😏😂🤪

 

Your probably going to have to fit the bullet guide or find another one that works better

 

That was my initial thought. However the fact it gets tight without gauges at all makes me wonder if there is a separate issue. The barrel is pressed far enough in that the journal is now recessed within the front of the trunnion, which is not like my other three x39 builds. This is my first 5.56 build, and maybe it does need to be pressed further in.

 

It sounds like your chamber was cut too deep for your bolt. The Galil and 74/WBP stuff use different chamber depths.
Pull the barrel, drop a GO gauge in the chamber, and put the bolt on top of that. You should be able to see light between the barrel and bolt. If not, it's a chamber depth issue.
Drop a GO gauge in the chamber and measure how far it sticks out (not to the extractor cut).
Measure the depth of the cartridge recess on your bolt face.
There should be a 0.005" ish gap.
If there is not a gap, machine the back of the barreluntil you get to that ~0.005" gap.

 

This makes sense. I need some clarity on what you wrote however.
"Drop a GO gauge in the chamber and measure how far it sticks out (Not to the extractor cut.)" - This I don't understand. Then it sounds like you are comparing what you wrote here to the depth of the cartridge in the bolt face itself until there is a positive difference between the depth of the bolt face and whatever I'm measuring in the chamber. Then I take the difference off the barrel journal face. That makes sense. Please help clarify the first point.
Thanks!!

 

Take the barrel out of the gun
Put the go gauge in the chamber. Measure from the back of the gauge to the back of the barrel. It's most likely 0.118".
Now measure the depth of the pocket on the front of your bolt. It's probably 0.123" ish.
0.123 minus 0.118 = negative 0.005".
This would require removing 0.010" from the barrel.

 

I don't know why I couldn't understand your first post. It's clear to me now. I'll chalk it up to it being late and I was tired last night.

I won't be able to fully pull the barrel until I get back to the machine shop later this week. However I was able to take measurments well enough from inside the trunnion.
Bolt face recess: .132"
Go gauge to barrel journal face: ≈ .120"
The journal face to go gauge appears it is supposed to be .118" but measuring is not as easy inside the trunnion. I verified this by measuring the go gauge to the extractor cut and measuring the depth of the extractor cut on the journal face. It came to .154-.039 which is .120".
So it is entirely possible I need to remove some material from the journal face.

 

Ok, that is clear and makes perfect sense. Thank you for the clarification! Later this week when I have time to work on it I will do this. Thank you!! I will report back here after I measure everything.

 

Hmmm.......perhaps you need to find/use a Galil bullet guide for use with your Galil bolt.
It not only guides the 5.56 bullets but also has the camming face that starts the bolt turning for lock up, so matching one to your bolt might go a long way..

 

Hmmm.......perhaps you need to find/use a Galil bullet guide for use with your Galil bolt.
It not only guides the 5.56 bullets but also has the camming face that starts the bolt turning for lock up, so matching one to your bolt might go a long way..

I will keep this in mind. I looked up the galil bullet guide and it is similar to the ak74 from a cursory glance. Dimensions may be different. I did test loading some dummy 5.56 cartridges I have last night. They are picked up by the bolt from a galil mag and chamber fine by hand. At this point the larger concern is just getting the headspace to a point where it doesn't go on the no go gauges and still goes on the go gauge.

 

Ok, I thought of a way to pull the barrel at home shortly after posting. You can see in the photos that it actually measures about .116" with my calipers. A drop gauge would be better here.

 

So it seems I need to remove at least .021" from the barrel face in order for the bolt face depth to be .005" less the height of the go gauge over the journal face.

 

If this is going to be a 5.56 AKM build? Why not just buy a Polish 5.56 AKM they make in fixed stock and underfolder versions?

 

Because that's not the project idea. If I wanted to build a standard 5.56 AKM then yes there are easier methods.

 

So what a 100 series 5.56?

 

It's a project as I described in the OP. If I wanted a basic 5.56 AK then I would have built a basic 5.56 AK, or 101, or whatever. I wanted to build a 5.56 from an Egyptian kit and I happened across a 93 import that had been chopped up already. Figured it was a good opportunity to do it so I didn't have to get an Arabic kit.

 

Can you remove material from the bullet guide where it interferes with the barrel? Might be easier than removing barrel material.

An AKM reciver will fit the Galil mags, easy enough, and the front mag step on the AKM trunion is high enough for the Galil mags front tab. If it were me, Id say your on the right track, but Im fairly sure a galil bolt and bullet ramp together might get your bolt closure timed right as well as put the bullets the chamber.
Is'nt the Galil's bolt face a bit deeper than , say a Bulgarian or AK-74 bolt face?

For the mag lockup, you might go with a virgin trigger guard and drill the mag release hole a bit higher to snug up the Galil mags, as they have a higher rear locking tab.

For AK-74 trunions I made a pin with a flat and passed it throughthe trunion to raise the 'step' fro the front of Galil Mags.The AKM trunions dont need that mod.

 

I believe you misunderstand. There are two separate issues here. There is the first issue which concerns the headspace. Then there is the second, which you brought up, about the bullet guide being flatter and less rounded than the galil bullet guide.

As for the second issue, it is a more minor issue. I did look up the difference between AK 5.45/5.56 bullet guides of various origins and the galil 5.56 bullet guide. All AK bullet guides are shallower/flatter than the galil. Consequently the AK bolts have a flatter bottom than the galil bolts. Interchanging them is doable with minor modification. In my case I will need to remove a small amount of material from the bottom of my bolt so it does not run against the bullet guide which could cause it to slow down and not chamber a round (theoretically since I have not tested this yet).

The first issue about headspace so far seems to require the solution MrChefur mentioned. I am working on confirm that tonight. The galil bolt face recess measures about .134" deep compared to my AKM (7.62) bolt which measures .114" deep. The difference in go gauge height over barrel journal for both my 5.56 go gauge and 5.56 barrel and my 7.62 go gauge and (a spare) 7.62 barrel is .118". This means that the depth of the bolt face needs to be about .005" less that of the go gauge height over barrel journal in order to grab the gauge and have enough space remaining to push it into the barrel for proper lock up. This also explains why the difference between the go and no go gauges is about .006". A round will chamber and fire without issue even if the bolt touches the barrel. However what you don't want is for there to be space between the bolt and the barrel when the bullet goes off in case of gases redirecting out that space. This at least makes sense to me and I am working to confirm the data with another 5.56 AK bolt.

 

OK, I see. This is an ever interesting build.

So the bullet guide is not in the way of your breech end, its the bolt face being a tad long. I understand the headspace issue.
Galil bolts are deeper faced than AKM type Bulgarian5.56 bolts and the Saiga's.
Is it easier to shorten the breech ? or the bolt, maybe?

i have a couple Galil bolts, a couple Bulgarian made barrels, just no AKM type trunions at this time.

I have built a few 5.56 with parts made specifically for them, and a few with virgin parts not so specifically built for them, but I got them there. 23mm AK-74 and AKM type trunion/barrel/bolt combinations.
I have yet to build with a Galil bolt combo.

 

I don't see how it would be easier to shorten the bolt itself given I'd have to take off the extractor as well, nor do I see how adding material to the trunnion where it locks up would be easy. I'll be removing about .02" which I think will just be easiest at the barrel.

 

A couple of years ago I got the idea to take a Maadi kit and build out a 5.45 build as a "what if Egypt adopted 5.45" gun. Now I've gone the other direction and am building a 5.56 with a Maadi chopped kit. In order to maintain as many original parts as possible I've adopted using a galil 5.56 bolt and picked up a 5.56 bullet guide from PSA (because they had it in stock). The barrel is a 23mm journal green mountain from Arms of America. My 5.56 go/no go gauges are from arms of America.

Here is the problem: I have bottomed out the barrel against the bullet guide, which has a slight bit sticking out into the barrel journal. The gauges do not make a difference as it currently is. Either both go, or both don't go. If both don't go, then I've found removing the gauges doesn't make a difference. The bolt and carrier struggle to close on the barrel even without the gauges.

Because this is a Franken build I do not know exactly what to do next. I need to figure out why the bolt and carrier get stuck on the barrel and trunnion regardless of the gauges if I tap the barrel into the trunnion slightly and both gauges still go if I barely tap the barrel back out of the trunnion. In both cases the barrel still appears to be bottomed out on the bullet guide since I'm only working with .006" between the two gauges.

Does anyone have any advice? Any insight to why the bolt and carrier in one circumstance are tight, and the other not tight at all? Is my bullet guide in the way of the barrel journal and it needs to be pressed more? Are components incompatible here? Thanks for the help!

So I have done this before only made it a 74. My best advice would be to buy a 556 WBP trunnion bolt and carrier set up. Even if you do manage to fit the bullet guide back or end up grinding on it. You’re going to tare up your bolt because the bump shoulder that begins the camming process is going to bind up and beat the crap out of that bolt.