AK 47 Recoil echoing through stock?

[RaisedByWolves]

Couple things I can add:


Romanian Hot Shot is current production milsurp from Romania. Good for plinking, nice and hot but not target ammo by any means.

I personally like it.


KOREAN Hot Shot Is packaged similarly and is a wild card IMO. Never shot it, but for the price and the spotty rep it has theirs better out there. Again, I Opine.



The AK Recoil buffer:

Throw it, Throw it as far as you can and dont look back. What these do best is take up valuable operating space inside the receiver.


Im thinking the +10% spring will help you or lead to failures.


If the gun operates fine with the new spring and you still have pain your cheek bone may be the culprit.


.

[PA Rifleman]

... When I fire one of my AK's (the Romanian fixed stock with US poly Bulgarian copy furniture) after a while my face takes a serious beating. ...
So yesterday I brought this one out of retirement and it was great! But after a couple magazines it really kicked the crap out of my face. It does not do this at all initially but the more I fire it - the more recoil seems to echo down through the stock into my face. It gets worse and worse until I can't even put my face on the stock. ...
... It's a side to side reverberation that literally vibrates into my bone in my face.

I'm not trying to sound like a bitch but I'm not kidding this is unbearable. The first 100 or so rounds it doesn't do it at all. Then it starts to do it more and more until it feels like the bolt carrier is being stopped by my cheek.

I had a recoil buffer sitting around and I tried it with and without and it makes absolutely no difference.

Help?

First, I have never personally experienced what you're dealing with, but I will accept your word that it's real. I do have a suspicion what's causing it, though.

You allude that you have more than one AK, so take your bad boy and one other AK that performs normally to a shooting range. Try swapping bolt carriers (not the actual bolt!), carrier spring, etc and see if the symptom follows any particular part to the other gun. Swap stuff that might even seem stupid or unlikely, like the machinery (receiver) cover, magazines, forearm grips, etc.

If temporarily swapping parts doesn't change the behavior, consider swapping the buttstock for a wooden buttstock. Try to use a US-made wooden stock to avoid any potential 922r issues. Buttstocks are fit very tightly into the receivers, so expect a fight.

The two areas I'd investigate are:

• Flexing or minute amounts of buckling, transferring some of the recoil upward into your face. Maybe a void in the stock casting?
• A object inside the buttstock compartment (typically a cleaning kit)without a retention spring.

Let us know how your research goes.

[lilb93]

did any one else fire it and feel the same thing??

[mak47]

Well it definitely doesn't sound like an ammo issue. I'm betting at this point its a combination of positioning and a weakening spring. I'd bet the increased power spring resolves the issue either way.

The thing to remember with the recoil spring is that even though you've only put a few thousand rounds on it, its probably seen many, many more during its military life. It isn't surprising if its worn out. Did you notice particularly hard case ejection recently?

As for the gas system question, the AK gas system isn't designed to be adjustable, however, if the port is dirty or clogged the rifle would transfer a lot more recoil through the stock rather than absorbing it in the spring. This is unlikely if you clean regularly, but not entirely impossible. I would think you'd be noticing problems with weak ejection or improper feeding if that were the problem.

Keep us updated, this is a tough one.

[nfafan]

Poly furniture? That does the same thing to me too.

I guess its just so much lighter or "less dense" than the wood that it transmits more of a beating to me. I have less issues with my metal folders.

[Asmodeus6]

Well it definitely doesn't sound like an ammo issue. I'm betting at this point its a combination of positioning and a weakening spring. I'd bet the increased power spring resolves the issue either way.

The thing to remember with the recoil spring is that even though you've only put a few thousand rounds on it, its probably seen many, many more during its military life. It isn't surprising if its worn out. Did you notice particularly hard case ejection recently?

As for the gas system question, the AK gas system isn't designed to be adjustable, however, if the port is dirty or clogged the rifle would transfer a lot more recoil through the stock rather than absorbing it in the spring. This is unlikely if you clean regularly, but not entirely impossible. I would think you'd be noticing problems with weak ejection or improper feeding if that were the problem.


keep us updated, this is a tough one.

Explain in greater detail what you mean about transferring more recoil through the stock instead of the spring? Like if it was not cycling the action right I would be getting more physical recoil from the shot being fired? That's what it feels like - it does not feel like the bolt carrier slamming to the rear - it feels like the recoil forces are exacerbated by something and it's literally twisting the gun about and into my face. But at the speed at which things are happening in that weapon my perceptions cannot really be counted on to be accurate. I also did not have the presence of mind to look at cases or even how far it was tossing them. The friend I had there for a while (before I started really shooting the AK) marveled at the path of cases in the snow thrown by the PSL however. There was a swath tossed from 10 to 35ft and he could not believe how it far threw them.

Poly furniture? That does the same thing to me too.

I guess its just so much lighter or "less dense" than the wood that it transmits more of a beating to me. I have less issues with my metal folders.

This leads me to believe that I have just changed how I put my face on this weapon after shooting others for so long. That's when that ITC rest will come in handy.

[Orion0317]

So it was simply cheek weld?


Sorry to drag up an aged thread, just curious as to what was causing the issue.

[scoutjoe]

Maybe I missed it....but is your rear truinon showing signs of being abused? Ie

From a Saiga-12, but just to illustrate



From a Romak 99.1 (Basically a WASR 7.62x39)

[Asmodeus6]

I got the Wolff 10% recoil spring in a few minutes ago and installed it. I don't know what the original pundage is on the AK spring but this one is noticeably stiffer. It makes no difference to me charging the weapon - like it doesn't feel inhibitively stiff. But it's light years difference from the original.

I wanted to say 'no' Scout. But I figured I better go take a closer look since it's not like I could really see munched metal back there. But on closer inspection and good light - yeah. It's definitely showing some signs of it's round count.





I wouldn't call it whooped, as there isn't any peening, but it's definitely taking hits.

[Orion0317]

When you get to take her out again, I'll be interested to know if that fixed the issue. If so, definitely something to keep in mind.