Originally Posted By CanvasBack:


Out of curiosity was there a rough round count range that the 106 bolts began to fail?

Originally Posted By HendersonDefense:


It would be a HUGE leap on my part but I would conservatively estimate 50,000+ rounds minimum.

V/R
Ron

Originally Posted By HendersonDefense:


- All of our .223/5.56 Bulgarian Arsenal SLR-106UR's are off the line because we can't get replacement bolts for them. The lack of steady 5.45 supply was the reason behind the 106-series but all of the bolts have failed OR they firing pin hole erosion is so pronounced that we have excessive protrusion. We are only using the 5.45's for military training at this time because of the lack of availability of 5.45 on a monthly basis.

- Prior to the lack of 5.45 availability, we had rebarreled all of our Arsenal 104's with AK-Builder CHF barrels and they actually improved the function. We had issues running Tula, Red Army Standard and Brown Bear with the factory barrels (and even older Century AK74's built on Bulgy kits with non-chrome lined US barrels) because cases would get stuck. Once we swapped all the barrels out with the AKB's, we could any of the varieties of 5.45 ammo.

- All of our line guns have had KNS pistons installed and we have seen a significant decrease in blown trunnions. I was in the armory last Thursday and saw one with a blown trunnion but my staff told me that it went on the line back in JAN of 2020. Definitely worth the cost for us.

- I plan on ordering some the PSA Type-56 clones because the "real" ones are throughout Africa and Asia and correlate to our foreign weapons classes for military personnel.

- We installed the US-made "dong" grips for our AK's and initially expected them to not last very long. I only thought of this because it seems American AK parts have to go through several generations to get it "right" but they are still mounted on the WASR's and NOT wobbling. Our American dong lowers are actually holding up better than the factory Romy units.

- We made some "AK-103's" with PSA barrel, gas block, FSB and furniture from WASR's that had key-holing barrels. All the parts were an easy install without any issues and between the "103" muzzle brake and piston, the platform is noticeably easier for our customers to control.

V/R
Ron  



 

Originally Posted By ObjectiveInjury:
@HendersonDefense, do you have any Kalashnikov USA products on the line? If so, how are they holding up?

Originally Posted By FullAssault:
have you ran any WBPs or FB AKs? I’m curious to see how they hold up. Thanks!

Originally Posted By themao:
Thank you for the updates. Moderators please tack this post to the top. Mao's politburo and central committee members approve of such an action :-)

PSA may be the savior of the AK community after all. I am glad to here that US made stuff is holding up well. It will hopefully get better with time. Kudos to AK builder as well.

Hearing good things about KNS pistons make me feel better as well about the choices I have made to run my AKs suppressed.

I was curious if you are running KUSA KR-103s on the line at all? Good to hear about the KR-9s.

Disappointed to hear about issues with Arsenal. Sigh

Originally Posted By HendersonDefense:



We've had some factory FB's on the line for about 6-7 years. They don't get THAT much abuse since it has to be requested and not a lot of people are familiar with FB. On a side note, we use them for military training to teach RPA's and others about the various-calibered AK's they will likely encounter. They haven't had any issues BUT the translucent green magazines didn't hold up on the line. I'm not sure if they've changed the design since but these mags were probably a bit older than the guns which were all new inventory sitting here in the States for quite some time.


V/R
Ron

Originally Posted By HendersonDefense:
One thing I forgot to mention was that I purchased five of the Pioneer Arms 7.62x39 AK's from Atlantic to get them another shot. My manager let there salesperson know that we had issues in the past and the salesperson assured us that these were NOT the same type that we had bought years ago from InterOrdnance.

The fit and finish was excellent, the furniture was was nice but the grip, IIRC, looked like a Bulgarian salmon-colored plastic grip. We installed some Romanian bakelites on them along with KNS pistons and they are still running strong six months later.

V/R
Ron

Originally Posted By AEnemaBay:


No, they're thick stem/short lug pattern. A Galil bolt could work, but even those are starting to dry up.

Originally Posted By Toddles:
Thanks for the reply, much appreciated. Curious, how did the piston fail? Did it bend or crack? Do you have a (very) rough idea of round count?

Originally Posted By Brenvana:
reddit

Originally Posted By HendersonDefense:



Yes, we have a few of their 9mm AK's on the line. One thing I asked the armorers to do when converting was to add a steel pin to the carrier to trip the sear. I didn't want them to add any extra heat to the carrier (welded-on trip surface) and possibly affect it's lifespan. We've had them for maybe two years or more and they haven't suffered from any issues. We also use it to train Army and Air Force personnel so they get plenty of use.

V/R
Ron

Originally Posted By Shadyman:



Do you have a photo of the steel pin to trip the sear? Or is that a top secret, felony, First Amendment, auto key card, violation?

Originally Posted By Brenvana:
The ak47 subreddit has linked this thread to the SAM7 line of Arsenal rifles claiming they've had 300,000+ rounds through them without failure. I haven't seen that claim in this thread though.

Originally Posted By Brenvana:
The ak47 subreddit has linked this thread to the SAM7 line of Arsenal rifles claiming they've had 300,000+ rounds through them without failure. I haven't seen that claim in this thread though.