This was a new bolt, less than 1,000 rounds fired with it.  Look how badly the metal had been crimped.
I have a SAR that I put thru over 5,000 rounds and the bolt has barely any trace of metal fatigue.

What gives?  Could this be a flaw in the metal?  










added:  I know I can just drum sand it and it will  slide smoothly on the receiver once again, but me thinks of getting another bolt.  This metal seems soft and the problem will return.

The crap bolt pictured above is of original Hungarian manufacture.


My SAR1 is a Century Arms import from Romania which has more rounds fired through it than the Hungarian with hardly any fatigue showing on the bolt.  Too weird, [sarcasm]unless there's some truth to AK's made outside of the old USSR are not entirely up to military specs.[/sarcasm]  



Flame on!



 

Magic Rockwell number is 45. actually, between 42 and 50 should be fine.

I think it's your tunion. Can you please post some close-up pics of it? especially the parts which the bolt locks against? I think they're out of spec, thus basically hammer-forging your bolt into a different shape every time you fire it. In any case, this can be very dangerous as once those nubs lose enough shape one of two things will happen-
A: too much of the back of the round will be exposed, meaning it will be like shooting with too short of a headspacing. That will probably mean 'boom' instead of 'bang'..
B: the bolt will slip through the back of the trunion, turning your AK into a blow-back weapon. Last I heard, the blow-back weapons' recoil is alot more noticable than with a locked bolt.

In either case, it can be dangerous (esp given the fact that even if the bolt carrier doesn't fly out and hit your heat, that dust cover is thin, soft, held by almost nothing in the front, and more importaintly hindged on the back).. The former is really what you should worry about because that would normally happen long before the latter.


In any case, I'd get that checked out ASAP. so please post pics of the trunion and trunion with bolt- preferably with you pulling the bolt back (to show space), and even better with a round or shell casing inserted just so I can see if you've got that unsupported effect going already.

The back of my carrier(Hungarian) also shows signs of incredible wear. The little nub at the back has been hammered in...

I have a brand new 7.62 replacement bolt, stripped, Chinese military surplus, I can sell you for $15 shipped if you like. I do not believe this bolt was ever fitted to a rifle, so the lugs can be ground to headspace to your trunion/barrel combo. Metal appears to be very high quality, but I haven't rockwell'd it. Your extractor should drop right in.... pics if you need em.... anyways
good luck,
-C

I'll try and post pictures of the receiver later tonight.   I gave it a cleaning yesterday and was a bit pissed when I saw the scratch marks on the inside of my receiver.   Arrgh.    Don't worry guys, I definately won't even consider shooting this.   I put through just less than 1000 rounds and it worked flawlessly.  Then it started to jam.  The bolt carrier stopped returning all the way forward and I had to assist it a couple of times to fire but then I called it quits at the range when I realized something was wrong.  

Pictures posted later.


Thanks guys for the suggestions.

I guess this is a stupid question.... was that bolt properly headspaced to that AK you had it in? Also what kind of AK was the bolt installed in?

Also, the bolt in your picture don't look like the Hungarian bolts I have messed with. The Pre-Ban FEG underfolder I used to own had over 1500+ rounds thru it with no wear. The bolt in that gun had some machining cuts on the bolt itself where it slides in the carrier.... I guess to cut weight. I own some East German AKM bolts with the same cuts. Also the Hungarian bolts I've messed with had a dark finish on them. Where did you buy the bolt in question? did it come with a kit?

I could be wrong however as I havent really seen any of the AMD-63/65 kits up close to look at the bolts..... I've only seen the bolts of 2 Pre-Ban FEG's and a Post-Ban FEG sporter....