AKS TWO WAYS

Seventy-five years is a long time. Most of the tools that were commonly used in 1947 have long since become obsolete — we no longer drive carbureted vehicles with leaded gas and bias-ply tires, or get the latest news via black-and-white TVs and vacuum-tube radios. But there’s one iconic invention of the postwar period that has remained relevant, even after three quarters of a century: the AK-47. It offers rugged durability, mechanical simplicity, and excellent barrier penetration with 7.62x39mm ammunition. It has proven its effectiveness countless times on battlefields around the globe, from Vietnam to the Middle East.

Some Assembly Required

Decades of widespread popularity have led to a healthy selection of aftermarket parts and accessories for this platform. However, before starting your first AK project, it’s essential that you know what you’re getting into. Building an AR-15 is a bit like assembling IKEA furniture — as long as you take your time and put the all the pegs in the correct holes, you’ll be OK. Building an AK-47 is more like building custom cabinets. It involves precise measurements, hand-fitted surfaces, and many specialized tools and jigs a novice is unlikely to own. You can always pay a professional to do it for you, but where’s the fun in that?

With this caveat in mind, we set out to examine two approaches to building customized AK-47s. First, we took an off-the-shelf Palmetto State Armory AK with a blue-collar price tag and replaced a handful of components to finetune it. Only one part of this build required professional gunsmithing; the rest was done at home on a workbench. Next, we teamed up with the AK experts at Lee Armory in Phoenix, Arizona. With their help, we learned how to convert a bare receiver and a pile of parts into a fully functional custom rifle, pressing in every rivet and polishing every