I recently got a Century Arms GP1975 and was able to take it out to shoot yesterday. I was a little concerned b/c of the Century Arms connection, but I've owned one of their Golanis and my brother in law had a WASR. Both were very reliable.
I loaded 5 magazines and mainly function-tested it along with some relatively short range accuracy checking. The gun was great. Completely reliable, and it appears to be pretty accurate although longer range testing is necessary. I was mainly shooting Wolf soft points. No jams or failures of any kind.
My only complaint is the gun's black polymer furniture. The front hand guard has no heat shield and at round 120 or so it got hot. Also, the Warsaw-length butt stock is too short. I'm thinking about investing in a K-Var NATO-length furniture set. Any thoughts about that ?
The k-var polymer furniture is well-regarded, pricey unless you get it used or on sale, but it's almost a no-brainer, especially if you need US-made for 922r compliance. NATO length will give you 1.25in more LOP.
Again - I think a lot of the Century issues are way over-hyped. People buying the cheapest gun they can find then upset when it isn't perfect. Or too dumb to wack it into the correct position with a hammer.
I'm a fan of the shorter stock, but that's just me. Go for the Kvar. Good stuff. As for "gets hot" that's EVERY AK except the Saiga/Arsenal. Easy enough to add a heat shield, or wear a glove, or get a fore stock with a shield.
My only complaint is the gun's black polymer furniture. The front hand guard has no heat shield and at round 120 or so it got hot.
Heat shields like found on true 100 series AK rifles require a 100 series retainer to work properly. Your rifle most likely was not built with a 100 series retainer because it is based on the 1960-1980s AKM pattern.
The retainer needs to have a curved upper lip to work correctly with a heat shield enabling handguard. Otherwise, the heat shield becomes a heat sink drawing heat from direct contact on the barrel which is not the desired outcome.
Congratulations on your AK rifle. Yeah, the Century Arms thing is blown up too much. I own a GP WASR and it's an excellent rifle. It shoots, it loads, it works. What more do you want for a SHTF rifle?
I'm back and forth on the black furniture myself. When I first got my wooden furniture AK, I thought about converting it to black polymer stocks for a stealth look but then the traditional look grew over me.
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