Comparison of the CAW and Guarder Wood Stock kits for the AK Series
The plastic stocks for both Walleye’s and my TM AK’s have seen a lot of playing time. The main issue we’ve always had with the AK is the eventual and predictable weakening of the full stock. The seams eventually start to separate and a noticeable fragility sets in. We’ve done the epoxy route, the tape route, the epoxy and tape route, and none seemed to last for long. It became apparent that there was a need to invest in wood stocks. Two different stock sets were ordered for evaluation.
(Photo - Top AK is the Guarder Kit, bottom AK: CAW Kit)
The first was Craft Apple Works’ AK stock set and the second was Guarder’s AK stock set.
I’ll first cover the Craft Apple Works set. The appearance
was very nice and seemed well built. The color of the wood itself was a sort of
golden grain wood…think the color of a 2x4 at the local Home Depot. The color
looked nice but was a little too “bright” for my taste. The main thing it had
going for it was that it was a bit less expensive than the Guarder set.
Installation was not as problem free as it should have been. The forearm needed a bit of dremeling to make it fit properly. The “ears” that fit into the retaining bracket were too large and needed to be shaved down a few centimeters to allow them to slide into place. A second cosmetic and fit issue with the Craft Apple works is the fixed stock itself. The fit to the mounts was very poor and again had to be dremeled out to allow the mounts to slide into place properly. Additionally the holes for the mounting screws had not been drilled, so after fitting the stock into place Walleye had to drill the holes for the screws. This is a relatively minor problem but if you’ve got no one there to lend a hand holding the stock in place with the correct alignment while trying to mark drill holes this can be a bit of a hassle. The channel that the mounting bracket fits into on the stock also had to be dremeled out to allow the stock to be fully seated against the rear of the gun.
Cosmetically the stock looks ok but not really great. The forearm looks a tad too “unfinished” and the stock gives the impression of being a block of wood that was sort of formed into the shape of a gunstock. This is mostly due to CAW’s method of creating the butt-plate. Rather than retain the metal plate used on the Marui stocks CAW has used a wood cap of sorts. This gives the gun a rather ragged, toy like appearance. Though this can be covered using a CQB solutions wrap around sling it still lacks the realistic look essential to these replicas. The wood cap is the same color as the stock itself and so cannot even give the visual impression that it is a recoil pad.
(CAW on the left and Guarder on the right)
A rather major problem presented itself when Walleye
attempted to put the handgrip on. The angle of the grip vs. the motor was
incorrect. The fit left pretty big gap in the fit between the body and the
grip. There was a general shoulder shrug over what seemed to be merely another
cosmetic fault. Upon testing however it was found that the incorrect fit put
too much pressure on the motor and would not allow the gun to function. Not
pleased but undaunted we produced the primary modification tool for Airsoft yet
again…the dremel and went to work on the grip. We shaved off small amounts of
the interior of the grip in an attempt to correct the angle. After spending a
great deal of time and having to remove an alarming amount of wood (the grip is
now very thin on one side) we got a fair looking fit. However the test firing
showed that the motor was still binding from the pressure. From the looks of
the grip it seems that no more can be done to correct the angle on this
particular set. The grip was replaced with the original Marui one, which is very
close in color and actually works.
Additionally after a few months use the area that the
butt-plate screws in to was stripped out and provided a loose fit for the
butt-cap. This problem was fixed by fitting two washers in place with epoxy.
And while it is a minor problem that was easy to fix, entirely too many items
had to be addressed to make this stock set serviceable.
On the whole there were too many problems with the fit and finish of the Craft Apple Works (CAW) wood set to recommend them. The other issues were merely minor annoyances that hurt only the cosmetic appearance, however a grip fit that renders a gun inoperable is an unacceptable quality issue. I can not say that this is an across the board problem with the CAW stock sets however our specific experience with them has convinced us not to replace any further sets using CAW.
The second set of stocks we purchased for testing was the Guarder wood set. The wood color was a nice dark brown and very impressive. The set seemed solidly built and sturdy. All of the furniture seated extremely well. The Guarder furniture needed no modification to seat properly with either the forearm or rear stock. The channel that the butt-stock mounts slide into fit perfectly and the holes for the retaining screws were already tapped so installation was a snap.
The handgrip covering the motor slid right into place and
seated perfectly. There was some concern in light of the experience with the
Craft Apple set but that problem did not appear in this case. The firing test
showed no binding at all and a good cosmetic fit to boot.
The Guarder fixed stock uses the stock plate from the
original Marui stocks and has a washer to allow it to be screwed into place.
The only problem we had with the Guarder set was that the washer is loose in the
fitting and will fall out. It was nearly impossible to keep the washer in place
while fitting the stock plate on and would be a huge pain in the field. A
healthy dose of epoxy seemed to be in order. So epoxy was put in the channel
where the washer sits and then to ensure that the washer would bond in the
correct place the stock plate was put into place and screwed down in the correct
position. This was allowed to dry overnight and when the stock plate was
removed the next day the washer was firmly epoxied in place. Be sure you don’t
go overboard with your adhesive application it would be extremely bad to glue
the butt plate permanently in place! The elimination of this single loose piece
was the most work we had to do on the Guarder set.
No matter which kit you decide on consider adding a
screwdriver to your kit since both butt-plates are held in place using screws.
The CAW is held in place with two screws while the guarder is held in place with
one.
Both sets have held up well. The wood on both sets appears to be pine and is therefore not as resistant to dents as it might be. However in both cosmetics and craftsmanship the Guarder stock set is superior. Spending a few dollars more on the Guarder set is, in my opinion, well worth the money. The ease of installation and quality fit of key components makes this set stand out from the CAW AK wood set. The CAW stocks are sturdy and do their job but their quality is much lower. After almost a year of use the CAW set has been discarded and replaced with a Guarder wood kit.