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Weak magazine springs


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Hey all,

 

Just joined recently, finally finished up my 7.62 conversion, took it out to shoot it and had some feeding issues where the tip of the bullet would get caught up on the bullet guide. With a couple minutes of troubleshooting, figured out the springs in both of my magazines are too weak to completely fill up with rounds, so they are more like 20rders instead of 30s... they're the cheap steel surplus mags from AIM surplus. Maybe that's what I get for spending $10 per steel magazine, but I did some research before buying them and everyone seemed to think they were decent. Anyways, I'd love to hear from anyone who has had this sort of issue, and also, whether or not it would be worth it to replace the springs (and what springs I should buy?) or just to spend my money on better mags. I'm throwing around the idea of getting some of those bulgarian waffle mags I keep hearing about. Thoughts?

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Weak springs don't prevent you from loading additional rounds into the magazines... I've never had issues with milsurp steel mags, and I've used a few hundred mags with many different countries of origin.

 

If your rounds are getting caught up on the bullet guide, it's probably an issue with the installation of the bullet guide.

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What kind of ammo are you using? Soft points? ya those were not really designed for use in Aks. If you are using those thats your issue.

 

If FMJs, Im betting the bullet guide is not installed correctly. AIm has a pretty high reputation. They dont make a habit of just selling shitty magazines. If there was an issue with the magazine im sure they would replace them anyways. That is if it was the magazine.

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No its not that they are preventing me from loading more, its that if I have all 30 in the magazine it fails to feed every time, getting caught up on the guide, but if I take out somewhere around 8 or more rounds out of the mag everything feeds properly, which makes me believe that it's the magazine's spring, not the bullet guide... and no, FMJ, some sort of surplus yugoslavian military rounds.

Edited by fastmelodic
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No its not that they are preventing me from loading more, its that if I have all 30 in the magazine it fails to feed every time, getting caught up on the guide, but if I take out somewhere around 8 or more rounds out of the mag everything feeds properly, which makes me believe that it's the magazine's spring, not the bullet guide... and no, FMJ, some sort of surplus yugoslavian military rounds.

 

A weak spring would cause the mag to fail to feed when only a few rounds are loaded. And would not effect function on the first half or so of a fully loaded mag. Becuse the spring pressure is increased with each round loaded.

 

I doubt the mag is your problem. Try another one. Post some pics of your bullet guide.

 

And also, a weak spring would make mags easier to load to 30rnds. Not harder.

 

I have a few old old steel

Chinese mags with worn out springs. And this is the way they behave.

 

By the way. Anyone know we're to get 30rnd ak mag spring?

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Will do, I'll take a pic here in a second. The thing is, it WORKS JUST FINE with 20 ish rounds in the magazine, no jams, feeding issues, nothing. I assumed it was weak springs or at least something to do with the magazine because of this. Let me put it this way, I couldn't get it to feed correctly, so I began taking one round out at a time and tested it each time. I eventually got it to work with 8 rounds taken out, leaving 22 left in the magazine. Worked just fine thereafter.

 

Okay here's a pic of my bullet guide. As far as I know it looks just fine to me, like I said, it works fine with less rounds in the mag, but then again this is my first conversion. Thanks again for the quick responses!

OH and I ordered the guide from Carolina Shooter Supply if that's important at all...

IMG_0101.jpg

Edited by fastmelodic
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Three things to check:

Are the followers 'cocking'?

Are the feed lips allowing the rounds to set too high when the mag is full and the spring pushes harder"

Your BG may need two little chamfers at the rear edge. One for rounds from the left and one for rounds from the right of the mag.

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Chevy - I'll post a few pics further down, thanks. And no, I said I ordered the bullet guide from Carolina Shooter Supply, but it very well could use the chamfers at the edge like G O B said. When it's got "too many" rounds in the magazine, the bullet that is supposed to load instead winds up directly hitting the bullet guide and getting stuck. It looked like the top round sat too low instead of too high... and I don't have any up and down mag wobble issues so..... yeah. That never happens with 22ish rounds or less, just when the magazine is full or close to it.

 

Here's the mag, I only ordered 2, and they both look exactly alike... Just wondering, what in the world would make the problem my bullet guide when the guide WORKS JUST FINE as long as my magazine isn't fully loaded? Wouldn't that make it the magazine's fault? Maybe it's not the spring in the magazine or whatever, but I don't see how it could be the bullet guide when that works just fine in most cases...

 

IMG_0107.jpgIMG_0109.jpgIMG_0110.jpg

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The precise feed angle can vary a little between a full mag and a partially-loaded magazine, and even from magazine to magazine because of differences in feed lip and follower geometry. A proper feed ramp happily guides rounds into the chamber from a wide variety of angles - an improperly installed or designed feed ramp (or no feed ramp) requires the rounds to enter at a fairly specific angle to feed successfully. Factory Saiga rifles have no built-in feed ramp, hence they require magazines with built-in feed ramps to consistently supply rounds at the proper angle.

 

The round hitting the feed ramp and getting stuck indicates the magazine is doing a great job supplying the round - the feed ramp is failing to guide it to the chamber.

 

A little dremel work with your bullet guide, and your rifle will be happily digesting steel ammo from surplus steel mags.

 

 

On a side note, if my eyes aren't deceiving me, your pic is not of a European magazine, but a Chinese mag. The follower shape and lack of a rear reinforcing rib give it away. Those are nice magazines.

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The bullet guide was never installed crooked, off center or anything, it looks just fine, so I guess it just had enough excess material on the end to piss me off. Thanks, I'll give the chamfers on the edge a try! And it's kind of funny, but AIM says that those mags are European. Most guys think they're Chinese mags made with Chinese machinery somewhere in Europe or something lol no one seems to be sure except by their appearance.

 

Here's the link to those mags

http://www.aimsurplus.com/product.aspx?item=MAK47E30&name=Surplus+European+Steel+AK47+7.62x39+30rd+Magazines&groupid=15

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The bullet guide was never installed crooked, off center or anything, it looks just fine, so I guess it just had enough excess material on the end to piss me off. Thanks, I'll give the chamfers on the edge a try! And it's kind of funny, but AIM says that those mags are European. Most guys think they're Chinese mags made with Chinese machinery somewhere in Europe or something lol no one seems to be sure except by their appearance.

 

Here's the link to those mags

http://www.aimsurplu...ines&groupid=15

 

Quite possible. It's more likely that they were manufactured in China, exported to Eastern European nations who purchased them because it was cheaper to do so than set up their own machinery, and spent long enough in Europe (I think the US feds say 5 years is enough) to be considered "made in Europe" instead of "Made in China," similar to how we keep getting treaty-banned Russian parts via Bulgaria.

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  • 4 weeks later...

The mags I bought from AIM for $9.99 were a bit rough around the edges, or actually I should say SHARP... I had to hit them with a 3M medium wheel to smooth them out to where they wouldn't cut you to the bone in a heartbeat. Springs are fine, not too hard to load but not too easy, no problems at all with them, but I tore them all the way down and cleaned everything up on them before using.

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