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Posted: 3/4/2011 3:29:30 AM EDT
| I've been reading about full auto '47s. From what I've read...I believe that there are mostly conversions available with either R/R or Sears. About the only way to get a real deal '47 is to find a bring back, which is a rarity. From a historical perspective, what manufacturers were better than others. I've seen Maadi, Polytech, Norinco, Valmet up on strum and subguns. I know there are quite a few folks here that have good amount of information around these weapons. From a pricing perspective, is a R/R gun more expensive? or is the Sear gun more? or are they on par? |
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Well......there really aren't any AK "registered sears" out there.........there may be a few conversion sears that were registered pre-86, but they are permanently "married" the the receiver of the host gun.....kind of like "registered receiver" uzi's where the blocking bar hasn't been removed, and a slotted bolt installed.......not really 100% kosher, but as long as no one pushes the issue, they will continue to pass under the feds radar.
Think of it this way.....if someone "registered" an AK sear, the only way to install it is by drilling the 3rd hole......and this act by its self constitutes manufacture of an unregistered, post-86 MG. Most all of the host guns that were converted pre '86 were quality........no WASR's/ Romak's/etc... in '86........ Look for Fleming, Pearl, SWD, etc as "manufacturers".......maybe Vollmer and Urbach did some as well? It's hard to screw up an AK conversion, but the quickest way to tell a good job is the proper cut in the rail for the sear.......if a big "hunk" has simply been removed, as opposed to being slotted properly, it's a sign of a cheapie job. There are some rewelds out there as well.......usually un-registered bringbacks, that were saw cut prior to '86, then rewelded /registered.......I think Erb did a few of these.... However......you're paying for the "paper", and with the plethora of uber high quality AK smiths out there today, anythig can be made 100% |
I picked up this SWD AK-47 back in 1993 for a whopping $1,600.00 NIB plus the $200.00 . However, the gun was chamber in .223, but due to constint pieces of brass jambing in the bolt/firing pin, I decided to have Fleming Firearms change the bbl out to 7.62x39 and had the bbl chopped to something like 5".
Anyway, out of my 10 machine guns, I'd have to say that this would be the one to take if/when SHTF 
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Villa
Is right, but Vollmer never made any registered AK sears that I can recall. From memory, I have owned two by Wilson Arms (GA), one by Fleming (the shorty built on Chicom folder), Qualified manufacturing (Richard Parker) and Billistics Inc. The Wilson Arms guns were bought from Jerry Prasser at Recon Ordnance, who I believe still owns the dies used to form them. Jerry also got stuck with a bad BATF interpretation back in the day that disallowed any AK sears not already in guns. It wasn't his fault and he took care of anyone left out in the cold. Mine were built on a Chinese RPK look alike and a Action Arms Galil rifle. Jerry probably can tell us how many were originally made and registered Pre86. The Qualified Manufacturing AK sear was a "put together" that I bought out of Shotgun News which was actually a Russian AK74 side folder look a like. It was built on one of 1-2 Chinese made 5.56 rifles made to look like the AK74. I never fired it, but sold it to an advanced collector in Florida back in 1987-8 just after I got it. The Billistics Inc sear may have been originally a AR15 sear, but the paperwork back to the original pre86 Form 2 showed it was a registered "MG sear"....."WW1X." It was installed in a Hungarian AKM, which I later had made into a Hungarian AMD65 miniAK....... I regretfully sold all these guns back in the later 1990's when I moved from the East Coast to California. I have never seen them come back on the market, so they are still probably in Virginia, Connecticut and Florida. |
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My uncle was a SOT back in the day. He had 6 Chinese AK's with those registered sears, I was just asking him right now. The ATF let them in but they are permanently with the AK's now forever married. They took 2 of them from him because they weren't installed but were in the process of getting installed on 2 other AK's, a Valmet and a Egyptian. The smith doing the install didn't drill the holes yet so that was the gist of the ATF saying nah...we will take those sears.... In the end, they are out there. 4 were sold to various owners in Oregon and 2 out of state. He can find his old paperwork and get more elaborate but the sears were out there. |
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