WASR-10 = Used surplus or rejected parts that are sent to century arms to be assembled by poorly trained workers. This is evident in badly head spaced rifle with canted front sights and excessive mag wobble due to the rifles being imported as single stack and ground open carelessly.
Yes, you can get a WASR without these issues, but you are in the minority. You are almost guaranteed to get a WASR with at least one of those issues. That being said even drunken monkeys can assemble a functional AK due to sloppy clearances. Functional does not necessarily mean it will function as well as or be as accurate as a higher end AK.
The worst thing about buying a WASR-10 however is that they are a Century arms product that has the worst warranty in the industry. The warrant starts the moment the rifle leaves the factory, not the time you take first ownership of it. So it is not uncommon for the first owner of a WASR-10 to have little to no warranty left once he buys it from a dealer. This leaves you liable to have to fix issues (like canted front sights) that should have been fixed before they left the factory on your own dime. At least a company that cared about quality control or its own reputation would do these things.
However century arms banks on the fact that the majority of its customers who are buying the cheapest AK on the market are not informed enough to know what to look for, do not shoot them enough to figure out the problems and/or just get fed up and sell it.
Lesson learned: Do not buy century armed products, at least not the ones they assemble themselves. IF you must, buy one from a dealer which you can inspect in person and can bring back if there are problem. Also make sure to figure out when the rifle left the factory, do not rely on your dealer telling you it has a 1 year warranty. Do not buy a century product from the used market, because those are often the people trying to ditch a crummy product.
Aside from century arms, you have companies like arsenal.
Arsenal guns like the SGL and SLR series are made from new parts and alot more attention to detail is paid when they are refitted to milspec standards.
The Arsenal guns are also AK100 series rifles while WASR-10s are based on the older AKM pattern. So yes an arsenal may be more expensive, but you are getting a new modern firearm that is good to go, will usually be without any defects and is covered by an actual warranty. A WASR may be cheaper but if you are unlucky enough to get a lemon and have to fix the problems yourself because of an expired warranty then you could end up paying as much to get a lower quality firearm fixed, as you would if you have just bought an arsenal in the first place.
Buy once cry once. Buy Quality the first time and you will not have to worry.
