I'm a fan of the AK platform and when I first got started I had lots of questions too. Whatever you do please do not dump you're hard earned $ into a RAS-47 of any kind. Same goes for any of the Century milled receiver builds. Just stay away.

While there are some good american made builds starting to hit the market, the rule of thumb in he AK world that still stands is buy a former combloc production AK. At the same price point you can have an overbuilt Yugo (Zastava). The main drawback to the Yugo AK's is that they are not standard AKM pattern AK's like the Russian Saiga's, Romanian WASR's, and Polish Radoms, Bulgarians, and others meaning mostly that the furniture is specific to the Yugos and will not interchange with the others. All my AK's are former combloc production, and my Yugo Zastavas are my favorites. For what it's worth I'd even take a Romainian WASR over a RAS-47. Don't let the Magpul Goodies fool you on the RAS-47, the build quality is nowhere near what a traditional AK build is meant to be. The only Century products you should consider are the ones they import, period. Lastly, also stay away from anything IO. The best AK's overall IMHO right now are any of the DDI AK's. They cost a bit more than the Zastavas but they are top shelf AK's without the Arsenal price tag.