Hey guys,

Picked up my first AK, its an Arsenal SLR-106U. I experienced with the AR platform, but the AK is new to me. Finally took it to the range today and experienced multiple jams. Pretty upset with all the malfunctions, especially with all of the hype about AK reliability.  Looks like a failure to extract, but could be a combination of things.

Please excuse my lack of AK knowledge. This is what I know:
When I cycle the charging handle, I can get it to stay partially open. There is no charging handle catch machined in the safety lever.

The pics of the damaged rounds are the ones that tried to feed in behind the empty case.

Could an AK guru chime in here and please explain what the hell is going on?

Using Circle 10, 30 Rd mags, Smoke Gray
Haven't worked on the feed ramp, but I don't think it would help if it is not extracting properly.

Intredasting. I've never seen the earlier style bolt used in 5.56x45 chambered rifles, (Bulgarian, Romanian) only the AK 100 series type bolts.

I don't know enough about them to comment. Would that have an impact on this issue?

Looks like a bolt for the 7.62x39 cartridge. Can you remove the bolt and carrier and get a pic of a 5.56x45 cartridge with it's rim under the extractor, like it would be if it was chambered?

Its definitely 5.56. I just stripped the bolt down and cleaned everything up. I was hoping to find something out of wack with the extractor, but everything looks good as far as I can tell.

Cycled it by hand and it worked great. Then again when I brought it home after all the failures to extract it would cycle by hand too. I may take it to a local smith or send it back to arsenal. I really want to get this thing working well, it was a blast to shoot when it wasn't screwing up.

Let us know what you find out.

I will. Still working it. I stripped everything down, cleaned and lubed and took it to the range. I thought I got lucky for about 30 rounds (which is a big improvement) and then it started acting up again. I saved the rounds that didn't extract and it looks like the extractor tired to grab the side of the rim instead up the indentation in front of it. Almost like the bolt didn't travel far enough forward. When I pulled the case out of the chamber it was easy, so it's not looking like a burr. Maybe a gassing issue?

I did notice that the bolt seems to hang on the hammer which I guess is pretty common with AKs, but I have to actually press the hammer down out of the way when I reinsert the bolt after cleaning which seems excessive.

I would polish the chamber with Flitz and I would try the black Circle 10 mags to start.  I have SLR106 pistol and it runs better with black mags then the grays which had to be filed to fit right.  There is YouTube video of a guy having similar problems - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkiChbTKYPU and the comments section helps.   I also put a Krebs retainer plate because the cheap spring hook fell apart in mine.

Yea, I stumbled across that video and can empathize with his frustration. I will try to find some circle 10 blacks which is going to be a pain in the ass with the recent legislation here....

I'll give the flitz a try too. Thanks.

Tore it apart again tonight looking for something obvious. I found some small brass shavings around the chamber but couldn't find a burr. The bolt agaonstvthe hammer feels tight. I know that most AKs have this issue, just wondering if it could be a contributor. Also noticed that the extractor hung out a little past the boltface, is this typical? Also is it normal for the rear of the ejector to be beat up like this? See video and pic for description.

AK rough action: http://youtu.be/4oFtmD8VLmg