I’ve been dragging my feet on getting my own Kalashnikov for years now. In the past, I could never bring myself to put down the cash for even bargain-priced variants at gun shows. I would borrow one when I needed to familiarize myself before deploying or, when overseas, shoot the local versions. I always had the nagging suspicion it was more of a “buyer beware” situation with so many inexpensive, rough-as-a-cob variants out there than the general AK reputation for reliability would indicate.