Made in Romania, the 9mm WASR-M is billed as a "PCC competition ready" and, while we aren't sure about that, we did find it to be an incredibly fun little Kalashnikov variant.
Introduced by Century Arms a few years ago, the WASR-M, like its standard WASR (Wassenaar Arrangement Semi-automatic Rifle) older brothers, are all essentially semi-auto variants of the Cugir Arms Factory's PM md. 63/65 series AKMs, licensed Kalashs that the Romanians made by the hundreds of thousands over the past half-century. The significant difference in the WASR-M variant is that, instead of being a gas-piston operated rifle chambered in 7.62x39, it is a direct-blowback-action pistol-caliber carbine chambered in 9mm NATO.
WASRs have been popular on the U.S. import market for years, and Century made them 922R-compliant by adding furniture, mags, pistons, and triggers. Heck, when renting an AK for a class at Gunsite, the only in-house choice is a WASR. It's a budget answer to more spendy Arsenals or Zastavas still made by folks who understand Kalashnikovs. Century has splashed in such 9mm water with Cugir before, having marketed first the Draco NAK-9 pistol and the newly announced Draco 9S in recent years.
While the Dracos are fun, for those wanting a full-sized stock and barrel are left out of the party, which brings us to the WASR-M.
Review Contents
A Closer Look
Featuring a 16.25-inch cold-hammer-forged barrel with a threaded (1/2x28 TPI RH) muzzle and slant brake, the WASR-M runs 35.5 inches in overall length, putting it about as long as a Ruger Mini-14. In its synthetic stocked version, the length of pull is 14 inches, known in the West as the "NATO" LOP as it is longer than the more traditional 12.75-inch Warsaw Pact standard for AKs.
The WASR-M is set up to feed from the gold-standard for 9mm double-stack magazines these days – those with the Glock pattern. It ships with a single 33-round KCI G18-style mag made in South Korea. We found it to accept, and thrive on, 15-, 17-, and 19-round Glock OEM mags without issue. More on this later.
As it is a blowback AK, the WASR-M is missing a few things from a normal Kalash, namely a gas piston, although it still uses the same upper handguard and gas tube.
The WASR-M includes super basic black plastic furniture that is compatible with any standard AKM pattern stocks, hand guards, and pistol grips, meaning you can swap this up on the fly for just about anything you want that isn't Chinese or Yugo.
How Does It Shoot?
We loaded up the WASR-M with a bunch of Wolf ammo that has been in the gun safe since 2003 – we found the receipt with the case. Now, this isn't the brass Wolf, but the good old green lacquered steel-cased stuff with the red seal around the primer and bullet.
We found the gun to run well with this bargain basement stuff as long as you used the right magazine. For instance, we found the included KCI mag to eat the stuff up and tick along with the gun, no problem:
Also, using OEM Glock-branded magazines, it worked fine:
However, we also used some unbranded $14 "Asian Military" manufactured 32-rounders that seated but jammed on about every other round both with Wolf and with some nice modern brass-cased American-made ammo. Invariably, the jam would be a failure to feed with the new round jamming up to the top of the bolt carrier at about a 45-degree angle. That goof reel below:
In all, we ran most of a 500-round case of Wolf through the WASR-M with only one malfunction using Glock OEM mags, three with the KCI mag, and too many to count with the unnamed "Asian Military" mags. Almost all issues were failures to feed. We also ran a mix of about 120 rounds of assorted Winchester, Federal, and Speer 9mm loads with zero issues. Be advised that, true to form, this AK variant does not have a bolt hold open feature.
We did not fire the WASR-M from a bench, bag, or tripod but found accuracy on a thoracic target placed at 25 yards to be more than acceptable, with the rifle able to zap well inside the 9x12 "gumdrop" round after round without a doubt while in a standing position.
Pros and Cons
A quick hit on the pros and cons of the WASR-M is easy.
Pros:
- The gun has an MSRP of something like $900 but we have it on sale for $499.
- It has standard AK-style surface controls and takes a standard AK trigger pack.
- It is made in Romania and WASRs, while rough compared to say a Saiga or VEPR, have a good reputation.
- The furniture can easily be swapped out.
- It uses one of the most common 9mm magazine patterns available.
Cons:
- At almost 8 pounds sans ammo, optics, or a sling, it is heavy for a PCC.
- The furniture feels cheap and is very slick, lacking texture.
- We found it to run some magazines but not all, so be sure to evaluate it before heading to a competition or using it for defensive purposes.
- The sights, while functional, are hard to see.
Closing Thoughts
The WASR-M is a neat design that allows the user to run it from commonly found Glock mags and bottom shelf 9mm ammo, one of the rounds that was among the most readily available even in the darkest days of the most recent ammo shortage. Easier on the pocket than, say an MP5 clone or a CZ EVO Scorpion, it is also an easy platform for any AK fan to pick up and enjoy a day at the range, especially if they already have a Glock 9mm.
All this in a platform that can be readily modded and rebuilt for competition use. Plus, the WASR-M can be used on just about any indoor range, whereas 7.62x39, especially with steel-cased ammo, often gets turned away.
Toss a top rail and a red dot on it, get some OEM Glock 33-rounders, and have a blast.
