Problems with Krink: Bolt over base malf.

[1911-A1]

Sounds like the receiver is out of spec. Unfortunately that isn't an easy one to address. I spent a fortune on my first Krink, because as you mention- about a decade ago the parts were near non existent. Luckily mine runs very well.

It ran fine for years. This is a relatively recent issue. That's why I tried replacing the spring first.

[Bret]

Are the magazines you're using now the same ones that you were using when the rifle was cycling reliably?

[Peshawar]

Years ago I had a similar issue. It was a problem where the magazine wouldn’t seat far enough up into the gun for the bolt to reliably strip rounds from the mag.

Basically, above the mag catch on the bottom of the gun is a selector stop that is often milled to achieve the proper height and angle for feeding. At real AK factories they have gauges for this to determine how much to mill off the selector stop’s downward facing area where the magazine lug rests.

What could have happened is that your mag catch has worn sufficiently over years of use to be now preventing the mag from sitting high enough for reliable feeding. Thus, the bolt skimming and missing the rear of the round as it sits in the mag upon cycling.

Remedies could be using different mags which sit higher and allow a more parallel interface beteeen the rails, carrier / bolt line of travel, and magazine. Second, you could attempt to replace just the mag catch and hope that a tighter fit of the mag lug to the selector stop will fix the issue. Or three, have an AK smith refit the selector stop plate and then also replace the mag catch.

Good luck in however you decide to proceed.

-P.

[1911-A1]

Years ago I had a similar issue. It was a problem where the magazine wouldn’t seat far enough up into the gun for the bolt to reliably strip rounds from the mag.

Basically, above the mag catch on the bottom of the gun is a selector stop that is often milled to achieve the proper height and angle for feeding. At real AK factories they have gauges for this to determine how much to mill off the selector stop’s downward facing area where the magazine lug rests.

What could have happened is that your mag catch has worn sufficiently over years of use to be now preventing the mag from sitting high enough for reliable feeding. Thus, the bolt skimming and missing the rear of the round as it sits in the mag upon cycling.

Remedies could be using different mags which sit higher and allow a more parallel interface beteeen the rails, carrier / bolt line of travel, and magazine. Second, you could attempt to replace just the mag catch and hope that a tighter fit of the mag lug to the selector stop will fix the issue. Or three, have an AK smith refit the selector stop plate and then also replace the mag catch.

Good luck in however you decide to proceed.

-P.

I have about 25-ish 5.45 mags. All surplus. I wonder if trying magpul mags would be a good idea. Do they fit tighter? I'll check the fitment of the stop you mentioned. Thanks!

[Peshawar]

I have about 25-ish 5.45 mags. All surplus. I wonder if trying magpul mags would be a good idea. Do they fit tighter? I'll check the fitment of the stop you mentioned. Thanks!

Tightness isn't necessarily what you're looking for here. There are millions of AK's out there that exhibit a loose-ish fit when it comes to mags. In your case, if I'm correct, it's more an issue of the angle of the rear of the magazine as it sits in the gun. One way to determine what's going on is to use a loaded mag (hopefully you have a safe place to do this or you could use dummy rounds) in the rifle. Open the top cover so you can see what's going on inside, draw the carrier to the rear and then examine what you see as you allow it to to slowly move forward. Basically just slowly and carefully hand cycle it. Does the bolt face contact the rear of the top cartridge in the magazine with a fair amount of its area, or is the bolt just barely skimming the topmost cartridge where it's obvious that upon quick cycling it's missing rounds, or perhaps glancing and then bumping rounds downward back into the mag because it's contacting so little area on the rear of the cartridge?

If the problem is what I suspect, then you're not getting a lot of contact between the bolt face and the top cartridge of the mag.

To remedy, it could indeed be solved with different magazines. Check the ones you have, some may indeed be ok. To repair this issue properly isn't very simple. It will require someone with AK building / fixing knowhow that has the tools to drill out the trigger guard rivets, refit the selector stop, and then re-rivet it all back into place. I'm hoping you can just find some mags that will resolve it.

Try the hand cycling and let us know what you see.

Best,
-P.

[RetroRevolver77]

I covered the selector stop differences on page one. At this point I'd send it off to Chris Butler at AK USA and see if he can fix it. He's done some amazing work for me over the years.