light weight b/c

[leper]

the galil b/c i finally got looks considerably lighter than a standard ak carrier. it was for some kind of shorty galil. there was discussion about this on falfiles about lightening the fn's carrier, will all the same stuff concerning bolt unlocking times apply to the ak? it is a factory job, so maybe its no big deal

[Packrat]

"It's a factory job, so maybe it's no big deal." True, but it's not an AK factory; the location and size of the gas port may be different, and the recoil spring may be different. Also, the unlocking cam may be different--the movement before unlocking and the angle of the unlocking cam. If the Galil b/c is lighter, then there is probably a difference that makes up for it.

MTK, at least, and probably other designers of the AK, were concerned about the bolt velocity. The AK-47 had holes in the gas tube, the AKM had notches in the cylinder on the gas block to vent the gas as soon as the piston blew out of the cylinder; the Saiga has neither, but all of them have the fluted gas tube which allows gas to flow around the cylinder and vent back into the receiver. (This seems like a bad system to me, but I don't know their thinking.) This may be the reason the Galil piston has the "star" behind the piston head--to stop the gases that blow around the piston head and get the energy from them to work on the b/c longer. If the b/c is lighter, it must either move faster or be kept moving longer, to make up for the lower inertia (caused by less weight).

There have been arguments about whether the AK action opened because the gas pressure blew it open, or the gas pressure unlocked the bolt and chamber pressure blew it open. It seems that the Galil, at least, uses gas pressure to blow the carrier back and open the action. The Galil b/c may work; the AK seems to be built to work under conditions that would cause other firearms to fail. But it's like using parts from a Star or Llama version of a .45 Gov't in a Colt; they are different firearms, with significant design differences, built by people who had no thought of someone wanting to swap parts.