Thanks Woobie, I'm having a great time with itAnd that is the only person it has to make sense to. Sounds like you enjoy it, and that is great.
I hear ya, i usually dont pair hunting and AR in my head but i can see the appeal. I think i would of snagged an SKS. I do agree 5.56 ammo prices make it hard to shoot often. Good luck with the hunt!
I was sure this was headed towards a "List your Shooters" addition.
Back to the rifle, how much are the magazines?
JG don't implode bro, you're almost to 50. Eye on the prize, eye-on-the-prize.
Edit: and you did it the right way, so bravo.
Back to the rifle, how much are the magazines?
Might just point out here that we look out for each other and if someone is doing something that could injure a bystander or themselves, we speak up and assert ourselves. It's no different than calling for a ceasefire on the range.
I read through the entire post, I do have an opinion on "cheap" firearms. I feel that much of the price difference is due to (1) Advertising costs and (2) Fit and Finish. My son and I collect and own many firearms in just about every price range. We have Colts, Smith's Rugers, Kimber, Remington, Winchester, Marlin's, Springfield's, Armalite, as well as Jennings, Cobra, etc. and many surplus military including a couple of Garands, M1 Carbine, Russian Mosin's and SVD 40, several Mauser's, Swiss, Swedish, Enfield's (English and US), SKS's AK, I just have 1 AR assembled and 2 in process, 2 will be 5.56, 1 Grendel. Almost every firearm I own has been fired by my son and I. As far as reliability for the average user, that shoots less than 1K rounds a year, there is very little difference in the cheapest and most expensive firearm we own! Yeah I have had to polish the feed ramp of a few and bend / de-bur or adjust the magazine lips to eliminate feed problems, but that also occurred on some secondary market well regarded magazines.
I enjoy my 7.62 x 39, a great plinker! I have a little more money in mine ($499.00), but they are probably comparable in quality, I just purchased mine a while back before the prices really started to drop. AR Stoner upper, and Anderson lower. I have about 600 rounds through mine, and so far has been flawless. The only "weird" thing I did was add the customized firing pin to hit the "crappy" Russian ammo a bit deeper. I have shot GECO (brass), Tula, brown bear and wolf.
I have some 30 round and 10 round mags. I paid $20 for the 30 and $14 for the 10 from midwayusa. From what I hear and looking at mine, mags appear to be the weak link. I wish magpul would produce some. But so far mine have worked without any mods.
I have owned an SKS for many years (norinco) and had lots of ammo, so this gives me a second way to send some 7.62x39 downrange. Hitting the target at 100 yds, is almost boring :>)
I do notice a bit more kick with this caliber compared to my 5.56 AR's, but it is still quite manageable keeping on target.
Enjoy your new toy, I sure have mine!
I have included a photo of mine below. I went with all OD green to differentiate it from my 5.56 AR's. Didn't want to shove a 5.56 mag in this and try to shoot it!
Ron
Hey Ron, that's a really nice looking rifle! I bought mine fully expecting to replace the firing pin and spring to deal with light primer strikes because it seemed just about every AR I read about in 7.62x39 had the issue. I'm delighted to say I haven't had a single failure of any kind yet, including the light primer strikes.
How do you like the 10 round mags? I'm thinking of switching to them just to lighten the load a bit. I expected the rifle to be heavier than a typical AR, but I was a little surprised at how heavy it actually was with the loaded 30 round mags.
I wanted an SKS for a very long time, came very close a few times to getting a Yugo from classicfirearms.com until they all dried up. They still have the serb police models, but the nice armory refurbs are gone. I checked one out at a gun store some time later and was really glad I didn't buy one, it was a heavy beast with all that extra metal on the front of it!