Overheated AK?

E

Eric of IN

New member
A friend took his new Romanian AK out for the first time over the weekend. While firing a 30 round mag as "fast as he could pull the trigger" the barrel got hot enough to discolor the finish near the muzzle. I think he was shooting Russian surplus ammo. He wasn't sure but the box he described fit. I thought it might be an undersized bore, but he said the bore wasn't excessivly fouled, however I've never been shooting with him, so I have no idea what he would consider excessivly fouled. Is this kind of heat builup normal or could there be something wrong with the gun or ammo? Thanks for your help.


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Formerly Puddle Pirate.
Teach a kid to shoot.
It annoys the antis.
 
Probably powder residue rather than heat damage. OTOH, AKs were not meant for sustained fire and the AK-based RPK was a dumber idea yet...
 
That's fairly normal. I've blasted lots of 30rnd mags through my Chinese and Romanian AKs. Unless he was trying to put 7.62 through a 5.45 barrel, everything should be fine.

Was the finish still discolored after he cleaned it? If it wasn't cleaned well before he shot it, it could have been excess oil or grease burning off.
 
I think it was powder/oil discoloring also.
Most machineguns keep their color/ finish. As for an AK, I saw a guy with a F/A Krink kit fire three drum mags out of it, besides the smoke it seemed OK
wink.gif
 
Thanks for the responses. The gun was cleaned before and after shooting. The discoloration was still there. I asked him about it last night, and he said the barrel was hot enough to burn his fingers, so I doubt if it was just excess oil. Any other thoughts?

------------------
Formerly Puddle Pirate.
Teach a kid to shoot.
It annoys the antis.
 
A couple thoughts. I assume your friend has an SAR1, and those have a reputation for being decent shooters, but not of very high quality. It seems I've heard that some of those may have paint on the metal rather than bluing. Possible? That might explain the change in appearance after being heated.

More importantly, try over at www.ak-47.net , and get into the forums. I think they have a section for Romanian AK's, and those guys can probably give you the exact answer. Sharp crew over there re: AK's.

Good luck. Regards from AZ
 
Eric, It's real hard to hurt a AK. Ive seen guys burn thru 2-3 mags and get the barrel so hot that you could smell it burning and coudnt touch it for ten minutes.
 
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