[itsmycall]

I see these ads from The Sportsman's Guide on kits for AK's,AR's. It says all parts except the lower receiver which can be bought separately. Anyone with any experience with these kits and the actual difficulty in building?

[7.62 Man]

The AR is more or less an assembly, you don't need any kind of metal working experance. Take a look at the lower assembly procedure.

The Range Bag

But the AK takes a little bit more than the AR, here is a few videos of AK building.
YouTube - BuildyourownAK's Channel
I have done both ARs are real accurate, but the AKs are a lot more fun to build & a lot more of fun when you get it done.

[progun3400]

I agree with 7.62 man. Much easier to build an AR than the AK. Most AR kits I've seen out there come with the upper parts and barrel completely assembled, plus the all the parts to assemble the lower minus the stripped receiver which will have to be transferred through an FFL. It's been a while but most of the AK kits I've seen will arrive as a parts kit that's been torch cut and will have to be degreased & demilled prior to building. Demilling consists of drilling out old rivets from front & rear trunions, removing barrel to front trunion pin, pushing barrel out of front trunion. Building the AK would require a pretty good amount of specialty tools that wouldn't make sense economically unless you were building a whole slew of them. Drilling out some of them old rivets would be a bit of a challenge if you were trying to use a drill press. They seemed to be made of Kryptonite. You can put together an AR with a minimal amount of tools, punch set small hammer, stock wrench maybe.

Originally Posted by 7.62 Man

The AR is more or less an assembly, you don't need any kind of metal working experance. Take a look at the lower assembly procedure.

The Range Bag

But the AK takes a little bit more than the AR, here is a few videos of AK building.
YouTube - BuildyourownAK's Channel
I have done both ARs are real accurate, but the AKs are a lot more fun to build & a lot more of fun when you get it done.

[Colt808]

Both of the above are correct.

I'll add that unless you have a good bit of knowledge in basic machining and metal working, don't bother with these kits. They are not as simple as the catalog makes it sound. These "complete kits" are basically parts pulled from a bin and packaged. You will find yourself fitting every piece and that's a real pain in the ass.

In general, you should beware of catalog kits. Standards and quality will differ. So just because an AR is normally a "drop in" build, does not mean that's what you'll get when buying from a particular place. You might be getting factory seconds that are slightly out of spec. And in my experience, that's normally what you're getting from Sportsmans Guide.

If you want the satisfaction of building it yourself with little hassle, spend a few bucks more for quality parts from a specialty source.