The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

Hi all. Mate has a 1919 that hes spent miney on and loves but is getting so annoyed with it.
It runs spot on once it gets going.
Load a mag put it in and release the bolt. Majority of the time it will light strike.
Just that first round.
If the first round goes off then it will run like a dream.

Anyone offer any advice as i would love to help him.
Cheers

Hmmm, have you/he tried loading one less round? If it's the first one that causes the problem, skip it and just go straight to the second round.

Seriously though I found this on the Akdal MKA-1919 subforum on saiga12.com, seems to be a common problem.........

"I had that same problem on mine when it was new(we've noticed it on others as well since) with a low power recoil spring, MAINLY with a mag loaded to the max, after a round or 2 it would go away.

New gun
Low power spring
Fully loaded mag
= bolt closing, but not always locking up = light strike"

Ok so that tallies up with his gun.
Thanks. Will look at it and see if stronger springs can be sourced. Hes spent a fair bit on tooth and nail?? Parts.

Almost certainly as snayperskaya has outlined.

He could also try shorter cartridges. The fricitional force having to be overcome by the recoil spring having to push 'long' cartridges plus the near vertical feed ramp can cause feed problems, as i have found with long buckshot cartridges in my BR99.

He could also try taking a coil or two off the magazine spring to reduce the tension on the first few cartridges. I've now done this on 4 of my competition magazines and they run better with seemingly no drop in reliability. It will likely reduce their service life though.

If he notices the bolt slowing down as it goes into battery, or not fully locking up you can just bang on the back of the charging handle (SA80 styley) to fully seat it, I had to do that a few times in a match last year, example here on the stage at 1:40



This was caused by putting the magazine spring in the wrong way around after cleaning

Blackstuff, was the Pete RO'ing?

Yep Love it when Pete and Pat are the ROs, they make you feel so at ease so you can just concentrate on shooting

Yeah they do, Pete and Pat were on my safety course and I know Pete from Thurnscoe PSG matches. It was thanks to him and Ed that I got into PSG as it was a bit daunting at first but they took it easy on me
Anyways, back on track.
Has the shooter tried pushing the bolt home instead of relying on the recoil spring, just to test that 1st shot?