Hi guys a buddy of mine recently picked up a newer Zastava ak from a friend of his and he came out to shoot it. The gun was/ is pretty much brand new. We put about 300 rounds through it. While at the range pointed downhill he finished a mag, pulled the bolt back saw the empty chamber/mag, dropped the bolt, flipped the safety on, and with the gun pointed down range pulled the trigger and click hammer falls. Loaded 1 round into a mag and sure enough with the gun all the way on safe the trigger will drop the hammer with almost no extra pressure. You can actually almost stage it like a 2 stage trigger. He says he just got the idea to make sure the safety works while we were at the range.


Popped the dust cover off and it's obvious what's happening. The part of the trigger inside the receiver with the two prongs pointing toward the back of he gun that the legs of the spring for the FCG ride on are NOT coming into contact with the milled little square block on the safety.

Whens the safety is rotated down, the block on the safety is away from the two prongs on the back of the trigger. When the safety is on safe it moves that square bit in between the 2 prongs but neither of them touch the safety. Everything in the receiver is tight as it should be. No rattles, no parts going crooked, no loose pins. It has a newer style "shepherds hook" that's just the stamped plate not the old fashioned wire one.

Taking the safety out theres doesnt seem to be any wear on the safety either. The safety goes all the way across the receiver straight into the little hole on the left side of the reciever. It is one of their bolt hold open safety's with the little notch in it.


Upon taking the safety off my buddy noticed the hammer falls when you do that. I told him that's normal and shouldn't happen with the dust cover on. Every ak I've had does that I believe. I don't see how the safety is supposed to come out without dropping the hammer.

When we put the dust cover back on my buddy tries to over raise the safety and sure enough there's no tang or bend on the dust cover to keep that from happening. Simply continuing to push the safety up will click it over the dust cover slightly and drop the hammer. From my experience every ak I've had and shot the dust cover wouldn't let you over extend the safety.


So now the safety doesnt work at all for keeping the gun from firing, and you can very easily AD the gun by turning the safety on to hard.

It turned him off big time. It freaked me out too. We had been following all 4 rules like we always do so it's not like we had a close call or anything. I can't see what went wrong to cause the safety to not work on safe. Everything seems to be lining up and functioning. If the square bit on the safety was a 1/8 longer on each side it would block those two prongs from being able to raise when the trigger is pulled. Or if the ping were closer together but they are cast like that.


Neither one of us wants to just stick a softy in it and go. We want to know why it's doing that. I have a suspicion that the new style bolt hold open safety is what's causing it. All the pieces of the fire control group can't move but 1/16 an inch side to side. If you stick a screwdriver in there and push the trigger/ hammer side to on the pins they have maybe 1/8 of play. Not anything drastic or that seems like it would I cause this.

The dust cover used the normal big button facing the back of the gun and an extra smaller button sticking out the left side, so simply swapping the dust cover won't be possible without one like that.

I'm mad this is his first semi auto rifle and the safety's all screwy. I half think he doesn't even really want it anymore, he was pretty embarrassed by it even though I told him it's not his fault and stressed that is exactly why you follow all 4 rules 100% of the time.


What do you guys think? He got the gun used so I doubt century is gonna help him out much. But on the other hand the rifles is in near perfect condition and the safety not only won't keep the gun from firing it will fire it without you wanting to. I don't know how much he payed but he won't sell it to someone without disclosing everything wrong with it, and I don't think he wants to drop money on a gun smith although I guess he will if that's what it takes. Neither one of us want to bubba it into working.

A few things:
-Get a new trigger group. You dont know if somebody fucked with it and gave it a "trigger job"

Imo put a LBE trigger in it

Khyber Customs has them for $35 and they are pretty decent.

-Also adjust the safety tension if you think its going passed the dust cover.  bend the safety inward slightly.

-If its a newer Zastava, have him contact Zastava USA

might just be the safety. Could have been an FA safety that someone got a little too wild with when cutting down.

If you're going to remove and replace parts, start with the cheaper ones 1st if you're not sure what to replace. That being said, a good aftermarket trigger isn't a bad idea either.

I've only ever seen that with a safety lever that moves too far up past the dust cover. That's the first thing to check.


My experiences are with an Arsenal that does that

Okay thanks guys. When we had the safety out I made sure it had a inward bow for tension. It seems to be bowed a little. I'll put some more in it when he comes back out.

Funny story I've had a couple aks and have had the dies and tools to assemble a stamped gun for years I've just never sat down and did it. I've bought and sold 2 kits in the past. My buddy was ragging on me for getting rid of my ak's and not having built one. We decided we both needed to buy a parts kit apiece and sit down and do it.


Today while cleaning a closet I found a numbers matching 1992 Romanian MD 90 folding stock parts kit with a new shiny barrel in a taped up box. Don't remember buying this at all. So I guess we can try the FCG and safety from my kit that was in the closet the whole time in his gun before he buys any parts.


I'll have him contact CAI and see what they say. The gun is pretty new. The metal finish and wood seems right out of the box.


I'll look over the fcg very closely for any tampering. It's a tapco g2.

Romanian and Yugoslavia saftey's aren't the same. However, you can compare the bottom if the safety's that connect the trigger and see if that's where the issue is.

Show us a picture of the safety taken out of the gun. I'm betting someone filed down the full auto safety so it would work with a semi-auto fire control group easier. And got a little too happy.