The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

I use milsurp steel cased 7.62x29 in my AIA and it functions flawlessly. I also use reloaded ammunition my preferred brand of brass is Lapau. I have also used PPU brass and it works fine. Maybe its time to move the AK on and get a proper rifle. :shakeshout:

Ditto: we use milsurp 7.62x39 in out AIA carbine (great tunnel gun) and never have a problem.

Sim G wrote:Try different ammo. Instead of PPU, which I've always found hot in whatever caliber, there was some brass cased Wolf ammo knocking around. I know because a bloke in our club was running some through a CZ bolt gun. The Wolf ammo has a fairly good rep and its brass is boxer primed. I always fancied a 7.62x39 bolt gun.

Personally, I think AKs are junk. The three I've had experience with, two military select fire and one Yugo civvy, were not that good at all...

There are an awful lot of AK variants out there, some are junk whilst others are the opposite.Russian built variants are well made and reliable, especially the modern AK-100 series, as are Bulgarian (widely regarded as some of the best the Bulgarians retained a milled receiver) and the military Yugo Zastava M70 ( have fond memories of one of these).Egyptian Maadis can be rough around the edges as can some Romanian versions (especially from around the time of the Romanian revolution).Chinese (Norinco) variants can also be very good, the Type56 is one of the most prolific variants out there.

Sim G wrote:Personally, I think AKs are junk.

Certainly appears to be the case. I wouldn't trust one in 'real life' either.

snayperskaya wrote:The cause of the problem can be the laquer off the cases gumming up.

Although that appeared to be the symptom today, I don't think it's the case itself sticking or FTE. There's hard extraction and there's welded! Perhaps I posted too hastilly today when I should have recalled the earlier, similar problems. There's clearly some kind of mechanical issue.

Also I think you get more blow-by of gases with steel cases as they don't expand in the same way as bass.

That's interesting. Could it be that because the bolt is being given 'some' force rearwards it's possibly hanging up on something? I'm not as familiar with the AK action as I am with the AR hence my confuslement.

The problem wouldn't be noticed with a semi or full auto AK as the pressure of the gas system cycling the bolt carrier overcomes it.

Tell me about it! I tells ya - straight pulls are dangerous. Seriously. So much f*cking about. They should be banned!

One other thing to check is that all the Cosmoline is out of the chamber, when I bought my AKM it was plastered in the stuff.

Not to worry, comrade; it was thorougly cleaned before use, Soviet filth removed and given a good old Americanski baptism with FrogLube! :lol:

As for the "catch" when racking the action.....have a look on the portion of the bolt carrier where it passes through the rear sight block, its not uncommon for them to foul slightly (will be apparent with a wear mark on the black Finish) and sometimes the Romanians have been known to fit the rear sight block slightly canted, same with the gas block which in turn throws the gad tube out slightly and can cause the carrier to hang up.

I'll look into that, thanks.

The only AKs we have used and liked weren't real AKs at all. One was a Czech rifle that superficially resembled an AK but was silenced and machined from forgings (awesome dogbuster in Iraq) and the other was Finnish, a Valmet version. Both were accurate, reliable and very well made.

I bought it as a throw-away gun for messing about but I didn't expect this much junk!

Chuck it this way if you're getting rid ;-)

*ducks*

snayperskaya wrote: As for the "catch" when racking the action.....have a look on the portion of the bolt carrier where it passes through the rear sight block, its not uncommon for them to foul slightly (will be apparent with a wear mark on the black Finish) and sometimes the Romanians have been known to fit the rear sight block slightly canted, same with the gas block which in turn throws the gad tube out slightly and can cause the carrier to hang up.

There is some slight wear on the right side but nothing, I think, that would indicate a hang-up there. The bolt carrier runs very smoothly when the spring is out / slides out on under its own weight when pointed upwards.

SevenSixTwo wrote:I bought it as a throw-away gun for messing about but I didn't expect this much junk!

Mine does it now and again, out of literally thousands of rounds I've probably have it happen around 12-15 times. I stuck 300-ish rounds through it at Sennybridge ( out to 500m with irons! ) the other week with no problems at all and never had it with my Saiga.If you can pm me some pics of the bolt carrier and the action and i'll see if it looks ok.One thing to remember is that with straight pulls the gas pressure is probably higher causing more blow-by and fouling as the pressure isn't bled off through the gas system.
Is your action quite tight or loose?, try taking the top cover off and removing the recoil spring.With the trigger cocked slowly raise the rifle towards vertical and the bolt carrier should slide back to the rear under its own steam.If it doesn't check for any fouling or binding on the bolt carrier/sight block and check the receiver rails to see if there is any rubbing/contact marks.Before you condemn it shoot it a lot and it may bed itself in and start behaving.


Edit. Posted as you did so didnt see your reply