Okay so full disclosure, this is my first AK after decades of Ar15s. I found this odd burr on my gf3 bolt while cleaning it today is this normal wear/okay? I did contact psa but haven't heard back yet. Any help for a kalash n00b is appreciated. About 2500 rounds on the gun, mostly golden tiger 123gr. Everything else about the gun is pretty swell. Wish I could get an ake though.

Thanks!


Burr again https://imgur.com/a/0OM50fG
Odd burr https://imgur.com/a/MIRKNgU

No, that is not normal. It is a surface that you should expect wear on, but you should not see a deformation. In addition, the firing pin retention pin should not be protruding like that, it should be flush.
Pictures of a Russian 100 series 7.62x39 bolt for reference. I have around 5000 rounds on this bolt.

The end of the retaining pin for the firing pin doesn't look too good either

The camming channel in the carrier and the camming ramp on the bullet guide don't agree on the precise moment when the bolt should start rotating into battery. Happens on some AKs. Eventually all of these surfaces wear in and reach a gentlemen's agreement. Stone the sharp edge and move on. I could show you similar wear on probably all of my AKs, yours is a bit more pronounced that  usual but will be fine.

The cross pin on the other hand should either be tapped all the way in or replaced.

What country of origin are your AKs with this wear? The reason I ask is because I only own Bulgarian and Russian AKs and pulled all my bolts out to check, regardless of caliber, and none of mine have wear like this, they all look similar to the SGL bolt I posted above. I am just wondering if the forging/tooling/machining differences between countries are the cause.

Hmmm good to know! Thanks for the help!

I did reach out to psa, I'll let you know what they come back with. I did tap the firing pin flush. I've never removed it so I guess psa sent it to me like that.

I will also mention that I haven't had any functional issues, just noticed it while cleaning.

Bur on carrier https://imgur.com/a/NRldra8

Bur also exists on the carrier...

Sent! I feel so relieved knowing you guys are open to helping me out on this. Thanks again.

There are two bolt camming surfaces on an AK and they are almost never 100% precisely matched up out of the box - this includes the camming channel in the carrier and the camming lug on the bolt that rides within it, and the camming ramp (or rivet for Saigas) in the front trunnion/bullet guide, along with a small ramp at the front edge of the left side bolt lug which rides on the camming ramp as the bolt goes into battery. They are not really critical dimensions like headspacing, they just need to be close enough. It's pretty common for these surfaces to be machined too tight, and there is some tolerance stacking in the interaction between the two camming surfaces that are machined separately, where they will need to wear in somewhat before these surfaces really interact smoothly. During that wear in process you might get what most people would call peening on the camming lug, most people seem to notice the wear here first and then freak out about it.

The wear on the OP's bolt is from the first stage of the camming channel in the carrier pushing the bolt into initial rotation. If he were to look at the carrier there is likely a bit of matching visibly worn in surface on the camming channel.

I would just file off the raised edge flush with the outer face of the lug and move on. The area of the lug is likely as worn as it's going to get.

Here's two I had close by. Bulgarian 74 and Yugo M92 bolt, both close to 2-3k rounds. You can see similar wear on the edge of the camming lug.

Attached File

I have 5 AKs, 2 Russian (1 SGL & 1 Saiga) and 3 Bulgarian (SLRs) and I don't see this wear. I don't have huge round counts on the SLRs, between 1000-1500 rounds on each. The SGL I am pretty confident I have a solid 5k+ through and the Saiga would be close on it's heels. I guess this would be a mix of round count and fit/tolerances luck of the draw?

Yes it is random but just comes down to how tight the camming channel is /w the bolt and whether the camming channel in the carrier and the camming ramp on the bullet guide agree on when the bolt should start rotating.

The only one I have that does not have noticeable rounding of this edge is a Saiga .223 with somewhere near 5-6k rounds. It just looks like the one in your photo. Every other one has wear here - 2x Romanian, 2x Bulgarian, 2x Serbian

My assessment of this wear point on AK BCG is it probably happens in the first part of the rifle's life span and then basically stops once the camming surfaces have all worn in to each other. Sort of like breaking in a cam in an engine.

Sometimes people complain about AK BCGs "sticking" as the bolt starts to rotate into battery even with an empty chamber... Usually this is when this issue is noticeably felt and the interaction between the two camming surfaces results in a minor binding as the bolt rotates. This will go away when these surfaces wear in.

I'm learning so much. Thank you for sharing

I only have about 300 rounds through my gf3 and it has the same deformation and protruding pin.
Attached File

eta SN was showing

When was yours built? Mine is March time frame.

I think around March of last year. Got it before TX locked down.

ETA Sorry, checked my PSA account and I ordered it January 2020

Still within 3 months. Interesting. I'm curious to see what psa finds.

Sent an email with s/n and additional photos. Thanks!

Update:

PSA just emailed me saying nothing wrong with the rifle. Should have it back in a few days. I will update this if the splash grows more. So seems okay for now. Thanks everyone!

Update:

Got it back today, nothing in the box saying what was done, but the burrs on the carrier on and the bolt are filed and it appears to have a new firing pin retainer. The bolt face looks like maybe it was polished as well. (maybe just cleaned idk). But the action definitely feels smoother. Range tomorrow.

Shout out to PSA and Josiah for standing by thier stuff.