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Posted: 5/21/2008 8:38:28 PM EDT
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Fairly recently I acquired a my first AK, a century tantal. The overall finish of the rifle is quite nice and clean. I still cant get used to the side folding stock, though. Anyway, I took it out to the range and ran some wolf military classic through it. I shot sixty rounds through it, and everything seemed fine. Next trip to the range, it keyholed badly. At 25 yards, one of the bullets was going completely sideways, and others had varying degrees tumble as they passed through the paper. I have heard of keyholing being a problem for century tantals, but I hoped I had gotten lucky. I guess not. What should I do? Should I be worried? |
| Which Wolf ammo are you shooting? If it's the heavier 70 grain bullets, that's probably your problem. Try shooting the 60 grain wolf and see how that does. The military ammo they were designed to fire uses 52 grain projectiles, so try to stay to the lighter weight bullets. I'm guessing that the rifling twist in the barrel just isn't tight enough to stabilize the 70's reliably. Just guessing. |
I think I'll have to try some lighter ammo. I kind of cringe at the thought of putting corrosive in a semi-auto, tho. Have you tried 60gr wolf or barnaul 55gr? |
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This stuff is high quality and non-corrosive: ammo-connection.com/gold_tiger545.html |
It's funny that most people find that switching ammo fixes the problem, but you say it's not the ammo and that he needs a new barrel? |
| Like I said in other forums the rifles i had failed the bullet test,and they all keyholed three rifles did not pass.They all ate the round pass the neck up to the caseing,the four rifles that were in the shop all failure the bullet test,the owner did take those guns and shot them the all keyholed he called century and all the rifles where sent back.The owner even went further by calling anyone who had the rifle and had the problem if they wanted to bring it in for a refund or he would send them back to century.For me that was it three rifles no luck i went with a yugo rpk and had no problems,the century tantal was nice looking rifle everything was great but that problem,My opinion if you going t spend that much cash on a rifle atleast the round should come out right not whacked. |
Why? Everyone seems so afraid of corrosive ammo. That's what the Warsaw Pact countries all shot. If it was good for them, why not for us? To clean all you have to do is rinse your parts with HOT water (to dissolve the corrosive salts and flush them away) prior to your regular cleaning. Stock up on the cheap Bulgy and Russian surplus ammo while you still can. 
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First, the century tantals do not have chrome barrels. Second, if I'm just shooting at a range, I guess corrosive ammo would be okay. However, more often than not I'm in a place where I can't clean my rifle for a day or two. I think I'll try the route of buying some lighter ammo, first. Will 60gr be light enough, or does it need to be 52gr? |
A friend of mine was in the Bulgarian Army before he came over here and said they would go weeks without cleaning in the field. If they had time to dip the rifle in a stream on patrol they would, otherwise they'd rinse them down when they got back from the field. FWIW I shoot corrosive in my SLR105 all the time...some rust inside the gas tube like most AK's but none anywhere else. I have yet to see any signs of rust or corrosion in the barrel and I usually clean the rifle about 2-4 days after I got to the range. 7N1 in my NDM86 did nothing to the rifle on a 2 day hunting trip...fired about 70 rounds and it rained one morning...only rust was in the flashhider as usual. It's just not as big a boogey man as it's made out to be IMO. Most people that say it's so destructive really have no first hand experience with corrosive ammo from what I can see...they stay away from it because they've heard bad things and then thats what's stuck in their minds. And like someone else said, the WP uses the stuff exclusively...why is it so dangerous here but apparently not there? Just something to think about, it may not be the monster it's made out to be. Z |
mak..
yup..the ammo is a quick fix,if that fixes it at all MAK.it's only a matter of time before nothing works in it.5.45 was not made to shoot in a .223 barrel.unstable to say the least.I'd hate to be running around the battle field looking for a certain type ammo that worked.sounds like century is starting to figure out there is a problem.my advice would be to get the tantal back to century ASAP and get a refund and spend the money elsewhere on a real tantal with a 5.45 chromed barrel.the polish tantals are one of the best if not the best quality 5.45 rifles out there.just my opinion.nothing wrong with shootin corrosive ammo at all.just gotta clean afterwards.hot water,oil.flush the receiver,gas tube,block etc.bolt,pay particular attention to the bolt and bolt face and barrel,then oil er up,good to go. |
True. Some people think they are getting a deal with the Century rifle over the Interarms. Send it back and get a refund. It has been posted to death here and other places. He isn't going to spend the money to have it rebarreled now so the options are a refund or getting some ammo that works in it. If someone buys the CAI rifle over the Interarms to save a few bucks they aren't going to spend hundreds of dollars to fix the mucked up barrel. I've seen other post that they checked the barrels and they have the same bore as the imported ones so I'd like to see if someone who owns one has proof they are .223 or just have a twist which works well with a certain grain bullet. Dings, Do you own one and have you actually slugged the barrel to determine the exact bore or are you just going by what you have read on the internet? Do you have a link to a thread where someone has actually slugged the barrel and shows the slug with the measurements of the slug showing that they have actually done it. I have a number of AR15s with different twist rate and bullets of certain weight just do not perform in all the rifles, though the bore on all are .223. There are also other factors that can cause keyholing. Anyone check the brakes on any of these rifles to see it the threads were cut slightly off on the barrels causing strikes to the muzzle device? |
ive been trying to find out if all centurys were bad or just certain batches. i started another thread last week. i only got one helpful answer.  ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=4&f=64&t=107406 |
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Well, I took it to the range again, with both 70gr wolf and 52gr bulgarian surplus. Once again, with the 70gr wolf i got occasional key holing from 25 yards. At 50 yards I shot a nice 10 shot 3 inch group with the 70gr, but one of the rounds keyholed and hit a foot above the others. I even tried taking the muzzle brake off, but it doesn't help. Then I switched to the bulgarian surplus. It didn't keyhole once during the 90 rounds of it I fired, but the groups seemed almost twice as large as the groups I made with the wolf (when it didn't keyhole). I think I'll be making a call to century on monday. Anyone have any experience with century product support? |
Yep, thats what century's response- only use 52gr ball. |
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I got ~3 inch groups at 50 yards with 70 gr wolf (except the round that keyholed).
I was shooting with sandbags, I think I recall it being windy that day. I am not the best shooter, but i'm not bad either.
What sort of ammo were you using, and are you sure its chrome lined? Anyway, I took off the muzzle brake and tested the barrel with a 70 gr wolf round. The barrel ate the round about 3/4 the way, but it would not go any further. Next, I put a 52 gr surplus round in, and it completely ate the bullet! I thought keyholing was caused bullets that were too loose, not too tight! |
| if you spend the money for a rifle, is the rifle you got is it going to shoot all ammo or just a certain type,well good luck on a battle field looking for that.I had a tantal ,i like the look and finish was not bad,but when i shot three rifles and they all keyholed with wolf any grain type also they keyholed with the surplus ammo,it was returned to the shop,.at the last time i talk to shop owner he had ten rifles that came back with the problem if you add them up he had a total 17 rifles that went back {my 3,4 in shop,10rifle comebacks}he advised me that he was not getting them,and century was trying to fix the problem and that was it.My rifle refund was spent on a yugo rpk no problems. |
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