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Posted: 6/1/2016 11:06:55 PM EDT
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Finally. After three weeks of waiting.
Picked her up from my FFL earlier this evening. Wiped it all down with some Ballistol, and then put it back together. Came in the box with a really nice, full color product catalog, the manual, and a little bottle of Slip2k EWL. They weren't lying about how massive the BCG is; with the bolt in it it's almost reaches from my wrist to the tip of my middle finger. If it ever jammed, you could probably just pull the BCG out and beat a wild hog/man to death with it. I didn't think I'd like the RKM handguards, but they make this thing terribly light. I don't have a scale handy, but it definitely feels much lighter than my Khyber build AK, even without the optics on it. Put my PRO on top for tonight; tomorrow I have due in the mail a set of flip Troy HK BUIS which will be going on there, along with a MIAD grip and a 10-round PMAG. And then Friday I'll have a Blitzkreig Components chevron front sight coming it. Speaking of PMAGs, mine is now missing a bit of the rear locking lug's corner because I had to slap it out of the magwell. Somehow it managed to get into a position where the front lug didn't engage the pin, but the rear lug was locked by the release. Oddly enough, only the PMAG does this, I couldn't replicate the problem with any of my surplus steel mags. Not even the dinky no-name 5 round Chinese one. Still need to find a nice stock to put on here, so I can throw the crappy M4 style one in the parts bin. I'm kinda thinking about a B5 SOPMOD, but I don't know yet. I do like how if you have an empty magazine in it and you use the finger pads on the release instead of pushing the bottom like an AK, the release actually goes far enough forward to slap the empty mag out of the well for you, so you don't have to bust your fingers trying to do some retarded Iraqi reload. 
Should have it out on the range Saturday to give it a test run. |
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Quoted:
I've got the SBR version on a Form 4 waiting approval. Going to add a SPECWAR. Looking forward to mating those two up. I think that would be a really awesome setup. I really, REALLY wanted the 10" SBR version, but I didn't want it to get stuck in jail forever. Three weeks was an almost unbearable wait for this one. Actually, I think a 13" unpinned barrel would be just about right for one of these. |
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Quoted:
Been considering PSA's version of an AK built on an AR platform but I like the looks of this one a lot. What do these Mutant's normally sell for new? The basic model I bought ran me about $2-250 more than what the PSA costs for their complete rifle. I would say, if you were looking to do major swapping of parts, like the handguards and stuff, go with the PSA. The Mutant has a much more limited selection of front-end parts, because it's a DPMS high-profile handguard instead of an AR15 one. Honestly, not having to deal with a bored-out AR15 bolt is 85% of the reason I went with the Mutant anyway. |
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Okay, so. Here is what I got out of the first range trip.
Good: This rifle is crazy accurate More recoil than the 5.56 AR, naturally. But less than the AK by a lot. Probably equal to shooting my AK with the Nightbrake on it. Bad: It's crazy accurate, when it wants to shoot. Acts like it's short-stroking(?), but ONLY with one type of mag. Problem is, that mag makes up 90% of the ones I own. Trigger pin walked out under recoil after 80 rounds (Although I am 99% sure this was my own fault) Pics: 
25yd zeroing the Aimpoint Pro target. Off the bags. Started bottom-right > bottom-left > top-left > top-right (30rds, 3rd from brightest setting) > center (30rds, 4th from brightest setting). Top center was me swapping from 124gn Tulammo Black Box FMJ to the 124gn GT FMJBT. Far and away the best groups I've ever gotten with Tulammo in ANYTHING. Didn't run it out past 25 today, due to below issue. 
Probably the only good image I got of the jamming. That particular round/mag is the GT 124gn FMJBT in a Yugo BHO mag. These jams ONLY happened with the Yugo mags, but considering I had 6 of those at the range, and only one Magpul 30 (no jams with either ammo) and one Magpul 10 (Also no jams with either ammo) I'm pretty sure it's just something with those mags. It was actually worse on the mags with the GT ammo, occurring as often as every 2-3 rounds. I forgot, as to be expected, to bring a regular Euro-pattern steel mag, but I'll try to have one out at the range next time I go, to see if it's just a steel mag problem or what. Will also look into getting one of the Tapco plastic mags, just to see too. Bolt would ride over the base of the to-be-loaded round, and pin it against the chamber, and the next-to-be-loaded round would be popped loose and sitting on top of the magazine. Never, ever had this issue with these mags in ANY gun. Kinda curious, really. 
Loose trigger pin, popped loose about round 80. I am like 90% sure I actually caused this, though, when I was bumble-farting around getting it cleaned up prior to the range trip, I think I had bumped the hammer spring leg off the trigger pin in such a way that it wasn't in the groove. Dropped it back into the groove and it didn't happen again for the other 120 rounds or so. |
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Some worrisome thing mentioned.
You can't cause the trigger pin to walk out, so I doubt it's your fault. That is unless you were messing with the springs and pins prior to that. Then maybe you didn't quite seat the spring tale down into the groove in the pin. A chunk missing from the MOE pmag and Yugo mags not working. Again, worrisome. Acting like it's short stroking might be bad too, as in maybe it really is. You said the recoil was light, so it might be getting too little gas. Maybe the Yugo mag springs are weaker or the rounds feed slower in the steel mags. Could cause this. I've heard the CMMG might not be a gun you can take to war, but I don't know. |
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Quoted:
Some worrisome thing mentioned. You can't cause the trigger pin to walk out, so I doubt it's your fault. That is unless you were messing with the springs and pins prior to that. Then maybe you didn't quite seat the spring tale down into the groove in the pin. A chunk missing from the MOE pmag and Yugo mags not working. Again, worrisome. Acting like it's short stroking might be bad too, as in maybe it really is. You said the recoil was light, so it might be getting too little gas. Maybe the Yugo mag springs are weaker or the rounds feed slower in the steel mags. Could cause this. I've heard the CMMG might not be a gun you can take to war, but I don't know. This is exactly what I think happened with the pin/spring. Once I made sure the leg was down in the trigger pin groove I didn't have any more trouble with it. The chunk missing out of the PMAG is because it is possible to insert the mag in such a way that you miss the front lug but the rear lug catches the magazine catch. Since the PMAG fits so tightly in the magwell, there isn't the slop to it that the steel mags have, and it becomes very difficult to remove. It's not broken by any means. I haven't had any more trouble with it either, although that might be because I've had some more experience with mag changes on it. As for the short stroking, I can't see how it would be a gas issue, which is what confuses me. It ran 100% with both the PMAGS. It is possible that it's just the springs in the yugo mags, or maybe the finish on the inside of the feed lips is a bit rough and providing too much drag on the cartridges. That might make a bit more sense, actually; the GT rounds are lacquer coated, while the Tulammo is poly coated. I imagine the lacquer coating would take any extra friction much more poorly than the poly coat. I think I might try taking some buffing compound on a cloth and working the inside of the feed lips a bit, and see where that gets me. |
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Anyway, did some hand-cycling testing on the mags today.
Can confirm that the problem is isolated specifically to the YUGO pattern BHO mags. None of my other Euro pattern AK mags caused the jamming, nor did the Magpul mags or the no-name Chinese 5 round mag. So now I just have to figure out why the Yugos are giving me trouble. Or just buy a bunch of surplus Euro steel ones to replace them. 
~ETA~ It's the locking lugs. If you set them side-by-side, the locking lug on the Yugo mag sits lower than the Euro pattern, which pushes the back of the magazine higher up into the receiver. So it's simply a problem with incompatable mags. That's an easy fix. 
Ordered a 10-pack of the Polish non-BHO mags from AIM just now. Will check the lugs against the one functioning Euro mag and the Magpul mag when they get here. Might send one of the Yugos out to the garage, do a bit of grinding on the lug & then hit it with some weld on the backside for reinforcement and see if I can make it work. If not, it's not like I don't have more. |
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New mags got here from AIM today.
8/10 of them cycled a full magazine without issue, works great. Shouldn't have cycling issues. One mag wouldn't take more than 27 rounds, and the 27th had to be literally forced into it. Going to have to take it apart and figure out what's up. One other mag had a noticeably different finish/texture to it. Was too thick to lock into the receiver. When I finally did get it to lock in, it did the same non-quite-doublefeed that the Yugo mags were doing. Gonna have to take that one and work on the finish, see if I can salvage it. Hand cycling 240 rounds through your AR using the charging handle frickin' sucks.
~ETA~ The Yugo mag issue appears to be because the locking lug on all 6 of them sits about 3/32" lower than the locking lug on the Euro mags. Thus, elevating the rear of the magazine that much further into the receiver, and appears to be what's causing the not-quite-double feeds. It's not quite sitting high enough for the bolt to strip & feed both rounds, but it does sit high enough that the bolt is knocking the second round loose & jacking up the feed angle on the top round. |
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Quoted:
Seems to me the problem w that gun is that there can bee too many variables w the all the magazines and ammo on the market. I dunno, does an AK ever care about mags and ammo. It would be hard to run an experiment and rule things out. I've had and seen plenty of AKs that have mag issues as well as other issues. Granted most Aks run like water, but unlike what's written on the internet, you have to care for them too if you want them to run right. |
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