problems with Saiga AK...

[RP88]

Alright, so I decided to go and give the good ol' AK a spin after installing the dinzag bullet guide. Problem there is that the gun wouldnt shoot. Whenever I went to chamber a round, the bolt/slide/everything would stop about a quarter-inch short. I could literally look in through the port and see the bullet not going all the way into the chamber. The bolt was not rotating and pushing forward all the way.

First, I tried to see if the ammo I got was just crap (it was Wolf, but AKs shouldnt have problems with Wolf...). The bullet fits in the chamber just fine when I disassembled it and made sure manually.

Then, I wanted to make sure that maybe the bolt wasnt catching on the new bullet guide. Nope. Cycling the gun while empty and dry-firing works fine. The bolt closes, the bolt makes contact with the face of the chamber, rotates correctly, etc. as it should. But, for some reason, it would not load the ammo.

I then tried both the surplus steel mag and the pro-mag that came with it. Niether worked. Both saw the same thing.

I know that the bullet guides require some breaking in, but the gun wouldnt load at all, and there wasnt any way of getting it to push the rest of the way forward.

Anyone have any ideas on what is/isnt happening?

PS: gonna try and get pics of my bullet guide up real quick, and maybe a pic of the problem I'm talking about.

 

[MIL-DOT]

I had my local gunsmith parkerize and convert my Saiga a while back. He said the the little screw supplied with the bullet guide interfered with the bolt seating, and ground off a portion of the screw head to allow forward motion of the bolt before I picked it up. I've had no problems with the rifle. This may be the problem with yours.

 

[RP88]

makes sense. I just toyed around with an empty case in the chamber, and of course I forget how the bolt now moves to seat back farther from the face because of the end of the cartridge. When the casing was absent, the bolt did have a little bit of a 'nudge' occurring whenever it came over the screw... So, I'm guessing that since the bolt now hits something farther away from the chamber, that seems like that would be the problem.

Do you know how exactly (or what part of) the screw was filed down? I have a round trunion if that matters.

 

[MIL-DOT]

Yeah, he ground down the rounded head of the screw that secures the bullet guide, it's an allen head ,IIRC.Not sure exactly how he did it, probably some diamond-tipped Dremel bit, be my guess.I also have the rounded trunion, but you're right, that probably doesn't matter.Hope this helped, lemme know how it works out....M.

 

[saigafreake]

Grinded the screw head on wine with a dremel.

 

[FMJMIKE]

What caliber Saiga??? Flat or rounded trunnion ???

 

[RP88]

7.62x39, rounded.

 

[Girodin]

I had this same issue once with one. I simply polished the bullet guide all over a bit with my dremel. At that point it would load and extract so long as the bolt was being worked quickly. After firing it a dozen times there were no problems at all. It functioned 100% after that.

I would try polishing the bullet guide screw head first and see if that resolves it.

 

[RP88]

alright...

So, I took the gun out into the backyard and tried to see if it would still cycle rounds WITHOUT the bullet guide at all. I took the entire bullet guide out, manually put rounds in the chamber, re-assembled the bolt/bolt carrier with the round inside, and simply tried to push it forward. Once again, the bolt would not go all the way forward, and I could look in and see the end of the cartridge, and the bolt. the bolt seems to stick whenever there is a round in the chamber, instead of pushing and roating back to where the hammer is supposed to strike the end of it if I were to discharge it.

I don't have a clue now... I cleaned and lubed the bolt and made sure for the fifth time that there wasnt any barrel or chamber blockage.

 

[LKB3rd]

Are you letting it slam shut like it does under fire?

 

[RP88]

Yep.

I went out and bought some different ammo, and now it seems fine for the most part. The bolt still hits the screw, and it requires me to slap it a bit to get it closed. I'll file it down later. But, it works fine without theb ullet guide in. I guess I have six boxes of Wolf that needs to get salvaged then thrown out.

Thanks for the tip on the screw head. that seems to be the problem now, after getting rid of the ammo.