Thursday, September 17, 2009

Romarms / Century Draco Pistol Review (work in progress)

Ok, it's in. $369.95 shipped from Classic Arms. Included 2 new 30 rd mags, and a cleaning kit.

I found this on www.romarms.com:

That looks like the select fire version with stock on the left side. They call it a submachine gun.

This info is shown also:


To get an idea of how small this is, here's a CD and the run of the mill 30 rd clip next to the pistol.


Note that this is imported by Century, but I don't think they touch it as Romarms is shown as the manufacturer. So, you don't have to worry about how well the kit construction was done.

It's a little curious that there is a Tapco G2 trigger installed. Oh well, a free plus.

Overall for an AK, it looks pretty good. The lacquer on the wood is kind of gummy and the excess can be picked off with a finger. So refinishing should be easy, but it looks pretty good. The woodgrain is attractive.

The thread protector is fairly easily removed with a dremel and file so you can put a flash supressor, fake can, whatever on it. A good flash supressor is IMHO essential from what I've heard unless you like fireballs and a challenge to your hearing protection. (Ironically in Europe I hear 'silencers' (supressors) are cheap and easy to get). One up on us, Jacques. This pistol begs for one, so maybe we should look at repealing that rule.

A pin retains the reverse threaded protector. Lefty tighty righty loosey. Just be careful not to grind too much of the cleaning rod retainer away. It's so close it's nearly unavoidable.

* Click pics for HugeVision(tm) resolutions. *




I tried to show that it looks like everything is pretty well lined up. I see perhaps a little cant on the sights. More like a slight offset really. It feels and looks pretty straight. Appears to be a stainless piston. Top dust cover looks Parkerized. (Cleaning rod not shown.)





Wood looks pretty good. It's kind of a stain with a semi-satin lacquer.



Bluing throughout looks deep, and functional com-bloc quality.



Receiver looks like a decent Parkerization job.



I think the SAW type grips would look better.

Nitpick: The bolt cover rubs the charging handle a little. Just enough to take the bluing off. Oh well, reblue later after it breaks in. Or Park' the bolt.

Summary: Construction is decent, functional to nice with the best part being the pre-installed Tapco G2 trigger. It's smooth. It's a tight pistol with the only rattle being the mag and top cover, and those only a little.

Figure the shipping at $20, mags at $5 each, and this is a $340 weapon. Not bad. I remember paying $199 each for the MAK-90 in the early 90's and that IMHO was a much less attractive and less collectible (back then) firearm. With inflation, and today's political situation, $340 is a fair price.

5 comments:

  1. Strangely, this is cheaper than an AK rifle.

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  2. Ive owned an ak draco for about 6 months. Have put about 500 rounds through it. I like It more every time i shoot it! very loud and alot of muzzle jump, but will never sell it. Ive never had a failure of any kind and the accuracy at about 50 yards is surprisingly good.

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  3. A Draco is more attractive at "first buy" than a MAK 90..?

    What-TF are You Smoking..?!?

    Draco is a POS compared to a MAK 90, with its 1.5mm Receiver, thick barrel and excellent Trigger Group.


    Get a Grip. (pun intended)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ok, old thread, but they are BOTH AK style weapons. Kids in mud huts can build them. AK snobbery is kinda silly. They take abuse, they shoot, they just work. THAT'S the beauty. If you want a piece of machine art, an AK platform isn't the place to start IMHO. It's OK to love the same thing for different reasons, I just have mine. :)

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  4. Not sure what happened to the pics. SIGH. Put it on the very long list of things I'll probably never have time to fix.

    ReplyDelete