AKs never jam, right?

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Issues with Waffen Werks AK74s are generally due to poor receivers, if yours is not an early Nodak Spud, it’s likely the receiver is out of spec and is complete junk.
 
1KPerDay said:
How do I tell? Is there markings or a serial range?
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Check on the underside of the receiver in front of the magwell, it should be stamped there, if it’s not there it’s not a Nodak. If it is one of Waffen Werks own “improved” receivers, it will have their logo/name there or possibly be blank; in which case it was only a matter of time your rifle would start having issues. I do not know if they used any other brands of receivers in their builds, I just know the Nodaks were the only ones GTG, it wasn’t based on serial numbers to the best of my knowledge.
 
It definitely has the Waffen Werks logo in front of the magwell. I'll have to go look if there's anything else there. Sounds like I might be SOL
 
No other markings... WW receiver. Can't see how I could raise the magazine as the left lip is against the ejector. There is a LITTLE front back wobble so maybe the mag could come up a touch. If I welded the latch longer?? There is not a typical bullet guide riveted in but there are two feed ramps/grooves for the tips. I think it must be a type of bullet guide I'm not familiar with. I only have shot and handled my two rifles, this one and a Molot Vepr 7.62x39 I converted (and drilled/tapped for an aftermarket bullet guide).
 
You’re best bets are:
1) Rebuild it with a proper receiver, no amount of work will make the WW receiver right.
2) Sell it as a parts kit.

There is plenty of information out there with a simple search about all that is wrong with their receivers, from rivet holes in the wrong location/not properly lined up to the rails the bolt carrier rides on being off. I’m sure there are other issues as well that I am unaware of.
 
You need to post a picture looking down into the receiver with a mag in the well. I would concentrate on feed issues related to the mags, mag well and mag catch.
As far as over gassing is concerned it's probably not your problem. If it was you can install a heavier recoil spring cheaply.
"Over gassing" is blamed for a lot of problems and is seldom the problem.
I have built a few AKs and the barrels sometimes come with huge gas ports. Over gassing is never a problem with function.
The only way to really see if your receiver is out of spec is to get the proper drawing and take measurements
 
Not sure how much you can tell from a pic but I'll do it. noDak is sold out of 74 receivers since Nov '17. Anyone know if they're planning on making them again? I am fairly handy with tools and learning how to rivet parts and press barrels would be fine with me
 
Pics as requested. I fired my remaining 19 rounds of hornady vmax while holding the magazine firmly to the rear and got no malfunctions. Not a statistically significant sample size but possibly encouraging. Cabelas didn't have ANY 5.45 so additional ammo tests will have to wait.

Possible weirdness is the selector stop doesn't have room for the lever to pass between it and the receiver. NOT SUre if that matters
 

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You might want to rebuild with a quality receiver....

I have a WASR10, folding stock. (Not known to be a quality military grade gun) After I corrected the badly canted front sight, it was just as reliable as the Russian and Chicom variants I've handled. I might mention that I use only military style FMJ ammo. Never a malfunction.

I bought it when I was the senior weapons trainer for my police department to train officers on the AK platform. My idea was that officers could be familiar with the gun, in the case it was being used by an active shooter, or during a terror event, the officer could render the weapon safe, or put it to use in a "battlefield pick up" mode.

It makes an excellent truck gun. Keep it stored, keep it loaded until needed. The only problem with that I see, is if I were to press it into service in an urban or semi-urban setting legitimately, arriving officers are pretty much conditioned to shoot the guy with the AK 47. That would screw up an otherwise beautiful day....o_O
 
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A friend of mine has a NHM-91 AK. It would fail to fire for 3/4 of every magazine. It took my brother and I well over 4 hours to diagnose and fix the problem. The myth of AK ironclad reliability is just that, myth.
 
I've owned four different AK's over the years....two were manufactured in eastern Europe, two were built from parts kits here (one by me, a "screw build").

I don't believe I ever had a malfunction with any of them
 
1KPerDay said:
What was the issue
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Mostly caused by user error I believe. Inside the bolt and around the firing pin was clogged with some sort of thick grease. It was causing the firing pin to not fire. I had ripped apart the sear and trigger group first before I thought to look at the ammo. All the failed rounds had light primer strikes. The rest of the time was figuring out how to strip the bolt down and finding a cleaner to get the grease out of the tight channel. I probably used 2 bottles of brake cleaner to blow it all out.
 
2X Norincos, Maadi, M70b1- only one of the Norincos ever had issues, and those were due to a stoopid aftermarket buffer. Otherwise, never a malfunction of any sort in well over 6k rounds.

A well built AK is one of the most reliable devices with moving parts made by Man. But Man is imperfect, and thus are all his creations.:)
 
When you shoot the gun and it malfs, you are not resting the mag on anything are you? I've got some saiga converted pro mags that occasionally exhibit this same behavior if I'm shooting prone and the end of the mag is on the ground.

You may as well try a variety of mags before junking the gun to see what works. I had 4 7.62x39 guns that all liked different mags, it was a royal PITA.
 
No, offhand. In fact as noted above it seems better if I forcibly hold the mag to the rear. I only have Circle 10 and East German mags. Not buying any more. The mags are almost positively not the problem. This is a 5.45 rifle in case you missed it above. Thanks for the ideas. :cool:
 
OP - sorry to hear of your woes. Since it happens using two very reliable mags, and happens with that frequency, I'm going to guess an out-of-spec rifle. You might possibly find that the bolt is slightly riding over the round and the tip of the round hitting below the chamber. That could explain the ftf's. Dremelling or shaving down the hammer could be a solution. Possibly replacing the hammer or entire FCG ($30 solution). Or, worse, the receiver or rails may be out of alignment. YMMV.

If it makes you feel better, I'll share this for some schadenfreude ... Took one of my AK's out to the range two weeks ago, all of a sudden, FTF's and other issues galore. After only about 500 rounds, the rifle was starting to disassemble itself - shoddy riveting, trunnion visibly starting to separate. Solution - have the receiver cut and rebuild it up as a parts kit with a new receiver. Sending it off next week. Yeah, that means spending north of $400, but given the wacky AK market right now, my total sunk cost into this rifle is still not too far off from market pricing today.

I just leave that as a thought - given WaffenWerks' issues (even during their supposed "good days") you might want to consider a rebuild by someone more competent than WW, assuming you have a good parts kit underneath.

1KPerDay said:
Think I got banned from there for not being a racist *****
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lool. I was going to say that it's getting a little better over there, with the ban hammer being wielded now, but .... no... its sill a rough and ignorant place. I'm going to come back here to the highroad, after having suffered in the wilderness for too long.
 
1KPerDay said:
No, offhand. In fact as noted above it seems better if I forcibly hold the mag to the rear. I only have Circle 10 and East German mags. Not buying any more. The mags are almost positively not the problem. This is a 5.45 rifle in case you missed it above. Thanks for the ideas. :cool:
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Op - I've had to change the mag catch on 2 AKs. In both cases it was too shorts for the back of the mag. My brother had a piece carp Wasr that needed the mag catch replaced and a slight modification to the front trunion to lower the front of the mag. We didn't want to drill out the rivets and redo it so we made a successful modification.
You can also try some cheap Tapco mags and modify the front if you think you have a problem. At least that's not permanent.
 
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