I know this isn't a newer AK and many people don't care for them. But for $500, a milled AK47 made in the US seemed like a good idea to me. Although heavy, it shoots well, cycles anything and is fun to shoot.

I'm posting this to help anyone who may have recently bought one and now you're scratching you head wondering what if any mods or upgrades can be done. It's tough finding after market parts that will fit this rifle and tough to change furniture without a hacksaw or Dremel. I will not be replacing the hand guards, which as I understand it requires cutting parts off the front end.

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It can be fired as is using iron sights. I can't tell you about ballistics, but once zeroed it's accurate enough. But if you want to add a scope or RDS you can only mount on the handguard rails. There is no side mount for optics. Texas Weapon Systems (TWS) offers a dogleg railed dust cover. They make one specifically for the C39. I found one in stock on Brownells and it was cheaper than buying directly from TWS. Installs easily and the only thing you lose is the rear leaf site. TWS also offers a rear peep site if you want BUIS.

Now that you have a scope or RDS mounted on the dust cover rail you'll realize cheek weld and decent eye relief is impossible. Here's a tough mod. Tough because you need to find a receiver extension adapter not only for a milled receiver but a milled receiver with two tangs.

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First, I found no stocks that accommodate the bottom tang. AFAIK if you want a new stock you can either do something goofy like leaving the tang there as a single point sling attachment, or get rid of the lower tang. I opted to get rid of the lower tang. No tools, I just gently ("gently" required some leverage and strength) rocked it back and forth until it snapped clean off. No Dremel, no hacksaw, no grinding or bluing and the end result was not unsightly.

To attach the receiver extension adapter I found Carolina Shooter's Supply who helped me determine that the ACE C39v1 adapter (sku ACE-C39V1) would work on the Sporter. With the adapter you can add several different stocks. Cool part is that this adapter keeps the angle of the stock inline with the receiver.

I decided to add a Pig-Nose stock adapter -(SAIGA/AK4), castle nut, a six position buffer tube and MAGPUL CTR stock. The Pig-Nose will accommodate mil-spec or commercial buffer tubes. Cheek weld was still too low, so I added the MAGPUL .75 riser. Perfect eye relief and cheek weld for the scope I chose to use which is a Vortex 1-6x on a cantilever mount.

Last but not least I changed the pistol grip, and any AK grip should fit. I used the MAGPUL +K grip. The grip that comes on the Sporter isn't bad actually, but I prefer the +K.

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AK purists hate it. They hate the rifle and they seem to hate making it what they call "tacticool." I'll call it "practicool." I like ugly black rifles. I'll leave the wood in my guitars, furniture and the forest.

Hope someone finds this helpful and I hope I help them to learn a lesson that I learned the hard and long way.

Mods, if this should be in DIY Gun smithing, please feel free to move.