I took my first hand loads for my AK to the range last night. Suffice it to say, things didn't go as planned. I am fine, fortunately, though my ego has been hit down a notch or two. I fired about 5 rounds with no problem. POI was way off, but the rounds fired and cycled fine. They actually felt much lighter than the cheap Wolf ammo I normally feed my AK. On about the 6th round, the gun fired and the explosion seemed much closer in (though not appreciably more intense), the top cover blew off and some hot gas spurted out the top. The bolt was stuck, and took a few good whacks to pull the case head out. The rest of the cartridge remains in the chamber. Ironically, this shot had the best POI of any of the rounds I loaded
I loaded some old lead bullets I that I got on sale in brand new Winchester brass on top of 14.5 grains 2400, with Winchester LR primers. The lead bullets were sized to .311, were 150 grains, had gas checks, and other than having lube all over them, seemed decent enough. COL was ~ 2.060", give or take a bit.
The gun still seems to function and cycle fine, though I obviously haven't tried another round yet. I think the bolt is FUBARed. The firing pin flops around, which I'm pretty sure it didn't do before. The extractor also looks slightly bent, and there is a gap between it and the rest of the bolt face (red arrows in the pics). The top cover is bent, and I'll need a new one of those too.
It looks to me like the round fired out of battery. If you like at the picture of the case head with the red arrow, the arrow is pointing to a band just beyond the groove of the head. That looks to me like the cartridge was unsupported there. What do you guys think?
I have 2 theories about how that could have happened. I first thought that some of the excess lube got in the the chamber, and prevented the round from chambering fully. That did seem a little odd for only 5 rounds, plus the 5 I shot didn't have a lot of lube up on the bullet itself. My other theory is that the the bullet wasn't seated in far enough, such that the bullet actually hit the lands, preventing the round from seating fully. If you like at the photo of the rounds, the lead round is definitely thicker up at the top then the FMJ. I didn't want to seat the bullet much deeper for fear of raising the pressure. ~2" COL was what the manuals seemed to say for this bullet weight and type.
Anyone know a good place to get a new bolt and top cover? This is a Romanian, WASR, if that makes any difference. Also, it looks like I will need a broken case extractor. Who makes a good extractor for 7.62x39, and where is a good place to buy it? Does this look like something that I should have a gunsmith look at before shooting again? The barrel/chamber area seem ok. It just looks like the bolt that took the beating. (One question on the chamber: are the 2 cuts in the chamber face - the red arrows in my pic - supposed to be there like that?)
I was lucky I wasn't hurt, but this is a reminder to be careful!