I am having an ak-102 clone built but have been having some feeding problems.  I wanted the rifle built to run on bulgy 5.56 mags only, that includes the black, OD, and clear mags.  The gunsmith has gotten it to run 100% with black, but the OD and clear are having the same problems.  When I release the charging handle on OD and clear mags the carrier stops about a half inch from being fully forward.  If I depress the mag release and ever so slightly rock the mag out the carrier goes completely forward OR if I lightly press the handle forward it goes fully forward.

My gunsmith and I were stumped so I took my Arsenal Inc SAM5 to him so he could see the difference between a rifle that feeds perfectly from all bulgy mags and polish beryl mags.  We immediately saw that the thickness of the bullet guide is much thicker on the one he is building for me than the Arsenal (my gunsmith is using a 5.45 trunion for the build).  If he files off material on the bullet guide slowly, does anyone think that will fix the problem?  I really want to get this rifle feeding from all bulgy mags without having to modify the mags to make them work.

Any insight would be appreciated.

I had a similar problem, but mine turned out to be a small lump of melted copper stuck in a corner of the carrier which (sometimes) hung up, leaving the bolt about 3/4 of an inch from being in battery. It was so covered in crud it looked like part of the carrier until I started filing on it. I'm still not sure how a lump of copper got so well bonded to the steel carrier.

You may want to check if there is excessive drag as the bolt carrier is passing over the hammer, slowing down the bolt carrier enough that it doesn't have enough energy to strip off the rounds.  On the Bulgy 5.56 Krink I just finished building, I had a similar problem the first time out. It fed OK with the black mags, but not at all with clear mags.

I first thought it was because the gap between the feed lips was about .020" smaller on the clear mags and that the bolt was catching on the lips, but then I noticed the wear pattern on the hammer and the drag from the hammer when hand cycling the bolt slowly. I took a slight bit off of the top of the hammer and now it cycles very smoothly and works with both types of mags.

+1

also, take out the bolt and install the carrier only (you'll need to push the hammer down with your finger)  see if the carrier rides freely in the receiver. if the rails are tight, they will slow it down. if the rails are to close you can Take a pair of pliers and stick it between the rails and open them, to stretch the rails.

bullet guides are cheap too, like $12

you need to remove 1/8 off the front of the guide as our all knowing mod said

ya ya i kissass now so i can mouthoff later its a give take kinda deal

My gunsmith did a little angling of the 5.45 bullet guide and it seemed to have helped.  I am not getting FTF every round or every other round.  However, I am still getting the same problems.  Here is a pic of the problem I get very infrequently:



It is getting stuck in the same place everytime.  On the barrel itself there is a bullet ramp however the stuck bullet is just to the left of where the bullet ramp ends.  Kinda hard to see in the picture since it is blurry.  Should I extend the ramp a tad more to the left so the bullet doesn't get stuck?  Funny thing is if I pull the charging handle back and release it again it will chamber (sometimes have to pull and release twice).

And this is the problem I get most of the time, however, it will still fire when in this position so I am assuming that it is in battery since AK's will not fire out of battery.



If I gently push forward, it will go fully forward.  Maybe this is related to the bullet getting stuck just below the chamber since it is expending too much energy to chamber it just gets hung up at the 3/4 of an inch.

BTW, I have two 5.56x45 bullet guides that I ordered from KVAR.  Should I have someone remove the old one and install the 5.56 guide instead of trying to fix this problem?

Here is a better pic of it happening in my newly built krink in .223.  However, it happens only on bulgy clear mags and only once in a blue moon.  It looks like it is 5.56 trunion with a 5.56 bullet guide.