I decided to abandon the irons and decided to try to go with a red dot. red dots on the handguard do not allow for a good cheek weld and after a great deal of experimentation with paracord wrapping I finally got fed up and sold it due to a combination of distastes and traded away all of my ammo.

i know it was a budget brand AK but I think I will never buy another. I am perfectly happy with my ARs and just never cared for the AK. I'm not knocking them at all, I just never warmed up to them.
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Old October 19, 2012, 11:45 PM   #5
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I get you on the AR's, tahunua001. Truth be told I am pretty heavily invested in Stoner's speckled pup. Been to the armorer school, work on them for my little Dept. They're not bad rifles. But I don't own one and am not in the market for one.

AN awful lot of it comes down to personal preference, the willingness to solve problems that arise and commit to mastering an individual rifle. One thing's for sure... neither of us will suffer for lack of available accessories.
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Old October 20, 2012, 06:24 AM   #6
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Nice report and shooting! The AK platform is capable of better accuracy than most give it credit for given some care. That's a good tip about the front sight post, I may have to try that. Here's the best I've been able to do with my rifle so far (stock sights, Tula 122 gr. FMJ)


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Old October 20, 2012, 07:25 AM   #7
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Quote:
You're welcome. Nice rifle, plouffedaddy! Does that CTR sit down into your shoulder a little better than the OEM monkey stock?
It depends on what position you're shooting from. From a bench or prone---yes. Standing---not for me at least. It's actually a MOE commercial stock (that's why it looks a little different than most MOEs. But, the only reason it's on there is I used to put adjustable stocks on all my AKs but I don't anymore. The Warsaw stocks have grown on me and I actually keep the stocks as they come on my AKs now (after a re-finish).
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Old October 20, 2012, 08:09 AM   #8
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That Lancaster is stacking them, Spacecoast- fine shooting! And you couldn't ask for better zero. I used to think Tula was the same as the old Wolf ammo but I could never get Wolf to shoot this well. Whatever they're doing differently, let's hope they keep doing it.

Plouffedaddy, I am reluctant to change anything on this rifle including the stock. I do have to do something about the length and depth of the plate as I am either contorting my neck or shooting with the toe of the butt barely on my shoulder.

Since buttplates are a dime a dozen, I'm going to epoxy or gorilla-glue one of these onto mine after drilling the pad for access to the screws.



And yes, the wood on this one will get a dark red stain. I know it's just an AK- but life's too short to dance with ugly girls
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Old October 20, 2012, 08:37 AM   #9
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I never had a problem with my WASR 10/63. I originally wanted an Arsenal but spending 1k on an AK Clone is not something I can bring myself to do.

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Old October 20, 2012, 09:48 AM   #10
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Nice shooting guys. Ive never given any thought as to how accurate an ak could be. Ill have to get the old norinco out and give it a go.
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Old October 20, 2012, 10:50 AM   #11
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AN awful lot of it comes down to personal preference, the willingness to solve problems that arise and commit to mastering an individual rifle
right on all counts, as I said I tried to warm up to it and ended up putting well over 1,000 rounds down range in an attempt to master my WASR but I never could get excited about getting to take it to the range and once surplus ammo prices overtook cheap 5.56x45mm ammo prices I just couldn't justify owning it anymore since the only real advantage I could see(not to say there aren't more that just aren't important to me) was how cheap ammo was.

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And yes, the wood on this one will get a dark red stain. I know it's just an AK- but life's too short to dance with ugly girls
that is very true, I actually wood furniture on one of my ARs(yeah I know 4 rails on AKs and wood on ARs I'm goofy like that). even though it's black laminate I still think that it's perty and since it's on a 9mm and the wood furniture has been discontinued I might finally have a one of a kind rifle

I still love that russian red stain though and would love a rifle with that color wood....maybe even an AR one day
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Old November 2, 2012, 09:26 PM   #12
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I ultimately decided to just do a complete refinish. The stock was sanded to 220 and given three coats of Minnwax Sedona Red stain. Once the stain was set, I added four coats the same company’s aerosol Spar Urethane. I think the result was worth the elbow grease.

Pad is by UTG and it adds about an inch, plus much-needed depth to the toe of the stock. Seriously… I hate the Warsaw length stocks. With my anatomy, the only way I could get a cheek, weld from the bench, was to dig the toe of the buttplate into the top of my shoulder, grind it down tight and let off the shot. It would jab me & bounce out of position, requiring me to repeat the process for every shot. The UTG pad cured that completely and I expect to shoot better as a result. It is only fractionally more cumbersome than the original equipment.

These pads slip off just as easily as they slip on, but a liberal application of extra-strength Outdoor Mounting Tape, between the butt plate and pad, cured that. You can insert a loaded magazine, pick it up by the butt pad and shake it w/o worry that pad will come off. Yankee ingenuity for the win

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Old November 4, 2012, 11:10 AM   #13
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All an AK needs to be is minute of bad guy @ 100-300 yards.
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Old November 4, 2012, 04:17 PM   #14
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A Romy WASR 10/63 was my then 14 year-old son's first rifle...
Shoots 2-3 minutes all day long with any ammo (and a 4x POSP), typically on 6" plates at 200 meters. Solid assault weapon that's plenty accurate for the job at shorter ranges and goes bang every time.

He couldn't resist dressing his up in an ATI folder.
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Old November 9, 2012, 10:11 PM   #15
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11/09/12

This is the first serious shooting after the stock work and I wanted to confirm that the zero hadn’t moved. I also wanted to see how close Barnaul’s Silver Bear 125 grain soft-point POI was, to the Tula FMJ I’d been shooting. I hunkered down at 196 yards and did my best to stand the tiny dot of the 8” bull, on the top center edge of the WASR’s front sight. God bless my optometrist. All five shots landed in the black and spanned four inches. If you give me an alibi on the low shot, you have four in three and one half inches. That hole at ten o’clock wandered in the during some 100 yard offhand shooting at a target ‘next door’ and yes, I am too cheap to discard a target over that. If you look close it was marked with a pocket knife before the five shot group was fired.

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