Romainan AES-10B RPK (CAI import) review

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  • Harrisracing

    Well-Known Member
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    25   0   0
    Jan 28, 2013
    795
    16
    Lafayette, LA
    I recently purchased a Romanian RPK from an online dealer for a VERY good sale price of $500. I took it to sherbourne this weekend to test it out and particularly to test out the 40 rd poly mag that came with it. I'm a BIG AK aficionado and I could tell that I was going to like this gun.

    Wood is finished in CAI's typical "dirty" simple wood finish which is some sort of oil on a marginally finished laminate stock. Not the best by any stretch of the imagination, but Romanian AK's aren't necessarily put on a pedastal by the AK crowd to start with. The bluing is good, the barrel is the long chrome-lined barrel which looked new and the sights were RPK sights and were not canted at all. My only issue with the rifle is that there was no bipod attachment/collar present, but given the price I did NOT complain. I did, however purchase a bipod for it, but have not attached it yet.

    The rifle was slightly off to the right, and was shooting low. I found that it shot better with the sight leaf at the 300m mark, but was still a few inches high at 100 yds there. It would have been perfect at a 250m setting (had there been one). I'm SURE this has something to do with the fact that the gun did not have a bipod on it up near the front.

    Anyway, as with ALL of the AK's I own, zero FTF at all. Perfect running and actually surprisingly smooth operation from this AK variant. Tula FMJ made a 4" in group through the iron sights and honestly I have pretty bad vision when it comes to iron-sight shooting. PLENTY accurate enough for my taste!

    The 40 round mag works perfectly and boy was it fun to dump a mag. I can tell you that this rifle with the heavier barrel handles sustained fire heat far better than my standard AK's.

    I hope you enjoyed this review as much as I enjoy this rifle!
    Patrick
     

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    Torino70GT

    Active Member
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Jan 28, 2013
    27
    1
    Acadiana
    Hey there man, I recently purchased an AES-10b the $500 deal. I am a big AK guy and was really excited to get mine. I have had good luck with Century Arms over the years but this one really let me down. I expected the ugly furniture and the less than desirable furniture because I plan on refinishing the metal and I already put some Russian laminate on it.
    The problems I seen with it were typical Century Arms fit and ligament issues. The gas block and front sight block are canted pretty bad and it looks like the front trunnion was riveted in crooked so the barrel seems to angle off. I haven't shot it yet, I'm still in the process of fixing some of these issues. The gas piston was welded to the bolt carrier also. An AK, the piston is supposed to have some wobble to it. The bolt was sticking upon charging the rifle. When I put the bolt by itself in the locked position, it was canted and stuck up all funny. I did some filing on the bolt lugs and finally got it to rotate and close smoothly. I just have to check headspacing before shooting it now. So, there are a lot of issues but all are correctable. And sort of fun to fix it all up. Hope you like the rifle.
     

    Harrisracing

    Well-Known Member
    Rating - 100%
    25   0   0
    Jan 28, 2013
    795
    16
    Lafayette, LA
    WOW! Seems like mine and yours were built on different planets! I'm sorry you've had trouble with it.

    I too have been fortunate in my Century purchases thus far...but dang I would be VERY upset if my rifle showed up as you described!

    Also I did forget to explain that the gun does NOT have matching numbers.
     
    Last edited:

    dwr461

    Well-Known Member
    Rating - 100%
    4   0   0
    Jan 23, 2009
    3,930
    38
    Baton Rouge
    CAI has had problems for as long as I can remember with consistent quality. At one time their warranty on a new weapon was until you sign the 4473 form. Once you own it the warranty is void and any repairs must be paid for by you. I owned a CETME that those chimps put together in the early 2000's. They failed to weld the receiver to the trunnion straight. So when the rifle cycled it didn't ride down the rails straight. I traded it off rather than deal with CAI's repair policy. And yes I told the person who I traded it to about the problems. They had the tools and training to repair the problem. I didn't.

    But I'm glad that your RPK works well. Boy that wood is terrible looking though...

    Dave
     

    Torino70GT

    Active Member
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Jan 28, 2013
    27
    1
    Acadiana
    To better describe the bolt problem with it. If you remove the recoil spring and leave the bolt and carrier in the receiver, you should be able to reciprocate the rifle in a recoiling motion and the carrier ride smoothly back and forth on the rails and the bolt locking and unlocking. Well, when I did that to this rifle, the carrier would get stuck about 3/8" before fully closing. The thing I couldn't understand is, when the carrier stuck, the bolt would be fully locked. Just something was making the carrier drag the last 3/8" of the way. That's when I tried locking the bolt by hand and seen it was really hard to get the bolt to rotate and when it was locked, it had a bad cant to it. The bolt stem where the firing pin rides, would stick way up. Like the trunnion was crooked... The bolt sticking up all funny was causing the dragging of the carrier. The part of the carrier the bolt rides in was getting jammed against the crooked bolt. After some filing of the lugs I got the bolt to open and close smoothly now and the bolt to sit correctly. Only problem is, when I have a round in the chamber, the bolt starts doing the same thing. Ugh!!! Once I check headspacing after filing lugs, il fire it and see what happens.
     

    Torino70GT

    Active Member
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Jan 28, 2013
    27
    1
    Acadiana
    IMAG0794.jpg


    IMAG0789.jpg


    The picture of the bolt in front is my AKM with the bolt sitting correctly. Look at the RPK in the back and how the back of the bolt sticks way up over the top of the receiver. That to me isnt right.
     

    Harrisracing

    Well-Known Member
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    25   0   0
    Jan 28, 2013
    795
    16
    Lafayette, LA
    Wow...so the front trunnion is riveted pointing down relative to the reciever? This seems almost impossible to do with an rpk bulged trunnion and reciever! I am going to pull mine apart right now to look at it.

    Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk
     
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