westcliffe01
05-08-2011, 08:42 AM
This is probably old news for many, but I finally received my Nikon Monarch 1-4x20 scope and got it mounted Friday. I purchased the carbine length AR15 styled DPMS 7.62x39 rifle in late January and went through quite a hassle with the FBI before they finally allowed me to take possession.
Just yesterday I received notification in the mail that my cpl permit was approved, so just have to pick it up in person..... Glad that I didn't have to go through any more hoops on that one, I must have gotten everything cleared up with NICS when trying to do the rifle transfer...
So I also located a really great range, the Sharon Valley DNR range. It is only a few minutes from my house, yet I had no idea it existed previously. The place is professionally run, has several different ranges available from 25yd to over 100 yd as well as a shotgun range. The 25, 50 and 100 yd ranges all have undercover shooting benches to work from (concrete with a 1/2" rubber pad on top).
I took both of my new acquisition out to sight in, the savage 24 222/20ga combo rifle with a Redfield 2-7x33 (Coyote gun) as well as the 7.62x39 DPMS.
The DPMS rifle was absolutely useless, since it would not feed from the C products mags. This was loading just 6 rounds at a time into the 30 round magazine... It was hard enough to get the first round to chamber and the slide would stop without stripping off the next round virtually every time.
To get sighted in, I finally removed the magazine and hand fed rounds into the breach, it was that aggravating. Personally, I find it hard to believe that a company like DPMS would sell a weapon system that is so completely non-functional. They must have gotten a lot of negative feedback, since they have stopped producing the 7.62x39 version and are in the process or re-designing them. Apparently I have to do my homework better before buying....
The weapon was actually sighted in pretty good and the grouping was acceptable (3/4" at 25 yds) considering the hassle screwing around with getting each and every round chambered. When I got home I scrubbed the bore with copper remover and then set to work on improving the magazines.
The feed lips were a large part of the problem, since they were shaving brass from every round (I was shooting brass cased Yugo ammo from wideners). I spent a couple of hours with a chainsaw file, dremel with sanding wheel and a steel rod wrapped with emery paper smoothing out the release of the cartridge in the forward direction. The front edge of the magazine was too high and caught the edge of the cartridge once I had the shell sliding forward without hanging up on the feed lips. I am not going to touch the feed ramps in the receiver at this point, since in my opinion these magazines are junk to begin with, but after the rework I had improved their ability to feed to about 90% from near 0%.
I think the next step is to make a new magazine follower for each mag. I think the original follower is too short, so it tends to hang up easily and I also think that there needs to be more pressure on the front of the cartridge to lift the nose of the bullet as it feeds forward. Basically, the feed lips of the mag are nearly parallel to the bolt, where they need to angle up very slightly to get the nose of the cartridge to point up the feed ramp instead of square into it....
Next round of testing is today and I will move on to 50 and 100 yds, since I am on the paper and about 2" high at 25 yds (as it should be).
I am considering the purchase of an MGI lower receiver with AK47 magwell
https://www.mgi-military.com/store/index.php?product_id=40&type=&category=10
https://www.mgi-military.com/image_upload/19467673512.jpg
This seems to be the most reliable way to solve the magazine / receiver design issue. Does anyone know whether the balance of my rifle will bolt right up ?
Just yesterday I received notification in the mail that my cpl permit was approved, so just have to pick it up in person..... Glad that I didn't have to go through any more hoops on that one, I must have gotten everything cleared up with NICS when trying to do the rifle transfer...
So I also located a really great range, the Sharon Valley DNR range. It is only a few minutes from my house, yet I had no idea it existed previously. The place is professionally run, has several different ranges available from 25yd to over 100 yd as well as a shotgun range. The 25, 50 and 100 yd ranges all have undercover shooting benches to work from (concrete with a 1/2" rubber pad on top).
I took both of my new acquisition out to sight in, the savage 24 222/20ga combo rifle with a Redfield 2-7x33 (Coyote gun) as well as the 7.62x39 DPMS.
The DPMS rifle was absolutely useless, since it would not feed from the C products mags. This was loading just 6 rounds at a time into the 30 round magazine... It was hard enough to get the first round to chamber and the slide would stop without stripping off the next round virtually every time.
To get sighted in, I finally removed the magazine and hand fed rounds into the breach, it was that aggravating. Personally, I find it hard to believe that a company like DPMS would sell a weapon system that is so completely non-functional. They must have gotten a lot of negative feedback, since they have stopped producing the 7.62x39 version and are in the process or re-designing them. Apparently I have to do my homework better before buying....
The weapon was actually sighted in pretty good and the grouping was acceptable (3/4" at 25 yds) considering the hassle screwing around with getting each and every round chambered. When I got home I scrubbed the bore with copper remover and then set to work on improving the magazines.
The feed lips were a large part of the problem, since they were shaving brass from every round (I was shooting brass cased Yugo ammo from wideners). I spent a couple of hours with a chainsaw file, dremel with sanding wheel and a steel rod wrapped with emery paper smoothing out the release of the cartridge in the forward direction. The front edge of the magazine was too high and caught the edge of the cartridge once I had the shell sliding forward without hanging up on the feed lips. I am not going to touch the feed ramps in the receiver at this point, since in my opinion these magazines are junk to begin with, but after the rework I had improved their ability to feed to about 90% from near 0%.
I think the next step is to make a new magazine follower for each mag. I think the original follower is too short, so it tends to hang up easily and I also think that there needs to be more pressure on the front of the cartridge to lift the nose of the bullet as it feeds forward. Basically, the feed lips of the mag are nearly parallel to the bolt, where they need to angle up very slightly to get the nose of the cartridge to point up the feed ramp instead of square into it....
Next round of testing is today and I will move on to 50 and 100 yds, since I am on the paper and about 2" high at 25 yds (as it should be).
I am considering the purchase of an MGI lower receiver with AK47 magwell
https://www.mgi-military.com/store/index.php?product_id=40&type=&category=10
https://www.mgi-military.com/image_upload/19467673512.jpg
This seems to be the most reliable way to solve the magazine / receiver design issue. Does anyone know whether the balance of my rifle will bolt right up ?