New Yugoslavian M70AB underfolder has mag fit issues...advice/help?

Get "mag well" out of your head. Continuing down that line of thought may get you to "Century Special" status (and it's not very special).

It sounds to me as if your mag catch was installed a teensy bit too high for general purposes.

I had that issue on a WASR. Half of my steel mags would work just fine; the other half were somehow sligtly wider. I just looked at the gun and could see the problem. I filed the mag well and they all work fine. You should be able to see what the problem is. Just check & double check before doing anything drastic.

I received my M70AB2 from Atlantic firearms two days ago and am experiencing the exact same problem. I contacted Atlantic firearms yesterday regarding the issue and was informed via email that someone would be contacting me by phone that day to see how the issue could be resolved. Btw, is your gas tube release lever *extremely* difficult to move?

Still waiting for that call.

This is my 2nd ever AK purchase. The 1st one is a Lancaster AK74 and I am currently dealing with Atlantic/Lancaster regarding the defects on that rifle as well. (I wont go into details, the Lancaster '74 Debacle has been well documented on many internet forums, including THR.)

Anyhow, if you get it figured out please post. At this point I am seriously considering refunds/chargebacks. Good luck.

Upon closer inspection it appears that the area directly above the "lug" (don't know if that is the proper term or not) on the magazine is binding against the magazine well before the lug can lock into place. It looks as if the problem can be remedied by filing away just enough enough material from the area above the locking lug to allow it to clear the magazine well.

Does it sound like I'm on the right track?

Apologies for the imprecise description but I hope you all get the gist of what I am saying.

classcpl said:

Apologies for the imprecise description but I hope you all get the gist of what I am saying.

Click to expand...

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Did Century make any of the Yugo guns with a magazine area cut for single stack only like the ban compliant Wasr-10 rifles??

Subscribing to this thread. My Vector/Polish AK has the same issue with some mags.
The thought of filing the gun instead of the mags makes me nervous but if that's what it takes then that's what it takes.

I don't know if RP88's situation is the same as I'm having but it sounds like it may be. I snapped some pictures of the gun and mags.
The mag on the left locks in place no problem. The magazine on the right does not, it can't quite reach the magazine catch when rocking the mag back to lock it in.
The 4th picture shows the only noticeable difference in the mags, in the front the cutout for the receiver appears to be a little higher and narrower, and the bump above it is a little fatter when viewed from the front or looking down from the top.

These pics show how close it comes to locking in place at the rear.

Onmilo said:

Did Century make any of the Yugo guns with a magazine area cut for single stack only like the ban compliant Wasr-10 rifles??

Click to expand...

No.

Century uses Nodak Spud receivers in their domestically produced AKs, which are notorious for being tight in the mag well.

Double Tap Drew:

That is EXACTLY the problem I am having. your pics illustrate the issue perfectly. My yugo game with a Tapco polymer magazine and a steel one. The Tapco can be forced in but is very difficult to remove. The steel will not budge. It looks exactly like the does-not-fit in your picture and hangs up on the same area abv the locking lug.

Sounds like the mag catch may need to be filed down and is a bit out of alignment .

Anybody know what the gap is supposed to be between the receiver and mag catch? Mine is showing .205"

Look at the top of mag latch tab , some times these will be uneven and a bit taller on one side than the other . Usually this can be lightly filed down to allow the mags to easily lock on this has been a common issue on kit built AK rifles . We have also seen the same thing on Saiga rifles & Shotguns but it seems to be hit or miss.

Having owned more US built AKs than I can remember, I can say it is quite common to need some metal removed from the top of the mag catch. Some builders set their catch high on purpose to cover variation in AK magazines having different thicknesses in the catch lug. Better to have too much metal there than not enough. If you ever get a catch that sits too low it is a pain to fix. Been there a couple times and do not want to go again.

Typically I filed the catch down slightly, testing as I went with mag that would fit with effort/force before filing. On some guns where the catch was just barely too tight, I used a flat bladed screw driver and pressed down on the top of the catch by wedging the blade between it and the receiver. That rolled the top of the catch down just a bit (or bent it inward) and was enough to make the difference. The problem with this method is that if the entire assembly is not riveted well, it may pull loose from the receiver.

You could modify the mags, but that can be an endless chore if you have a lot of them--not to mention they may fit another AK differently.

John

Mine is even so I guess I'll try filing. Haven't decided whether to do mags or the catch yet, I've got 4 that don't fit and 6 or so that do. I just worry the ones that do fit will become wobbly/rattle if I remove metal from the gun (they lock nice and solid now), so I may try the mags first. Maybe I'm approaching it wrong, it's an AK not an AR, I just need a bigger hammer

Poly AK mags are normally slightly out of spec & over molded to allow for wear.

I spoke with Blaine at Atlantic firearms today. The rifle is being returned to Atlantic in the morning via their shipping account. Upon their receipt of the tracking info they are sending out a replacement rifle to my FFL that has been hand checked to make sure their are no magazine fit issues. And they are reimbursing me for the FFL transfer fee.

How's that for service?

I bought a Nodak Spud receiver for my AK kit and at first noticed the magazine wouldn't go up anymore at about half way up the mag latch... Sooo having a power tool in my hand I ground down the mag latch to fit the mag....this was a mistake.... after I had the gun together and was looking it over i tried to feed a dummy round i have for a necklace...it didn't feed with the factory new Hungarian steel 20 round mag or my factory new Bulgarian composite 40 rounder... the problem was that the mag well on the spine of the magazines was getting caught and stopping both mags short of the top of the latch. I ground the mag latch too much so it wouldn't feed unless I held the magazines up against the RPK when firing.... I had someone weld some more metal to the top of the latch and I'm hoping it feeds fine....it feeds with me operating the action but i haven't tried firing it yet...

I guess I got lucky. My yugo fires like a dream and came very clean and in good condition. Only bad thing was that I had to do a major adjustment to the front sight post, but thats to be expected and very easy to fix. All mags I shove in this little beauty are received with open arms like the Americans marching into Paris.