I’ve been obsessing over AKs lately and can’t decide on which one, or even what caliber. 7.62x39 makes the most sense but 5.45 for some reason is calling my name even though that ammo may not be available in the future. As of right now the difference is about 10 cents a round.
I’m not getting one chambered in 5.55/ .223 since I already have 4 guns in that caliber.
>2023
>7.62 or 5.45
jej
8mm Kurz
5.45 is a dead round
buy 7.62 wasr
If I go the 7.62 round I was thinking of either a Kusa 103, PSA 104, or an Arsenal (maybe Sam7) all are within $4-500 of eachother.
KUSA is getting clowned on for bad QC and bad CC, my KR103 is solid as hell but if you're going to go with one you'd better triple check the rivets, rust, canted sights, etc. before accepting it from your FFL. PSA 104s are generally GTG, particularly the GF5 version, but there has been some concern around the QC of 101/102 series from them as of late, but at least their customer service is good. SAM7 is good and won't get you clowned on in /akg/ unlike the latter two.
>get a WASR
>some of the worst AKs ever made
Lol, LMAO
unless you are a slavic military that wants to keep the AK platform but with a smaller caliber there is literally zero reason to invest into 5.45
Get a 6mm type round then.
6.5mm, 6.8mm, etc
6.8 is over twice of price of both 5.45 and 7.62x39.
And it's essentially just a unique snowflake 7.62x39 anyway.
>inb4 some caliber autist statistitian starts arguing about minute differences in trajectory, out-of-barrel speed, on-bench accuracy etc
Don't care, doesn't matter in practice.
I’d get a 6mm arc chambered 5.56 before a 6.8 chambered ak lol
7.62x39, ESPECIALLY since this is your first AK, you don't even know if you'll like the rifles that much. 7.62x39 is at least slightly cheaper than .223 and will always be fairly available. 5.45 on the other hand is around 5.56 prices, harder to find, and will continue to get more expensive and harder to find with time. If anything, you should be leaning more towards a 5.56 AK, since you already assumably have plenty of 5.55/.223, so you won't have to buy more ammo when getting to know the rifle. Then, if you think you really do like the rifles, buy a 7.62 one and start investing in the ammo. Don't be a moron and blindly jump into hype trains, test the waters first.
best advice in the thread
I’ve never owned an AK, but I’ve shot a 7.62 and 5.45 one (back when I was a kid and the Ak owner I knew was buying tens of thousands of rounds of 5.45 lol) and I remember the 5.45 one being an absolute joy to shoot. The 7.62 seems financially smarter to buy since if I buy a 5.45 I’m basically relying on PSA to deliver on their ammo factory promise.
5.56 AKs feel almost the same to 5.45s. You honestly wouldn't be losing much other than historical accuracy/collectability, there's even mods to make 5.45 mags use 5.56/.223. The likelihood of PSA fulfilling that promise is also looking pretty bleak.
>The likelihood of PSA fulfilling that promise is also looking pretty bleak.
What? AAC has been putting out more and more ammo, they certainly seem to be on track to be getting 5.45 up. Not to mention imports from a couple non-russian countries who still have paperwork pending for 5.45. I wouldn't expect it to stay on-par with 5.56 where it is now, but maybe $0.75 per round instead of the over $1 a round that the Hornaday 5.45 is. And certainly not unavailable because even if nothing fills the niche there is the Hornady.
As long as it's brass so I can swage down 5.56 bullets into them after the fact.
This. 5.56 is basically 5.45 in the garbage ball rounds you'll be shooting BUT has the ability to run a wide variety of hunting and long range projectiles. 5.45 doesn't offer this off the shelf though they do have Hornady defensive loads out there.
7.62x39 offers better short barrel performance, costs, tons of hunting loads, increased barrier blindness, and honestly the most important thing it's more "fun" to shoot. More of a kick than an AR in 5.56.
I'd only recommend a 5.45 AK for an absolute purist since they're objectively superior to 7.62x39 aks in performance but given this is America and you'll probably end up getting an AR or AK in 5.56 anyway id just skip 5.45 all together for the average user.
>though they do have Hornady defensive loads out there.
The "hornady defensive loads" is a single lightish weight VMAX loading last i checked. Not exactly impressive compared to 5.56 or 7.62x39 offerings.
Be a bastard. Get it in 5.56
My only AK is in 5.45 and I love it. If it gets less available for a while, that's fine because I have other guns in 5.56. I think buying a 5.56 AK is great advice... if it's your ONLY gun and you insist on your first gun being an AK. If its not your only gun then it doesn't fricking matter because even if the ammo gets hard to find you can just shoot your other guns you already have for a while. If you already have shit you can rely on always finding ammo for then it doesn't really matter if you want to get your toy guns in fricking 4.9 French Grendleschnauser.
Yeah that’s something I don’t understand when it comes to AKs. I can easily get 1k rounds of 5.56 whenever I need, it’s not a giant issue if I can’t get 5.45 or even 7.62 (it would be infuriating) but people always tell you to get a different caliber when it comes to AKs but never anything else. No one told me not to get a 45lc. It costs me well over $7 to shoot one cylinder of that revolver. No one ever says not to buy a 45-70 or boutique chambered guns.
preach
Both are inferior commie trash in shit rifles.
7.62x45
45x7.62
5.45 made sense when it was cheap and plentiful.
When the BAThomosexuals banned cheap surplus 5.45 because "muh AP rounds" and now, with the ban on Russian ammo, 5.45 is only going to get more expensive and harder to find.
Buy and AK in 7.62x39. 7.62x39 has been around forever and will continue to be imported/manufactured domestically at a greater volume than 5.45.
I hate the government. Instead of sending billions of dollars to Ukraine why not use that money to buy all of Russia’s 5.45 and give it to us.
get a 5.56 AK
>I’m not getting one chambered in 5.55/ .223 since I already have 4 guns in that caliber.
I don't know enough about 5.56 AK's to know what all the pros/cons are, but I would not think being able to share ammo with my other guns was a "con".
>even though that ammo may not be available in the future
Just a heads up anon, the last permits for importing ammo from Russia are going to expire in September of this year (2 years after the US government ceased issuing new import permits). Only manufacturer I'm aware of that produces 5.45x39mm for the US market and isn't based out of Russia is Hornady, and even in 2019 prices you were looking at 56c-75c/round. Also, if you want to get into reloading, 5.45x39mm uses an odd size bullet (.220) that pretty much nothing else uses, although you may be able to run .224 bullets through a sizer.
Sauce on 2019 prices for 5.45x39mm:
https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2019/12/26/hornady-brass-cased-5-45x39mm-ammunition/
PSA/AAC is supposed to be spinning up American 5.45 (and 7.62) production lines, who knows when and in what quantity though.
>PSA/AAC is supposed to be spinning up American 5.45
Is there any more recent news on that? Most recent news seems to be a forum post on ARFCOM (and articles referencing it) from 2021 a month after the ban was announced claiming that they'd be up and running in 2023, but PSA has a habit of promising vaporware. If they are going to deliver remotely on time, then that would be great news for anyone who shoots 5.45x39mm.
>Is there any more recent news on that?
Not hard news, but the rumor is it will be made by the former US Army - now Rheinmetall - factory in Texarkana. That factory, like all army ammunition plants, was pretty well self-contained - it made the primers, cases, and bullets, then assembled them using St Mark powder.
I thought that was that other company that was saying they'd start making primers at the plant some time last year but failed to deliver.
they sold the plant to rheinmetall. pic related, in the document on the right side.
keeping fingers crossed
>plums
Oh baby giving me a chubby. I admit I pay the price and I get steel locking tab and lugs, so for stuff readily accessible I have to rely on circle 10s
It's also being imported from Hungary and Kazakhstan.
Source? I'm aware of companies from various countries filling the vacuum for 7.62x39mm, but I have yet to hear of other countries doing the same for 5.45x39mm.
WASR, ZPAP, Jack
7.62x39 is the cheapest and most available and probably best for your 1st AK. There are some great 5.56 AKs but they tend to have a few more reliability issues (due to the case of 5.56 not being tapered) and magazine fitment between brands can be a bit of a mess I hear. If your willing to navigate the quirks its fine though. 5.45 is cool but the least available and most expensive of the 3. You can get whatever you want but 7.62 is in my mind the best entry level AK. 7.62 AK mags are plentiful as is the ammo.
yeah and your wallet says 9x19
loading 7.62 mags makes me feel like a moronic Black person, so I choose 5.45
wat
>7.62
Duh
>x39
gaaaaaay
5.56 AK, no compromise
Go to Sgammo.com check the prices if you can deal with the 5.45 prices and the possibility of it getting more scare/expensive then get an ak74. I have a converted Saiga iz-240 with a ALG trigger and it is a beast.
I have one 5.56 AK (half assed Saiga conversion I did when they were like $400), three 5.45 AKs (Bulgarian kit build, Arsenal SLR-104FR and SLR-104UR), and eight 7.62x39 AKs (another half assed conversion cheap Saiga, Egyptian kit build, VEPR, pre ban Chinese, post ban Chinese MAK-90, two post ban Romanian SAR-1s, Arsenal SAM-7SF, and not an AK but a VZ-58 as well) and I will say without any hesitation to go for 7.62x39 as your first. Ammo is cheaper and cheaper ammo means more ammo per dollar which means more shooting. If you like it enough that you want another then branch out to other calibers. 5.45 is my favorite AK caliber but with the future of imports and price being up in the air I wouldn’t want it as my only AK caliber. If you really want a small bore AK then just get one in 5.56, find a used Arsenal SLR-106FR or buy a currently imported Polish Beryl. If you are dead set on 5.45 then I’d suggest buying a few thousand round before you even buy the rifle. Ammo is just going up in price and I’d rather use my money to begin a decent supply of ammo while I can before factoring in the cost of the rifle. 5.45 rifles aren’t cheap anymore, the best affordable option in my opinion are the various flavors of Romanian 5.45 guns (WASR 2, SAR 2, ROMAK 2, etc they’re all around $1200-$1500ish iirc).