Helping a friend, latest debacle.

This kid bought a AK74 in 5.4x39 cal. and it won't shoot. It will not chamber the military ammo we can get our hands on. The story is it was assembled by an "expert" who was using parts kits. It looks good otherwise but I suspect it was not professionally headspaced. Some military guns you can swap parts around and get lucky, some do, then some are not so lucky. It's better to be too tight than too loose.

It's almost impossible to mic but I can see there is a difference in exposed web in chambered rounds between my AK47 in 7.62x39 and the 74 in 5.45. The few thousandths protuberance will not let the bolt head rotate clockwise into the receiver. It's close but just shy.

You can see the shiny marks on the datum line of the case shoulder and some bottom marks on the case mouth around the bullet. I've checked everything and I think that's what it is. So I'm ordering GO and NO GO gauges (renting them actually) and a chambering finish reamer to possibly open it up ever so slightly so the shoulder and case can move deeper just a few thousandths of an inch and allow the bolt to close fully and easily after popping over the extractor groove.

The .32 cal. AK47

Tiny difference perceptible with the AK74 .22

In operation that how the AK works. A round is stripped off the mag, bottoms in the chamber, the bolt extractor pops over and into the case extraction groove, and the bolt rotates to lock in the receiver and releases the disconnector which allows the trigger group to function with a closed bolt assy.

We'll see if I end up a hero or zero.