glocksman
Member
At the start of the year I bought a WASR-10 hicap rifle that sorely lacked the famous AK reliability. The gas block was canted and the rifle consistently would fail to feed (the bolt carrier would wedge on top of a round instead of stripping it out of the magazine) about once every 10-15 rounds.
I sent it in to Century and they straightened the block, but I could still hear and feel a hitch in the action when the bolt was about an inch or so from being closed.
Normally this wouldn't be an issue as the gas piston on most AK's is screwed in slightly loose and then pinned into place. The added slop allows the action to compensate for misaligned parts.
Century, for some unknown reason, welds the piston in place.
My cheap fix was to dremel off a little bit of the top rear of the gas tube.
This loosened the tube up just a hair (it rattles slightly now) and the piston doesn't catch at all.
Anyway, to test my kitchen table gunsmithing, I went out today with 4 loaded magazines and proceeded to empty them.
I started off by bump firing. Usually when bump firing, I can only get off about 10 rounds or so.
It fired for a few seconds and after it stopped, I pulled the magazine to see how many rounds were left.
The magazine and chamber were empty.
On the second magazine, there was a failure to feed, but it wasn't the same type (before, the bolt wouldn't cock the hammer and wouldn't strip a round from the mag, this one was a misfeed) that was happening before. I cleared the jam and emptied the rest of the magazine.
The remaining 2 magazines were emptied with no problems at all.
Observations:
I think the fix worked as the gun emptied 3 magazines under stressful (bump firing) conditions without a hitch. The one jam that occured I would either characterize as a fluke, or blame it on the magazine as the manner of misfeed was different from the problem that I experienced previous to sending the rifle back to Century.
The ideal fix would have been to purchase a new bolt carrier and properly install a US-made piston (for legality). However this would cost about $75 or so, and the gas tube 'fix' was free and replacement tubes are cheap.
After the AWB expires, I'll probably send the into globaltrades and have them refinish the rifle, install a gas block with bayo lug, a proper AKM muzzle break, a RSA trigger, and a new carrier/piston combo.
Although by the time I pay for all of that work, I probably could just buy a brand new Globaltrades AK.
Decisions, decisions...:
One other thing.
The lower handguard on my rifle has a nail head on each side that are exposed and by God, those nails get hot after a magazine or two.
I'm thinking of buying a K-VAR plastic stock set with the longer buttstock.
I sent it in to Century and they straightened the block, but I could still hear and feel a hitch in the action when the bolt was about an inch or so from being closed.
Normally this wouldn't be an issue as the gas piston on most AK's is screwed in slightly loose and then pinned into place. The added slop allows the action to compensate for misaligned parts.
Century, for some unknown reason, welds the piston in place.
My cheap fix was to dremel off a little bit of the top rear of the gas tube.
This loosened the tube up just a hair (it rattles slightly now) and the piston doesn't catch at all.
Anyway, to test my kitchen table gunsmithing, I went out today with 4 loaded magazines and proceeded to empty them.
I started off by bump firing. Usually when bump firing, I can only get off about 10 rounds or so.
It fired for a few seconds and after it stopped, I pulled the magazine to see how many rounds were left.
The magazine and chamber were empty.
On the second magazine, there was a failure to feed, but it wasn't the same type (before, the bolt wouldn't cock the hammer and wouldn't strip a round from the mag, this one was a misfeed) that was happening before. I cleared the jam and emptied the rest of the magazine.
The remaining 2 magazines were emptied with no problems at all.
Observations:
I think the fix worked as the gun emptied 3 magazines under stressful (bump firing) conditions without a hitch. The one jam that occured I would either characterize as a fluke, or blame it on the magazine as the manner of misfeed was different from the problem that I experienced previous to sending the rifle back to Century.
The ideal fix would have been to purchase a new bolt carrier and properly install a US-made piston (for legality). However this would cost about $75 or so, and the gas tube 'fix' was free and replacement tubes are cheap.
After the AWB expires, I'll probably send the into globaltrades and have them refinish the rifle, install a gas block with bayo lug, a proper AKM muzzle break, a RSA trigger, and a new carrier/piston combo.
Although by the time I pay for all of that work, I probably could just buy a brand new Globaltrades AK.
Decisions, decisions...
:One other thing.
The lower handguard on my rifle has a nail head on each side that are exposed and by God, those nails get hot after a magazine or two.
I'm thinking of buying a K-VAR plastic stock set with the longer buttstock.
