AK Build Update #4

Liberals prepare to recoil in horror! A new scary looking black gun has been born.

The Tapco folding stock furniture fits like a glove. The only thing that I don't like about it is the fact that the hinge sticks out so far from the back of the receiver, and that is a minor issue.


I still have some tuning issues to resolve. The bolt sticks in the rear-most position, so I need to trim the upper rails slightly. I then need to clean all of the filings out of it and lubricate things properly.

This gun was built as a kind of hybrid build method. I screwed the front trunion on and riveted the rear one. I will eventually rivet the rear/lower holes on the front trunion, but the other front holes will still be attached with screws. I did this because I did not want to have to deal with checking/adjusting headspace. If I wanted to rivet all of the holes on the front trunion I would have been forced to press the barrel out of the front trunion, thus necessitating fumbling with headspace. I still haven't applied the Loctite to the threads of the screws. I have been told that Loctite or not, these screws will be a pain in the ass because they7 will require frequent re-tightening. If this turns out being the case, I will simply solder the screws into their holes.

I also used the screws to hold the trigger guard in place. Attempting to peen those rivets with the receiver folded was nothing short of impossible. I had purchased a screw set for this build. It included a number of square 6-32 screws and square nuts. I ran into a problem though. When these square nuts were in place, the hammer could not be installed, so it took a ingenuity to get around that problem. Nowhere in any of the write-ups that I had read online did I see anyone else having this issue. How have others over-come this issue? Here's how I did it. I took a piece of .1" brass sheet stock and cut a small plate that was large enough to cover the four trigger guard holes. I then drilled and tapped four holes to accept the screws. Then I trimmed the plate until the hammer would clear the plate on my mill. We'll see if that holds up.

I haven't yet installed the final muzzle device. So far the leader in the muzzle device poll is the AK74 style muzzlebrake (not that there's been that many votes so y'all dash over to that post and vote dang it!).

Oh, for those who are interested, the BATF requires that no semi-automatic gun be built with more than ten imported parts. Here is the break-down of imported versus domestic parts in this gun:

Imported: Barrel, Trunnions, Muzzle Attatchment (for the moment), Bolt, Bolt Carrier and Gas Piston

Domestic: Receiver, Trigger, Hammer, Disconnector, Buttstock, Pistol Grip and Forearm

So that means we have 6 imported pieces. Since the BATF counts and assembled magazine as three parts (Magazine Body, Follower & Floor Plate), in this configuration I can use any magazine regardless of origin. (6+3 = 9, 9 is less than 10)