I sent TRA a Bulgarian AK74 kit, Childers receiver marked for 5.56x45, US plum AK74 stock set and AK-Builder 5.56x45 AK74 barrel.
And here’s what I received back…
The attention to detail and quality of finish is incredible. It take Polish Beryl magazines and Bulgarian circle 10 5.56x45 magazines, though the Bulgarian magazines seem to fit tighter. Can’t wait to shoot this baby.
That’s awesome, they do great work and are easy to work with. They did my Polish AKM and I was amazed with their work and quick turnaround. I’ve got a Tula AKM kit I’m sending to them sooner than later…
Nice! 
Nice! How do the rivets look? Any gaps, or unevenly pressed ones?
The rivets look perfect. It’s funny, when I compare my TRA builds to factory builds, some of the factory builds look like they were built by amatures.
I bet you have some of the same issues as before if running various Bulgarian magazines. They made three different generations of magazines, some had little tabs to center the rounds onto the feedramp, some had partial tabs, then some had the tabs removed entirely and they just fed straight into the sides of the barrel instead of the feedramp. I’d run that if it is in 74 pattern with the Polish magazines. It’s still a far cry from the perfection that is the SLR 106.
We’ll see. My black (1st gen I believe) Bulgarian 5.56x45 waffle magazines have always been 100% reliable in my Veprs. I’ll try those and the Polish.
They kept changing the little tabs on the inside of the mags. However if for whatever reason yours feed straight instead of centered, just polish/widen the little lip area of the feed ramp bevel on the barrel itself. Hand feed some rounds to see where they are striking on the barrel face.
That 74 looks great! I had TRA build two Romanian PM90 kits and they turned out very nice.
Thanks fhk96
I ran 120rds of Wolf steel case 223Rem 55gr copper jacket FMJ through this rifle today. Function was flawless. I used the magazines in the picture below.
From left to right they are the Bulgarian black 5rd, Bulgarian black waffle 30rd, Polish Beryl translucent 30rd, Bulgarian translucent waffle 20rd and Polish Beryl black 30rd. The Bulgarian magazines fit a little more tightly. I’m very pleased with this rifle.
I really like 5.56 AK’s. Back when Ted built that 5.56 Bulgarian sidefolder before the ban sunset, I told Arsenal one reason for them to build a stamped 5.56 AK is for domestic ammunition availability. Sure enough, they cut off 5.45 surplus over a dozen years later. I think down the road the little 5.56 AK’s will be worth quite a bit.
They were practically giving away the SLR-106s several years back, $699 iirc. I kick myself for not picking up a couple I did though score an SLR-106CR (SLR106-62) for under a grand.