Swedish AG-42Bs blow up?

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Warren

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From Kim Du Toit's site. a letter stating that Swedish AG-42Bs have a weak recoil spring that causes the weapon to be able to fire out of battery and thus blow-up.


Any of y'all know about this?


This would be a fine rifle to own but not if it will "put my eye out".

:what:
 
I have a Hakim that shoots Turk ammo with no problem...I guess I can master the AG42 also :evil:
 
I'm not worried about it.

I've had a couple rifles fire as their bolts slammed home, without my finger on the trigger.

One was an Egyptian contract SAFN-49 in 8mm Mauser.

The other was a 1906-vintage Remington Model 8 in .32 Remington.

Scared the bejeezus out of me both times, but I survived. I sold the SAFN-49, but I still have the Model 8.

And I still have my Swedish AG-42B. In honor of National Ammo Week this week, I've even loaded a couple hundred more rounds of 6.5x55 Swedish Mauser, which will be fed to the AG-42B in the not-too-distant future.

Here's a hint: Many autoloading military rifles, and earlier commercial autoloaders, do NOT have firing pin rebound springs. Neither the Remington Model 8, the M1 Garand, the M14, the SKS, the AK-47(some Norincos did), nor the M16/AR-15 have firing pin rebound springs. That means the firing pin can, and often does, make a small impression on a chambered round's primer. Let the bolt chamber the round like it should from the box magazine or Garand en-block clip, and there's no problem. The drag on the bolt from stripping a fresh cartridge from the magazine slows it down enough to minimize the firing pin's inertia. Mil-spec (hard) primers in the ammo take care of the rest.

How does one get a slamfire? Simple. Chamber a commercial round, or a soft-primered handload, by hand, then let the bolt fly home into battery. Voila'!

The Swedes were a resourceful lot, and saw fit to include a firing pin rebound spring in the design of the AG-42B Ljungman. This kept the firing pin fully retracted during the bolt's movement, and the only thing that would allow the firing pin nose to protrude into a cartridge primer was a proper hit by the trigger group's hammer.

WWI and WWII-vintage milsurp rifles, be they bolt actions or autoloaders, have many years under their belts. Striker springs in Mausers and M1911 Schmidt-Rubins go brittle and break, I've that happen to me a couple of times. Same goes for the springs found in an average M1 Garand or AG-42B Ljungman. I now buy an assortment of replacement Wolff springs each time I pick up a new toy. If you find and purchase one of these delightful old warhorses, do yourself and those around you a favor. Get the rifle checked out by a competent gunsmith who is familiar with the weapon type you have. Chances are you'll be buying at least a new recoil spring. Have somebody show you a used M1 Garand recoil spring compared to a new one. You can see the difference in just the lengths alone.

You wouldn't find an old Packard or DeSoto and just start tooling around in it without a bit of inspection and preventive maintenance. Springs in autoloading rifles are not a forever thing, even the ones wrapped around a firing pin inside the bolt of an AG-42B Ljungman. Regardless of the rifle type, have it inspected. It'll save you a lot of grief in the long run. Having stood by helpless as I watched a gentleman blow the top of his head off accidentally with a cosmoline-packed runaway SKS, I'm a firm believer. :(

Oh, yeah - if you're still leery of that dangerous AG-42B, let me know. I've got room in the gun safe next to my own AG-42B. ;)

And Kim duToit should know better than to publicize scary blow-up gun stories, told second-hand, without at least a bold caveat or doing a little homework. He can click on Dean Speir's website for an example of how to do it the right way. :scrutiny:
 
Thanks, G98 that was an awesome post.

How exactly would I find a competent smith WITH experience with that model?

I can visualize a scenario where I ask a fellow and says that he is indeed familiar with that model but it later turns out that he is not and I end up having problems later.

To protect myself what do I look for when I am inspecting the weapon prior to purchase and then what do I ask the smith before agreeing to let him look over the rifle?
 
Truthfully, if the gun is available to you for inspection...

You can field-strip the AG-42B, and check out that firing pin rebound spring yourself.

Let me know when the gun is in your grubby little mitts, and I'll send the exploded diagram of the rifle. You're going to check the free movement of the firing pin, and look for a positive spring tension that keeps the firing pin to the rear of the bolt, away from the boltface. Grease, gunk, and grime accumulated over several decades can sometimes jam a firing pin forwards, even when there's a rebound spring in place. That's not a good thing.

What part of the PRK are you located? I've got a friend in Loomis/Rocklin who's one hell of a good gunsmith...
 
Kim du Toit wrote:

If you have a look at one, take a look at the firing pin spring. The spring is puny like that of a ball point pen.
The basic problem with this statement is that many military rifles don't have a firing pin spring at all, the M16/M4 is a good example. :rolleyes:

.
 
Thanks, I'm in Butte Co. which is north of Sac.

Is there anything else on the rifle I need to look at?

I've been avoiding milsurps because of the many things that could be wrong and dangerous about them. Things like "headspace" which, I've read, if it is off I could have serious problems. Cracked furniture that is hard to detect, barrels that are slightly warped, poor fitting bolt assemblies and so forth.
 
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