AK-47 Seating Issue with PICS

[dmclark523]

Hey guys, here I am for some advice again....

I've very very carefully worked up a load for a 125gn bullet from Accurate Molds.
Due to the bullet design and location of the lube grooves, I had to seat the boolit
lower than what most would consider normal for the 7.62x39. At 1.880 is where
I am at right now, behind 17gn's of AA 5744. All in all, a fairly light load still.

The first picture below is what my bullet looks like in the mag, for reference.



With such a strong action as the AK-47, I've been getting boolits like this
picture below that get stuck while chambering.



This happens to me 1 in ever 3-4 shots. I'm using Lee Dies, and yes,
using the crimp die for these rounds.

1) To see if the action is seating the boolit deeper in the case, I measured, cycled a round, and then re-measured. No issues. 1.880 every time.

2) I'm giving it a pretty heavy crimp and still getting these results....

3) This never happens upon initial cycling. It's always AFTER the first or second round is fired.


In case you're wondering, I'm getting 1.5in groups at 60 yards with iron sights...

Any ideas??

[dbosman]

It could be my eyes, but I'm not seeing what I'd call a heavy crimp, in those pictures.

[Win94ae]

I tried a round nose bullet I got for my for my 30-30 in my AK, it never cycled. Now I use a 160gr Spitzer [Lee CTL312-160-2R,] crimped at the cannelure, which has cycled every time without fail. I think a pointier bullet would cycle more reliably.

[SeabeeMan]

Nose shape would be my guess as well as I doubt it was really intended to feed round nose ammo. I bet if you cycle the bolt slowly and watch the round feed you'll see where it is running into whatever amounts to a feed ramp or the throat. No idea why it doesn't ever do it on the first round unless you are riding the bolt forward slightly.

[tomme boy]

What AK do you have? Most of these in the last 10 years or so are single stack AK's that have been modified to double stack. I don't think these have the bullet guide like a true AK has on the bottom of the receiver.

[dmclark523]

It is a Century Arms WASR 10.

Ive got some things to think over and a few different tests to make... but like I said, they group pretty nice and i like the way they feel, but just not sure how exactly to combat this...

[tomme boy]

The Wasr is a converted single stack by Century. Take the top cover off. Take out the bolt carrier assembly. Now take a picture of the inside of the receiver showing right in front of the barrel trunnion.

[tyeo098]

Having built a few AK's over the past few months (new job woo!) I can tell from the second pic that the bullet is hitting the bullet guide, just off of sqaure, on the trunnion with considerable force.
This causes the lead to deform and form a 90* shelf, which causes the carrier to keep pushing the case on to the bullet, and you lack of considerable crimp causes it to go all turtle on you.

Solution would be to use a pointier bullet that would not hang up on the bullet guide.

Do you see any dents on the rounds that you cycle by hand? That should tell you.

[2wheelDuke]

I'd try the Lee 312-155 boolit for that gun. I'm also looking forward to JTknives' rendition of the same boolit, which will be CE Harris' original design.

[Maximumbob54]

I don't see any crimp at all in the case mouth in any of the pics.

[blaster]

I don't see any crimp at all in the case mouth in any of the pics.

and I'd try the Lee 312-155 boolit for that gun.

You might try a different mag too. My wasr turtles on the lee from asian pattern mags.

[HATCH]

its the nose profile of the boolit causing your problems.
you could polish up the boolit ramp some

[historicfirearms]

Could be the difference from feeding off the left versus right side of the mag.

I can't get a round nose to feed in my AKs either, although Privi does make a factory RN. It hasn't gotten good reviews for reliability though.

[freebullet]

Op shoot me a pm with your info. Monday I can send you a few raw lee .312-155 castings to try.

[iron_llama]

I had some feed problems with my WSAR-10 when I bought it in 2002. When they modified it to take standard AK mags they made some very rough cuts in the feed ramp, which gouged the brass cases, resulting in FTFs. Examine the feed ramp to check of evidence of hanging up.

The main thing I can think of, though, is your cartridge over-all length is very short compared to a standard spitzer-point FMJ. There is a lot of room for the round to bounce around in the mag and I think that may be your culprit. I'd suggest you measure 10 cartridges and record the COAL, then load them into the mag. Shoot until you get an FTF (you said about every 3 rounds) then download the mag and re-measure.

Lee makes a mold for the 7.62x39, it's the CTL312-160-2R double cavity mold. Titan and Midway list it at around $20 but are out of stock at the moment. I don't have that mold (yet) otherwise I'd cast up a dozen or so for you to try out. Whatever you load I'd sugget using a strong crimp, maybe with a crimp die, and load to the same COAL as the military loading. An alloy on the harder end of the scale, or water dropping, might not hurt much, either. While the AK doesn't recoil much it does bounce around a bit while cycling and that can be tough on blammo that isn't made for it.

Then again I don't load for my AK so I may be talking completely out of my southern hemisphere...

I hope you get this figured out, eventually I'd like to cast for my WSAR-10 and SKSes.