I’m curious about more experineced AK people’s thoughts on Romanian Sar-1s.
In my expeience, having owned 4 of them over the years, is as long as the sights and gas block are not canted and as long as you replace the trigger group, they run well. I’ve heard of the canted sights and gas block issues, but not seen any on mine or any friend’s Sar-1s.
Unlike the WASRs that were originally built as single column mags and converted, the Sar-1s were originally built to accomodate double column magazines. This is a big issue as some WASRs have magazine fit and feeding problems because of this.
I’ve always thought that Sar-1s represented a great deal for post-ban AKs. At one point in the early 2000s you could pick them up for about $300. Even now you can find them in the mid-$400 range.
Below is a picture of my Sar-1 below my Steyr Maadi. The Sar-1’s receiver indicate that it was built in 2000. I picked it up at a gunshow a little over a year ago. Far from the best photo–something I just snapped quickly indoors and posted with flash distortions.
I lived up in Prescott when J&G sold these over the counter by the bucket load at distributor price. They must have more AK owners per capita than Kandahar up there. SAR-1’s are great guns.
I’ve bought all but one of the ones I owned on the secondary market and none had problems. In every case I had the fire control/trigger group replaced with a G2, as the cheap Century Arms one that comes in the gun slaps your finger after each shot.
Over the years I have bought one Sar-1, then bought another, then sold one, then bought one, etc . . .
I now have the one pictured that I bought a little over a year ago at a gun show.
When I bought my current Sar-1 it was producing 5 shot groups with various ammo at 50 yards from the bench using open sights ranging from 2.5"-5". It was grouping erratically in that one group might be 2.5-3" then the next one was 5." This happened again and again and was not just me.
The gun was inconsistant.
I had the muzzle crowned and that improved it and it had np problem regularly grouping in the 2"-3" range with the same mix of ammo that had previously produced the erratic groups.
It was a simple procedure to have a gunsmith do and it made a world of difference. I am not sure if a special crowning tool is required for a .311 bore of the 7.62x39 as opposed to the standard .308 bore of the 7.62 NATO. That type of stuff is beyond my experience.
I bought one in 2001 or 2002 for $300 and stupidly sold it a few years later. It was a good little rifle. Had an ugly finish, though not as bad at the Egyptian MADDIs that were for sale at about the same time.
A friend’s SAR-1 was my first AK hobbysmithing project. I removed the cosmoline for him and fixed the trigger slap by cutting a superfluous part off of the disconnector with a dremel cutting wheel.
My friend had bought the SAR-1 and a Saiga .308 with wood furniture from a gunshop that disappeared after Katrina. Shame, it was a cool place owned by a guy and his Ukrainian wife. She corrected my pronunciation of “Saiga” once. (“Back home we called it ‘Sai-Guh’ not ‘Seh-gah’”) I miss that shop.
He later traded both AKs in for a used Remington 7400 (that couldn’t make it through a 5 rnd mag without a FTF), apparently after some fudd advised him that he couldn’t hunt with ‘those things.’ :bad:
Bought 2 of them back in 1999 and still have them. Bought one to shoot and the other as a back up/secondary rifle. Both have had zero issues with canted sights or trigger slap. Although if you get one that has one or both of those issues, it’s an easy fix. IIRC I bought them for $375ish each. For the money, I don’t think I could have done much better. Especially back then. I would absolutely recommend the SAR-1. I will say that I didn’t buy them to look pretty/impress or collect. To me that’s not they’re purpose. I needed a effective high capacity combat accurate rifle that was absolute in reliability. And inexpensive enough that I could put a second one back. For me they’ve fulfilled this role very well. I also might add that with the shorter stock they’re quite handy.
The SAR-1 is one of the rifles I no longer own, and regret selling. I bought a Romak III because I’m more of a precision shooter, and ended up not liking it because it isn’t accurate enough. I actually miss owning an AK because they’re just too much fun at the range.
That is exactly how I felt after I found myself Sar-1-less
The Sar-1 is kinda rough in terms of fit & finish but I’m not a fit & finish person. To me the roughness of fit & finish is getting what you paid for and part of the charm in an Eastern Block way.
“Sai-guh” is correct from my Russian language experience, and it absolutely drives me nutty when people talking about guns sound like they’re talking about a console system from the 90’s.
The more I learn about shooting, and the better I get with these old “inaccurate” rifles, the more I see modern hunting rifles as excessive for most people.
I think the realization came when I was hitting 200-300 yard targets with just a red-dot and no magnification, and people with bolt action rifles and magnified scopes were missing the same targets.
Remember, however, that a lot of hunters don’t shoot but 2-3 times per year around hunting season.
The SARs were decent AKs for the beginner. I still have my SAR-2. I replaced the FCG with a G2 and swapped the shepherd’s hook for a retaining plate, and it’s run like a scalded-ass ape ever since.
I’ve never seen a canted SAR in person, but the interwebs prove they do exist. However, mine had horrible trigger slap until I swapped out the FCG. I have, however, seen an SAR-1’s FCG wear down to the point that it would double and then light-strike on the third round. That’s when all concerned decided that the G2 was a mandatory, immediate replacement for ALL SAR FCGs.
Other than the easily-corrected trigger slap, the only issue my SAR-2 ever had was the ground-off bayo lug never did hold in the cleaning rod during shooting, so I just left it off the rifle.
Sar’s originally had century fcg’s installed which had terrible geometry causing the trigger slap. Sar-1’s are only second to non Chinese parts Maadi’s as under appreciated ak variants.
The SAR-1 was my first EBR back when I was twenty YOA and was the rifle to turn me on to the Kalashnikov platform.
I have a lot of respect for the SAR-1s, they are GTG. Mine has been solid since day one. Current role as a “trunk gun” in the following configuration:
Romanian wire side folder
K-VAR hand guards
US PALM grip
Padded VCAS
Midwest Ind. flash suppressor
G2 FCG (single hook)/Shepherd’s Crook Replacement (retaining plate)
Krylon flat black rattle can finish (hit with a new coat when it needs it)
For the price you get a Romanian “mil-spec” import with correct mag well, correct chromed lined barrel, and an all around reliable “beater”.
