Month: February 2019

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AK-47 AMD-63 canted front sight Croatia Cube+ magazines Polaroid

Range Visit on 2/19 – took the AMD-63 again

Range Notes:

Shot 52 rounds (1 hour session).  40 of these were PPU ammo from the last range visit.  The last 12 were the new RAS 7.62×39 ammo I recently bought.

There were no malfunctions.

I tried to use the Croatian mags again, thinking that they may work if they had less ammo, so I put in 5 rounds.  It would not strip ammo from the mag with this rifle.  These mags will be for the SAM7 only, I guess.  A pity…they look nice and have are BHO.

I spent the whole hour range session chasing the bullseye.  I found that if I put the target out further (40 yards for me, since I can’t see the target beyond that), I had a better aim.  At 25 yards, the bullets drop, even if my POA is at the bullseye.  At 40, it raises near BE level.  Now, I’ve to ensure my trigger squeeze is consistent, because I think I either flinch a lot or I’m jerking the trigger, as I had a lot of flyers to the lower left.

I also think my front sight is canted to the left.  I saw footage from the new camera.  I saw the spine of the rifle and the front sight looked off.  I’ll ask questions  on the forums and maybe see about finding a gunsmith that can straighten it.

I’ll take the SAM7 out next just to see if I can hit the BE easier than the AMD-63 (note that some Arsenals DO have canted sights).

The new camera works GREAT!  I just need a bigger micro SD card, as I ran out of card space at the range today!

Oh, and the bolt carrier tail is pretty mangled.  I may have to take a file to the ragged edges.  It hasn’t hung on the rear trunion…yet.

Range footage is here:

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AK-47 AMD-63 cleaning rod SAM7UF

The AMD-63 Will Take A Cleaning Rod!

Some things I’ve discovered:

I took the cleaning rod from my SAM7UF to see if it would fit on my AMD-63 and it does.  I tried it before and it wouldn’t go in all the way and would poke out a bit beyond the latching spot under the front sight.  Well, I put it back in and wiggled it around a tad and it dropped fully into place.  It will latch.

I wanted to share that since it’s is supposed to be common knowledge that these will not accept cleaning rods.  They will.

So, I think I’m going to just order one from K-VAR to use in the AMD-63.

As well, I removed the gas tube and hand guard from the SAM7UF today, since I hadn’t done it since I bought it (wanted to be sure there was no damage or hidden anomalies).  The latches were stiff but I was able to remove them.  I saw no flaws but there was preservative on the underside of the hand guard.  Because of this, I’m almost positive that this firearm has never been fired, otherwise that preservative would’ve either baked onto the heat shield or dissipated.

I also looked at some of the 7.62×39 casings from my last range visit and found that they’re dinged to hell.  I also have brass markings on the dust cover of the AMD-63. I researched and found that this is normal for AK-47s.  I’d initially thought that there was something wrong with the firearm, but the research shows that this normally occurs with these rifles.

No, I’ve not yet been to the range.  Maybe I’ll visit the range tomorrow after work.

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action camera Cube+ Juision Polaroid

I’m into Action Cameras For Use At The Range

I bought a Polaroid Cube+ to use as a range camera.  I’ll be mounting it on the bill of my range hats.  Here’s how the Cube+ looks, specifically it’s housing mounted on the hat, and the Cube+ and housing mounted on the hat.

What I was using prior to the Cube was this.  It’s a Juision “spy” camera that attaches to one of the arms of your shades/spectacles (it is a Chinese camera):

Some video footage of the Juision:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/fZB1PEHASKgzwQeGA

Shooting video footage that the Juision captured:

The Juision started malfunctioning, which is a pity because it is pretty much perfect.  It’s small, light, and has a very good position to film.

The Cube+ takes better footage but is quite a bit bulkier.

I have not tried the Cube+ at the range yet.  I will try tomorrow and post the footage.

UPDATE (2/19/2019):

I took the Cube+ to the range today.  Footage is below.

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AK-63DS AMD-63 Croatia feed issues Hungarian jam magazines steel

Recent AMD-63 Range Visits and Issues with Croation Magazines

For brevity, below are my range notes from today’s range visit.  I also visited last week:

Had issues today.  The new Croatian mags will not work in the AK-63D/AMD-63.  They will not feed ammo into the firearm.  At all.  Two of them won’t strip ammo from the mag and two jammed when trying.  Luckily, I had one of the Atlantic Firearms mags with me (they are new also)…it fed and fired without a hitch, so I had to use this one mag during my session, stripping out ammo from the non-functional mags and reloading that ammo into the functional mag.  It took a bit of time and I only had an hour (range was packed, too).

When I got home, I tried to see if the SAM7 would load ammo from the Croatian mags.  It would.  It seems the AK-63D/AMD-63 does not like the Croatian mags, even after I fixed them so that they’d latch into the mag well (before that, they wouldn’t even latch).
The firearm never got hot because I only fired 49 rounds from it.

I also had to readjust the front sight because I was hitting very low.  To raise the POI, I had to lower the front sight post.

I’m hitting low left still, which indicates I’m flinching.
The fired brass is dinged at the opening lip on a lot of the spent cases.  As well, there’s brass dings on the outside of the ejection port.

Need to open up the firearm to check to see how the bolt carrier tang is.  Also need to check the front trunnion and bolt for wear.

Also, I experienced some trigger slap…stings a bit.

Additionally, I shot the last mag standing up.  I was able to put the majority of the 15 rounds in the middle of the paper (there were two flyers).  I think if I keep practicing shooting while standing, I can get the hang of it, if I lean forward and keep the stock planted deep in my shoulder pocket.

I may need to get a new rear sight…this one is difficult to see, which affects front/rear sight alignment.  It’s difficult for me to hit where I’m aiming if I can’t properly align the sights.

There’s 171 rounds through the AMD-63 now.  I brought close to 200 rounds with me but only fired 49 due to magazine issues (mentioned above in the range notes).  Plus, I only had an hour to work with and the range was crowded tonight.  Will try again tomorrow (and not use the Croatian mags when I do).

Some pics of the rifle’s internals:

I’ve an BG-AK lower handgrip coming (these are back in stock as of now).  This was on my wish list.  I also have a Zhukov stock on my list, as well as a rail that would fit where the rear sight resides (for the SAM7UF).

I also have 1000 rounds of Red Army Standard FMJBT on the way (lead core).

I’ll post again after my next range visit (which may be tomorrow).