Is this a quality brand? Or is it more of a beginner AK? Are Serbian made AKs well thought of?

Haven't kept up in recent years but generally considered great guns for the price.

Solid gun. Imports are getting harder to get. Bulgarian arsenals are considered the "best" imports you can get right now. Zastavas are behind them. I like the zastavas better for strictly cosmetic reasons. They have some really cool wood furniture that comes stock. All depends on the model. Palmetto state actually makes some cool cheap aks that work great if you are looking for a plinking gun.

Bought a zastava m70 a couple months ago. Haven't shot it yet and it's my first ak so I don't have anything to compare it to. When I was ressearching it was always listed among the best ak's on top 10 ak lists and was recommended quite a bit on here in a previous thread. As the previous poster said most people consider the arsenals the best. I don't think zastava would be considered entry level. More of a mid level ak in my opinion. Cost, reputation, research, and recommendations on here led me to zastava.

I know everyone loves AK'S and they are supposed to be super reliable, but I've yet to see one run well in a high rate of fire environment in a match. I know it's anecdotal, but based on my observations of a metric crap ton of AR's and a handful of "high quality" AK's in high round count courses of fire AR's are ~1000% more reliable.

Zastava makes a solid AK. I saw this one on sale on Reddit Gundeals a few days ago for $870. Good price.

https://www.familyfirearms.com/product/zas-m70-ak-7.62x39-dark-walnut-chrome-lined-30rd

Is a good quality ak. Chrome-lined barrel, nicer furniture, receiver is 50 percent thicker (1.5 mm), nice finish, and the sights are usually not canted as some ak's are more prone to have. I have the 70th year anniversary edition. They are slightly heavy for an ak especially compared to the wasr10 or saiga. Zastava also mags also have the last shot bolt hold open like an ar.

I have two Zastava AK's; they are solid. While I know they're not regarded as highly as an Arsenal or a custom built AK from someone like Meridian Defense I think they're a step above Palmetto State's entry level AK's or Century.

Murdoch's has 7.62 x 39 brass Norma on sale for 11.99 a box.

Went ahead and got it as well as a Marlin Dark 336 that I absolutely did not need.

HUEY04 said:

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I know everyone loves AK'S and they are supposed to be super reliable, but I've yet to see one run well in a high rate of fire environment in a match. I know it's anecdotal, but based on my observations of a metric crap ton of AR's and a handful of "high quality" AK's in high round count courses of fire AR's are ~1000% more reliable.

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AR's are great when kept clean and oiled which is probably the environment you're talking about. In that case I agree I would take the AR every time considering the light recoil and accuracy. In an "end of times" scenario I'm taking my Chinese Mak-90.

Hungry Ojos said:

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Went ahead and got it as well as a Marlin Dark 336 that I absolutely did not need.

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What the hell does that have to do with anything?

I have a couple Z PAP's and really enjoy shooting them. I bought a lot of ammo super cheap years ago and burned through a few thousand rounds with them just trying to see what they can handle. There are several YouTube videos out there of guys submerging them in frozen lakes over night then pulling them and firing them.

Zastava is great quality.

Because the Yugoslavians did their own thing, the only negative of Yugos at all is some parts/accessory stuff is exclusive to the Yugoslav pattern.

I love them. Think I have more Yugos than Russian AKs at this point.

I'm sure you're right with regard to the AR's being well maintained. What I can't figure out is why around 8 of 10 AK's I've seen I've seen used in the same environment fail massively with their users resorting to slamming the stocks into the ground to clear jams. I constantly hear how reliable they are but I've never seen it in real world use. Based on what I've seen I just don't see myself trusting one.

The "AKs are reliable no matter what and ARs only work well when perfectly cleaned and maintained" is an old trope that, like you, I've seen to be not 100% true.

A quality AR will run for a very long time, even dirty, and like you I've seen AKs choke in pretty mild conditions.

I think the AK suffers primarily from our stupid laws on imports. We get a lot of AKs in that are either brought in as a bucket of parts then hopefully built to spec in the US, or brought in as a "sporting" configuration that leads to important things like the magwell or other critical features being modified here.

Throw in a wide variety of ammo quality, bubba gunsmiths who seem drawn to AKs and a wide array of tolerances and quality depending on which year, country, and whether a part was built on Tuesday or Friday after a night of heavy drinking and you can get a very reliable quality AK, but its more hit or miss than people assume.

From that perspective seems like if you are committed to the AK, to buy from palmetto and run the crap out of it and keep returning it for warranty work if you have issues until it gets straightened out.

I am not an AK guy but online seems like the later PSA builds have been reliable.

BenderRodriguez said:

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The "AKs are reliable no matter what and ARs only work well when perfectly cleaned and maintained" is an old trope that, like you, I've seen to be not 100% true.

A quality AR will run for a very long time, even dirty, and like you I've seen AKs choke in pretty mild conditions.

I think the AK suffers primarily from our stupid laws on imports. We get a lot of AKs in that are either brought in as a bucket of parts then hopefully built to spec in the US, or brought in as a "sporting" configuration that leads to important things like the magwell or other critical features being modified here.

Throw in a wide variety of ammo quality, bubba gunsmiths who seem drawn to AKs and a wide array of tolerances and quality depending on which year, country, and whether a part was built on Tuesday or Friday after a night of heavy drinking and you can get a very reliable quality AK, but its more hit or miss than people assume.

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Exactly! The old nonsensical 922R compliance issues.

Zastava AKs aren't immune to problems but they are generally very good, well built guns and maybe your best overall value.I have 2 of them, and they have been great, flawless performers for me. Lots of fun to shoot. The downside as mentioned is that you have fewer choices in aftermarket furniture given that Yugo AKs have their own specific stock and forend design, but I personally like the longer more sleeker forend they use, and I prefer their stock attachment design with the through-bolt. I'm a fan of their dust cover lock, thicker receiver, and bulged trunnion. I personally even like them better than Arsenal.

The chances of a Saiga, Arsenal, Zastava etc having issues are low. The imports that had the biggest quality issues are going to be kit builds from big outfits like Century.

I personally prefer imports, there seems to be some lingering ghost of communism required to actually produce a good AK, and American AKs just dont quite seem up to par.

Im glad PSA is working the problem, and hope they continue to improve.

Maybe they need to move production to Cali or NY. Thats got to be communist adjacent enough to help summon the ghost of Kalashnikov