AMD 65 kits?

[Peace Sells?]

Hello to everyone. I have been pondering on purchasing the following amd kit from cope's. I was thinking of buying at least 2 and stockpiling them away for future use. I understand that these do not have barrels and the barrel will have to be US made, whenever they get around to producing them (I suspect that Cope's is waiting to sell a certain amount of sets in order to justify production for the barrels) I am also aware that the stock must be pinned or welded, a extended muzzle break must be attached, and i think certain parts of the fcg discarded. Would it be wise for me to go ahead with this project and just wait for the cards to fall (US barrels to be produced) and purchase multiple kits, or just save up and get romy's or other ak kits as they come up and be purchase within a given budget, $200-275 for nice kits? Your responses are greatly appreciated!!

http://www.copesdistributing.net/product_info.php?cPath=49&products_id=711

[JeffM]

You will always be able to part them out and recoup most if not all of your money.

Go fir it.

[bigthaiboy]

Surely, if you're going to have to add a barrel which is going to be over 16", you could use any US made 16.5" AK barrel with an AMD-65 kit, and then just use the original AMD muzzle brake, rather than hoping one day a 12.5" US made barrel may be produced.

Either way, AMD-65s in general, just seems not to be as popular as other AK variants, which ultimately will reflect on the value/ demand of the kits at a later time. If you want to invest in kits, buy what you can of the remaining parts kits with original barrels, such as Yugo kits. These will all dry up very soon, and it will be a seller's market sooner than you think.

Kits with cut barrels are far less desirable due to the extra work / skill levels involved in installing a virgin barrel, plus kits without barrels are not banned by the 2006 ban, so can and will continue to be imported in the forseeable future. For all we know AMD-65 kits without barrels could still be arriving by the boatload in the years to come. This obviously will not help increase the value of your investment kits.

[saki302]

AMD kits with original barrels are selling for pretty good money now. I remember when they were sub-$100.
Anything goes up in price when it's hard to get

I have an AMD kit I'm just sitting on. It's a goofy design, and feels weird (I held a built one in AZ). you can build as a pistol, or tack weld the stock for CA length, which IMO is mickey-mouse. And you can only build as a fixed mag.
I'll probably wait a few more years and sell mine off.

The best kit deal now is a Yugo or Romanian, get the romy if you want a more 'normal' spec gun.

-Dave

[Q]

I remember when they were 2 for $100.
There are some amd kits with barrels around at $285.
If you want to build a rifle the extensions are hard to find now. I think the tapco extension is out of production.

Theres a guy that makes them on akfiles. You can probably get one from him. I'm still waiting for mine.

[motorhead]

amd's are different, you either love them or hate them. there are barrels around, although some are yugo sewer pipes. you will probably not find an amd barrel so it'll probably be built to legal length. if you can maintain 30" the folder can stay. fixed stock trunnions have just about dried, this being one of the most destroyed parts on demil. the amd folder is one of the better looking combloc folders. lots of work w/virgin bbl., you almost have to have access to a mill to cut the extractor notch. lots of pinning and pressing, and, of course, headspacing. look at virgin bbl. kits available now, the only bbl. done at the factory is threading the muzzle. and they won't be chrome lined.

[Q]

I forgot to add, some kits don't have the sling loop near the stock. The loop is impossible to find by itself. k-var has a east german one that can be used when they can't find the amd sling loop.

[thedrickel]

I forgot to add, some kits don't have the sling loop near the stock. The loop is impossible to find by itself. k-var has a east german one that can be used when they can't find the amd sling loop.

Hmmm . . . how much are the originals worth? I've got a few lying around that came off pistol builds

[Q]

Hmmm . . . how much are the originals worth? I've got a few lying around that came off pistol builds

I don't know. There is no place that has them in stock.