Quote Originally Posted by Dave_M View Post
Should I get a milled or a stamped gun?

This one is a subject constantly argued on the interwebs. It is said that a milled gun is, ‘tighter’ and, ‘more accurate’ but all of that can be thrown out the window. What a milled AK is, is more relatively rare (and therefore easier to dump on the market). There has been little research showing that milled rifles are better in most situations. In fact, with rifles that have seen high use, the scale is slanted towards the stamped side: Stamped receivers allow more stretch (stamped receivers which have seen high use have shown expansions well over 1mm beyond the initial factory specs) whereas most milled guns would crack (and no longer work) at that point.

So what’s the point of a milled gun? Re-sale and rarity, that’s it.

Or, I suppose the pleasure of carrying a heavier rifle. You decide (for anyone who has carried a rifle for hundreds of miles on patrol, this one is a no-brainer). If you’re buying to ultimately re-sell, buy a milled gun. If you’re buying to actually use, buy a stamped gun.
Just thought that I'd update this with this thread from 2015: Link.

Short version is that Battlefield Vegas, the big machine gun rental place in Las Vegas, has never once had a milled receiver break. Every stamped gun of every nationality they've run (and they have AKs from everywhere but North Korea, Vietnam, and Cuba) has eventually suffered a cracked front trunion.

However, the trunions on the stamped guns don't generally fail until 80,000-100,000 rounds have been fired through the guns. Receivers very rarely fail, and they typically pull the barrel and trunion once the trunion cracks and install a new trunion and barrel. Romanian WASR barrels are still not shot out enough at this point to keyhole at the relatively close ranges they use.

So there is a theoretical benefit to running a milled gun and that is if you're running tens of thousands of rounds, especially at a cyclic rate.

An image associated with the above: 30 days of 7.62x39 casings: