No. 1 reason for an AK to fail to fire?

[Wicky]

I know they rarely fail but, when they do, what fails?

[coolsolid]

Mine failed to fire because the front barrel assembly was loose. It was a screw built, and it wobbled. I never noticed, until I had lots of misfires. Riveted it down, and no FTF after that . The guy who built it b4 me was a screwy guy haha. Also, the firing pin might be worn down, or the hammer spring might be too weak/not installed correctly.

[Wicky]

Originally Posted by coolsolid

The guy who built it b4 me was a screwy guy haha.

[beefjerkly]

Ammo related.

[Enraged Gecko]

Some ammunition manufacturers, like Wolf, use hard primers...... I'm sure some of these Saigas might have a hard time with hard primers since they're built to commercial standards.

[coolsolid]

Ammo should not be the problem, hell in Russia they use any ammo in a saiga and it runs >.<

[sleestak70]

The only time any of mine failed to fire was they were empty. click!

[drjarhead]

In my experience, personally, it has been after cleaning and when reinstalling the selector, I've pushed the hammer spring off the end of the trigger. I've done that on two AKs now.

Another is due to hammer follow. In both cases it was because the person who built them didn't function check them and I had to remove some material off the hammer.

Yugos will become bolt actions if the grenade sight/plug isn't properly installed.

[FullAssault]

Ive had dbl feeds and failed extractions with maks and NHM 91s. My PSL failed to chamber a few times, the Rom 10/61 failed to eject one time, the m 10 and Arsenals have never failed

[masman]

Originally Posted by coolsolid

Ammo should not be the problem, hell in Russia they use any ammo in a saiga and it runs >.<

i will say its rare but the only problem i've had is ammo related. and like EG said its always been wolf 99% of the time just give it another wack and it will go. then there was the time i got one with no primer in it

[Zdeno]

Shitty magazines were the primary culprit.

I had one that I bought for $4, regular surplus Euro steel.

That thing was such a piece of shit, someone had dragged it around, thrown it and just beat it all to hell before I had it, when I got it there was sand inside it, not a little bit but a copious amount that poured out when I took the floorplate off to clean it.

It also had "die moeder fokkers" (Afrikaans for "die mother fuckers") written on the spine.

One time I was shooting it and the floorplate came off the bottom of the magazine, my friend got a good kick out of that.

The only other failures I had were from shitty ammunition.

[lsmurphy]

Never had a failure with my VEPR.

[JohnFreeman]

Never had a FTF..... in 8 diff AK's once the mag angle was set (builders) and never in commercial Rooskie or Chinese or Yugo variants.

[Enraged Gecko]

Had one double-tap with american eagle. Faulty primer on the second round caused the rifle to fire when the bolt slammed forward.

[Enraged Gecko]

I'll never use that shit again. The bolt didn't fully seat and it shot a fireball out the ejection port. damn near burned my eyebrows off.

[IanMor]

Several AKs I've owned wouldn't correctly feed the abortion ammo they make us use now with the "sporting purpose" non-harball ends (hollow point, lead point) So I just had to do a feed angle throating on the barrel so it would transition smoothly from the mag to the chamber. The other failure I have had was a result of the firing pin hole on the bolt face being eroded. Debris from the primer would flow around the firing pin and build up to the point of the gun not being able to fire. I replaced the bolt, and everything is fine. Reliable as a rock now.

[Cy4ka]

Bolts can hang on tapco triggers and then jam on ammo when someone who isn't used to an AK racks the bolt too softly or "rides' it forward. Happens allot actually...

I've had ammo james in the magazines from not being seated all the way back against the edge of the mag.

I've had a Wolf bullet stick in the barrel also.

Guess what's never given me any problems 'yet?' My direct impingement BCM AR15. Go figure that...

[panzertruppe]

Never had ftf,

panzertruppe

[unreformed66]

Failure to fire? Did you check that the safety was off?? lol.

[Wicky]

Funny, I grind my safetys off. They are worthless to me. There is no time out in war.

[WolfsburgBob]

Never had FTF in hundreds of semi-automatic and select fire AKs of many European and Chinese FACTORY variations as long as Mil-surp/Arsenal new ammo was used.

The recent flood of commercialy available (crap) ammo manufactured for 'cheap' buyers from questionable components by questionable people leaves the posibility for everything from a rare FTF to possible explosion leading to injury or death.

Caveat emptor!






PS, ... or as I say, 'let all of the cheap asses eat the cheap shit'.

.

[nalioth]

Originally Posted by Enraged Gecko

Some ammunition manufacturers, like Wolf, use hard primers...... I'm sure some of these Saigas might have a hard time with hard primers since they're built to commercial standards.

Never miss an opportunity to sh** on the "commercial" guns, right?

The only "commercial" quality stuff on a Saiga are the parts that don't make a single bit of difference in the way it goes *BANG* (you know - "fail to fire").

These parts are:

• Butt stock
• Klinton trigger linkage (the hammer and hammer spring are milspec)
• Fore end
• Muzzle device
• Sight leaf

The Saiga is a Kalashnikov made for commercial sale, but the majority of its parts are milspec.

[Sweersa]

I only had a failure to feed because of my attempt of fixing a problematic part in an attempt to save it before finally replacing it with a new, good one.

I had a bad magazine release lever.

[squirrelblaster]

The real number one reason why AKs fails is being built by CENTURY!!!!!

[bizarbies]

Originally Posted by IanMor

Debris from the primer would flow around the firing pin and build up to the point of the gun not being able to fire. I replaced the bolt, and everything is fine. Reliable as a rock now.

This has happened to me twice now. I just take the bolt apart and clean the debris. I have a Interarms IAC 47, I tried a WASR 10/63 bolt in it and it would not work in my rifle. Is there a certain type of bolt I need to use to replace the one I have to fix this problem? I know the IAC has Maadi parts. Any help would be appreciated. The WASR was the only other AK I have access to so I don't know if it was just that bolt. Thank-you in advanced for any help!

[Ding]

The only time I had a FTF was because the magazine was empty.Well one other time was when I let elkaholic fire one of my rifles.He broke it.

[my-rifle]

I've built about 30 AKMs and AK74s, and of those I've never ever had one fail to fire after chambering a round. I've had them fail to feed or fail to eject, but never fail to fire. Failures to feed have always been magazine-related, and failures to eject have always been ejector-related. In the first case, a new magazine fixes the problem, and in the second, bending the ejector always solves the problem.

On a Yugo I built in .223, I had many failures to feed, because I built it to accept Romanian mags which are a lot cheaper and easier to find. The transition from mag to feed ramp just didn't work very well, as the Romanian mags simply would NOT seat deeply enough for the Yugo bolt to to reliably strip rounds off the mags.

[rob-cubed]

Originally Posted by bizarbies

This has happened to me twice now. I just take the bolt apart and clean the debris. I have a Interarms IAC 47, I tried a WASR 10/63 bolt in it and it would not work in my rifle. Is there a certain type of bolt I need to use to replace the one I have to fix this problem? I know the IAC has Maadi parts. Any help would be appreciated. The WASR was the only other AK I have access to so I don't know if it was just that bolt. Thank-you in advanced for any help!

Careful just swapping bolts around unless you check headspace. There's a reason the bolt, carrier, and front trunnion all carry serials.

I would suggest measuring the existing firing pin and replace it with one a tad longer and/or taking just a little material off the firing pin shoulder it protrudes from the bolt a bit more.

[masman]

Originally Posted by Wicky

Funny, I grind my safetys off. They are worthless to me. There is no time out in war.

yeah ok

[Wicky]

Originally Posted by my-rifle

I've built about 30 AKMs and AK74s, and of those I've never ever had one fail to fire after chambering a round. I've had them fail to feed or fail to eject, but never fail to fire. Failures to feed have always been magazine-related, and failures to eject have always been ejector-related. In the first case, a new magazine fixes the problem, and in the second, bending the ejector always solves the problem.

On a Yugo I built in .223, I had many failures to feed, because I built it to accept Romanian mags which are a lot cheaper and easier to find. The transition from mag to feed ramp just didn't work very well, as the Romanian mags simply would NOT seat deeply enough for the Yugo bolt to to reliably strip rounds off the mags.

Good info...

[Wicky]

Originally Posted by masman

yeah ok

I'm glad you didn't take it literally. I thought for sure some here would take it literally.

[KernelKrink]

Hmmnnn, other than a real tight homebuild needing "broken in" to go into full battery, which I expected, all mine have gone bang every time so far. I did have one AK74 mag and one Thompson SMG mag I was loading fail to take more than a few rounds. Strangely enough, both had the same problem. Two followers, stacked! The Ak mag was mine, I kept the spare.

Probably number one on a new build or after a detail strip is putting the hammer in backwards.

[VSFoxhound]

Magazines.

[bizarbies]

Originally Posted by rob-cubed

Careful just swapping bolts around unless you check headspace. There's a reason the bolt, carrier, and front trunnion all carry serials.

I would suggest measuring the existing firing pin and replace it with one a tad longer and/or taking just a little material off the firing pin shoulder it protrudes from the bolt a bit more.

Thank-you... I will try the firing pin mod first. This is my first AK and its a learning experience to say the least. I appreciate the advice.

[Petro]

When i built my Tantal, i had forgot to soak/clean the bolt. I had many FTFs with Russian surplus. But the mag full off Wolf i ran through worked fine.
All the Surplus rounds had dented primers. It really threw me for a loop.
Then i realized that i never cleaned the bolt properly.
After i cleaned it, no such problems.