I'm not hi jacking this post but wonder since I have read about the rifles themselves til my eyes crossed being still unsure about the info absorbed I am putting it here for some possible opinions.
In order of price and quality from lowest to highest what "brand or manufactures" do you owners recommend for use as the OP stated? Thanks
"Arguably", at the top of production rifles are the Russian Izhmash rifles that are converted to military format here in the USA.
These are made to Russian military standards with hard chrome lined bores, but are built in sporting format as "Saiga" rifles.
Once in the USA, the importer converts them to the AK-74 configuration.
These are done under the Arsenal Inc name and under the Izhmash name.
These are made as the SGL-21 in 7.62x39 or the SGL-31 in 5.45x39 under the Izhmash name and under the Arsenal Inc name as the SLR series.
Quality is probably the best in a normal production rifle:
http://www.k-var.com/shop/AK-Rifles/
At the bottom are the Romanian Wasr rifles. These have some history of occasional problems like canted sights or gas blocks and crude finishes on metal and wood, but can make excellent shooters, and the metal and wood can be re-worked to look much better.
These are made in Romania as single stack magazine rifles and converted to double stack mag rifles by the importer.
Quality of the conversion can vary, resulting in excessively wobbly magazines.
These are sold by companies like Century Arms and Aim.
In between are rifles imported from Bulgaria.
Atlantic sells a wide selection of AK rifles of varying levels of quality and price:
http://www.atlanticfirearms.com/
The key point with AK rifles is that they were designed to do two things:
1. Fire each and every time the trigger is pulled.
2. Hit a man in the chest at any range under 300 meters.
Unless defective they'll all do that.
Any AK, even the cheapest can and usually do make totally reliable rifles.
What you get for more money is a higher likelihood the rifle will be reliable, trouble free, more accurate, and a prettier rifle.