homepage Forums SimHQ Community Community Hall Finishing some gun projects

Back in the Christmas gifts thread I explained how I worked through getting my select fire M16 to run a 22LR sub-cal system.

Well getting that worked out got me motivated to move some other things off the backburner to the front. Another was the 22LR sub-cal for my registered select fire Uzi. Last time at the range it worked awful. So I disassembled again and checked everything. Recleaned. Did some gun greases on the slides. At the range problems. First magazine wouldn’t properly feed next bullet either semi or full auto. Second magazine wouldn’t properly shoot two and sometimes a third round. So I moved on to my other two magazines and …. they ran fine. Let me explain that these Uzi sub-cal kits are not common. Magazines are not easy to come by and different people have made different ones. I have three different types. Retried everything again with same results. So it seems it is a magazine issue. Ordered two more of the best magazine and am waiting for them to come in.


Then I pulled out boxes of AK47 parts that I had to build from the ground up from Russian military surplus. Required bending and shaping the receiver from flat cut stamped metal, drilling, welding and riveting. Got some help with that.Then doing the assembly. Used the required US made parts so it would be both legal and semi-auto only. After test firing I am now finishing them up and blueing them.

Here are pictures:
















This is after three cold blueing. Cold blue is nowhere as good as hot blue or anodizing. Never gets as even and rich a look. But it protects it from corrosion. AKs are crude ugly guns anyway and aren’t worth real effort. Additionally these are mil surplus so are pretty scarred and blemished to begin with. They operate and shoot and that is about all you can expect from them. After a while I may cold blueing them a couple more times. Probably won’t.



So I am working through some of my old backburner projects.


Next is to get my Special Weapons SW45s working properly. They are 45 ACP versions of the MP5. Since they were never a real production gun they didn’t make production magazines but used modified Greasegun magazines. So right off the bat you can expect problems. One of my SW45s is a registered SBR (short barrel rifle) so I’m going to focus on getting a good batch of magazines working on it. May need some help if it requires any additional welding. If I ever get that working properly, I will do the non-SBR one. My third one is just going to have be an organ donor for the SBR.


That will finish my backburner projects.

Glad I got motivated again.

Have you ever used Oxpho blueing?

It's another type of cold blueing but seems to have more depth than the typical kind.

22LR converted ARs are a hoot. Favorite thing we love to shoot when we go to the outdoor range.

I've always wanted to try one of those "Fold an AK" kits! Looks good.

Actually I sold my AK-74, I'm an AR only guy now.

The price of AKs and 7.62x39 has gone crazy. The prices have doubled in the last 2 1/2 years (after the sanctions on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine). They selling AKs for $800- $900 now and availability has shrunk. AK ammo is 50 cents a round. So gun and ammo are both more than an AR. You pay more for less.

Building from flats is not to be taken lightly. Not too hard if you have the jigs, welding experience, riveting gun, and general gunsmithing experience. Like anything, it’s not too hard if you’ve done it before. Lacking jigs and welding experience I had to get help with that. Many of the Mil Surplus barrels are bad and you have to try again or buy a new production one. I was lucky with both barrels. Then you need the US parts to be 922 compliant.

If I hadn’t been given those kits I would never have done it. A lot of commitment for a just so-so gun. But everyone should have an AK even if it’s just for the experience and familiarity. Everyone will ask you if you have one.

So now I have these three; standard, side-fold, and under-fold. I don’t like the side-fold.

I bet if I looked around I could get a real deal Izhmash made AKM or AK-74 but I wouldn't particularly want one as the heyday of the Kalashnikov has long passed.

An AK-74 someone let me shoot at the range for the price of shooting my American AUG clone was the smoothest "tactical rifle" I have ever shot. No barrel rise, low noise, extraordinarily pleasant experience.

Never used it. When I run out of what I have I may give it a try.

Deleted. Non-functioning.

Oh jeez. Photobucket has changed how they link and I can’t figure it out. Will have to get back to trying to figure it out when I have more time.

Have to sign in to see them..... and I closed my photobucket account.

Ok, I stumbled on it. Hope I can redo what I did to get it to work.

Anyway, the Special Weapons SW45 was a cottage industry production. So they used some lesser mechanical development. One of these was the use of M3 Greasegun magazines since they are 45ACP. This means you have to buy the Greasegun mags and then modify. In the pictures below, you can see the original to the right and the modified. The modifications require welding a small bar to limit how far the magazine goes into the magazine well. The second is to machine out the top of the indent to a domed rather than flat top. The magazine catch and release in the receiver is round not flat. So the rounded catch goes into the recess and fits to the domed area you machine out. This requires a lot of test fitting. Start with just a little bit of cutting. If it doesn’t catch, drill a bit more of the dome. Keep doing this until it just catches. This sometimes requires trimming the top of the restraining bar. Then load the magazine and try cycling the action to feed rounds from the magazine into the chamber. Now comes the “art”. You have to Dremel a bit off the back of the magazine to make sure the bolt and carrier clear the back. You can see that the modified is square cut and the original is round. Then start carefully working on the feed lips of the magazine to adjust the height of the rounds in the magazine and the angle the lips release the bullet into the chamber. Observe if the release is too flat or too steep and refine the lips to change it as needed. When you can reliably feed the rounds mark it and set it aside and do the next one. Then when you have some done go to the range and see if all works when actually firing. They seldom do. Try to figure out why and mark the magazine. Then back to the workbench and do more work. Then back to the range. Repeat. The key is small changes at a time. Change one thing at a time or you will start chasing solutions because you have more than one variable.

My first go was one OK out of 10. Next time 4 out of 10. And that’s where I am. Next trip to the range is Friday and I’ll see if I have improved the non-functioning ones.

When I get these right, I will start on another batch for the second SW45. It seems the magazines good on one usually are not good for a different gun. So I have a pile of Greasegun magazines to work with.

Very disappointing day on the range. Only got two more magazines to be good. Four still need fiddling. I thought I would get three or four. So two was disappointing.

But that wasn’t the real letdown. Got the second SW45 out and tried the first mag. Failure to feed. Tried again. Same. Tried another and got a smooth feed, but ….. no fire. Something wrong in trigger. Will not work. Partially disassembled and looked but didn’t find the problem. So that ended the day. Will disassemble and do better inspection tomorrow.

What a disappointing day.

But on the other hand some people never get their SW45 fire reliably. So mine does with six magazines.