These companies need to focus on finding alternate sources for reasonably priced imported steel case x39. The U.S. AK market will always be intrinsicly linked to the foreign ammo supply. People ran out to buy AKs during the plandemic because x39 was still cheap and available (relative to NATO brass). Now with the russia sanctions and the fact that all available x39 is considerably more expensive than brass 5.56/.223 i just dont see it. Sure 5.56 AKs will always be a niche, but that alone will not support a whole market.
Hi Mishaco, I have an import M99 short rifle. It’s stamped on the right side barrel 2” back from muzzle ; CAI ST. A. VT. M99 7.7 JAPAN THE stamp is very old. You’ve not mentioned imports. I’m wondering how many exist and when they were imported, etc? Thanks Murph
Got me a 48 rus one recently for way too much money. Interesting refurb. Hardwood stock with a reattached bottom reqr of stock. Love having q mosin with a new barrel that shoots accurate. Only thing that bugs me is that the action slides back n forth in the stock that idk how to remedy... oh and they seem to have stripped almost all the finnish and then coated it in like a tung like substance.
I have the same gun. I bought it off Gun Broker a few years ago. It has a lot of holster wear on it. I suspect it was carried by a police officer but I don't really know for sure. Very smooth double action trigger pull. 3 pound single action pull.
Arsenal's customer service is awful. "Yep, we made a few mistakes when we built that $1600 rifle. Now, you have to pay to ship it back to us so we can fix the problem it left here with......" Never again.
Great video Misha. Having served in the SA Police, I just want to raise a few points. The SA Police were issued the same R1 as the military. Those were all capable of full auto. Later after domestic production of R1s stopped the police, who had retained the R1, went onto the open market looking for FALs which resulted in a number of odd derivatives being used. My original issue rifle was 205473, an SA made R1 with grenade sight, but for a while I carried a Belgian Para FAL which had had the barrel cut down considerably by the armourers. The paperwork (Registers and such) at the time still listed it as an R1. Interestingly enough, the SA police also had a number of rather old Israeli FALs. While most of them were used as drill rifles for training students at the Police College, the Israeli FALS were also used to launch teargas for riot control purposes. I have heard that the semi auto R1s were made for the Citizen Force "Commando Units", the misinfo about them being police guns seems to have come from a book entitled South African Arms and Armour. Speaking of books if you look at the book The Sterling Years, the author mentions that SA supposedly purchased their R1 assembly line from BSA. The author then wonders how they converted from SLR to R1, but says they appear to have done a good job.
I don't know but before doing this video, I did check, and sure enough it was. I did click around a few links, and all the ones i tried worked. I didn't actually place an order though because I am not that much of a risk taker heh.
One thing to mention is that WB-radom (archer) and WBP are two different companies. I am glad to hear that You had good time with those two, I hope they will continue to serve You well for Years to come! Did you have any issues with rust?
The sad fact is that it is getting harder and harder to produce products and still meet profit margins with some designs. The AK platform utilizes a significant amount of steel. Steel was on a steady climb since 2016ish and it hit a massive high a few years ago. The material costs, combined with tooling, upkeep, and constant legal fees are slowly taking tolls on many of these companies. Importation restriction continue to mount, so parts are more and more difficult and expensive to import. All of this is bad enough until the world stage is considered. Many nations that were exporting various arms have significantly slowed exports to consider national security, safety, or other avenues for better profits. Some sellers that were traditionally set to export to the U.S. are being offered better deals by other nations. Thus, the quantity of imports have diminished. The final nail that really hurt the AK community is the ammunition prices. 7.62x39 and 5.45x39 used to be not only affordable, but readily available. People that weren't into the platform could still Respect the ammunition prices, and it was a great incentive for people to add at least one to the collection. People could afford to get out to the range and train, even if they were on a tight budget. Now, the prices have reached a point were it's hard for new enthusiasts to justify entry. Competition is steep for many platforms, including AKs. Some designs evolve and become more affordable, available, and customizable to the buyer while being more profitable to the company. At the end of the day these companies exist to make money.
counter-argument: the AK is a $300 rifle....scratch that, a $250 rifle....but really they should be practically free with the purchase of any pair of tube socks! lol j/k
Bro is about to make an icon out of himself. Look at you man! Good job. Was here before you got 50k subs! Waiting to see you get half a million, than million subs🪇
thank you for the optimistic outlook, but I'm realistic. My style isn't for everyone, gun content on YT is kind of difficult anyway, and because of my personal limitations; I can't ever do the flashy visuals that most folks look for in videos. I am just happy to sit on the porch and talk about guns for a half hour. For folks who like that too, I"ll be here as long as its possible.
I love my KR103 and I was planning on getting a 104 and they went under before I could get one. I would love to be able to get my hands on the parts they were using I would just build my own . But nobody really knows where the parts were being sourced from. I’ve heard some rumors but nothing confirmed
I guess another one bites the dust. For a short time there it looked like there was a glimmer of hope for KUSA back when they first came out with the KR103, but it quickly went downhill from there thanks to poor corporate decisions on all fronts.
I mean they are selling a 400 dollar rifle for almost 2k. What did they expect. It’s an Ak, it was designed literally to be built as cheap as possible.
It was designed to be "cheap" after the Soviet Union sunk millions into setting up the factory. Yeah if you're using a factory built in the 50s and the tooling refurbished right before communism collapses, you can buy that factory for a pair of jeans and half-eaten sandwich.
Great to see you, Misha! The king sitting on your swinging throne in your awesome cabin blessing us peasants with your knowledge! Thank you so much for the video!
I didn't know the world of AKs was autistic about details like that. Outside of just wanting as close to a 1 to 1 replica, which I can respect, does stuff like rivet placement matter to the weapon's functionality?
@@misha5670 you are braindead if you do not think they are made of mim, the injection mold marks can be found everywhere on every part. The parts all look so perfect and too good to be made of forged design and milled to profile. Theirs ZERO machining marks like any other milsurp ak or even saiga sgl-21 which is a real non fisher price ak103. You know absolutely nothing about manufacturing if you believe kusa products are not made with injection molded metal parts.
