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Posted: 10/14/2007 11:28:54 AM EDT
| When I cycle my AK bolt/carrier by hand with the trigger held back the bolt does not push the hammer back far enough to engage the disconnector and the hammer follows the bolt forward when returned to battery. It does fully cock the hammer if the trigger is left forward. When it cycles with live fire the disconnector fully engages and releasing the trigger allows the sear to engage the hammer as it should. Is this normal? |
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I believe I have found the problem. After removing a newly installed recoil buffer the bolt can now be manually pulled back farther and with the trigger held back does push the hammer down enough to fully engage the disconnector. I guess this is another caveat regarding recoil buffers DAJ |
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Yes, as I stated in my OP, with live fire and the buffer in place the disconnector does catch the hammer as it should and then releases it to the hammer sear notch when trigger is released ready to fire the next round. With the buffer in place no amount of manual bolt retraction, however, will allow the bolt to be pulled back far enough to push the hammer below the disconnector hook when the trigger is held back and the hammer will follow the bolt back to battery when the bolt is allowed to go forward. I suspect in this state, if the trigger were to be held back and a round was chambered from the magazine by pulling the bolt back then releasing it abruptly a slam fire could be possible. |
The point I was making is that you cannot cycle the bolt hard and fast like a live cartridge can. (Try to catch the bolt when firing to see what I mean)  What you should do is look at the disconnector/hammer contact areas when dry-humping the action, and see by how much the disc misses the hammer...if it's a small fraction (say, less than 1/16") then perhaps shaving off that amount from the buffer would help. Why would you want to load a rifle while holding the trigger back? |
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As one poster suggested about the hammer being backwards I can assure him it is not. The hammer and sear engagements are perfectly oriented and function correctly. Your point on bolt (and hammer) travel with live fire being greater and much more robust than manually operating the bolt is well taken and I agree completely. Whether the normal function with live fire is due to greater compression of the buffer by the bolt carrier or due to the momentum of the hammer continuing its travel after the bolt carrier has already been impeded by the buffer to allow it to engage the disconnector I am not sure. I thought about shaving the buffer down, but considering the many cons as well as pros of AK recoil buffers in general and safety considerations, I believe I will just leave the buffer out. |
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