Saiga Noob's .223 magazine falls out

[mymonkeyman 0]

Hi,

 

I took my factory new Saiga .223 20" to the range today and I had problems with the magazines. It would go in and feel very firmly in, but after a couple of shots, the magazine would fall out along with the round that failed to feed. The cartridge that didn't feed would have a scratch mark along the length of the case. The ammo was Prvi Partizan 55grn FMJ. It would happen with any of 3 different factory Saiga magazines. Can anyone help me out?

 

Thanks

Edited April 28, 2008 by mymonkeyman

[nalioth 405]

Are you inserting the magazines properly?

[rd99fxdl 17]

Sounds like the latch isnt catching

[JK-47 33]

check youtube for some videos on how to insert an AK magazine; I think you are missing the front latch when you insert them?

[mymonkeyman 0]

check youtube for some videos on how to insert an AK magazine; I think you are missing the front latch when you insert them?

 

I am doing the whole insert front first and swing to back as in the manual. I am definitely getting the front latch, I can see that with the chamber open. The problem seems to be the magazine release latch is staying vertical after I have swung the back in, as in the magazine's catch is too thick to get past the magazine release latch or some clearance is wrong somewhere and the magazine release latch is just resting on the magazine's catch rather than securely below it. I doesn't seem to be an issue with the back not getting in far enough, as I can see that the top of the magazine's catch is resting directly against the bottom lip of the housing that the magazine release latch is in, it's just that the magazine release latch is too long or not positioned correctly in its housing or all 3 magazines have too thick magazine catches.

 

This seems to be why the first couple rounds fed fine but eventually the magazine came out: it was working its way out of the latch. These are factory RAAC magazines in a factory new RAAC .223 Saiga btw.

 

Thanks for the help so far, any more help would be appreciated.

[engbob 0]

smack that lil' bugger in once you have it set. they can be stubborn little bastards

[mymonkeyman 0]

smack that lil' bugger in once you have it set. they can be stubborn little bastards

 

I have now hit it with more force than I have ever hit a rifle before. It has not budged and I am afraid of cracking the plastic magazine housing or stripping off the magazine catch. After examining a number of pictures online of Saiga rifles, I think the hole in the magazine latch housing which the magazine latch pivots on was drilled 1-2mm too high, resulting in a magazine latch that does not have enough space for the catch to fit in. Has anyone heard of this defect happening before or am I just crazy or something. If I am crazy maybe someone can put me on the right track.

 

If I'm not crazy, I'm looking for some suggestions on how to fix this. The correct hole placement is too close to the current hole to drill a second hole in the magazine latch housing. Replacing the magazine latch and housing would seem to be difficult as it is riveted to the frame (I didn't buy this with the intent to convert it so riveting is not something I am interested in). So there are only two things I can think of to fix this: file down the magazine latch to make the catches fit or file down the catches on all the magazines. Anyone have any thoughts on which would be a better / less error prone solution or can think of another reasonably doable fix?

 

Thanks

[AKMIKEFMJ 0]

I would file the mag catch down a little.

[jhereg 0]

If I'm not crazy, I'm looking for some suggestions on how to fix this. The correct hole placement is too close to the current hole to drill a second hole in the magazine latch housing. Replacing the magazine latch and housing would seem to be difficult as it is riveted to the frame (I didn't buy this with the intent to convert it so riveting is not something I am interested in). So there are only two things I can think of to fix this: file down the magazine latch to make the catches fit or file down the catches on all the magazines. Anyone have any thoughts on which would be a better / less error prone solution or can think of another reasonably doable fix?

 

Thanks

 

It appears to me you have 3 solutions to this

1) Send it in under warranty if you can find someplace to do it.

2) File down the mag release so it works on all of your mags.

3) File down the mags so they work in your gun.

 

IMO it would be best to make the gun work w/ standard mags, and it's easy enough to get a new mag release if you mangle it, so that would be my answer. Make the gun fit the mags. I am leary of mags which are modified to only fit one gun.

[sfven 0]

If I'm not crazy, I'm looking for some suggestions on how to fix this. The correct hole placement is too close to the current hole to drill a second hole in the magazine latch housing. Replacing the magazine latch and housing would seem to be difficult as it is riveted to the frame (I didn't buy this with the intent to convert it so riveting is not something I am interested in). So there are only two things I can think of to fix this: file down the magazine latch to make the catches fit or file down the catches on all the magazines. Anyone have any thoughts on which would be a better / less error prone solution or can think of another reasonably doable fix?

 

Thanks

 

It appears to me you have 3 solutions to this

1) Send it in under warranty if you can find someplace to do it.

2) File down the mag release so it works on all of your mags.

3) File down the mags so they work in your gun.

 

IMO it would be best to make the gun work w/ standard mags, and it's easy enough to get a new mag release if you mangle it, so that would be my answer. Make the gun fit the mags. I am leary of mags which are modified to only fit one gun.

 

 

J said it best with listing your three options. Sometimes problems like these pop up, canted front sight blocks of example. The easiest, IMHO, is to slowly file the top of the mag latch until all your mags fit.