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SDM - "new" Chinese AK

12K views 28 replies 16 participants last post by  ItalianShooter  
#1 ·
Hello everyone,

recently Italy and some other countries of Europe, have been overflooded with these "new branded" AKs - "SDM Beijing". SDM stands for Sino Defense Manufacture. Pretty cheap and of course made in China. They do look about the same as the old Norinco but marked differently. Their catalogue includes copies of the Russian versions, from the AKM to the latter 100 serie. They are commercialized both in .223 and 7,62x39 depending by the model.
Of course they also sell a Chinese AK47 variant. Pretty the same as the export Norinco (no spike bayonet) both with fixed wooden stock and underfolder. Has anyone clue about quality of these rifles? I ask this because I've heard that Chinese production has not really a standard. I've heard that the Chinese AKs supplied in Africa have different standard in quality than the ones on other markets. Price is around 570€/USD.

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#2 ·
I’ve seen “SDM” manufactured NDM-86 rifles as well (Dragunov copies). It looks just like the original Norinco version. I believe made in the same factory just rebranded for sale in Europe.

Chinese AKs enjoy a pretty good reputation in the USA although that is maybe because we cannot import them anymore. I have handled and shot many Chinese AKs of different variants in Afghanistan and the Middle East. Generally I found them to be of decent quality. The Bakelite side folder I had in Afghanistan was my favorite.
 
#6 ·
Unfortunately none of those were allowed to be sold in the USA. I would guess that with the rules in many countries that do allow them, the Chinese changed the name from Norinco which in many countries with strict firearm laws are illegal by name, renaming them makes them legal.

They did something similar in the USA in 1989 when George Bush the First signed legislation banning features of a rifle. The standard stock and pistol grip was changed to what I coined, the Bush-hole stock. They then changed the name from 56S to MAK-90 which made them legal. Crazy. Unfortunately the next firearm hater in chief clinton banned every military style rifle from china as well as several other countries.

The Chinese AK variants that did make it into the USA are of very high quality, and I would suspect the new rifles that you can buy would also be of very good quality. I wish we in the land of "shall not be infringed" could buy those!
 
#8 ·
The Chinese are bad at making cheap versions of military guns. It was better back in the day when they were still being made by military arsenals, but once they realized the market potential they started to crank out lower quality lookalikes. I guess the SKS is a good example: The military guns are excellent, heavy duty, well made guns. Absolutely top notch IMO. The commercial guns (aka the "K-Mart SKS") have a lot of stamped steel parts instead of milled parts, cheap ass furniture and the action is not nearly as slick and well made as a military SKS. They look like an SKS, smell like an SKS, but they're not anywhere close to the quality of a Chinese military SKS. I have never even seen the SDM AK version in real life, but quite honestly: I wouldn't expect it to be anywhere near the quality of a military gun. I suspect this is a Chinese SAR-1 at best.
 
#9 ·
Funny that they are bowing down to the US news media by stamping them "AK-47". Only AK number 1 was stamped with that designation. The Soviet military called it the Automatic Kalashnikov (AK) or just a Kalashnikov for short. The USA news media added the 47 during the Vietnam thing, and the Chinese bit, stamping the first imports of their 56S with versions of AK-47. Even Mr. K who spent much time in the United States was quoted calling them AK-47 knowing that while he first approached the Soviet military in 1947, they rejected it and in 1949 accepted it and began production. It wasn't until the 5.45x39 version did they get a number, AK-74.

Funny how the non-official name has stuck and grown as the news media trashes them as "evil weapons".

And the Chinese really went to town with the font size of that fabled name!
 
#11 ·
Quite funny that they kept the goofy extended selector tab all these years on the commercial exports, but I'd be more interested in trying to get those SDM stock sets over here to the US now that IronWood is gone. Trying to carve up one from an NHM-91 thumbhole is doable, but it sucks. It's worth noting that even back in the day, there was a big difference between Chinese guns intended for export (i.e. some third world country in Africa) and guns intended for the domestic PLA. I just finished up repopulating a MAK barrel that was built on a badly canted RSB (crashed into the trunnion ears) and was pretty much zero'ed\aligned on that as a reference. I would be very nervous of sending that out for PLA issue if I were a plant manager at factory 386 or some other arsenal. Most of the guns sent here to the US I'd say were very well built, but there were also some lemons that escaped.
 
#27 ·
Well, for what its worth, here we have a steady stream of SDM and I own a sdm ak47s (russin clone) and also a sdm ak103.
For me the quality is decent enough and happy to take it to the range all day long.
Accepts all makes of ak magazines, with no gap or wobbling, no feeding or gasproblems, and the accuracy at 100m is what to expect of an regular akm
 
#28 ·
Hello guys, i'm new here and this post just popped up in my google while looking for ak parts, by chances i bought 2 or 3 months ago an ak-103 from SDM, and a friend of mine took home the akm with underfolding stock, commercialized as folding stock ak47.

Mine was bought in switzerland, i have to say it feels pretty tight, nothing rattles, the thing is built like a tank. It's pretty accurate; i managed to use it to the 300m shooting range and managed to stay in a 12 cm circle, i then bought a dovetail mount with a dot on it, pretty solid too, doesn't move BUT didn't have time to try it at the shooting range, so i don't know if it can hold a zero.
Of course this ak 103 can't stand the comparison to the fass 90 (sig 550) but it's like 500 francs vs 4000 so...

On the other hand my friend (he's from Italy) took home the ak47, and it looks like the one in a video somebody posted up here, it's not well built, it rattles a lot, and after two months in his safe was covered in rust.

Conclusion: it's a 50/50 chance?

Edit: my ak
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#29 ·
Hi everyone,
I have a SDM AK 47 (AKM clone) in 7,62X39mm for a couple of years and I can say I have no problems of any kind. The gun is seriously overgased, but in my experience it never had any flaws. I used it to make a small "project gun", replacing furniture (the original is nothing to write home about), installing a TWS dogleg railed dustcover and extended safety lever. I used to run it on irons, but now it sports a Vortex RDS. Its a 3.5 to 4.0 MOA gun if I do my part.
What I saw in the video does not match my own experience with the SDM. I think I've seen worse in american-made AKs. They are not collector's pieces for sure, but I remember that, back in the day before the US banned imports, Chinese-made AKs were considered poor quality and now command serious prices in America! I have no reason to believe that current SDM rifles are any different than the Norinco ones sold in US back in the 80's.
Saluti!