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Posted: 10/28/2010 3:57:22 PM EDT
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Hi Everyone,
I bought a Romanian AK from a friend that was built on a NODAK receiver. I don't know who built it, but I bought it from a friend knowing it had feeding problems. When you load a mag with FMJ rounds sometimes it will chamber a round and fire 3 or 4 times and then the next round will hit the bottom of the barrel edge/lip. With any type of hollow point ammo it won't chamber a round. I'm not a gunsmith, but wanted to know if anyone could help me diagnose the problem from the pics below. Is this something a normal Joe can fix? Or do I need to send it to a pro? I live in the Nashville, TN area. Is there anyone competent to repair this? Thanks for your help! Kirk Thank you to everyone for your help. Here are some additional pics to see from some of your suggestions. 
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The best competent AK smith within a reasonable distance to you is near Sevierville.
http://www.inrangec2.com/ |
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Quoted:
I've tried about three different mags. If you look closely at some of the FMJ rounds, they have a flat spot on them. :( Quoted:
How many different mags have you tried? I am wondering if the hag spring is weak. Were all the mags from the trade? Or are they from another source? I am just trying to keep it simple... |
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All you need to do is polish those ramps (where the round first comes out of the mag ans at the chamber face) with a dremel and buffing compound untill they are mirror smooth. I did this on my brothers WASR which would jamb HP's once in a while. He hasn't had one misfeed since.
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Perhaps it is missing the Safety Stop and the Mag catch is holding the back end of the mag high resulting in the incorrect angle for the rounds to feed.
If you don't know what I am referring to Take a picture of the underside if you AK near the magwell looking at the Magazine Catch. We can tell you. Or if you have no safety stop then your safety lever can be pushed low past your receiver that will answer that. Should look like this... between that Magazine catch Assembly and the receiver. 
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| The mag is sitting too low in the mag well, check the backside of the mag near the mag latch, it may be needing a little trimming. If you cannot see daylight between the back of the mag and the receiver opening/safety stop floorplate then it is probably binding and not seating flush. Also check to see if floorplate is notched for the mag tab, many of the newly manufactured ones are not recessed and do not have that machining operation completed before installation. |
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I just loaded a mag into my NHM-90 and hand cycle the rounds through. I also unlatched the mag and dropped it down a little to see if the angle made any difference and it didn't (this is with the bolt carrier removed and cycling the rounds by fingertip). In your pics you can see the front lip of the mag is just below the "feed ramp", which is right where it is on mine. The rounds I was hand cycling through were feeding just like you show in your pics, they were hitting the lower lip of the chamber and feeding in. I really think you should try to polish those 2 areas first (especially at the mouth of the chamber but not so much that you're altering the chamber, you just want to polish that lip so its mirror smooth) and go from there if that doesn't fix the problem.
I think if there was a problem with the mag latch being too short and dropping the rear of the mag lower than it should, that would cause the rounds to actually be angled up and into the chamber. |
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You need to dremel in a feed ramp into your chamber. Basically grind down and polish a feed ramp from the 8 oclock to 4 oclock positions. many AK's come with this feed ramp in them as part of the manufacturing process.
Here is an example of one that was home made by a Saiga converter. The Saiga converter in this case took the dremel'ing too far because he has no bullet guide at all. But you can look at this picture to get a general idea. 
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| I dissagree it looks and sounds like a selector stop issues, what thickness is the reciever 1mm or 1.6, as I have seen 1.6mm recievers have issues w/ a standard selector stop installed in it... lancaster had this issues a few yrs back they were useing the selector stops from kits on armory 1.6mm recievers and they had the issue you are haveing. |
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OP, look at picture #4. See the copper scuff marks where the bullet tips are hitting at the bottom edge of the chamber-mouth?
Polish that area with a Dremel, felt wheel, and polishing compound. Like the others said. Start by bringing that area to a mirror shine first. Then see if this helps / solves your problem, before grinding in a ramp. You may not need such extreme measures, and don't want to risk damaging your chamber if it's not necessary. One of my AKs had this problem, but with hollow point only. Polishing did the trick, and I've had no problems since. It's a much easier fix than some of the other suggestions and might just work. If not, then go to plan "B". |
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Looks as though the front of your mag is sitting too low. Can you rock the front of the mag when it is locked in place? The barrel trunnion may not be riveted in square to the reciever. The barrel may be pointing down at an angle. I have seen that on home builds.
With the stop plate and barrel trunnion locking the mag in place, it should feed rounds correctly. The only way I have seen rounds stubbed into the bottom edge of the barrel lime that is with an incorrectly riveted in barrel trunnion. Not saying that is 100% the case. |
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Do NOT modify the barrel because there is another problem causing the malfunction. That's just a quick and horribly incorrect fix. When I looked at the pics before reading anything on your post my initial thought was that the mag catch looked too low. AZHONKY Yeah don't grind on the barrel. All my AKs work without that, so there is something else wrong. |
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Thanks to everyone for you suggestions and comments, they have been very helpful. I think I'm going to send the rifle to Troy at In Range. I own a AK74 that he made and its top notch! I'll post what I find out when I get the rifle back from him.
Thanks again! Kirk |
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Quoted:
I dissagree it looks and sounds like a selector stop issues, what thickness is the reciever 1mm or 1.6, as I have seen 1.6mm recievers have issues w/ a standard selector stop installed in it... lancaster had this issues a few yrs back they were useing the selector stops from kits on armory 1.6mm recievers and they had the issue you are haveing. tag.. curious.. i have a 1.6.. only HAD problems with the large ogive wolf ammo.. relieved the mouth a TINY bit... feeds PERFECTLY now.. would ONLY hang if i rode the handle SLOWLY... has a std bulgy ramp my take.. AK's are NOT designed for HP rounds.... flame away |
| My bet is that the feed ramp/bullet guide is too low or too short. Either way, it would need to be changed and that will require the front trunion to be removed to rivet a new feed ramp/bullet guide in or thread the trunion and screw it in. Just to see if it made a difference you could add some masking tape to the front edge of the guide to see it hit helps feeding. You will reach a point where the bolt will drag on the tape. |
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Standard DCI receivers only came as a 1mm receiver not a 1.6 so the safety stop isn't the issue.
I would say the barrel was not matching to the kit and the new barrel has been over inserted. Could be the bullet guide but I'd look into the barrel being in to far or not far enough. I built two kits at once and put the barrels into the wrong kits. I think it had an issue. Was able to correct it by pulling the barrels and installing them in the correct kit. |
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Quoted:
Standard DCI receivers only came as a 1mm receiver not a 1.6 so the safety stop isn't the issue. I would say the barrel was not matching to the kit and the new barrel has been over inserted. Could be the bullet guide but I'd look into the barrel being in to far or not far enough. I built two kits at once and put the barrels into the wrong kits. I think it had an issue. Was able to correct it by pulling the barrels and installing them in the correct kit. That would also lead to headspacing problems. If the barrel was too far in, wouldn't teh rifle have a hard time going in to battery? |
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Quoted:
Do NOT modify the barrel because there is another problem causing the malfunction. That's just a quick and horribly incorrect fix. When I looked at the pics before reading anything on your post my initial thought was that the mag catch looked too low. AZHONKY I got an Izhmazh military AK barrel. The mini feed ramp is ground into the chamber as one of the factory's manufacturing steps. I have seen this mini feed ramp in factory made Egyptian Maadi AKMs as well. Therefore, I wouldn't say it is completely incorrect. I got lucky with the Izhmazh military AK barrel because the month that my rifle was manufactured was the month that a lot of people were finding that the barrels were threaded under the shroud, had no chamber stepping, mini chamber feed ramp, and handguard retainer side notches. The general consensus is that the Izhmazh factory had leftover military AK barrels and put them into their Saiga sporter rifles. The more common Saiga sporter rifles don't have the mini chamber ramp, or barrel threads. Just my 2 cents, that this isn't totally incorrect because the premiere manufacturer of AKs actually does this step at their plant. |
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Pushing the barrel in will tighten headspace, pushing it out will open up headspace. You won't have a funtional rifle with the first one and will eventually have a non functional rifle with the second one. I have 4 AK's that I built from odd mixtures of parts from different countries that all are 100%. Headspace was set properly, no feed issues, goes bang every time you ask it to do so.
I also have seen the mini feed ramp mentioned above on some of my rifles. This was a factory thing, not a bubba thing. I am not saying that will fix your problem, just saying it is done by the factory at times. |
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