Picked up my CAI Golani Galil Sporter today. UPDATE; now with range report

Just picked up my Golani Sporter from my FFL. I ordered it on Wednesday from Classic Arms and got it today. It was nicely packed in bubble wrap and came with two magazines and an owner's manual. The price was $629.

Mine has the bayonet lug. Fit and finish are very good. The sights are straight and the folding stock locks solidly into place. The bore is bright and shiny with nice rifling. I'd almost say it was a new barrel. The SN begins with "GLN." It has the "F" stamp on the bottom of the receiver just forward of the mag well. The receiver appears to be cast. It is marked ".223 cal."

The flash hider has a wire spring that I'm guessing helps hold the bayonet on. The thumb safety is very difficult to manipulate which is no surprise since it is connected via pivot pin to the dust cover. Kind of a redundant feature.

I cycled some dummy rounds through it and yes they do impact the bottom of the barrel opening. I plan on taking it my gunsmith to see if he can grind a small feed ramp into the bottom of the chamber opening to facilitate feeding.

The top cover feels like it is welded on because I cannot get it to budge. Anybody know any tricks to removing it? Also there are folding "wings" in front of the rear peep sight. What are they for?

All in all I am glad I got it even if I have to spend a little more on it to get it to function correctly. I realize this gun is built from used parts on a new US made receiver, so I am free of any illusions of perfection.
I'll report back with a range report after I put some rounds down range.

I would go so far as to say it is a new Green Mountain barrel.

ETA: The "folding wings" used to be the night sights. The tritium was in glass tubes inside the round depressions.

I had to take a rubber mallet to get my top cover off the first few times.

Because your rear sight sits on top of the cover, it is supposed to fit tight...in fact one of the signs of a good reciever is if the machining work was done good enough for a tight fit. Just put a little grease in the cover gap, and with practise you'll have no trouble getting it on and off. From the look of the pics, it seems that you have a good quality kit. I also recomend polishing your feed ramp with Flitz and a dremel, to facilitate feeding. Clean and degrease you magazines real well, and make sure there are no burrs on them anywhere, especially around the feed lips.

congrats & thanks for the pics. is that rust spots on your gun? or is it grease?

I finally got 1, it was hand picked by me. paid full retail ($750) but it was worth it condition wise to me. my flash hider is completely different from urs. mine is a full birdcage & no wire going thru the middle. my serial # is GLN035xx. I hand cycled a few rounds & have the same problem of the bullet rubbing against something (let me know what ur gunsmith says). I guess if the gun functions it won't bother me, haven't shot it yet though. my thumb safety is effortless to move. top cover also solidly in place, in fact I cannot take it off by hand. mine does not have the F stamped on it. 1 of my mags fit kinda loose. when I loading rounds into I found out why... the front lip was pushed in slightly causing it to be loose & making loading rounds into it almost impossible. a needle nose plier took care of it. keeping fingers crossed...

Mine has a different brake? Ordered from the same place as well. Mine was not the greasy either. Ran 60 rounds through it Thursday no issues.

Finally got a chance to take it out to the range. Ran a hundred rounds of Winchester and Wolf through it with out a hitch.

No failures of any kind which was surprising given all the failure-to-feed reports. The two steel 35-round mags functioned perfectly. The gun ejected the brass vigorously to the right and rear. The brass casings got dented up pretty good on the receiver as they were ripped from the barrel.

Recoil is about like an AR15, which is to say there is very little recoil at all. From the photo below it looks like the rounds are making contact with the bottom of the barrel opening but that did not effect the performance of the gun; the rounds cycled without any problems.

I feel pretty fortunate to have gotten one of the good ones.

On the bottom of the Bulgarian AK .223 barrels there is small feed ramp cut into them.

Can you post up some pics of the feed ramp cut into the barrel? I still might have that done to my Golani if I start experiencing feeding problems. For now I will leave it alone since it cycles like it was designed to.

Polish your feedramp with a dremel and flitz until it is as slick as a baby's ass...I guarantee this will improve the feed.

The cases get dented while ejecting, they hit the top cover on the way out. I'm pretty sure a valmet port buffer will fit, it clips on the top cover and protects the brass. My valmet used to destroy the brass and send it into the next zip code. With the buffer the brass is undented and deposited in a small pile right next to me.

Where did you get the buffer?

RTG has the Valmet buffers for $45

http://www.robertrtg.com/misc.html

You got a pic of one attached?

I think it will interfere with the upturned charging handle of the Galil. Valmets have charging handles like an AK.

Potentially.

I don't have a Galil to check; I own a Valmet.

where do these buffers go on golani??

I don't know if they'll work on the Galil style rifles, but they attach on the top cover, at the rear of the ejection port.

Spent brass on a Galil typically is bent when it strikes the charging handle at the base of the knurled round portion.

On an Israeli-made semi-auto Galil it's stiff but difficult to move. It's far from redundant and a significant improvement over the AK style selector lever. It will wear in with use and become smoother to operate.

I just got mine today and was surprised that the stock is plastic. Is yours metal or plastic?

Mine's metal.

metal

I thought it felt light.


Update:

Picked it up today. The shopkeep told me the stock is aluminum..
I'll start my own thread when the range report is complete.

I have a golani also. Has anyone fired 5.56 ammo in theirs? I think that if you have an F stamped on the bottom it means they have been fixed because of early problems.
Thanks
Mike

I shot Winchester 5.56 and Wolf .223 with it. It fired everything without a hitch.

Thanks for the reply
Mine says .223 on the receiver, I was thinking about trying the 5.56 ammo American Eagle since I just got 800 rds. for my soon to be built ar.
I like my galoni it is pretty accurate. I have read so much stuff about shooting 5.56 in a .223 that I wanted to be sure it is ok.
Mike

I have heard that if it says 223 on the receiver, you shouldn't use 5.56 ammo... yes it will fire it but it will mess up the chamber in the long run... unless you get a gunsmith to fix it so it will take 5.56 ammo...

"Classic Arms has them back in stock" bump.

pic test and bump



hell

LINK

There I fixed it for you!

I tried to use:



what did you use? the pic button below?

followed your link,clicked on pic,then properties, copy and pasted properties info in a standard image form. My Golani

The flash hider is also a grenade launcher. This spring helps keep the grenade on the end of the barrel if tipped down.

You can lighten up the movement of the left hand thumb safety lever by bending the right side safety lever away from the receiver - takes just light pressure a little bit at a time to get it where you want it.

I am still on the fence about buying one of these rifles.

Is there anything in particular I should be looking for to get one that actually works? Any particular serial number range or anything?

I can refurb those night sights for you....hate to see them blank like that.

Armadillo

With my Golani in the manual it said it is ok to shoot both .223 and 5.56 out of it. I also shot 40 rounds of PMC m193 out of mine just to test it when I first took it out and had no problems. I did so AFTER reading the manual though and finding that it was ok to do so.

I had heard that some of the guns were South African parts kits. I believe the SA R4's used plastic.

I'm on the fence as well. Just got the funds and always wanted a Galil type. Just hate the thought of buying something and having a fairly good chance of issues right out of the box, I intend to get eith a Golani or an AK 74 clone before the week is out....

The odds are in your favor. Most of those who bought them are reporting good results.

Thanks panzersergeant.

Is there a certian serial range I need to ask about to get a "good" one?

Mine is GLNO18XX if that helps.

Thanks again

GAL038XX has the early receiver. It has been back to Century twice. Once when the left locking lug of the bolt broke off. Second after the bolt was replaced the headspace was bad after 35 rounds. One thing I found was that the left locking lug was not making contact with the receiver's locking recess. When I returned it for the bad headspace I also let Century know about the improperly machined receiver. It was returned to me with the bolt altered (right locking lug cut back) and it appears that it had been rebarrelled. The headspace is good and Century has been very helpful when I've contacted them.

I understand that some of the early Golani's with the GAL prefix had some issues with the receiver's being machined wrong. It appears that I have one of those rifles, but Century has made every effort to make it right.

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