Product Reviews/M10-762

First Impressions

One of the most impressive things about the Lee Armory M10-762 is the price point. Sure there are other AKs in the same price point, but how many of them are rifles built in a famous military factory? Ever since the importation of Saiga rifles was stopped by the Obama administration, there have been very few options. The rifle is manufactured at the historic Cugir plant operated under the umbrella of ROMARM, the chief arms exporter of Romania. It is then imported to the United States by M+M before being sent to Lee Armory for final conversion, 922r compliance, and distribution. At Lee Armory the magwell is opened up to accept standard AKM mags, and certain US made parts are added to ensure 922r compliance. This will be covered in greater detail later but a brief list of the conversion parts are listed below:

Stock by Phoenix Technology

Pistol grip from Tango Down

Muzzle brake from Tacfire

Xtech Tactical MAG47 OEM

Arsenal black polymer handguards.

Original Romanian Trigger (A feature often omitted in competing imported rifles).

Review

Overall the rifle comes off as a no-frills, seriously utilitarian, and well built machine. The build quality of Romanian rifles is commonly reported to be low but this is largely due to the poor conversions and kit builds done by competing countries. I do not believe it is reflected in the current offering from M+M and Lee Armory. In large part these rumors come from the original import WASR-10/63 and the lower quality conversions that came with them. Big issues with early rifles were extremely canted front sights, magwells that were either too small or too large, or rivets that looked either over or under crushed. It was also common for kit builds to have front trunnion rivets installed by using the barrel as a bucking bar instead of a proper jig, which often leads to extremely poor quality rivets with poor durability. Since these early days the build quality has improved by leaps and bounds due to improvements in the processes and QC at both the Cugir plant and the companies that convert the rifles for sale stateside. The newer rifles don't have a barrel pin that is egged out and the rivets all look great, which is something that is very important on an AK pattern rifle.

You can still come across canted front sights but as tested this rifle does not have that issue. If anyone has shot or handled a WASR-10 that was converted in the last couple of years they will be very familiar with this rifle. The main difference between the WASR-10 and this M10-762 is the presence of a combo block (one piece combination sight block and gas block) and an RPK style rear sight leaf. The RPK sight leaf is a huge improvement because it affords the shooter the ability to make windage adjustments quickly and easily at the rear without needing a special tool.

Accuracy of the rifle is what you would expect from a stamped AKM rifle. Easy to hit your target inside of 100 yards but you won't win any competitions.

Adding an optic either magnified or just a simple red dot will help, and this is made easy with a standard AKM pattern side rail. I would recommend using the RS Regulate rail system. Very high quality and gives you several different options depending on what you are wanting to mount to the rifle. The recoil is very manageable, easy for a new shooter, or someone just getting into the AK market. For those playing the tax stamp game, this would make for a great poor man's AK104. It would require you to chop the barrel, rethread and add a detent to the combo block, something any competent gunsmith would be able to do. I would imagine it would reduce felt recoil as well. It is also noteworthy to mention that the sight block is already drilled for a detent pin and only needs the spring and pin itself in order to accommodate a muzzle break in 14x1LH at the sight block.

Final Thoughts

Overall I am pleased with the rifle. The stock is very comfortable and has a rubber recoil reducer to soften the rifle even more. The Tango grip is perfect for shooters such as myself that have larger hands. The Xtech mags are very high quality mags. I would put them on par with Circle 10. I have spoken with Jeremy from Xtech several times and he is a great guy looking to make the best AK mags possible and I think he has done just that. The flash hider has the added benefit of projecting the sound of the rifle down range to lessen the boom of the rifle on the shooters ears and of course Arsenal speaks for themselves.

Very good quality handguards with proper heat shields to keep the shooters hands cooler longer. The rifle does not ship with a cleaning rod so if that matters to you then you might want to look at purchasing a surplus one on the side. If you are in the market for an AK this is not one to skip over. Further details where you can purchase the rifle can be had here: https://www.leearmory.com/product/romarm-m10-762/

Also of note, is a small issue I noticed with my particular rifle on delivery. When I tried to insert surplus steel mags they would not fully seat because of a small burr inside the magwell that prevented them from locking in. It was very small and just a product of the process of opening the magwell. It took 15 seconds with my dremel to clean the burr up. I have contacted Lee Armory about the issue to make them aware of it but it is by no means something that an average consumer would be unable to fix in their garage with simple tools in the event you run into the same issue.

This rifle was provided by Lee Armory for this review.

Update

Update: I have spoken with Lee Armory about the issue with the burr in the magwell and they have assured me they will make sure future rifles do not have this same issue.