As far as the pistol grip reinforcement plate goes…millions of AK’s don’t have them, but they’re kind of like M4 feed ramps…the rifles survived for a long time without them but if you’re starting from scratch, why not have it on there?
Sounds like you got bit pretty hard by the Kalashnikov bug…
I was thinking the same thing. I have a SAR-2 with bad headspace, and the thought hit me that it would be just as easy to build a SBR Krink on it as it would be to just adjust the headspace. Not the cheap way to go, but way cooler than a beat-up SAR-2.
One of the projects in line is an AK-74 build. I bought a matching Bulgy kit from K-var when they first came out for cheap, and I bought an OOW receiver long ago (when that was all there was, so I’ll just use it). It’s been just sitting there waiting for me to get a bunch of other stuff done first. Oh well, at least I have everything and don’t have to worry much about prices going up or parts drying up.
I would get the receiver with the reinforcement plate done by NDS.
I had to put a plate on a polish NDS receiver and it was a pain. Nothing wrong with the receiver but due to the fact that NDS does a real good heat treat I had to get the receiver really hot during spotwelding in order to get the plate to stick.
NDS welds the plates on and then heat treats the whole thing. Cant go wrong with that. The extra cost isnt much more than the cost of a plate. And you dont have to mess with welding.