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Posted: 3/4/2004 6:29:21 AM EDT
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My SAR-1 is still having feed problems. When I chamber a round, the nose of the bullet is making contact with an area inside the receiver and it is gouging the nose. I have tried it with various ammo and mags and it still does it. I don't know what to do about this. It looks like the ledge the bullet is hitting should be ground down lower or smoothed out at least, but it is not. Any ideas? Thanks. |
| Verbatim, when you are chambering a round,are you easing the bolt forward or are you just pulling the charging handle back and letting it go?AKs [and all other Military weapons]are not designed to be pampered,pull your charging handle back and let it go.If you're already doing this and its still not feeding,polish your feed ramp with a piece of emory cloth and try it again. |
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Is this area considered a "feed ramp"? I wasn't sure because of how it looks. Yes, I am letting the bolt assembly slam home each time. I have tried it slowly and it makes no difference except that going slowly it will (of course) tend to hang up. If polishing is required, I can tell you from looking at it that I would have to remove some material to recontour the ramp and then polish it. The ramp is actually a ledge with a sharp right angle and this edge or angle is where the bullet nose makes contact. Thanks. |
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Just to clarify, this ledge is not a part of the barrel, rather it is a part of the receiver. The bullet nose hits the flat of the barrel after it clears this area, but I don't know if there is anything I can do about that. I may take the Dremel to it tonight and see what I can do. |
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The mags fit properly. The bullet nose hits the feedramp and becomes deformed. This is the main problem. The bullet nose, once cleared of the feedramp (which it does without jamming) then hits the flat of the barrel, but this does not cause any issues that I can tell. I did just notice that when the bolt grabs the back of the case to be chambered, the entire cartridge "nosedives" or points downward some before releasing from the mag. |
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It's your magazine. Don't do anything to the gun. Try different magazines. Are you using genuine military mags? (hard not to). If you're determined to use the malfunctioning magazine, take it apart and make notes on how it goes back together. You'll have to bend the tail of the follower out toward the back of the magazine to force the nose of the follower up. Since the feed lips are like cast iron on AK mags, you can't do much bending, but check under the front edges of the feed lips for burrs or extra metal that may be forcing the cartridge down. You may have to use a file or the Dremel to relieve the front edges of the feed lips to help the cartridge point up. Check the magazine catch and lock on the gun and magazine to see if there's anything there that would keep the magazine from locking in the correct position. We all tend to forget one salient fact about the auto-loading gun; without a working magazine, it's just a poorly-designed club. You have to consider the magazine part of the gun and give it the same attention to function, cleanliness and lubrication that the gun gets. Yes, I know, no oil in a magazine, but there are ways to slick them up and improve function. One is to oil with FP-10, then wipe until nearly dry. You just don't want any oil getting on the cartridge case, since a slick case can blow the bolt; there has to be a certain coefficient of friction in the breech chamber to help hold the case in place. |
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Well, I don't think it is the magazine. I have tried it with all six of my magazines (one Chinese, one Romanian, and 4 Bulgarians, all 30 rounders) and they all do the same thing. I cleaned off the cosmoline with Hoppe's No.9 and a nylon brush and then oiled them with FP-10 and wiped dry. So, all of the magazines should be fine. |
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I have one odd mag in my collection that does not fit up into the gun far enough to feed a round properly. I don't know why or if it was a factory defect. The nose of the bullt catches on the bottom of the barrel and stops there. That reminds me, I need to see if I can fix that or throw it out! I end up at the range with it fully loaded because I forget about it until it's too late. |
| Verbatim,are you actually experiencing FTFs or function problems or is the action just bunging up the tip of your bullet but feeding?I've noticed that AKs do tend to go through a break in period,usually a few hundred rounds,this period of use generally smooths up rough surfaces.Much of this can be taken care of with emory cloth or a smoothing stone,top rec rails,feed ramp or chamber,I've even smoothed up the inside of the gas tube on occasion. |
| Flawless funtionality thus far. I understand what you are saying, but I think mine is on the extreme end of the "rough" finish spectrum. My MAK-90 was nothing like this SAR-1. I know AK's are rough around the edges by nature, but this one really is quite rough. I will try and take some pictures tonight. Stay tuned. |
| The MAK 90 is a pretty smooth AK out of the box where as the SAR1 needs a litte TLC at first but are still good AKs.Since your SAR1 is functioning flawlessly,just smooth up the rough or sharp edges and put some rounds through it.All AKs shoot and function better once broken in. |
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