Good Lord. I've built enough ARs to figure I know what the hell I'm doing. But this 7.62x39 monstrosity has been making me feel like an AR failure for a year and a half..or whenever I started this build. I bought a barrel a couple of years ago. It's not a build I was overly excited about so I took some time gathering parts or just throwing leftovers into a box here and there until one day about a year and a half ago, I looked in the box and thought..hmmm I think it's all there. So I built it and it looked spectacular. I was kind of excited actually. I loaded up a mag, pulled back the CH and let her fly. Then I spent about 20 minutes with a flat screw driver gently prying open the stuck BCG with an out of battery round mostly in the chamber but not nearly enough. I tried it a few times with the same results. Then I remembered that stupid cliche` definition of sanity BS that didn't help. I was still frustrated. So I "googled". It seems I'm not alone. Yay ...Still frustrated.
So I read about grinding out the front of the mags....Tried that, still frustrated. Ordered fresh mags just in case that was a total crock. Took the barrel off and ground out the feed ramps a bit and polished them down...nope. I took the bolt out and tried a few things with the bolt...nope...still won't feed and gets stuck every time. So, It went in the vault for a time out.
Oh dang...different ammo! Why didn't I think of this before? Muahahahaha...damn it. Nope, that didn't help either. But hey! Here's something about using springs out of AK mags. I have some AK mags and no AK so why not? Nope...still prying the damn thing out with a damn screwdriver. Back in the vault for another day.
Hmmm I wonder if an adjustable rear end M4 carbine tube with a HD spring and buffer...Oh damn! That's even worse!!! Screw it. I will just rebarrel that upper to 5.56 like the rest of them. At least it will run. Shopping for barrels, I thought I'd at least check ebay. Cruising through the barrels, I landed on this. I tried to ignore it...but I couldn't.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/252555587425?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT
So 3 days go by and the mail man shows up at my door with my new barrel. It wouldn't fit in my mailbox. I had an extra stripped upper so decided to go all fresh with it. It has now been at least a year and a half monkeying with the damn thing so I really don't have any high hopes. I put part of it together in the basement last night because that's where a vice is. And the other parts I put on while snacking on left over pizza and watching the Young Pope on HBO. Pretty good show, you guys should check it out.
So, today is the day. I loaded up one of the fresh mags with the original spring and no dremel work. Check out that mag well..see there's no ammo in the mag?!?!?! That's right! It all went down range making my little orange spin target all happy as a tick on a blood hound. I figured it deserved one of my ODT Chicken lowers. If it didn't work, I was going to put it on an Anderson lower and give it to someone I hate for "free".
So I read about grinding out the front of the mags....Tried that, still frustrated. Ordered fresh mags just in case that was a total crock. Took the barrel off and ground out the feed ramps a bit and polished them down...nope. I took the bolt out and tried a few things with the bolt...nope...still won't feed and gets stuck every time. So, It went in the vault for a time out.
Oh dang...different ammo! Why didn't I think of this before? Muahahahaha...damn it. Nope, that didn't help either. But hey! Here's something about using springs out of AK mags. I have some AK mags and no AK so why not? Nope...still prying the damn thing out with a damn screwdriver. Back in the vault for another day.
Hmmm I wonder if an adjustable rear end M4 carbine tube with a HD spring and buffer...Oh damn! That's even worse!!! Screw it. I will just rebarrel that upper to 5.56 like the rest of them. At least it will run. Shopping for barrels, I thought I'd at least check ebay. Cruising through the barrels, I landed on this. I tried to ignore it...but I couldn't.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/252555587425?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT
So 3 days go by and the mail man shows up at my door with my new barrel. It wouldn't fit in my mailbox. I had an extra stripped upper so decided to go all fresh with it. It has now been at least a year and a half monkeying with the damn thing so I really don't have any high hopes. I put part of it together in the basement last night because that's where a vice is. And the other parts I put on while snacking on left over pizza and watching the Young Pope on HBO. Pretty good show, you guys should check it out.
So, today is the day. I loaded up one of the fresh mags with the original spring and no dremel work. Check out that mag well..see there's no ammo in the mag?!?!?! That's right! It all went down range making my little orange spin target all happy as a tick on a blood hound. I figured it deserved one of my ODT Chicken lowers. If it didn't work, I was going to put it on an Anderson lower and give it to someone I hate for "free".
