I.O. Inc AK any good?

[TeamStone]

I stopped in a local place today to see if their shelves were as bare as everyone else's in the area.

They had an I.O. AK-47 with Tapco furniture (including folding stock) at what would seem to be a an OK price by recent standards.

Any input on whether this company is any good? Google found a few threads on other sites with a mixture of comments between awful and excellent.

This has probably been discussed here before, but terms like "i.o.", "ioi", etc. are too short for the forum search function to work.

I'm new to the AK business -- my current evil black rifles are ARs. Any input on IO or their products would be appreciated.

--
Jeff

[kilgore]

Hey TeamStone,
There are those here that have far more knowledge and experience with AKs than me, but when I bought my first AK, a Wasr, a few months ago, I had the choice of an IO or a Wasr10. The IO felt flimsy and the rear sight base was moderately canted.The Wasr wasn't perfect, but IMO, it was better than the IO. This was my experience with IO. Happy hunting.

[JFSanders]

I have one. Just passed 2000 rounds down range with one FTF. Put the light strike back in the next mag and it went bang. Works with metal and non metal magazines. Like the forend. The folder is a bit weak. But I don't plan on using it for a hammer. No chrome in the barrel and it is from Mossberg. Shoots just like a battle rifle should. Sights were properly placed on mine. YMMV. Sling works ok. Needed to make the butt end fit the folder so that it was the right length for me to do Gabe's way of transition to hand gun.

Jim

[Kafr]

This question gets asked every week. I would use the search function on the forum to look up past reviews and opinions of their AK builds.

[GlockTower]

Originally Posted by Kafr

This question gets asked every week. I would use the search function on the forum to look up past reviews and opinions of their AK builds.

As he pointed out in his original post- You can't search for phrases like "io inc." because the forum doesn't allow search phrases that short.

[Dizzy]

Here's a nice long thread discussing the IOI Ak-47.

http://www.xdtalk.com/forums/ak-47-t...e-ak-47-a.html

I think it'll answer most of your questions. I've never had any problems with mine. It shoots every time and on target.

[TeamStone]

Based on the input here I think an IO Inc. AK would have been acceptable. I still haven't decided if I like that Galil-style forearm or not, but it could have been replaced.

In the end I got something different though.

Thanks all.

[Jim Fuller]

I just had the chance to go through 6-7 of these guns and the quailty is all over the place. some were ok, some needed a lot of work. For the price they are not bad but you need to look at them closely before buying.
Honestly I would buy a WASR first

[TeamStone]

Thanks Jim.

You'd think a small company like I.O. could put out a consistent product (whether consistently good or consistently bad).

I ended up buying a used Century M70. Obviously there is a lot of negative opinion on Century out there, but this one seemed solid (the best of several that I have handled over the past 2 weeks) and I decided to go for an underfolder this time around.

Now I want to get back to my original plan of finding 2 Saigas and sending them one at a time to you for conversion. I sent you email on the conversion topic just a few days ago. Hopefully you'll eventually get a chance to catch up on your email. Maybe after the 2012 election... :-)

--
Jeff

[lilc]

Originally Posted by TeamStone

...You'd think a small company like I.O. could put out a consistent product (whether consistently good or consistently bad). I ended up buying a used Century M70. Obviously there is a lot of negative opinion on Century out there, but this one seemed solid (the best of several that I have handled over the past 2 weeks) and I decided to go for an underfolder this time around...

Jeff, I have four Century Yugo M70AB2s, and they all shoot like champs. That was the rifle I took with me to KRG/AKRG at last fall's Red October training event in Prescott, and it did not disappoint me, running flawlessly through four busy days. (The only issue was a loose rear sling swivel caused by the use of a thin-tapped SKS sling for the first two days, which Jim fixed in about 60 seconds on the tailgate of his truck -- gotta love master Kalashnikov armorers!) Mine have been consistently accurate shooters as AKs go. For whatever reason, it seems there was a lot less variability in quality and a lot fewer problems in Century's Yugos when they were putting them together than you would expect in a typical batch of Romanian WASRs. I think you'll like your new rifle.

My local shop currently has an M70 and an IO sitting side by side on the shelf; even though this particular IO looks pretty straight and feels pretty smooth, for nearly the same price, upon comparison I favor the Yugo.