Century Arms Zastava AK Pistol – Before You Buy [Review]

How many times have you been to the gun shop and considered purchasing an Ak pistol? Probably more than once if you’re checking out this review. There’s a lot of questions you need to ask yourself before you pull the trigger here. Hopefully we can help you answer some of them.

Let’s get straight into the Century Arms Zastava AK Pistol.

Who needs an AK Pistol anyway?

Ak Pistol Zastava Century Arms

Here we are again. As a consumer, one of the first questions you ask yourself before a purchase is “Do I need this?” The answer to this question is going to be different for everyone, but you just might need one of these. Allow me to explain.

Rifle caliber pistols are a truly niche market. Simply put, they just aren’t for everyone. They’re a ton of fun to shoot, but not incredibly practical in all situations. There’s a lot you can get done if you just drop that money instead on a full size rifle, but here’s why you might need an AR or AK Pistol.

If you’re the kind of person who envisions a scenario where you may need to bug-out or in, you might need one. People looking for a rifle caliber pistol they can use as a truck or home defense weapon also might need one. If you’re the kind of person who has extra cash and just enjoys going out to the range to shoot fun firearms, then you too, also might need one.

The niche is small, and if you think that you fit into that niche audience for people who may need a rifle caliber AR or AK Pistol, then let’s take a look at one together.

Meet the Century Arms Zastava AK Pistol.

Zastava AK Pistol

Let me preface this section with this, if you manage to find a Century Arms Zastava AK Pistol for a decent price, we suggest snatching it up immediately. These things are hard to find right now, and well worth every dollar you’ll spend on them.

The Century Arms Zastava Ak Pistol is a Serbian made Kalashnikov style pistol that accepts standard 5.56mm magazines. It comes loaded to bear with a ton of cool features, and is a heck of a lot of fun to shoot even if you’re not in the niche market where you need one.

If however, you are in the niche market of people who want an AR or AK Pistol, then this is a gun you definitely want to check out. It’s perfect as a truck gun, or a bug-out/in bag firearm as well.

You can see a full video review from MrGunsNGear below.

Features of the Zastava AK Pistol.

Kalashnikov style weapons are simple by design. In fact, the simplicity of the Kalashnikov is what has made it one of the most widely used weapon systems in the world. Keeping that in mind, the Serbian made Zastava from Century Arms is anything but light on features.

One of the best features of the Zastava is the fact that out of the box, this thing takes standard AR magazines. For anyone experienced with 5.56mm Kalashnikovs, you know this is a God-send. Finding 5.56mm magazines in the AK style is difficult. When I say difficult, I mean trying to find polymer magazines at MSRP in 2012 difficult. Thankfully, that’s not an issue with this weapon. It will take standard magazines from your other AR platform rifles with no drama whatsoever.

Stock, this thing also comes with a Krinkov style muzzle brake. The muzzle brake actually acts kind of the opposite way you would expect. It increases the recoil of the weapon system, forcing the action back with more gas, ensuring that you’re not going to run into any issues with the weapon failing to function on you. For us, this thing was perfect, but if it’s not something you like then try changing it out. We didn’t have any personal issues with it.

Another cool feature on the Zastava is the hinged Krinkov style dust cover. If you’re not running an optic at all, this is a major improvement for the rear sight aperture over the traditional Kalashnikov style.

By far and away, the worst feature on this weapon system is trying to find one right now. Here’s a video from MrGunsNGear explaining the situation with Century Arms and importing more of these awesome little Ak Pistols.

Specifications of the Zastava AK Pistol.

  • Caliber: 5.56x45mm
  • Action: Semi-automatic
  • Capacity: 30+1
  • Barrel length: 10″
  • Frame: Steel
  • Grips: Black synthetic pistol grip
  • Sights: Adjustable Krinkov style
  • Overall length: 19.7″
  • Overall weight: 6.4 lbs.

The Zastava on the Range.

Without a shadow of doubt, the Zastava is a monster on the range. We ran regular 5.56 ball ammunition through it out to 100 meters. For an optic, we had an Aimpoint Micro T1 mounted to the forend. Only one of our shooters had a considerable amount of experience with the Kalishnikov, but none of our shooters had any significant problems running the pistol.

The cool thing about this Ak Pistol is the fact that it uses standard AR style magazines. After running several types of standard GI mags through the weapon, we found that it preferred the traditional aluminum case mags to polymer mags. That’s not to say that the polymer mags did not run in the weapon, they’re just sized slightly bulkier which makes stripping the magazine during reloads a little bit more difficult. With the standard aluminum mags, we had no issues stripping and loading fresh magazines. Something to keep in mind if you’re about to purchase one of these.

If you’re looking for a 5.56 style Kalashnikov, but don’t want to worry about finding the ultra rare 5.56 Kalishnikov magazines, then this weapon system pretty much a must have in my book.

Final thoughts on the Century Arms Zastava AK Pistol.

AK Pistol Zastava Side by Side

Whoa buddy, let me tell you something. This thing is fun as all heck to shoot out on the range. They’re definitely hard to find in the current market, but if you can manage to get your hands on one of these Ak pistols, we recommend it. This weapon system has turned me onto the AK platform. The fact that they are fully interchangeable with the magazines we already have stacks of is a huge win to.

That’s just our opinion though. We’d love to hear from some other more experienced Zastava shooters down in the comments. If you have had any negative experiences with this weapon, please feel free to leave your thoughts down in the comments.

1 thought on “Century Arms Zastava AK Pistol – Before You Buy [Review]”

  1. I bought Zastava zap M70 Ak style rifel. I bought two months ago. Last week I took it for target 🎯 shooting. It hit the target more than 350 yards with real accuracy. I got my shoots group about three inches. In my opinion this rifel is more than worth. I loved it.

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