Help Me Diagnose Issues with my New Gun

[yamadog35 28]

I'm posting this here to ask some questions of more experienced MKA owners, but also to provide insight into what to potentially expect for others who may be picking up one of these guns in the near future. As with anything, your experience may be different.

 

Right up front let me say I'm not a competition shooter. I have a couple of trusted self defense guns and the rest are just range toys and conversation starters. I like projects so a year ago I bought an S-12 and over time I personalized it and tweaked it and now it will run any round I put through it and it's become one of my favorite guns to shoot. But I needed a new project so the MKA seemed like a good candidate.

 

I got my MKA last week through Atlantic Firearms with the Saiga-12.com member discount. Before shooting I stripped it down, cleaned, lubed and reassembled it in factory configuration. I have the two 5 round factory mags that came with the gun plus two more 5 rounders and two factory 10 rounders.

 

I went to a local indoor range Tuesday to try it out. Shot just over 100 rounds total. I had the following ammo with me.

Winchester SuperX Slugs

Rio 00 Buck 1200 FPS

Federal #6 Game Loads 1oz 1290 FPS

Federal #4 Hi-Brass Load 1-1/4oz 1330 FPS

Fiocchi #4 Waterfowl 1-1/8oz 1375 FPS

Winchester #7.5 Target 1-1/8oz 1200 FPS

 

Probably 95% of the rounds fed and ejected properly (slugs were awesome as usual ) . The issues I had can be summarized as follows:

 

1. The #6 Federal would FTE about 2/3rds of the time.

2. Twice all rounds fired as expected but when I got to the last round, pulled trigger, click - nothing. Bolt was fully into battery. Dropped the mag and found the last round was sitting in the mag looking like it was untouched. It happened once with a 5 round mag (#4 Fiocchi) and again with one of the 10 round mags (# 7.5 Winchester).

3. Three times all rounds in the mag fired fine but the bolt did not lock open. Happened twice with 10 rounders (not sure if it was the same one or not) and once with one of the 5 rounders. All of the mags held the bolt open fine other times.

4. I had one shell fail to feed and found that the shell was crimped/gouged at the top edge. This was the last round in the mag and only happened once (#4 Fiocchi). I can maybe attribute this to an already out of round shell that I didn't notice beforehand.

 

So anyone have ideas on what might cause #2 and #3? #1 I assume is just a weak load that either needs further break-in to run and or some adjustment with the gas system.

 

My overall impression was mostly favorable. I always like to have an adjustable stock, but if this thing just had a good handguard it wouldn't be too bad of a gun out of the box. The factory handguard is just plain crap.

Edited August 30, 2013 by yamadog35

[compshootfl 40]

I would give it more time...maybe another 100 rounds and then see what the results are. Mine got better as time went on, but I have found that the weak point in this platform are the mags.

[yamadog35 28]

I would give it more time...maybe another 100 rounds and then see what the results are. Mine got better as time went on, but I have found that the weak point in this platform are the mags.

 

I assumed that some more break in would help. I'm going to try and put another hundred rounds through it next week. After posting my info above I read a thread in the S-12 section about the new metal mags that someone is developing and testing. The thread has a failure to feed photo that showed the last round was not being pushed up fully into the feed lips. I have no idea if this is a problem with these MKA mags but next time out if I run into the issue of the last round not being fed, I will look closer to see if the round is properly positioned in the mag.

[toothandnail 275]

1. You are correct. The Federals being 1290 fps would be fine with no issues if they were 1 1/8oz shot. The 1oz shot makes this a weaker load for a new gun. This will get better the more you shoot your gun.

 

2.As your gun gets broke in this will go away. We have this happen a lot during the break in process of guns we build. The fired shell will eject but the bolt does not travel far enough to the rear to pick up the next rd. The mag spring does not have much load on it (top of its stroke) causing the shell to be presented too slow for the bolt to pick it up( not traveling far enough to the rear). Solved by shooting more.

 

3.Best thing to do when the bolt does not lock back on the last rd is to pull the bolt fully to the rear and make sure it will. This is before you release the magazine. If it does lock back then you know it was an undercharged shell. This is mostly solved by shooting more to loosen the gun up. If you buy cheap shells all the time you will probably still get a few failures to lock to the rear.

 

 

Compshootfl is right, the more you shoot your gun the better it will get. Some guns take more than others. Keep shooting and have fun doing it.

[yamadog35 28]

Shoot more. I like that advice

 

I was somewhat surprised that after the 100 rounds my shoulder was not sore and I had very little bruising at all. The rubber pad on that factory buttstock is actually quite effective.

[toothandnail 275]

I forgot #4, Some guns come from the factory with very sharp edges around where the shells feed into the chamber , a few are smoothed nicely, depending on your skill level with tools*, you can ease these sharp edges.

 

*disclaimer- some guys can do amazing things with very few tools, some can do amazing things when they have ALL the right tools .

[yamadog35 28]

I forgot #4, Some guns come from the factory with very sharp edges around where the shells feed into the chamber , a few are smoothed nicely, depending on your skill level with tools*, you can ease these sharp edges.

 

*disclaimer- some guys can do amazing things with very few tools, some can do amazing things when they have ALL the right tools .

 

I looked at those edges around the chamber and wondered if it would be worthwhile to work on those a bit. I won't worry about it unless I run into more problems.

 

I think I can handle the tools part. I build things like this (one of my other expensive hobbys)