Milled or stamped AK reciever

joshmb1982

How can you tell if an AK has a milled or stamped receiver? I picked up a Norinco NHM91 and im wondering which it has. Anyone know how to tell?

rufe-snow

Chinese Poly Tech AK receivers, were the only ones that were milled. Here is a photo of one I got off the net. Observe the milled cut-out in side of the billet receiver.

dcs shooters

A milled reciever will be thicker than a stamped one. Like these,
the bottom one is stamped.

Laredo Lefty

The Norinco NHM91 is stamped. There may be some exceptions, but generally the milled receivers have the rectangular recessed area immediately behind the forward wood grip.

beantownshootah

Edit: fixed link there.

Russian guns are stamped, as are the Romanian and Egyptian.

The Israeli Galil rifles (and clones) have milled receivers. Polish and Bulgarian AKs can also have milled receivers.

tsr1965

joshmb1982

You have been given several good examples. Yours appears to be milled.

There ara many manufacturers of both. The Chinese Poly Techs, were made both in stamped, and milled(Poly Tech Legend). The Legend is considered by many, to be the best AK/AKM ever built. The Russians, and Bulgarians, and now Americans, have all built milled recievers. There are too many countries to list, that have made stamped recievers.

Best

TWalker

All NHM 91's that I have seen had stamped receivers. The recivers on these are thicker than those found on most other stamped AK's. 1.5 vs 1.0 mm and the barrel is usally longer and heavier as well. That makes the NHM 91 a sturdier and better shooting AK in my opinion. I like mine as well as my Bulgarian AK with a milled receiver.