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Posted: 6/24/2007 4:06:10 PM EDT
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After much tribulation, I finished a build with a very stubborn Romy kit. Barrel is in, barrel pin is in, all the various bits are reassembled. Looks pretty good, but it won't cycle rounds reliably (I haven't fired it yet). Some rounds go in fine, but others seem to get stuck with the bolt jammed at about the middle of the case. In other words, it seems the bolt is sliding on top of the cartridge, pushing it forward by scraping the side of the case and then getting stuck. Any ideas? Any (please) easy fixes? OK , more info. It seems to do fine cycling FMJ and not HP. But still badly with the first mag I tried. This mag has a plastic follower, unmarked. Is there such a thing as a non-US mag with a plastic follower and all metal otherwise? The body is the usual Eastern Euro style... |
| I am sure you have the selector stop installed. how did mag fit, any grinding done to mag catch. have done that before. mag looks good, but actually to low for proper feed. Just thinking out loud, sure someone will come up with something if you don't find it first. good luck. BTW bolt/carrier cycle smooth without mag installed? |
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Is the magazine crooked when installed? looking down the rifle from the back does the magazing appear to cant to one side relative to the receiver? It's easier to tell with the butt stock removed. If yes, it may be caused by a "magazine spacer" thingy on the lower rails pushing on the magazine. IIRC, you will need to remove more material from the side that the magazine is pointing towards. eg: if magazine is crooked to the right, grind off a bit of the "magazine spacer" on the right side. |
| Are you using Tapco flats? I had the same problem, never really got it resolved (drove me crazy!!). I was told it was everything from the rails to the bolt binding to the ejector filed them all down and still no luck. I ordered a few AK builder flats to see if I will have better luck. I will check back maybe you will find a solution. |
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Check to see if your bolt is engaging the rear of the cartridge enough to ensure proper feeding. Below is a picture of what I'm talking about. Any less engagement by the bolt head could cause your problem. Which means either the magazine is to low or the bolt is to high. 
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Just some follow-up after some problem solving. Thanks for all the feedback. The barrel and pin had been a bear to remove and the barrel got stuck while trying to put it back in the trunnion. When the stuck barrel was removed, some very light sanding and polishing of the barrel and its pin helped put everything back together. When I finally assembled everything, I was not in the mood for more probs, but of course got some. To fix the above problem, I decided (thanks for the pic) that the mag needed to be a bit higher in the back. Using a big punch I beat on the selector stop where the rear part of the mag catches, slightly raising it toward the inside of the receiver. I was inspired by a factory Romanian AK that shows signs of this being done. This made that part fo the receiver perfectly flat, and the bolt pushed the rear of each cartridge nicely. HPs still did not feed every time. Thanks to another part of this forum, I found that this Romy has basically no feed ramp. I looked at pictures posted of grinding a feed ramp and was convinced when a Hungarian barrel I saw had a feed ramp and worked very well. I very carefully ground a shallow feed ramp where the HPs would hang up...polished it nicely...replaced the firing pin and went with a buddy to the range... IT WORKS!!! Not only does it work well, but it fed the beat up, flattened point HPs that I used for testing the action. It also managed 2 to 2.5 inch groups at 50 yards, which is as good as I can possibly shoot with iron sights with any rifle. Oh, and the magazine was lame, and its follower was replaced with a proper one. All the frustration was worth the results. With all the tools I bought (mainly the spot welder and the drill press) it was still probably cheaper than the Mini-14 I sold when I "discovered" AKs and it's actually more accurate! |
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