Anyone have one of the WSAR 22 cal. rifle? If so what are the good and bad things about these rifles. If you have one please post a picture of it.

No answers, So I guess therewere not many imported then.

Yep, I've never seen one..

I have only seen 1 before; looked like a normal wasr at glance.
Not any help I know but have been going to shows for years and have seen exactly one.

SinisterDouble68

I won one at auction for $350.00. This is the only one that I have seen. Came with one BDM. I checked the BDM web and they sill had some magazines and small parts on hand. Order one magazine and small parts kit. Now I have a AK 22 that is hard to find. Got to clean it up and got to the range and see how she runs.

Chiappa is importing them as the rak22.

https://www.atlanticfirearms.com/products/chiappa-rak-22-rifle

I own a WASR-22 that was manufactured in 2005 and made in Cugir, Romania at the same factory as all WASR models and military AK rifles.  2005 was the first year that Century Arms imported them as a WASR-22 model.  Prior to that they were imported as model AKT-98.  Models of the AKT-98 and WASR-22 came in with fixed buttstocks, wire side-folding buttstocks, or PSL/FPK style thumb-hole buttstocks and they even imported RPK models with longer barrels and club-foot buttstocks.  In the more recent years the Romanian .22LR AKs have been imported by Chiappa as a model RAK-22 and are made in Nova Modul, Romania instead of the Cugir, Romania factory.  There were some other interim AK .22LR variants imported from Romania but nothing particularly noteworthy or in any significant numbers.

The AKT-98 and WASR-22 will accept either factory metal (AKT-98) or polymer (WASR-22) magazines along with the aftermarket Black Dog 10 and 30 round magazines.  Unfortunately the Chiappa imported RAK-22s take their own proprietary magazines which only come in a 10-round configuration and can be difficult to find separately at times even when the rifles are available.  The AKT-98 and WASR-22 models also have a side optic mounting rail whereas the RAK-22 does not which I find to be another big negative for the Chiappa rifle.

The Chiappa imported RAK-22 rifles do have a few small “potential function improvements” made to them over the earlier imports but due to the proprietary magazine compatibility/availability/capacity issue, no optic mounting rail, and the different factory for their manufacture I personally do not think the RAK-22s are as nice overall or even have the same value.  I own a WASR-22 so I may be biased in my opinion but for the most part people that own AKT-98/WASR-22s or RAK-22s like them either way regardless of their particular pros or cons.

I am very pleased with the build quality and function of mine.  Spare parts can be hard to find so if you own one buy parts when you see them available.

Below is my WASR-22, it has an extremely low serial number and is actually only the 30th “WASR-22” model imported into the U.S. out approximately 600 total from 2005 until around 2009.  I believe a little less then 1,000 total AKT-98 models were imported into the U.S. in the prior years ending in 2004.  I imagine that there have been thousands of Chiappa RAK-22 models imported in the more recent years with AKs gaining so much popularity over the last decade.




This is mine as imported

How did you figure out the import time line of your WASR 22?

I also have one as well. Pickedup back in 2013. Used some of the takeoff furniture from my WASR 10/63. It's currently having the gas block replaced by a gunsmith with one that has a bayonet lug. Didn't like that it was neutered. Also he's going to fix the handguard retainer and scope rail.

Overall, it's a good rifle as long as you tinker with it.

WASR-22s usually have an eight digit serial number in a “XX-XXXX-XX” format.  The last two digits are the year of manufacture, for example my rifle it is “05”.  The middle four digits are the sequential build number for that particular year run, for example mine is “0030”.  In every build year the four middle sequential numbers start back at zero so you could have a XX-XX22-05 (22nd rifle of 2005) or XX-XX22-06 (22nd rifle of 2006).

Generally the last two digits on any WASR (WASR 10 for example) rifle also typically indicate the year of manufacture regardless of caliper with the exception being some WASR 10/63s since many were assembled with used (demilled) or previously manufactured military contract production rifle parts sets that were never used or assembled and demilled prior to use.

@Veers57

Ok, that makes sense now. Thanks for the info.

That puts my rifle from 2005, but its a much later production. High two hundreds.

It's neat having small run items. Doing that with the BRN180 and KP15 right now.

Based on this, mine is one of at least 1600 rifles made in 2007.

I have two that I purchased back in 2008/2009 I think. I replaced the furniture with take-offs and plinked a little with one of them, then lost a job aand went back to school, moved out west and haven't used them since.

Anyone looking to buy one or two let me know. Im not using them.

-kw

Shoot me a PM. Interested.

Steve

I also would be very interested in one of these.

There is a dedicated sub-forum for the WASR 22 rifles at www.theakforum.net

https://www.theakforum.net/forums/wasr-22.83/