I.O. Inc., opinions?

[Remek 771]

I have been eyeing a few of these rifles. Obviously they aren't available at the moment, and likely the price won't be down where I will pay for another year, but I was wondering what anyone thinks of these rifles? Are they ammo-tolerant, or is it as they say with milled receivers? If you own one, which, and any details you might give would be appreciated! If you want to know the exact one(s) I am considering, the Hellhound Tactical and Sporter Wood both are under consideration. I guess I am leaning toward the Sporter Wood more, then plan to reconvert my Saiga to a more tactical rifle. I like the classic look, if you haven't figured that out yet.

[mancat 2,368]

IO has had a lot of stories of horrible quality builds, mixed in with OK builds, a nice one here and there. In my opinion I wouldn't buy any of their products without close personal inspection. They're not a company I would order from sight-unseen.

 

I haven't seen a nice IO rifle myself in person, and I've looked at a few. Usual problems are inconsistent finish, canted barrel components, poor riveting, and rusted parts. One of the ones I saw was just inexcusable - rust spots all over the place inside and out. It was a newly received shipment at the store I visit; it wasn't a rifle that had sat on the rack for years.

 

Some people have ones that were put together on a good day that are on par with any other US-made parts kit rifle.

 

They also have been dishonest in the past.. As an example, they claim to have purchased Polish manufacturing equipment to make certain parts new. They also have imported several Polish rifles, including the Beryl/Archer (the Archer IS fully Polish-made other than crappy IO-made 922r parts) and a generic Polish-made AKM barreled receiver about a year back. In the case of the barreled receiver AKM, it was found that the only parts that were imported Polish were the receiver and barrel. The rest were mismatched Romanian parts. Their other rifles are mostly Romanian parts as well.

 

Google around.. There are all sorts of great stories attached to IO.

[Remek 771]

Good thats the kind of info I want.

 

I have googled, but its hard to trust random reviewers, so I wanted to ask here. Not that i know everyone here, but I think I get a better sense of the people than joe blow out there.

[mancat 2,368]

they used to have a hilarious video tour of their "factory" on youtube, but it got so much negative attention and laughs that they took it down. it's a funny 5 minutes if you can still find it somewhere.

 

highlights include people in the background hammering, grinding, and drilling on rifles, not a drill press or hydraulic press in sight, and a crackhead lady gluing buttstocks together. their factory looked like a leased garage or storage space, not a firearms manufacturing facility.

 

people joke about century, but even century runs a real workshop for their in-house stuff that's not contracted out.

[Run and Gun 25]

I picked up a IO Ak-47 sporter w/synthetic stock a few years ago. It shot great until I noticed the rear receiver block rivet broke after about 400 rounds. I returned it under warranty and for some reason they sent me a whole new rifle. The new rifle did have some minor rust where the gas tube mounts to the barrel and the front sight was slightly canted. After shooting it I quickly found out the trigger wasn't resetting consistently. I found that the pistol grip was rubbing the trigger not letting it reset. I fixed it and the other issues mentioned. Now it is a great rifle and I shoot the hell out of it. It has not jammed since I got it, every ammo I have tried has been 100% reliable in it. I'm happy with it. Like others have said, definitely try to inspect their rifles closely before purchasing one.

[Remek 771]

Thanks! I appreciate hearing your experience and advice.

[dubya 198]

Saiga!

 

That Polish Beryl does look interesting, and they're milled as opposed to stamped if that matters. I didn't know IO imported them though. I've heard so so reviews on the IO weapons but have a mag that reviews a few different brands of AK's and the IO Hellhound got good reviews. I'll dig through my enormous pile of gun mags and look for it. Doesn't really matter anyway, gun mag editors are usually as honest as a politician.

Edited March 9, 2013 by dubya

[mancat 2,368]

The Beryl is not milled. If you think it is then you've been looking at something else.

 

IO Archer Beryl - civilian-legal Beryl imported from Radom:

"Real" Beryl:

Edited March 9, 2013 by mancat

[dubya 198]

How many variations are there? I was watching some gun show on sportsman channel and it was showing a polish beryl and im almost positive they said it was milled as well as a new design. Maybe it was like the Beryl? Idk but it was polish and milled.

[VR762Shooter 838]

I read up on these because there is one at the LGS for $1100, from what I have read all over the web they're pretty bad. Some people get good ones but most seem to have issues. This is strictly a my experience reading others experience review, and means zilch since most people only report about items when they have a bad time. But take it for what its worth, a lot of people complain

[Pete Le Hachoir 16]

How many variations are there? I was watching some gun show on sportsman channel and it was showing a polish beryl and im almost positive they said it was milled as well as a new design. Maybe it was like the Beryl? Idk but it was polish and milled.

 

A few variations, but no milled.

 

Poland made milled AK47 rifles, but not milled Beryl's.

Edited March 10, 2013 by Pete Le Hachoir

[mancat 2,368]

I read up on these because there is one at the LGS for $1100, from what I have read all over the web they're pretty bad. Some people get good ones but most seem to have issues. This is strictly a my experience reading others experience review, and means zilch since most people only report about items when they have a bad time. But take it for what its worth, a lot of people complain

 

[patriot 7,197]

I picked up a IO Ak-47 sporter w/synthetic stock a few years ago. It shot great until I noticed the rear receiver block rivet broke after about 400 rounds. I returned it under warranty and for some reason they sent me a whole new rifle. The new rifle did have some minor rust where the gas tube mounts to the barrel and the front sight was slightly canted. After shooting it I quickly found out the trigger wasn't resetting consistently. I found that the pistol grip was rubbing the trigger not letting it reset. I fixed it and the other issues mentioned. Now it is a great rifle and I shoot the hell out of it. It has not jammed since I got it, every ammo I have tried has been 100% reliable in it. I'm happy with it. Like others have said, definitely try to inspect their rifles closely before purchasing one.

 

Not to jack the thread, but I love the avatar! I've got a 2010 Camaro SS, and the model goes very well with the SGM car.

[Run and Gun 25]

I picked up a IO Ak-47 sporter w/synthetic stock a few years ago. It shot great until I noticed the rear receiver block rivet broke after about 400 rounds. I returned it under warranty and for some reason they sent me a whole new rifle. The new rifle did have some minor rust where the gas tube mounts to the barrel and the front sight was slightly canted. After shooting it I quickly found out the trigger wasn't resetting consistently. I found that the pistol grip was rubbing the trigger not letting it reset. I fixed it and the other issues mentioned. Now it is a great rifle and I shoot the hell out of it. It has not jammed since I got it, every ammo I have tried has been 100% reliable in it. I'm happy with it. Like others have said, definitely try to inspect their rifles closely before purchasing one.

 

Not to jack the thread, but I love the avatar! I've got a 2010 Camaro SS, and the model goes very well with the SGM car.

Thanks, that's my wife and my car. I love them both!

[VR762Shooter 838]

I read up on these because there is one at the LGS for $1100, from what I have read all over the web they're pretty bad. Some people get good ones but most seem to have issues. This is strictly a my experience reading others experience review, and means zilch since most people only report about items when they have a bad time. But take it for what its worth, a lot of people complain

 

 

I was talking the I.O. manufactured 47's. We can't even get Archers here, based on that review I wish we could. That's a nice lil import

[mancat 2,368]

oh I misunderstood. that's too bad.

[Constantine 2]

I'm a long time lurker here that decided to finally activate an account so I could respond to this thread. Personally I couldn't be more satisfied with my I.O. Granted, I got it slightly used and with a few cosmetic upgrades, but thus far I have no complaints.

 

I've taken it to shoot twice now. The previous owner said he put 3 to 4 hundred rouds through it and I've added another 105 since then. I surprised myself with the consistancy of my accuracy on the targets at 40 and 50 yards. I'm a shooter that probably should wear glasses at those distances but I didn't have them. At one hundred yards we were hitting bowling pins and clay pigeons. This was all with a cheap BSA red dot.

 

I've only had one misfeed in my 105 rouds, and all I had to do to fix it was charge the handle. I'm not sure if 1 failure to feed is bad for 105 rounds through a not yet broken in AK, but it could have just as honestly been the ammo tbh.

 

 

It seems like most of the complaints about IO come from people who have never fired one and are repeating negative things they've heard about when the company assembled guns from foriegn parts. Initially they imported and modified WASRs and 30% of the parts were unusable, as well as numerous problems reported with the rifles that made it to circulation. I believe these are the STG-2000 rifles.

 

The newer line they produce are are the AK47c rifles, supposedly machined in the United States and manufactured and assembled based off Polish blueprints. Polish AKs are reportedly some of the better designed/manufactured AKs that have been made. They claim to have gone as far as to hire someone from the Polish factory to oversee their manufacturing process. I'm not sure how much of this is true, but to their credit they seem to stand behind their products by replacing damaged units and respectfully intervening in conversations which are critical of them.

 

 

In short, I have an IO that I'm very happy with. If you're buying an IO look to see which model it is. Mine says AK47c on the underside of the reciever, just behind the hand guard and in front of where the magazine is held in.

Edited March 28, 2013 by Constantine

[mancat 2,368]

There were two series of the STG-200x rifles. The first STG-2000 and STG-2003 were Romanian-made, imported rifles - basically modified WASRs that were very similar to the later M10 series. The STG-2000 was 7.62x39, the STG-2003 was 5.56.

 

IO later started building these in-house from their own parts, and called them the STG-2000c. You can tell the two apart by the receiver: the Romanian-made models never had receiver dimples, while the IO-made ones did. IO also never made any in-house STG-2003 variant in 5.56 - those were Romanian-only.

 

IO keeps saying that they bought Polish tooling, but judging from the videos they used to have posted on Youtube that showed a tour of their "factory," I never saw any evidence of any machining or forging going on. Just a garage-looking shop with a lot of parts bins, bench grinders, and people hammering away. My personal belief is that they're simply importing parts from Poland and calling them made in the US.

 

As I mentioned earlier, the video tour of their shop got so much negative attention that they pulled it. Not sure where you can find it now.

[Constantine 2]

IO keeps saying that they bought Polish tooling, but judging from the videos they used to have posted on Youtube that showed a tour of their "factory," I never saw any evidence of any machining or forging going on. Just a garage-looking shop with a lot of parts bins, bench grinders, and people hammering away. My personal belief is that they're simply importing parts from Poland and calling them made in the US.

 

As I mentioned earlier, the video tour of their shop got so much negative attention that they pulled it. Not sure where you can find it now.

 

I haven't seen the claim that they bought Polish tooling. I'm not saying they haven't made it, but what I've read is that they invested heavily in tooling (non specified origin) and are now making rifles based off of the Polish blueprints with an experienced supervisor from the Polish factory overseeing the process. I have an AK47c as indicated on the receiver just in front of the magwell, and I'm very happy with it... I believe that the AK47c line may be the US manufactured rifles while the older STG200X rifles are the cannabalized WASRs.

 

Admittedly I'm not sure that all of the above is the case, but piecing together statements by the company and statements by members of other forums, I think this is what's going on. It would explain the wide variance in reports of the quality of IO rifles, and if it's accurate it might make IO rifles one of the more underrated AKs on the market right now.

 

I would be interested to see those factory vids if someone can find them.

[joebanda1213 59]

Iraqveteran8888 from youtube has said they have rceived rifles that when pulled from th the box or shelf rivets would fall out on the floor.

[Jpanzer 1,265]

I believe IO bought Polish blueprints, not tooling. I know they sell Polish AK flats and import the Beyrl and I believe Polish krink pistols...

[Constantine 2]

Iraqveteran8888 from youtube has said they have rceived rifles that when pulled from th the box or shelf rivets would fall out on the floor.

Ask him whether they are the 2000 line or the 47c line.

[MT Predator 2,294]

Here is a Polish Special Forces Beryl in Afghanistan.

 

[Run and Gun 25]

Iraqveteran8888 from youtube has said they have rceived rifles that when pulled from th the box or shelf rivets would fall out on the floor.

Ask him whether they are the 2000 line or the 47c line.

Are you referring to the IO Ak-47 Casar model? I'm on my 2nd one after sending the first back for a broken rivet . My second rifle has also had some issues I've had to work through also.