Posted on 09/23/2009 6:19:16 AM PDT by HairOfTheDog
Welcome to The Hobbit Hole!
A couple of $1 funky metric screws finally arrived, allowing my to complete my American AKM project with the proper Bulgarian side-folding stock.
The stock is both well-designed, and crude in construction. I disassembled it, and ground and polished the bearing surfaced in the hinge assembly so it opens and closes smoothly, but still has that "snap" to it when it locks in either position. A generous rubber bumper in the top loop of the "buttplate" keeps everything solidly locked in the closed position, with no wiggle, rattles, or steel-on-steel contact.
The only thing really modern on this carbine is the PWS muzzle attachment. The original sov-bloc slant-cut attachment was worse than useless, in that it increased noise, muzzle blast, and recoil. Of course, the sights are as miserable as ever, but I suspect the intended users of this style of weapon never learned how to aim, anyway.
I finally had a chance to run a few magazines through the stainless steel CZ75B. That almost didn't happen because I managed to pack up everything I needed, except the magazines. A dozen mags at home, and not one with me at the range. :)
Fortunately, they found another stash of MecGar magazines for the CZ75B, so I was able to buy one on the spot. This was the first rounds I fired from the gun, and it's not too shabby, especially for me. :)
I may have to set aside the classy Hogue aluminum grips, and get some plain ol' rubber ones. The polished stainless steel is just too slippery for me to get a firm enough grip to operate the slide without major effort. The stickier rubber grips should allow me to push the frame forward with my right hand, while pulling the slide back with my left. A minor quibble for what is turning out to be the best-shooting 9mm out-of-the-box that I've ever owned.
Awesome looking Ak variant 300 ....well done. May I suggest one thing to consider doing IF you did some extensive grinding and polishing of that bearing surface. Case harden it again .
When I hone, grind, get too deep in bearing surfaces I have found it extends the life of the work.
My favorite Ak clone is a MAK 90 (type 56S Chinese, marketed by Norinco) I bought in the late 80’s and it sat idle in the Gunsafe for decades aside from some initial plinking to test it’s function and reliability. It has the under foldider stock and works well. A buddy at work is ate up with the sino soviet / Warsaw Pact rifles. He has real versions properly stamped and papered under NFA etc ...
His collection and knowledge is impressive, second only to his ability to build them from the ground up from individual parts. Recently I acquired a machined receiver that is very well made. He is helping me assemble and properly ensure each historical detail. My primary decision in the next few months will be to stamp it as a SBR and build an AKSu 39 side folder. All good fun during the winter months or hot days in the summer when I hide indoors under the air conditioner.
My goal is to take my time, remove all the machine tooling marks, hone, clean inside and out and build a perfect firearm.
My primary likes these days are old rolling blocks, high walls, Krag carbines and anything Winchester .
Long ago tangs on Winchester lever guns would break when carried in the scabbard and old paint would roll on the ground with the saddle and scabbard still on. I have three such samples of damaged rifles I am repairing and making into shooters versus collectors. One is a 1892 take down, second is a 4 digit serial number 1894 and third is a 1873. All three are / were 44-40 aka 44WCF.
Those projects should fill my casual time for a few years. ....:o)
Stay Safe Sir !
Morning Win-Mag - whoa that’s a nice group. Love them CZs. Rented a couple of them a few years back. Both were Ds, I like the decocker feature. Yep, they are surprising accurate. I held one that was the twin to yours about three or four years back. Gunshop near the office had them, it were tempting mighty tempting. I resisted the urge.
Found a new-to-me gunshop in a nearby town and visited it. I had heard about it but this was the first chance to visit. Better selection of and accessories than I was used to seeing (since December that is). They had just got in a shipment of CCI .22WMR “Critical Defense” ammo. Since CCI ammo is apparently made out of unobtainium, I bought a box. Looked at a couple of CZ rifles, the owner remarked he hadn’t shown many bolt action rifles to folks recently, just handguns and EBRs. Dang those CZ rifles are nice (mag and mag release not withstanding). And that’s all the newz that isn’t.
On an AK47, the muzzle threads are protected by a simple screw-on ring. It's locked by the spring-loaded plunger.
There are 8 indentations on the ring that allows you to tighten it enough so it doesn't rattle. On the AKM, there's only one indentation for the plunger, so the slanted part always wound up in the same location. There is always a bit of wobble and rattle because it never tightens up for that last partial turn. One of the problems with any flash hider in any weapon that needs to index to a certain point. With the M-16A2, with the blank area that's supposed to be on the bottom, shims are used for the final "timing".
The PWS flash hider shown for the AKM has two locking notches, because either side can be on top. They provide the red RTV rubber O-ring to take up the last bit of slack, as you snug it up enough to catch the detent pin, and squeeze the O-ring enough to silence any rattle. RTV rubber ("room temperature vulcanizing") is used in high heat applications (engine valve covers, etc) because it won't melt.
The rest of AKM flash hider's flaws I'm taking the word of various articles I've read. It's basically a rocket nozzle with one side of the exhaust bell sliced off to direct a bigger part of the muzzle blast in an off-axis direction, while trying to provide a bit of muzzle rise by directing the muzzle gases up and to the left. I just knew it had to go because it was loose and rattled by design.
One word of advice: I've found PWS muzzle brakes to be very good, as are some other brands, but all the good stuff, for any weapon, costs around $100. On an indoor range, I've seen the difference on my own rifles between something that will light up the entire firing line, and something that produces just a faint glowing jet that vanishes within a couple of inches of exiting the muzzle device. The faster the muzzle blast can be mixed with cooler air, the smaller the visible signature is, especially in the dark. Even for the AR15s, an efficient flash hider has to be at least twice as long as the factory one, with more vents and swirly passages.
That's important enough for me, for both shooting comfort, and tactical reasons, to invest in a better muzzle device. Getting rid of the annoying rattle is just another bonus.
Oh man I hate it when I get to the range and forgot the mags. It has happened a few times :P Last time I grabbed the wrong box of ammo. Just as bad.
It's also too slippery for me to rack the slide, since I have to take such a deathgrip on the slippery beauty, I don't have enough wrist strength to actually pull back the slide.
So I put away the lovely Hogue goncala alves and aluminum grip sets, and settle with some hum-drum, but vey tacky, wrap-around rubber grips.
So here are the results of the second trip to the range, where I spent more time testing the ammo than the new grips.
As before, the handgun is performing better than I am, but it's such a comfy and forgiving weapon, it makes me look better than I deserve to be. :)
But the main point of the range time was to test out the Remington Disintegrator 9mm +P 105gr leadless, heavy-metal-less practice round. While the blurb on the box says "same point of aim, same recoil as comparable service ammo", THEY LIE! It shoots to the same point of aim, and fed flawlessly, just like the Speer 115gr FMJ from the earlier session. But even at +P pressures, and only 10gr lighter, this was definitely a creampuff compared to the ball ammo. And this from a handgun set up for spring rates for regular service ammo. I'll have to see how my other 9mms like this stuff.
The reason I was testing the Disintegrator is because
1. The store got in a pallet of this stuff, without warning
2. The MSRP is $29.95 for box of 50
3. Premium defensive 9mm ammo is reaching $60 per box of 25
4. Generic 9mm FMJ will be approaching this price when new production enters the stream of commerce
Beyond that, the bullet itself is made of compressed and hardened iron "dust". The jacket is .8mm of pure brass electroplated over the iron core. It just has to be strong enough to keep everything together until the bullet hits the backstop, where it disintegrates into a cloud of iron that quickly loses energy. It also will not ricochet off of any surface.
This is certainly a "green" bullet, in that there is no lead, no jacketing materials, and no heavy metals in the primer. Second, the Disintegrator line includes .40S&W, .45ACP, 5.56mm and .22-250 rifle rounds (for "varmint hunting"), plus 12ga 00 buckshot and rifled sabot slugs.
On an indoor range, this is certainly a great benefit because everything is cleaner, and it doesn't slowly beat the hell out of a backstop like even lead eventually does. This ammunition has been out for a few years now, but I never really paid much attention to it. The Remington site lists all its sterling qualities, along with "other special uses". No further explanation.
I think that's a hint this could be a good, less costly home defense round, but Remington can't/won't say it. There are no ballistic gel tests that I know of, but the guys at the store say it performs like FMJ, except it will totally disintegrate on contact with anything as hard as bone, much less steel backplate. Over-penetration does not seem to be an issue. You are free to speculate on the odd fact that the calibers available, except for .22-250, which really is a varmint round, are common law-enforcement/home defense rounds.
One final caveat emptor: a lot of dealers are tacking another $20 to the MSRP, and trying to push it as another premium defense round. Apparently a lot of this just hit the market, and supplies are good. But they're counting on the 9mm ammo drought (after newbies suddenly realized a box of 50 won't get them through even a minor zombie uprising), so some dealers are hoping to rip them off again.
I'm eager to find some .40 and .45 in this line, but I've grabbed five boxes of the 9mm, just to be prudent. This ammo does everything every leftist greenie demands, but it still seems to be pretty lethal in some very specific circumstances. If you see any at the proper price, buy at least two boxes, one for testing, the other for saving.
Hmmm. Interesting.
Sheet of skateboard tape and some scissors and a paper punch to make some dots to give ya some key friction surfaces.. Clean / degrease the surfaces you want to add this to and stick em on. With heavy use they last a year per my experience. Couple bucks a sheet at local sports shop.
Awesome CZ ....very nice handgun. Love em.
Stay safe !
Same here. I bought this one strictly as a safe princess, but it so nice to shoot. Now I need something from CZ in .40 and .45. Real shame nobody makes a .357Sig barrel. And I'm mighty happy I snagged the .22 Kadet kit when I did.
And to top it off, they're a hell of a deal, even with the devalued US dollar.
As usual, my near-daily trips to "my store" always brings enlightenment, if not some new swag. Some days, the sales floor is empty, but there are tons of new shooters waiting to get on the firing ranges. Typical reaction coming off the firing line, "OMG, I just shot up the box of ammo I bought for this gun. Where can I find some cheap ammo?" I've been sorely tempted to say, "move to New York state, where, by law, seven rounds are all you need, and all you can have". But then I decided that there's no place for smart-assery in a gun store. I've already hit the floor a couple of times as some noob walks in with a weapon, being too stupid to read the warnings about stuff like that when entering the store. Let them get themselves "thinned-out" somewhere where I'm not.
On the positive side, I did score another CZ, this time a CZ75D (decocker) Compact in 9mm. Here it is with the slightly more showy, and slippery, CZ75B with traditional safety.
It has an aluminum frame, rather than steel, and along with two fewer rounds in the magazine and a shorter barrel, and is several ounces lighter while still feeling like a fine piece of machinery. The "D" has a working job waiting, as soon as I can get close to the range to spend a bit of quality time with the new toys.
I also have high hopes for finishing my CZ handgun collection in a short while. They make dozens of variations, but I only need a couple more for a representative population. The good thing is that "my store" decided a year ago that they wanted to be a volume CZ dealer, and ordered accordingly. The bad part is that CZ only sends a few items every week, with no idea of what's in the box of chocolates until they open it. Last week it was six CZ75Ds, which lasted a total of twelve hours spread over two days in inventory. Mine was sale number four of the first day.
Still, I took a hugh amount of smug pride when I said, "wrap it up, and throw in a half dozen spare mags, too". The store had the foresight to order a very large assortment of Mec-Gar aftermarket mags (the company also makes the OEM mags for most European brands, too), heavy on the ones for CZ. When the newbies figure out that an extra magazine, and extra box of ammo, are nice, I now buy six extras. My ammo supply isn't bad, so I can keep looking for bargains that still appear every now and then.
This is almost like a gold rush. Even "sane" people that never owned a gun, or maybe figured that grandpa's rusty .22 pump was "enough" started buying more respectable hardware. They've gone through most of the existing supply pipeline, and are slowing down simply because so much of the "tacticool stuff" is hard to get and expensive. But for the old time prospectors who keep working their little claim by the river, a little bit of "color" in the pan still turns up often enough to keep them interested and busy. Just a shame what all the "gold fever" gun buyers did to the pretty scenery when they stampeded through here not so long ago.
LOL .... And this to shall pass ..... Reload, squirrel away for a rainy day !
Very cool CZ.... Have not seen that one before. Grateful for the view.
The CZ catalog shows a lot of variations on the 75 platform, some of which, like target models, are most likely one-offs from their custom shop. Still, I'm learning enough of what I want from their spare parts department, or CZ special parts makers to already begin customizing all three (so far) 75s.
The two full-sized ones now have a lanyard loop like the 75D has. And all three have drop-free magazine brakes to replace the Euro-style "you sure you want to dump that almost full magazine?" brake that came standard on them. Customizing is fun when you know exactly what you want, and just need a source to buy from.
Speaking of "buying", I have to shop for some unobtrusive blunt weapons so my nephew can properly outfit his new office as president of the grad student council. Everybody said his encounter with the Korean grad student was the most explosive one ever seen in the 40 years of the grad student poster contest. And he didn't have a damn thing to do with it, anyway. :)
Surefire E2DL, a bandanna w a small pocket sewn into the corner for a new roll of quarters to fit in and start using sharpie twin tip chisel markers or at least one.
A messager bag or day pack w ballistic I sets or just a back panel off a old second chance NIJ IIIA rated vest .....
Also ask for a 25 pound ABC fire extinguisher.... Very abrasive to eyes and lungs when used as a riot agent vs a fire fighting tool .... Also the whacka mole option when empty and aggressor is down and coughing etc ...
All that aside a zebra 701 ink pen, 6$ in office max.... Will punch thru half inch plywood if ya can wrap it in a rag or bandanna to protect your own paw.....
Inside the thighs, neck, and armpits etc will do most damage as a get off me tool.
All else fails a simple rubber door stop wedge dropped to lock his office door works very very well to bunker down till the cavalry shows up...
Don’t forget tried and tru wasp spray.... Damn bugs !
Just some ideas.
Great Score Win-Mag; I liked that pistol a lot; rented one sometime back and found it easy to shoot. I really like the decocker feature which I understand can approach heresy to the 1911 platform devotees. The DA/SA feature works well with a revolver based muscle memory. Have you tried the Kadet conversion unit on your 75D?
RE: nephew, Squantos has some great ideas for easy to acquire and carry dual purpose items.
I've commented in emails on how many people sneered at the original list price of the elite H&K 30-round 5.56mm mags, a good value at $40. Built like a Teutonic sh!thouse. They whined about the lack of $6 GI surplus M16 magazines, and declared that even $20 was too much to pay for Pmags.
Well, Friday a new shipment of the same H&K magazines came in, at the new price of $95. The "old" ones vanished instantly, the new ones will probably hang on the pegboard and "age" for a while. Meanwhile, I've been buying whatever "good stuff" I can use, at the same "good ol' days" prices. Mostly magazines, but a couple of handguns were bounced from the brush pile, too. Range report tomorrow.
A pattern is starting to appear for new firearms, which are trickling in from most of the major players, but just a few of each brand. Glock still ships about 30 assorted guns a week, all of which are sold in less than two days. AR15 clones from most appearing, including new models never mentioned before. They're all gone within a few days, even the ones lower on the food chain. Most prices are up $50-100 over the old days.
Companies are also doing all sorts of things to cut costs. Those custom brand-name plastic cases for the more leet handguns are now replaced with cardboard boxes, the reason being "you just throw the nice hard cases away, and this way we save $2". That seems reasonable, but I saw a new Colt "economy M-faux" with the cheapest chicom or Tapco furniture on it, with a model number nobody even knew was out there. It had a pencil-thin barrel (possibly Spanish) and no-name BUIS, but the lower receiver was still marked "COLT" (in a new logo layout), and they were selling it for around $1000. Except for the Colt name, I'd rate it the same as I would a $700 no-name clone from four months ago. Put some money and work into it, and it could be a fine weapon. But for $400 more, that fine weapon is already to take home with you.
One major score this week was the discovery, and delivery, of a case of 500 rounds of Remington "Disintegrator" ammo in .357 SiG !!! for the dealer wholesale price of $25 per box of 50. The most important part is not only is this cheap .357, but I expect to have a range report on it, soon. This particular model of Remington ammo isn't even documented on the Remington site, but it just jumped out at me. :)
My quandary right now is what to test next? New handguns in .40S&W, or older handguns with the new .357?
I’m a fan of the .357 Sig..... CHL rig is a Glock 31.
125gr Speer GDHP is the preferred fodder.
Have a Glock 35 in SHort & Wimpy and love it as well, also a Sig P239 with both 40 and 357 barrels. Problem with that is specific mags for each caliber is a must due single stack geometry issues. Yeah either or is fine for paper punching but a P239 in 357 sig will jam if the 40SW mag is used.
40/357 shared staggered HiCaps like the P229 work fine and are carry reliable. Same for staggered HiCap Glock mags in 357/40 swap barrel rigs.....
Was at local shop yesterday and picked up PMAG’s for 30$ each. Also snagged 4 of the Surefire Mag 60’s for a C note each. We have those at work and they are flawless thus far.
My SBR stamped and papered M4gery is now officially a briefcase gun. Fits in a Pelican 1495 briefcase with upper and lower separated . Aimpoint comp B and. PVS-14 behind the Aimpoint on GG&G lever mount with canted BUIS’s . Room for 4 PMAGs orrrrrr 2 of these new Surefire Mags maybe.
Reliability tests will tell.. Nice package for a under the back seat rifle..
Colt is JUST a name anymore..... Not a fan at all. Won’t buy their products at all. Have some older (real) Colts and will keep em .... Bought a US Firearms Company Bisley a few years back and own a original Colt Bisley as well. The USFA quality impressive. Understanding and considering the generations separating the two both are awesome. But if yer going cowboy USFA is the way to go !
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Hope yer well !
Afternoon Win-Mag; nicely done on the HK mags; yep, plastic is all the rage but cardboard boxes - dang beancounters. Glocks old tupperware boxes were the easiest to store on shelves but the full size ones not so much, according to my LGS buddy.
Interesting to note in these ammo drought days that he always or usually always has a box or two of ammo to sell with one of his guns. Makes sense to me, most want to shoot it as soon as they get it, not do the wait for the Wal-Mart or Cabellas delvery truck. He even keeps a few P-mags and GI mags when he sells a PDR (personal defense rifle). Terminology good enough for the Federales, good enough for us.
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