Round Came Apart in AK-47 Chamber

[Gastrok]

OK, I'm not entirely sure if the cartridge "came apart" but its the best I could think of for a title.

I was shooting my PAP M70 yesterday and was experiencing some random failure to feed issues. It seemed to be happening with one mag in particular so I put that aside and continued shooting. I had a few sporadic FTFs over the next 100 rounds, then it stopped feeding altogether regardless of which mag I used. I decided to call it quits, but before putting the rifle away I notice what looked like metal shavings in the receiver - an awful lot of them. I thought that perhaps the steel cased Tula was getting chewed up somehow. How stupid I was...

I disassembled the rifle this morning an upon closer inspection realized that the "shavings" were powder. I also discovered a round jammed in the chamber. I am not sure what happened, but my theory is that this happened on a FTF and when I tried to extract the round it came apart. The bullet jammed in the chamber evidently prevented any more rounds to feed.

Clearly I was not paying attention, and it makes me sick thinking about how badly this could have turned out. Big lesson learned here.

I am hoping to get some input on the cause and what to do next as I have not attempted to remove the bullet.

Here are some pics, the last one shows the jammed bullet.

 

[Master Shooter]

It looks like it's shaving brass but it could be the ammo (I havn't seen copper fouling like that, but I wouldn't rule it out)

Go to the range and manually cycle out a magazine or two. Just pull on the handle and let it fly forward, and repeat. See if there's any FTF issues then or if the brass comes out mangled. To help narrow it down I'd try a different brand of ammo, just in case, after a very thorough cleaning. If all fails, take it to a gunsmith.

 

[OCB]

Wow, that could have been bad - glad nothing happened to you. Unfortunately I don't have any advice as to the cause of your problem.

 

[Terminator03]

It's ok, it's an AK, just whack the barrel with a hammer, or just shoot the stuck bullet right out. J/K of course, but had to play on the ultra reliable, indestructible reputation a bit. You were extremely lucky because it could have gone boom if that bullet was jammed tightly enough, and all that extra powder could have given you a nice flashburn if it had ignited. Hopefully some of our resident AK gurus will chime in with some possible causes/solutions for you soon. Glad nothing bad happened at least!

 

[Gastrok]

I feel very lucky...well, stupid and lucky.

Really hoping one of the resident AK gurus will have some thoughts on this.

 

[jasons]

That happens a lot in high-power when people seat the bullets so that they jam into the lands (supposedly some bullets shoot better that way.) You either had a round that was seated a bit long, or it was malformed so that the ogive was too far out, or you have a slightly short chamber, or maybe some combination of the above. It's an AK, so it's probably not the chamber (they're pretty notorious for being loose,) so I'd look at the ammo first. Measure a few from the same box and check the max OAL, I'd bet it's on the long side.

 

[knoxy]

Had the same thing happen several times a couple weeks ago shooting a buddy's SKS. Tula ammo too.

Round failed to fire. Dumped granular powder all over the action as the casing pulled out when ejected. Bullet got stuck in barrel.

Fortunately, due to the many warnings on NES , I checked the barrel for obstructions before trying to jam another round in. The bullet popped out with a light tap from a cleaning rod.

 

[Gastrok]

I just tapped the bullet out and as you can see, there is a bullet-shaped indent in the bottom.