CAI M74, Quality, Affordable, and Beautiful!

CAI is now producing a splendid AK74 clone that they have dubbed the M74 Sporter, and I asked our great editor Phil White if I could review one. Let me tell you, we deal with a lot of companies here at The Firearm Blog, but CAI is really on the ball when it comes to reviewing one of their products. A single email sent by Phil to the manufacturer results in a gun at my FFL, with accessories and all kinds of cool ancillary stuff in about 4 or 5 days! To me this speaks well of their organization as far as the administrative side goes, and to me that is an indicator of a good company overall, and there I must give them some serious credit. That being said, I was very excited to have to opportunity to test their AK74.

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The M74 Sporter is built on a surplus excellent Bulgarian parts kit (many hold the Bulgarian kits to be among the best out there) and it just looks great. The original furniture is retained (not sure what parts they used for 922r compliance aside from the trigger group, receiver, and barrel but this gun looks fantastic!) as well as most other components. The gun came with the original muzzle brake and bayonet too, which is just awesome! The Bakelite bayonet really adds some charm and I would love to have one just because I think it looks neat. Also after some reading, the Bulgarian “Circle 10″ magazines seem to be held in high regard by the AK community and they definitely work well in the rifle, as did all other mags tested.

I got to the range on a chilly afternoon and set the target up at 100 yards to get a feel for the accuracy. As usual I shot five groups of five shots.