Bought a Century (CAI) AES-10

[Great Basin Ben]

J-a-C,
Well, you OBVIOUSLY had fun "Throwing Bullets" out of her at "almost" full auto speeds, & in true RPK fashion I must say. BUT what we're all dying to hear about, is how is she at scoped, long range firing? Is she a "Kill him dead at 400 yards" firearm yet? Its also good to hear that barrel heat wasn't an optics factor.

I really enjoy the look of those vented upper handguards, and it's nice to know that they are truly functional as well. I am actually considering the "Strikeforce" Mod set, but ONLY for its lower handguard. I don't really care for the look of most AR wanna-be looking AKs, but like the idea of a rail on the bottom for a better, more contemporary, and more centered, bi-pod set-up would be nice. I found a package for these handguards at:
Galati International Online: AK Strikeforce Handguards with Picatinny Rails and Inserts - ATI Advanced Technology I don't like the Tri-rail or Quad rails for AK variants (that's not to say yours look bad at all though with that Upper vented handguard), but like I said a bottom rail would make a NICE bi-pod a possibility. It's hard to tell if you could even do it with these, but it looks like you could use one of the 2 " picatinny inserts on the bottom.

I saw a website that has surplus Bellarussian PSOP scopes at the following link:
East Wave Products Inc.

I'm considering a 4X instead of the 8X simply because I think a 400-500 yd consistancy would be much easier to acheive with a 7.62 x 39, and the 8X might actually be overkill for this type of configuration.

One other question I had, is what is the difference between the Warsaw length or NATO length poly stocks that are made for these receivers? And are the poly stocks solid or hollow? A true Tabuk style in one of these things would be AMAZING, assuming that they were solid poly material the whole way through. I suppose it might maintain more integrity than wood carved down to a similar thinness. They DO have extended rubber buttpads for them also. This is my dream, but I still have to find out their composition.

Anyway, absolutly brilliant job again, on your Romanian Neo-Tabuk rifle. The videos were killer too. THANKS!


Ben.

[one in the pipe]

But I've also found that being "inviting and friendly" makes socializing with people much easier and make for a less-stressful life. [/quote]

Oh really !?!

[Great Basin Ben]

J-a-C,

I also forgot to ask, (I hope you don't mind all of my questions) do you have any pics of the weld, or how you filed the weld off of the muzzle nut? The only sensible option for a Neo-Tabuk rifle is a Neo-Tabuk flash supressor! Nodak is currently sold out, but it FIRST THING ON MY LIST to get for this rifle. I have seen several forum submissions where they had welded on their Tabuk supressors, and I pray that with a little advice, I will get mine off sucessfully, and there will be threads as well. Would a Dremel work as well as a file? Anyway, sorry for all the stinking questions, I'm a Virgo, what can I say, its all about the details for me!


Drive safely,
Ben.

[one in the pipe]

Ben, I just took mine off yesterday and I used a hacksaw sounds radical but if you use it very gently it works great . I choose it because you can follow the line of the nut . Where as with a file it is a lot more agressive and easy to make a gouge in your gun. One thing to remember is that the threads are reversed . I am glad I read about that before I did it or I may have twisted the barell into a pretzel . I sprayed the nut with silicon lubricant and applied heat with a heat gun that made it easy to remove. Don't worry there will be threads under the nut they are all the same . If you get frustrated and need to ask a question P.M. and I will do all I can.
Another thing to remember is the threads go all the way to the end of the nut if you look down the barell you can see the differance between the nut and the threads .

[Enscribe]

or use a dremmel tool.

[Sprout47]

Originally Posted by one in the pipe

Ben, I just took mine off yesterday and I used a hacksaw sounds radical but if you use it very gently it works great . I choose it because you can follow the line of the nut . Where as with a file it is a lot more agressive and easy to make a gouge in your gun. One thing to remember is that the threads are reversed . I am glad I read about that before I did it or I may have twisted the barell into a pretzel . I sprayed the nut with silicon lubricant and applied heat with a heat gun that made it easy to remove. Don't worry there will be threads under the nut they are all the same . If you get frustrated and need to ask a question P.M. and I will do all I can.
Another thing to remember is the threads go all the way to the end of the nut if you look down the barell you can see the differance between the nut and the threads .

I use a hacksaw on mine as well, worked like a charm. I had tried filing it off and spent several hours with no success but making a mess.

[Great Basin Ben]

Thank you guys, for the muzzle nut removal tips. I totally see what you mean by the finesse of the hacksaw. Nice and easy, NO RPM,s to deal with, and totally monitorable. I'll let you guys know how it goes. I just hope Nodak gets some more of those Tabuk supressors in soon. It says March, but I'm thinking it'll be more like April. Who would have thought that they would become so popular, so quickly.

Also thank you for the heads up on the threads. What I understand you're saying is that normally it is "Righty-Tighty", "Lefty-Loosey", but in this case it's "Righty-Loosey". Sorry for the childhood vernacular, I just wanted to be sure I understood you correct. These terms always sound so goofy to me, but they are indeed helpful.

Anyway, thanks to everyone. I greatly appreciate it.
Ben.

[just_a_car]

Originally Posted by Great Basin Ben

Thank you guys, for the muzzle nut removal tips. I totally see what you mean by the finesse of the hacksaw. Nice and easy, NO RPM,s to deal with, and totally monitorable. I'll let you guys know how it goes. I just hope Nodak gets some more of those Tabuk supressors in soon. It says March, but I'm thinking it'll be more like April. Who would have thought that they would become so popular, so quickly.

Honestly, I used a triangle file and went very, VERY carefully... going right up against the edge of the front sight block, but not filing into it. Finally broke it loose with a light twist from a crescent wrench when the metal was paper-thin. There was some minimal damage to the muzzle nut metal that wasn't part of the weld, but I could care less, since those are only a few bucks and I was replacing it anyways.

Also thank you for the heads up on the threads. What I understand you're saying is that normally it is "Righty-Tighty", "Lefty-Loosey", but in this case it's "Righty-Loosey". Sorry for the childhood vernacular, I just wanted to be sure I understood you correct. These terms always sound so goofy to me, but they are indeed helpful.

Easy way to do it is to point the muzzle up and pretend you're tightening a bottle cap onto a pop bottle... that will take it off. I drink enough soda that taking off and putting on caps is done without thinking, so telling myself that I'm putting on a cap when I want to take off the nut worked well.

[Great Basin Ben]

Hi there J-a-C.
I was wondering, in your attempt to turn your AES-10 into a Tabuk, have you considered the Romak3 wood buttstock? Century used to sell a WASR-10 with the Dragunov type of stock for it, that is exactly like the Romak 3 buttstock. It fit the WASR receivers that they configured these around, and am fairly certain that the AES-10 receiver would also accomodate them. I just paid an arm and a leg for one after literally finding a proverbial needle in a haystack, but that's a whole different e-mail.

Subsequently, I recently found a website that sells a myriad of buttstocks, in a HUGE selection of wood choices. The do also do a Dragunov style , an M76 style, a FAL style, and a whole slough of others, in various shapes, and woods, for AKM stamped receiver variants. Anyway, I thought you'd enjoy the eye candy as well as their pdf list of AK furnature. Here's the link:

http://www.dinzagarms.com

and the buttstock page is at:

http://www.dinzagarms.com/furniture/brg3/brg3-index.pdf

Enjoy. Also, where would I find a cleaning rod for one of these AES-10s? Mine came without one, and although I do have a cleaning kit, I still need the rod. Take care,


Ben.

[just_a_car]

Ben... since you sent the exact same message as above as a PM to my inbox... *sigh*... see your PM.

And, in the future, feel free not to send a PM. Just post a message here... please. My inbox is over 90% full and will fill up quick if I'm not online very often... then I don't get messages.

[Great Basin Ben]

Originally Posted by just_a_car

Ben... since you sent the exact same message as above as a PM to my inbox... *sigh*... see your PM.

And, in the future, feel free not to send a PM. Just post a message here... please. My inbox is over 90% full and will fill up quick if I'm not online very often... then I don't get messages.

I greatly apologize. I didn't actually think it was sent to your mailbox. It was the first PM I had sent on these forums, and it said afterwards that I didn't have ANY sent messages. I will just post on the threads in the future. I replied to your PM back to me, so hopefully that one was sent to you as well, but I won't try to fill your mailbox up anymore. Sorry for any problems.


Ben.

[just_a_car]

No worries, Ben. I understand and I did get your response.

If you have the PM I sent to you, I'd appreciate if you could copy/paste it here for other people to see, as I deleted it and the sent message to make space in my inbox. Thanks.

[Great Basin Ben]

Ben, I very much appreciate the offer and the research. If anything, I'd want to put a Tabuk Sniper stock on it, which is a normal wood stock that's been skeletonized.

My original idea was to get a Bulgarian, Romanian or East German wire folding stock (the kind with the thick wire and triangle shoulder), cut it, thread it and attach one of Ironwood Designs tabuk stocks to it to have a wooden, skeletonized side-folder. Cool, huh?

But, since the price of those wire folders has gone from $69 to upwards of $100+, I won't be doing that until I have a lot of disposable cash... i.e., not anytime soon. So, instead I'm working on turning that RPK buttstock into a wooden version of the PSG-1 Adjustable stock.

Oh, and BRG3, as stated in that document, stands for BattleRifleG3... as in the user here that's a Moderator. He has posted those items for years now on here in the AK forum as he was developing them. I didn't know he was running the dinzag site, but I'm glad to see him getting so much press.

As for the cleaning rod, I'm pretty sure RPK cleaning rods should work okay, but I'm not sure about the RPK-74 rods, due to being for the 5.45x39 round. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the site that had a stack of 'em for the 7.62 version... just the RPK-74 type.
__________________

B.S. Chemistry UofWA '09
CETME Owners - Founder
AK-47 owners - Member
The Mosin Men - Member

[just_a_car]

So, it's been a while since I've been on here and I have a wee bit of an update for my beloved Melania.

She now has Ergo diamond-plate-pattern rail covers on the lower tri-rail and I've attached a laser for cosmetic looks more than anything. No pictures yet of either.

BUT, I did get to take her out with me to Kennewick, WA to my buddy's semi-annual shoot (but I can only make the summer shoot, being he's over the Cascade mountains and the passes are tough in the winter). I had the chance to stretch her legs out to 430+ yards and, from a sitting-unsupported position (in a canvas folding chair, resting my front elbow on my chest), I was hitting an 8"x8" box fairly consistently... with Black-box Wolf 122gr HP.

I had to hold about 6-12" high at that distance with my scope, but that's not too bad, since I want it able to hit fairly accurately out to around 600 meters and the scope is easily 4" higher than the centerline of the barrel.

Anyways, Melania is shooting accurate enough for me to be very happy with her current setup and the only issue now is her buttstock being 3" too short. I'm hoping to get something worked out for her within the next 3-6 months.

[Great Basin Ben]

I have my doubts about 122gr. Wolf 7.62 x 39 being able to effectively reach out to 600 meters. Now if it were a SAR-2 in the 5.45 x 39 caliber, I'd think you'd have a fighting chance. Your rifle definately inspired me to get one of these RPK clones, and in true fashion, I made it look as much NOT like an RPK as I could.

I ended up going with the ATi Strikeforce stock set. I'll probably never use the folding option that the stock has, but the adjustability of it's length is ultimately what prompted me to choose it. Also the handguards have full quad rail capabilities, and although I currently only have the bottom rail installed on the lower handguard it is a perfect mount for the upgraded expandable Bipod that I purchased as well.

For my scope I went with one of the Belarussian 6 x 42 scopes with rangefinding lit reticle. Although it has required some minor adjustments, there isn't a Soda bottle out there that is safe at 300 yards. Notice that I said 300 yards. While I know that the scope is capable of sighting in shots accurately out to 1,000 yards, the limitations of the 7.62 x 39 round seems to hover around the 300-400 yard range that you've been shooting it at. At 600 meters(or 660 yards whichever you prefer) you'd literally have to be lobbing them in, and the impact velocity would be a mere fraction of the caliber's true cababilities.

I'd say for the 600 meter shot you are searching for, you may wish to consider a different caliber. I think you could effectively impact a target at that distance with either the 5.45 x 39 (AK-74 caliber) with its flatter, faster trajectory, or even with the added muzzle velocity of the 7.62 x 54R shot out of the Mosin Nagants and Dragunov variants. While the RPK clones can be effectively modded out, their caliber I think is their real limitimg factor. Still, a one shot knockdown or kill on anything 300yards or less isn't ANYTHING to complain about. And also at these distances, their accuracy (probably due in part to their incredibly long barrel) is phenomonal!!!

Many thanks again for inspiring me to not only purchase, but to upgrade mine as I have. It has really been a fantastic tactical designated marksman rifle, and a WHOLE LOTTA FUN TO SHOOT!!! I've seriously gotta post some pics of mine here after I figure out how to. I'm guessing that the pics has to be hosted on another site, and then directly linked to the post. I've just gotta get my Imageshack account going I guess, and then I should be up and running. Best wishes.


Take care,
ben.

[fitt]

This is booster
If I just pull it back and let go, it doesn't catch at all; I'm thinking it might just be gunk or perhaps that weird linked spring-guide. The Mags are a bit wobbly, as I expected from a non-dimple gun, but the mag-release is rather sticky and doesn't move very well.

good communication

[Espresso]

so THAT's an AES-10...I was wondering what the "long-barrel AK" was. dang that's gorgeous. next one in my collection will DEFINITELY be an AES-10

[Great Basin Ben]

Originally Posted by fitt

This is booster
If I just pull it back and let go, it doesn't catch at all; I'm thinking it might just be gunk or perhaps that weird linked spring-guide. The Mags are a bit wobbly, as I expected from a non-dimple gun, but the mag-release is rather sticky and doesn't move very well.

good communication

You'll have to find the sticky thread on this, but what you'll want to do is polish the bolt carrier assembly. A dremel with both wire brush attachments, as well as polishing compound should do the trick. I know that there are a TON of tutorials on how to smooth the bolt carrier out, and to stop the hang-ups . It should charge smoothly regardless of how it is pulled back.

As far as the mag wobble is concerned, there is a tutorial for how to fix this on Youtube. If you search "Wasr10 mag wobble fix" you should be able to find the pertaining info. The AES-10 is esentially a WASR-10 with a longer barrel, and so the tutorial applies alomost directly to the AES as well. Basically with some JB "Cold Weld" you can essentially ad your own "dimples" to the inside of the receiver, and it fixes it almost completely. I did it to a WASR2 and it cleaned up almost every bit of wobble that I was having with the Bakelite mags, and solved any failure to feed issues that it had. The cold weld product can also be sanded, grinded, and is impervious to solvents, oils, and cleaners.

Originally Posted by Espresso

so THAT's an AES-10...I was wondering what the "long-barrel AK" was. dang that's gorgeous. next one in my collection will DEFINITELY be an AES-10

Without question, if you DO decide to pick one of them up, GET THE AES-10B not the AES-10. The B model has a true RPK style heavy barrel and the bipod is located in the "correct" location more near the muzzle end of the barrel. It is built just slightly better IMHO, and if you're going to be spending the money, you might as well get the better version. Make sure that it has a Tapco trigger group and not the crappy Romanian ones that they normally come with as well. Other than that, mine has become one of my favorite guns to own and shoot. I havn't been disappointed yet.


Take care,
Ben.

[just_a_car]

Originally Posted by Great Basin Ben

You'll have to find the sticky thread on this, but what you'll want to do is polish the bolt carrier assembly. A dremel with both wire brush attachments, as well as polishing compound should do the trick. I know that there are a TON of tutorials on how to smooth the bolt carrier out, and to stop the hang-ups . It should charge smoothly regardless of how it is pulled back.

1. I like the fact that my bolt hangs up on the hammer. It allows me to hold the bolt open when I want it to stay open without having a cutout on my safety lever... which I don't want.

2. I spoke yesterday with a Vietnam vet that had his M16 (not A1, the very first model) jam on him three times and he threw the thing at the armorer and told him not to give it back. He told me that his battlefield pickup AK-47 (real deal with the rock-and-roll setting) always hung up if you let it down slowly, so that's normal, at least for the REAL ones.

As far as the mag wobble is concerned, there is a tutorial for how to fix this on Youtube. If you search "Wasr10 mag wobble fix" you should be able to find the pertaining info. The AES-10 is esentially a WASR-10 with a longer barrel, and so the tutorial applies alomost directly to the AES as well. Basically with some JB "Cold Weld" you can essentially ad your own "dimples" to the inside of the receiver, and it fixes it almost completely. I did it to a WASR2 and it cleaned up almost every bit of wobble that I was having with the Bakelite mags, and solved any failure to feed issues that it had. The cold weld product can also be sanded, grinded, and is impervious to solvents, oils, and cleaners.

My AES-10a has metal sheets welded in where there would normally be dimples, likely put there by Cugir, as it says "made in Cugir" on my receiver and I don't have mag wobble issues.

Without question, if you DO decide to pick one of them up, GET THE AES-10B not the AES-10. The B model has a true RPK style heavy barrel and the bipod is located in the "correct" location more near the muzzle end of the barrel. It is built just slightly better IMHO, and if you're going to be spending the money, you might as well get the better version. Make sure that it has a Tapco trigger group and not the crappy Romanian ones that they normally come with as well. Other than that, mine has become one of my favorite guns to own and shoot. I havn't been disappointed yet.

I highly... Highly... HIGHLY disagree with you.

Now, if you want something that's heavier with a shorter barrel... say, if you think you may be banging your investment around or you're going to be doing a lot of full-auto shooting... then, yes, you probably want the B model.

For me, though, since I wanted a longer barrel and as low a starting weight as possible (as I knew I'd be adding more stuff to it) I think the A model is the way to go. And as for where the bipod is located, I think the location of the RPK is stupid; it's putting pressure on the tip of the barrel and affecting accuracy, but if you're literally spraying-and-praying, that's okay... I don't have FA, so I won't be doing that. Also, I was going to take that stamped sheet metal POS off and put on a proper bipod anyways, so it's location was unimportant to me.

It's odd that you mention the "crappy Romanian" trigger group that some come with, as my A model came with the Tapco G2 trigger. It would be weird for Century to be putting them on the A model and not on the B. And I gotta say, that is one of the most clean and crisp triggers I've ever felt on a military-like firearm.

[Great Basin Ben]

Originally Posted by just_a_car

1. I like the fact that my bolt hangs up on the hammer. It allows me to hold the bolt open when I want it to stay open without having a cutout on my safety lever... which I don't want.

2. I spoke yesterday with a Vietnam vet that had his M16 (not A1, the very first model) jam on him three times and he threw the thing at the armorer and told him not to give it back. He told me that his battlefield pickup AK-47 (real deal with the rock-and-roll setting) always hung up if you let it down slowly, so that's normal, at least for the REAL ones.



My AES-10a has metal sheets welded in where there would normally be dimples, likely put there by Cugir, as it says "made in Cugir" on my receiver and I don't have mag wobble issues.



I highly... Highly... HIGHLY disagree with you.

Now, if you want something that's heavier with a shorter barrel... say, if you think you may be banging your investment around or you're going to be doing a lot of full-auto shooting... then, yes, you probably want the B model.

For me, though, since I wanted a longer barrel and as low a starting weight as possible (as I knew I'd be adding more stuff to it) I think the A model is the way to go. And as for where the bipod is located, I think the location of the RPK is stupid; it's putting pressure on the tip of the barrel and affecting accuracy, but if you're literally spraying-and-praying, that's okay... I don't have FA, so I won't be doing that. Also, I was going to take that stamped sheet metal POS off and put on a proper bipod anyways, so it's location was unimportant to me.

It's odd that you mention the "crappy Romanian" trigger group that some come with, as my A model came with the Tapco G2 trigger. It would be weird for Century to be putting them on the A model and not on the B. And I gotta say, that is one of the most clean and crisp triggers I've ever felt on a military-like firearm.

We may just be splitting hairs at this point... However, I've been able to aquire (4) different AK variants , and THE ONLY ONES for me that had the bolt hang up were the Century imported Cugir made ones. Now if you want the bolt to do that then that's fine. If you are concerned about it, THEN I suggest the sticky tutorial that shows how to polish the Bolt Carrier Group and Hammer to prevent or avoid it.

My Polytech, and my Norinco both glide back so smoothly and then subsequently slide forward equally as effortlessly that I don't think you're ever going to be able to convince me that this isn't how a "real" AK is supposed to charge a round. I myself actually prefer to be able to chamber a round as smoothly and silently as possible, but that's just MY preference.

My Aes-10 has the same welded inner plates to compensate for its lack of dimples too. The reality of this though, is that these were ORIGINALLY configured to only accept low cap mags, and then due to their lack of popularity, were milled out to be able to accept the hi cap mags, but done after the fact. Then after a myriad of complaints and returns, Century was prompted to then find another aftermarket solution to their growing problem. While many of the AES-10 series of rifles had inner plates welded into them, they were done in such haste that an entire slough of problems persisted for them. SO if mag wobble is the issue, (I didn't say that you had the issue, but MANY folks do) then the cold weld tutorial off of Youtube will fix it overnight.

My AES-10 doesn't seem to be bothered either by the wobble, especially since I ONLY use polymer 10 rounders in it. The Polymer mags seems to be slightly "thicker" and seem to compensate for the little bit of wobble that an AES might have. However for the WASR-2 that I picked up, (also imported by Century, and MADE IN ROMANIA by Cugir) desperately needed the fix to take out the wobble. Since the AES series are esentially WASRs with longer barrels, I thought it was appropriate to at least mention it.

In regards to the heavy barrel vs. the skinny one, MY personal preference is to have the heavier barrel ANYDAY. The added girth and weight of the barrel can not only give added stability, and longevity, but also with less flex in the barrel, added accuracy. If you dig the skinny barrel then that's fine, but I would still reccommend to anyone wishing to purchase one of these to get the heavier barreled version. If I myself had it all to do over, that's at least the way I personally would go instead of just getting the AES-10a. Not that I'm not happy, but I still would have preferred the heavier barrel.

As for the Century bipod, IT SHOULD LITERALLY BE THE FIRST THING YOU TAKE OFF OF THE FIREARM. Their Bi-pod is absolute CRAP. Regardless of where you mount the upgraded version, YOU WILL NEED A NEW BI-POD. I don't care for either of Century's configurations for their Bi-pod. The AES-10a has it in a bad spot, and the 10B has it in an even worse spot. Not to mention, like you said, it is a stamped sheet POS. If you get a Century RPK, I think it is safe to say that you WON'T be too stoked with the bi-pod that is provided, so just get a GOOD one instead.

You got lucky on your Fire Control Group, if when you bought it, there was a G2 in there. I think what has happened is that Century had enough complaints about people blood blistering their fingertips with those crappy Romanian triggers, that they started replacing them with Tapcos towards the end of their production runs. It also gives them a little more room for compliancy if the replace the entire Fire Control Group with U.S made ones. Mine now has a Tapco G2 group too, and I wouln't trade it for the world. BUT before it was changed out, my 16 yr. old son found out the hard way what "trigger slap" was, and on more than one occasion. It never really hurt my big ol' fat fingers, but it literally bloodied his.

Anyway, I STILL need to get some pics of mine up here soon. I am in the process of moving right now, and the camera is boxed up at the moment, so it will have to be in the coming weeks. I still think the greatest addition to these rifles is the Bellarussian PSOP scopes. You CANNOT go wrong putting Russian optics, on a Russian platform firearm. It goes together just like peas and carrots!!!


Ben.