Thursday, May 19, 2016

Guns and Gear Review #23: Classic Firearms Hungarian AMD-63 AK-47 style Rifle

Hello folks, it's 12-Gauge Chimp again. Today I'm reviewing my latest gun purchase.

Last month I purchased a Hungarian AMD-63 AK-47 style rifle from Classic Firearms and it's my second AK style rifle (the first being the M+M M10 I purchased a couple years back).

First I wanted to pick up a DDI (Destructive Devices Industries) AK, but my local FFL couldn't get one at a decent enough price for me. Their rifles are top of the line, but I'm not spending that much money on an AK right now. I think my FFL guy quoted me a price of around 1100 bucks for the base model with the Magpul AKM MOE furniture and 1150 for the upgraded Zhukov-S model. Either way, that's a lot of money for an AK. A couple hundred more and I could get an Arsenal AK, which are like the cream of the crop for AK rifles. Either way, I wasn't able to spend that much on a gun. So, disappointed, I turned back to my quest of finding a new AK and stumbled across Classic Firearm's website. A few minutes of perusing the site, I found my new AK. A phone call and a couple days later, I had my shiny new AK in my hands.

The Hungarian AMD-63, according to a lot of the reviews I've read, is one of the best buys in the AK world. These guns are built from parts kits, but unlike most, still use the original FEG made receiver and that is something that you really want. Some AMD-63 and 65 rifles use American made receivers that can be hit or miss in quality. Rifles that use the original Hungarian FEG receivers are much higher quality. How much of this is true and how much is just gun shop BS, I have no idea. They also use a slightly short gas tube and gas piston compared to standard AK style rifles. So if you get one of these guns, replacing the gas tube with an aftermarket one like the Troy rail or an Ultimak isn't going to work without some modifications to either one.

Either way, I got my rifle and I like it. I haven't had the opportunity to get to the range and test it out yet, but I will soon and give y'all a range report on it when I do.

While the rifle itself is in great condition and with little to no canting of the sights (this is still an issue with some WASR-10s, which is sad), I did run into a few minor fitting issues with parts I purchased for it.

1: When replacing the Phoenix Technologies butt stock off, I noticed one of the screws was broken. After removing the stock, I found out why it was broken. Apparently, whoever put the stock onto the rifle at the factory, torqued the hell out of the screw and caused the head of it to snap off. This wasn't noticed by anyone until I took possession of the rifle and field-stripped it for cleaning. Also, when they put the stock on my rifle, the screw went it at an odd angle and came through one side of the part that goes inside the receiver. It worked, but it just looked so sloppy, like the QC (quality control) person was on break when it went through their station.

2: After pulling the factory stock off, I attempted to install an Vltor AK stock adapter on my rifle and found out that the rear stock tang was just a hair shorter than required. This was remedied by me taking a rubber mallet and smacking the Vltor adapter a couple times to get everything to line up enough to work. I got it to fit and won't be taking it off any time soon since that sucker is on there tight now. Which is a good thing, by the way. Nothing sucks more when shooting a gun than a stock that wobbles after every shot.

3: The original Hungarian hand guard (that a friend referred to as a 'donkey dong' type of hand guard) was nice, but it was made of metal and as most of y'all know, AKs get hot after a couple mags. That and the 'donkey dong' grip made it awkward to do mag changes. So I ordered myself a Magpul AKM hand guard and installed that in place of the original one. Well, I ran into an issue with this as well. Apparently, the Hungarians use a slightly smaller hand guard retainer and I didn't know this until I got my rifle. A couple minutes with a set of files later, my hand guard was fitted to my rifle. I even sent an email to Magpul about it, but it seems they're either too busy to respond or it went into the trash upon receiving. The latter seems to be a more likely occurrence since they're pretty busy with other things and probably can't take time out to respond to each person who emails them. I did have to use my rubber mallet to get everything back into place, but it was all good in the end.When I ordered my rifle, I was told by one of the folks at Classic Firearms that some fitting of parts was going to be possible, so this isn't too big of a deal for me.

4: This wasn't necessarily a requirement for me, but it helps me feel better at ease about my rifle. I bought one of those Tapco trigger retaining plates for my rifle so I could get rid of the paperclip holding the trigger group in my rifle. The shepard's hook (the proper name for the paperclip) is basically a heavy piece of wire that hooks over the trigger group and keeps everything in place. Many people, myself included, opt to replace it with something a bit more substantial and less cheap looking. Seriously, we're in a day and age where aftermarket AK parts are plentiful and many companies still choose to put what looks like something you buy in bulk at an office supply store in their rifles. It's probably a cost saving measure, but it still doesn't make sense to me. Anyway, I once again had to fit the Tapco retaining plate to my particular gun since the hole on the plate didn't quite line up with the hole on my rifle. About ten minutes of filing later and I was able to get it installed. It wobbles a bit, but if it keeps my trigger group from flying out of my rifle or otherwise coming undone, I'm fine with a little wobble.

All in all, I knew before I purchased this rifle that I'd probably have to hand fit some stuff to it so that's on me and not Classic Firearms or the folks who built my rifle.

Still, the rifle is great, looks nice and is a pretty good value in today's market. I highly recommend Classic Firearms and will probably be doing a lot more business with them in the future.

As always, this is 12-Gauge Chimp signing off.

8 comments:

  1. Have you had a chance to shoot it yet? Just curious because I just ordered one.

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    1. I have not yet had a chance to shoot my gun yet, Jeremy. I've unfortunately been too busy to get out to the range for the past few weeks. As soon as I fire it, I'll update the site with a range report.

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  2. how about now? did you get a chance to shoot yet?

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    1. Yes I have and it's a pretty good shooter. If you can find them for a fair price (I paid about 550-ish for mine), I'd say grab it before someone else does.

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  3. How is it holding up? Thinking about buying one. Seems like a great deal.

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    1. It's holding up pretty good. The finish on the bolt carrier wears off pretty quickly, but that's to be expected. If you're in the market for a lower cost AK and don't mind doing a little tinkering or hand fitting of parts like handguards or buttstocks, the Hungarian AMD63 from Classic Firearms is a great buy. I know most other AK type rifles seem to be going up in price, but these seem to hover around 450 to 500 dollars.

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  4. Hello!

    How's your AMD holding up?

    I was reading last night that some people are having issues with carrier tails mushrooming to the point where it wedges itself into the channel on the top cover holder. I read that the problem is the Tapco trigger. It's a part that's harder than the metal of the carrier tail...it wouldn't be occurring if the original part wasn't swapped out for a US part (yeah, I know, it's an import compliance issue).

    Wondering if you've had any issues with the carrier tail.

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    1. I actually no longer own the AMD AK, but I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary with it in regards to the carrier tail. Only issue I had was the finish on the bolt carrier rubbed off pretty quickly and the top cover was out of spec just a tiny bit. The top cover issue didn't hurt functionality of the rifle, it just needed to be bent out a little since it got bent in transit to my FFL dealer. Five minutes of careful bending and reshaping and it was good to go.

      Keep in mind this was one rare example and other AMDs probably will never have that issue.

      You might ask the guys over at AK Operator's Union about that since they do more extensive testing than I do.

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