Romanian AK or Maadi?

If it is a recent (last few years) Maadi, I would definately go with the Romanian. I have two SAR-1s (probably the Romanians you are looking at) and I like them a lot. They have several advantages over the similar-looking Maadis, including: Better finish (I think the Maadi receivers are painted black), a built-in scope mount (making it easy to install a Russian Cobra red-dot sight or any of the AK scopes), a chrome-lined bore (I don't really know if the Maadis have this), and enough U.S. parts to make it legal to use imported high-cap magazines (with the Maadis, I think you are supposed to installe U.S. floorplates and followers to increase the U.S. parts count and make them legal). Of course, neither of these are especially finely made rifles - I would check them over for straight front sights, etc. But I think you'll like the Romanians.

Doug
 
I had the opportunity to go through a rack of about 12 SAR-1 AKs and about 6 Maadi AKs. The Maadis were consistent in their inferior finish and most important, cockeyed front sights. The SARs seemed of higher quality.
 
I have a Maadi s/a and there is nothing wrong with it. In fact it looked better than any of the SARs I have looked at but I would say go with the SAR. The main reason is the side rail already comes installed on the SAR.
 
My CAI Egytian Maadi AKM was a piece of sh!t. Bad finish, bad wood, canted front sight base. It looked like it was hammered together by blind retarded chimps with stones. But it was only $219 new. You get what you pay for.

Buy the one that looks to be better put together. Watch out for the canted front sight base. It is REALLY annoying!
 
I have a Maadi MISR 90, an SAR-1, and an SAR-2. If you're trying to decide between the MISR series and the SAR series, definitely go with the SAR unless you're planning on tinkering (ie: refinishing, restocking, etc...).

Since both variants are slapped together by Century Arms, you have to watch out for canted sights and gas tubes on both. General consensus says that the SARs are less likely to have these problems, however.
 
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