well they are generally known as AK47s, to be correct the stamped reciever ones are AKM's , not AK47's , some of the select fire arent technically AK47's or AKMs, the east german ones with a folding stock in 7.62X39 are MPiKMs 72's, several diff names for korean/chinese/etc, but they are all kalashnikovs i guess, all designed by kalashnikov . but call what ya want matters none to me, i understand what ya mean ....
i wouldnt worry about the wood on one, if ya dont like ya can put on diff stock sets very easy, and they are fairly cheap too, most of them anyway ($30 to $150 or so for russian laminate) or ya could get a folder too (ie east german side folders about $80, romanian $50)
the gun in the pic above looks to me to have the stamped rec'r FWIW.
if ya want a AK to shoot, the romanian SAR's are good, or the WASR's are supposed to be good too, i have no first hand experience with the WASR though, for me it would have to be pretty cool nad be preban to be worth much over $500 or so, FWIW i have seen a lot of pretty nice ones for sale on gunsnet.net AK forums for $400 to $700 that individuals have refinished/installed new wood/flash hiders and comps/trigger groups/etc, darned nice ones imho. saw a '74 with a russian side folder, fake suppressor, looked just like bin ladins, the guy guaranteed it to work flawlessly, he wanted $900 IIRC, a deal if ya want a krinkov. the SARs and other romanian ones have the side rail for optics which i really like, i put a b-square mount and an old aimpoint on my '74 and really like it, with out the rail its kinda hard to put a scope on them, oh ya acn it just looks jerry rigged to me, the new ones that mount on the upper handguard are the best, IIRC, still dont like the looks though, the saddle mounts which fit over the rec'r are funky imho, how do ya clean the thing with the saddle mount on it lol, just wouldnt work well i dont think, of course many wouldnt put optics on one anyway, i do like the one on mine though a lot FWIW.
AKs are lots of fun imho because ya can add items to personalize the thing, lots of parts available, all pretty cheap really, esp compared to an AR15 let me tell ya, i got sticker shock buying mounts/etc for my AR after a few yrs of buying for the AKs i have, the AR stuff is high $$ compared to the AK stuff. but just neat guns to buy and modify to were it suits ya, the forum on gunsnet is the best i have found for AKs, i have bought a lot of stuff from folks posting on the boards there, all with no problem, they seem to be good people from my experience, a real friendly board similar to BF imho. also some of those guys can ID a AK from pics/etc, some really obscure ones too like north korean/etc, they really know the AK on that site imho, ,lo ts of good info available on that board.
folks say AK's arent very accurate but i have shot mine lots at 300 yards at an 18" plate and hit 8 outta 10 times fairly easy, with iron sights, cant do much better with my colt lightweight sporter FWIW, not without a scope, myself anyway. some think ya cant hit a barn at 300 yards with any AK, not correct, they will suprise ya, mine did anyway.
the 5.45X39 '74 is a good round, lots easier to find ammo now than a few yrs ago, ya used to not be able to find any HP ammo (required at some ranges i go to) but not a prob any more, a unique round though, if i had just 1 i would want 7.62X39 not 5.45X39 myself, but nothing wrong with the 5.45, for the what i use it for anyway, i got 2 cases of ammo with my '74 when i got it so ammo hasnt ever been a problem for me lol.
love my maahdi AKM and my AK74, great rifles for the $$, more accurate than ya will believe, and jam proof imho, in several thousand rounds niether of mine has ever had a problem.
aparently there one of the best ak47s that you can get 
if all works out well and i can get people to donate because of my birthday ill have her in the morning.
i fired and all i could see was a cloud of blue fibers. all in all i made out pretty good, i found several boxes of unopened ammo setting at the bench that somebody left behind on accident and can of muzzle loader caps that somebody droped (really needed those)
ill probably never do it but for the price i can try.
