To legally build a semi-auto Uzi, you need to run a closed bolt system vs. the original open bolt. Now the open bolt design was the picture of simplicity albeit with a pretty big bolt. The closed bolt system uses a striker, and while a little more complex, it has a lot of moving surfaces that are parkerized. This means they are relatively rough and need to wear in plus they need serious lubrication during this period.
My experience with my Uzi was that oil alone didn’t cut it. Once I moved to using a 1″ chip brush and applying a light layer of Super Lube all over the bolt, striker and insides of the receiver and top cover, the reliability sky rocketed. At this point, it has worn in fairly well and the action cycles very easily.
My recommendation to anyone building a semi-auto Uzi is to use Super Lube Multi-Purpose grease both during break in and for ongoing lubrication of the bolt and striker system. I use regular oil on the fire control group.
I hope this helps you out. It made a world of difference with my Uzi.
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I’m always searching for better lubricants. Many of the so-called specialty weapons lubes are just marketing hype with some bulk lubricant poured into their container. In terms of greases, I’ve used quite a few over the years including wheel bearing grease and Tetra Gun Grease. I wanted to find something effective, non-toxic and less expensive.
A name popped up when surfing – Super Lube. To be honest, the first few times I totally dismissed the name because it sounds like some overly-hyped wonder lube that is sold in infomercials. However, the name did keep popping up so I actually started reading up on it.
Super Lube products are made by Synco Chemical Corporation of Bohemia, NU, that was founded in 1980. Their specialization is in the space of synthetic food grade lubricants and hold a number of patents.
There are a number of interesting characteristics about their grease that should be noted:
To apply it, I use either a chip brush that I store in a zip loc bag to keep from getting dirty (as shown in the featured photo above) or a small flux / resin brush that I also keep in a baggy.
So, for the last few months I have been testing it. When I cleaned one of my rifles or pistols, I would replace whatever I had been using as grease with the Super Lube Multi-Purpose grease.
I go by the old saying that if it rotates, oil it. If it slides, grease it. That is my rule of thumb so it goes on AK rails, bolt carriers, where the trigger hook grabs the hammer, etc.
It works great! The weapons feel well lubricated after cleaning and they function great. When I take them apart again for cleaning, the Super Lube shows no sign of breaking down, drying out, becoming gummy, etc.
If you are looking for an excellent affordable grease, check out Super Lube. I’m definitely very happy with it.
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When I first heard of the .50 Beowulf cartridge, it got added to my bucket list immediately. What’s not to like – the ballistics of the .45-70 cartridge in an AR platform that hits like a freight train. Somewhat humorously, I’d also point out that it drops noticeably at 150 yards and like a pumpkin after 200 yards but boy, does it hit hard when it does.
I have fun assembling AR lowers the way I want them and figured I would save time and get an assembled upper. In early 2016, I looked at two different vendors of assembled uppers – Alexander Arms (AA), who was the originator of the cartridge, and Radical Firearms, a discount AR rifle and assembler of uppers and lowers in Texas. A basic AA upper was around $719 that did not have a brake (or threading) and basic handguards. A decent looking Radical unit in the generic 12.7×42 chamber was only $598. It seemed like a no brainer and I went with the Radical unit.
To jump ahead just a bit — I wish I had bought a better AA upper for $923-1190. The Radical upper caused me quite a bit of grief and I am going to chronicle my adventure here because I did get it to work out in the end and was very happy with the results but I had to work for it.
Radical Arms Challenges
When I first ran across Radical, I had high hopes. In an impulse buy, I purchased two 5.56 uppers and the 12.7×42 upper. In case you are wondering why I am listing 12.7×42, that is the generic designation for the .50 Beowulf cartridge that AA owns the intellectual property for. By using the metric designation, Radical could build an upper without paying anything to AA.
When I bought my uppers, Radical was undergoing a huge growth spurt and I had to wait some period of time (4-8 weeks maybe) for the uppers. That was not a big deal to me. The AR uppers arrived and while gritty and needing polishing, they worked. Basically, what you’d expect with relatively low cost mass assembled products.
The 12.7×42 upper was a different story. Sometimes it would cycle and sometimes it would not. Radical took forever to respond to emails and what not so I figured screw it, I’ll just treat the assembled upper as a collection of parts and move ahead. To be perfectly clear, I parted ways with Radical and did not give them a chance to fix it after I got frustrated by how everything was going.
So, I started researching on the web and found that Beowulfs use a bolt head that is slightly different than a 7.62×39 AR bolt. After cycling my rifle by hand over and over, I concluded the cartridge was not seating properly in the bolt face and ordered a true .50 Beowulf bolt directly from Alexander Arms (not Radical). Problem solved. It’s run perfectly ever since. Whether Radical installed the wrong bolt or an out of spec bolt, I don’t know. I threw the offending bolt in the trash and called it even,
Another irritation Radical caused me was when the handguard loosened up because they hadn’t used Loc-tite on the screws. My recommendation is to just use Blue Loc-Tite if you run into this – it worked fine for me. I like the handguard otherwise.
The one thing they got right was the barrel. I heard Satern made the barrel but don’t know for sure. It is wonderfully accurate with the big 350gr XTP hollow point cartridges that AA makes. I am very pleased with that combination.
Yes, I eventually got it to work. No, will not buy from Radical again but I definitely would buy more stuff from Alexander Arms. I dealt with them on the phone a few times for ammo as well as the website. The staff were pleasant to deal with and shipping was always prompt.
Addressing Recoil
I was not impressed by the muzzle brake that Radical supplied and started researching the best brake for the Beowulf. Bear in mind the muzzle has a pretty unique thread at 49/64″-20 threads per inch (TPI). In addition, I knew I would need a jam nut to address the timing so the brake could be level on the barrel and it needed to be steel and not aluminum.
The Timber Creek Beowulf Brake Rocks!
To make a long story short, Timber Creek makes a Beowulf brake that does a great job. It seriously cut the recoil back and made the biggest difference of all my modifications. They make them with two different threads so make sure the one you order matches your rifle.
Here it is on my rifle – notice the big ports that redirect some of the gasses backwards:
Added a Limbsaver Recoil Pad to the Magpul ACS Stock
The next important element I did to reduce recoil was to add a mixture of bird shot and epoxy into the compartments of the MagPul ACS stock. I just stirred up a mixture of #7 lead bird shot with epoxy, filled all the voids I could and wiped off the excess liquid epoxy checking all the seams until it gelled enough. Here, you can see a hint of it sticking out.
The last thing I did was to try different buffers. Bill Alexander designed the cartridge to work with a normal AR buffer. I went from a normal/H1 buffer to an H2 and finally to an Enedine Hydraulic buffer, which is in it right now. With each step, the recoil seemed to go down a tad but did not make a huge difference.
Vortex Scope
I was thinking about using the rifle either for hogs or deer so I wanted a scope that could go from a fairly wide field of vision at 2.5x all the way up to a decent zoom at 10x. Vortex is always my first choice in scopes so I bought a Viper PST 2.5-10×44 scope and Vortex rings.
This is a wicked combination. I have thoroughly enjoyed this scope on the Beowulf. It holds zero and is nice and bright. You can’t go wrong with Vortex scopes in my honest opinion. Because of the Beowulf’s recoil, use quality rings and be very sure to torque all the screws down to spec so the optic stays put.
By the way, you may scoff at the notion of buying quality rings. A lot of the cheap imported rings are just aluminum. You’ll notice they don’t list a torque spec. Quality rings such as the ones fro Vortex will tell you a torque spec to hit and they often have steel inserts for the threads. You get what you pay for.
Note, in mid-2018 Vortex came out with what they call the “PST Gen 2” series of scopes and this first generation model has been discontinued. The closest scopes now are 3-15×44 and 2-10×32 -I don’t think you can go wrong one way or the other. I’d probably opt for a 2-10×32 MRAD scope to have the widest field of view at a low power.
I use the D&H 5.56 30 round magazines at PSA. They are often on sale for only $9.99 and list is $12.99.
End Result
The rifle turned out great. The final “felt” recoil was about that of a 20 gauge slug gun, if that. I could shoot round after round without regretting the kick 🙂
I had fun building and shooting it. As I get older the more I realize I enjoy learning about the engineering and history of arms. The “Wulf” has a new owner now and I hope it serves him well.
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My apologies but I have no way to filter out items that the vendors have sold out such as ammo. For example, most places sell out of the ammo fast but you should keep an eye on both Midway USA and going to Underwood Ammo directly – Underwood makes very good ammo by the way. I usually run Alexander Arms ammo but they are sold out most places and while you can place an order directly, you will need to wait quite a while for it to be made and shipped.
When Bill Alexander decided to make the .50 Beowulf round, he really got me excited 🙂 The idea of a heavy thumper round in an AR platform really appealed to me so I bought one and one issue that popped up was where to find magazines that were not really expensive.
D&H 5.56 30 RD Aluminum Magazines are perfect for this.
Once in a while the answer is really straight forward and this is one of those times. You do not need to change the feed lips or the follower on a standard 5.56/.223 magazine, you just need to bevel the front lip at about 45 degrees (the exact angle doesn’t seem to be a big deal) so the giant .50 Beowulf bullet goes up and, this is the key part, the leading lip of the brass case hits the little ramp and goes up it vs. hanging. In this next photo – see how the lip of the case will catch? It may catch sometimes or all the time – for me it was practically all the time.
The magazines I convert are D&H 5.56/.223 magazines that Palmetto State Armory sells. They are reliable and well made plus they are very affordable with sales prices starting around $8.99 and normal price around $12.99 for buyers in a rush. They also have regular combo deals such as a case and seven mags for $89.99. You have to love PSA’s deals. Click here to see what they have.
All I did was use a medium grit little sanding drum in my Dremel to bevel the magazine’s front lip – you are basically making an ad hoc feed ramp so the case doesn’t catch. The round you see has the big 350 grain XTP bullet – they hit like a freight train.
Note this is just to show the drum. The magazine is empty when I do the sanding.
This is a really quick operation and you don’t need to take a ton off. I do it with the magazine empty of course, insert a round into the magazine and test then do a bit more. I’d repeat the removal and testing until the round went right up into the chamber. After the first few magazines, I had it down pat.
In this next photo, see the shiny little ramp?
That’s all there is to it. I just used quality aluminum magazines and did the tweaking. Polymer mags, such as MagPul take more work and I simply didn’t feel like bothering with them. I did use quality magazines and avoided cheap stuff and I also used the anti-tilt followers – just regular 5.56 followers – nothing special.
In a standard 20 round aluminum 5.56/.223 magazine, you can fit up to seven Beowulf rounds. In a 30 round magazines, you can fit up to 10. I never tried any of the higher capacity magazines so I can’t speak to them at all.
This approach worked great for me and I hope it helps you as well.
I came up with an even faster way to convert the magazines that I wrote about in December of 2019 – click here to read it.
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I like M4 stocks and did some digging around. In the past, I have used Ace/Double Star and other modular adapters. The problem with them is that unless you cut the tang off the rear trunnion, you have a rather long receiver block sticking out of your rifle and I wanted to avoid that.
The unit comes with clear instructions but do read the little yellow supplement they include. After getting feedback about the angle the unit positions the buffer tube at, they added two small Delrin washers that need to be installed also.
Installation took about 10 minutes – in large part because I was snapping photos but also because I didn’t want to rush and make a mistake.
So the big L-Bracket just goes under the tang and is screwed into place. I put Blue Loc-Tite on both screws to prevent them from loosening up. Based on past experiences with stocks that loosened up using modular mounts, be sure to use some form of thread locker. I did not tighten the screws down yet because I wasn’t sure if I would need to wiggle the tube adapter into place or not.
So with the L-Bracket in place, I then attached the Tube Adapter. The Delrin washers go between the Tube Adapter and the L-Bracket. I applied Blue Loc-Tite to these screws also.
I then tightened down all the screws and that was it.
Adding a C&H Mercury Buffer to the M4 Buffer Tube
Based on past experience with other similar firearms, I knew the Lynx would be front heavy plus I knew 12 gauge shotguns in general have a fair amount of recoil. Both of these could be addressed by installing a C&H Mercury Recoil Suppressor. I use the model 100785 as I know it will slide down the buffer tube of an M4 given the suppressor measures 7/8″ x 5″. You wouldn’t use this in a normal AR because the buffer tube would have the buffer and spring inside. However, in our case, an AK does not use the buffer tube so that means we can do whatever we want. I ordered by unit from MPC Sports, where I have bought them in the past.
I’ve used these a number of times over the years in shotguns and rifles to add weight to the rear and to reduce the recoil. This last part is interesting. Basically you have a 7/8″ diameter heavy tube that is 5″ long that is hollow. Inside it is partially filled with liquid mercury and then very tightly sealed — there is no way it is coming out.
What happens is that when the firearm is fired and the rearward motion starts, the mercury liquid sloshes in the tube. The tube goes back and the mercury partially stays in place until it is hit by the front of the tube. This helps to split the recoil impulse into two parts – the initial impulse and then when the mercury hits.
If you can’t afford a mercury buffer you could always fill the rear 5-6″ with bird shot and then cap it with a thick layer of epoxy.
The Mil-Spec six position buffer tube is a straight forward unit made by Expo Arms and I bought it from Primary Arms. You will still need to get the castle nut and end plate of your choice. Primary Arms, Brownells and Palmetto are all good places to check. I really do not recall where I got the castle nut and end plate I used on this project – they were in a parts bin.
Installation is very simple because all you need to do is epoxy it into the buffer tube. I would recommend scuffing the tube with a bit of sand paper so the epoxy can stick well and then spray down the supressor and the inside of the buffer tube with brake cleaner.
Not all epoxies are up to the task. I’d recommend Brownell’s Acra-Glas liquid epoxy for this (not their gel version). I use 10cc syringes to meter out 4 parts resin to 1 part hardener. I mixed up and used 4 batches so 16 cc of resin and 4 cc of hardener. Make sure you stir it completely. The stuff has a long pot like so really mix it well.
I secured the buffer tube in my vise and made sure it was vertical. Next, I poured a bit down in the tube first – just enough to put a thin layer at the bottom and inserted the suppressor into the tube and poured in the remaining epoxy. It will need to sit and cure for 2-4 hours before you can handle it. I keep an eye on the remnants in the mixing cup to see when it is hard enough to handle as the temperature will affect how long it takes. Note – it needs to cure 24 hours to reach full strength and you’d want that before firing the weapon and subjecting the epoxy to stress.
At any rate, after pouring, wipe off any epoxy you may get on the tube. Brake cleaner on a rag will help until it cures. After that, it would likely require sanding to remove so be sure it is clean before you walk away.
So with that done and curing I moved on to the grip.
Installing the Ronin’s Grips AK-12 Grip
The Lynx comes with a basic pistol grip but I wanted to use one of my AK-12 grips. These are very ergonomic and feel really good to me. I wear an XL-size glove and both the size and angle work for me.
I replaced the small 5mm bolt with one of our 6mm alloy bolts and also used a 6mm grip nut that I had in my parts bin to secure the grip in place.
In the same manner as other AKs, the grip nut sits in the square hole behind the trigger guard and then the grip sits on the other side and the bolt pulls them together with the receiver sandwiched in the middle.
Adding a Chaos Saiga 12 Apollo 12 Extended Rail
The Lynx can use Saiga handguards so you have a lot of options. Note that I am using a Chaos rail and Chaos has since gone out business. The rail in question was their Apollo 12 Extended M-LOK Rail.
Installation is pretty easy. You will need to remove the original sights though. A small punch can be used to drift out the rear sight and either a small wrench or pliers can be used to unscrew and remove the front sight. I’d recommend having a Zip Loc bag or something to store these parts in just in case.
Unscrew the four screws on the sides to split the rail system into its two halves. The bottom slides into position. Use their screw to secure the front. Use Blue Loc-Tite on it too. In the rear by the receiver is a set screw. Back it out, apply Blue Loc-tite and then screw it down. It will push on the barrel lock the handguard into position so it will not wobble.
With the base secure you can install the top half when ready. Notice how I said that. What I found is that the bolt carrier must be installed and the dust cover installed before you install the top half. So, I went ahead lubricated the shotgun and closed it up before I installed the top rail. This also brings to light that the screws will need to be removed to gain access to inside the shotgun for cleaning. Time will tell how well that works out. If it drives me nuts, I’ll cut the rail off flush with the gas tube seat. Right now though, I sure like how it positions my red dot.
Lubricating the Lynx
As mentioned above, I had to install the bolt carrier assembly and dust cover to then finalize the rail. I am doing something different with the Lynx. A month back I started using Super Lube synthetic grease on my Uzi and it worked great. With the Lynx having the heavy parkerization on everything, I used Superlube to grease the rails and all sliding surfaces. I used a precision oiler with Mobil 1 5w-30 full synthetic on all of the rotating parts. Boy did this combination make things operate smoothly!
Installing the M4 Mil-Spec Buffer Tube
By now, the buffer tube with the mercury suppressor was cured enough to be safely installed. Basically, it is installed the same as on an AR but it is much heavier. Thread the castle nut all the way to the end of threads, install the end plate and then screw the tube into the Rifle Dynamics stock adapter. Note need to buy the end plate and the castle nut – they typically do not come with a buffer tube.
When you are almost out of space to screw the buffer tube because of the end plate riding in the groove, stop, push the end plate into the adapter and tighten the castle nut down using your favorite tool.
While I used the above pictured wrench, I’ve since switched to the Magpul wrench and swear by. It’s the best wrench I’ve found for stock work including castle nuts.
In the next photo you can see that I am using a end plate with sling loops plus you can see that I staked the castle nut. Because of the recoil of the 12 gauge, I created a small divot with a center punch – this is known as “staking”. It will mechanically lock the castle nut in place. I could have put Blue Loc-tite on the castle nut but I went old school.
I then used a cotton swab and some Brownells Oxpho-Blue to cold blue the bare metal to a black color and then wiped it down with WD-40.
Installing the Magpul ACS Stock with Limbsaver Pad
I like the Magpul ACS stocks. They are comfortable, have a locking lever to keep them from wobbling and have storage compartments you can either really use for storage or fill with epoxy and bird shot to further adjust the weight and balance of a rifle.
As luck would have it, I don’t have a photo of the stock before installation but will tell you that the one challenge is to lift the locking pin. Magpul gives you a dummy cartridge to help with this but I made a tool to hook the pin and lift easy as can be.
Now one thing that is nice with hard recoiling firearms is a decent recoil pad. I’ve long been a fan of Limbsaver pads and they make a model specific for the Magpul ACS, ACS-L, CTR, MOE, STR and UBR. It’s nice and thick and provides a lot of cushion especially compared to the original pad it replaces.
I purchased the Magpul ACS for Mil-Spec buffer tubes from Primary Arms and the recoil pad off Amazon.
Installing the JMac RRD-4C 12 Brake
If you want to tame recoil, a good brake is essential. Justin McMillion and his company JMAC Customs make some great brakes so reaching out to him for a brake made perfect sense. He recommended their RRD-4C “12” brake.
The first thing I noticed was it’s size – it’s huge and badassed looking. Installation is a breeze. Unscrew the thread protector from the Lynx to expose its threads. Screw on the jam nut as far as you can and then thread on the brake as far as you can. Back it off enough that the brake is flat and the chambers are venting up as shown below. Then tighten the jam nut up against the back of the brake to lock it in place.
Installing the Crossfire Red Dot and American Defense Quick Release Lever
My go to red dot these days is the excellent Vortex Crossfire unit. It’s small and only has a 2 MOA dot. It comes configured for an AR but you can remove the tall base and use the supplied shorter one for a lower mount. Recently, I started using American Defense bases because they have a solid quick release lever so you can remove the red dot quickly. The base required is the AD-T1-L STD.
You just unscrew the four little screws on the bottom of the optic, apply Blue Loctite on the screws and attach it to the new base. Not hard at all! The results are totally worth it.
Caution about eBay: Watch out for cheap counterfeit products on eBay. I would recommend buying the optic and mount from a reputable dealer to make sure you are getting the real deal. The cheap knock offs just do not hold up.
Streamlight TLR-2 HL G
I installed a small 5 slot Magpul M-Lok aluminum rail section on the bottom front of the handguard to hold a Streamlight TLR-2 HL G 800 lumen light and green laser. I have found they hold up remarkably well. In this age of cheap Chinese products, I would recommend buying a light that will work when you need it most.
To mount it, follow the directions with the light to install the key for the Picatinny rail. It comes with several and then it just screws onto the mount with the thumbscrew,
Caution about eBay: Watch out for cheap counterfeit products on eBay. I would recommend buying the Streamlight from a reputable dealer to make sure you are getting the real deal. The cheap knock offs just do not hold up.
The End Result
I am very happy with how it turned out. The balance is great and the red dot is located just right – when I bring the shotgun up – the dot is right where I need it. I definitely need to take it to the range and like how it turned out. By the way, the magazine you see is the new SDS 10 round unit.
I hope you enjoyed these blog posts. There will be more to come 🙂
Note, I have to buy all of my parts – nothing here was paid for by sponsors, etc. I do make a small amount if you click on an ad and buy something but that is it. You’re getting my real opinion on stuff.
If you find this post useful, please share the link on Facebook, with your friends, etc. Your support is much appreciated and if you have any feedback, please email me at in**@ro*********.com. Please note that for links to other websites, I may be paid via an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay.
In the first post, I documented my favorable first impressions of the SDS Lynx 12 shotgun. After posting, at least 10 gentlemen have come forward stating how much they like their Lynx 12 shotguns and nobody reported any problems. In this post, I’ll write about taking the shotgun apart in order to install my planned customizations, which will be in the next post.
Call me old school, but the first thing I did was to read the manual 🙂 The next thing was to hose down the hole shotgun and wipe it down to remove all the odd smelling rust preservative. I really didn’t care for the tacky feel to be there while working on it. Once removed, I sprayed on Rem Oil to prevent rust while I was working on it. Rem Oil is nice and thin and doesn’t have too much of a smell. It’s my go to for situations like this. If you do remove the preservative, just be sure to apply whatever oil or rust inhibitor you prefer.
Removing the Dust Cover and Recoil Spring
The dust cover comes off by pushing the release latch (the little button that sticks up) on the recoil spring and pushing the whole assembly forward while lifting the dust cover up and off the receiver.
You’ll notice I have the Lynx sitting in my Tipton vise. I’ve had it for years and it really makes working on long arms way easier.
With the dust cover off, you can get a good look at the recoil spring assembly. Some guys will call this the operating spring or the return spring but basically it absorbs the energy of the bolt carrier assembly coming back after firing and then when the spring has enough energy, it pushes the bolt carrier assembly forward to then cock the trigger and strip a round off the magazine and go back into battery.
Compared to a regular AKM, you will notice the release latch and the rubber buffer assembly at the rear. I find the use of a buffer interesting. Normally the spring should absorb the energy and my bet is that the designers put it there in case the user either adjusts the gas regulator such that the system is over-gassed and the carrier comes back with more force than the spring alone can handle or they put it there just in case of a round that generates more pressure than what the spring can handle but the gas regulator doesn’t exactly have the right setting — imagine needing a gas setting of “3.5”. At the third position there is too much gas but at 4 there is too little. I have little doubt it is a good idea. I’d recommend to keep a spare buffer on hand and inspect the one in the shotgun regularly. It ought to last a long time under most conditions but the buffers are dirt cheap.
To remove it, push forward on the rear part that normally protrudes from the dust cover. It should slide forward in the slot that holds it on the trunnion until it is free and you can then lift up and pull back to remove the assembly from the bolt carrier and shotgun overall.
You will also note that the designers made the recoil spring assembly two parts – the rear is a tube like an RPK or older milled AKs with one spring. There is then an additional cover that rides on that rear tube and normally closes the otherwise enlarged ejection port in the dust cover. In front of that is then a floating spring.
Removing the Bolt Carrier Assembly and Looking Inside the Receiver
First, remove the bolt carrier assembly. It slides to the rear of the receiver and can then be lifted up out of the receiver. Note – it must be fully to the rear or the receiver’s guide rails will retain it.
It’s interesting how the bolt carrier is short. In the gas tube, which is pinned in place, is a disc, that some call the “gas puck” or just “puck” which is the gas piston. Unlike an AKM, the gas tube is held in place by the gas tube seat (it reminds me of a rear sight block in a way) that would need it’s retaining pin to be punched out to be removed. When you tilt the shotgun forward and back, you can hear the puck moving back and forth in the gas tube. I didn’t take the gas tube assembly apart but it looks straight forward enough.
The carrier is holding a really massive bolt. It operates very much like any AK – the bolt head has a cam that travels through a slot in the carrier that in turn rotates it into or out of battery.
By moving the bolt head to the rear, the cam can be rotates out of the slot and the bolt head then removed from the carrier.
Look at the size of the extractor!
Interestingly, the firing pin has a spring pushing it backward compared to the floating firing pins you normally find in an AK rifle. In this photo you can see the tail of the firing pin pushed out the back of the bolt body by the spring.
Looking down in the receiver was a very typical looking fire control group. Note, it has been tweaked slightly to work in a Saiga or Lynx so if you want to replace the fire control group you will need to either buy one made for the the Saiga or Lynx or you will need to make some modifications.
Normally I replace the fire control group (FCG) with a US made set but the Lynx’s trigger is surprisingly decent. Not great, but decent. It was gritty from the parkerizing and lack of use but I figured grease and time could cure that. I may well swap it out in the future but time will tell.
The Pistol Grip
Now I did run into one surprise that I did not expect – see the grip nut below? I figured it would be a regular AKM nut meaning threaded for a 6mm diameter x 1.0mm pitch screw. It’s not. I did not expect this but the grip screw is actually smaller than an AK’s. The screw is actually 5mm diameter x 106mm long. I did not bother finding out the pitch by the way because it would not be staying! Instead, I focused on the hole in the receiver – it was the same size as a normal AKM grip nut. Whew – Problem solved. I would replace it with a beefier AKM nut and one of our high-strength alloy grip screws (I’ll detail that in the next post).
To remove the grip, there is a blade screw head on the base. Simply unscrew it and remove the grip and the grip nut.
Removing the Buttstock
The plastic buttstock is held in place by two machine screws on the top of the rear trunnion. The rear trunnion is an AK-74 forked style with the front portion open. The stock with its lightning cuts on the side harks to the 74 also other than having a recoil pad thicker than what you would find on a 74.
Given how front heavy the shotgun felt, I was not surprised to find out that the buttstock was actually hollow. The Chinese installed threaded inserts for strength. I think that is commendable actually. The fit of the buttstock to the receiver is both well done and very tight. This is what will bear the recoil – the screws are just there to hold it together.
Because of the tight fit, I secured the rifle in my vise after removing the selector lever. I then used a wood dowel and hammer to tap on the lip of the stock to push it backwards out of the receiver. It really didn’t take much force to get it out. For those of you who have tried to get an old varnished AK-47 stock out of a receiver, you know exactly what I mean and the Lynx requires just a small fraction of that.
The Forearm
The sporting looking forearm is held in place by a 5mm diameter x 11mm long screw. Unscrew it and push the handguard forward past the gas tube and then pull it off the barrel. Mine was a tight fit so I did need to pull it off the barrel and not just lift. I did use a small piece of wood and a hammer to get it started out of the receiver.
Done
At this point, I had the shotgun all the way apart other than the muzzle cap. I left that on to protect the threads while I worked. The next blog post will detail the customizations and a few surprises that happened along the way.
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For some reason, I never really got into the Saigas when they were the hot conversion ticket. I guess it was because I was mainly working on rifles and had a Vepr 12. At any rate, when I heard from Paul Popov that SDS was importing a Saiga-12 clone known as the Lynx 12 from China where it was made in the same factory that made the Type 56 AKs. Even better, it did not need the conversion and the street price was about $499, I contacted Scott Igert, my friend who owns Modern Antique Firearms in Benton Harbor, MI, to order me one.
In short order the shotgun arrived and then promptly sat idle as I was busy with a ton of other projects. Scott nudged me along to take a look as he was curious about the Lynx 12 also as were clients of his. That prompted me to get my act in gear and take a close look at the shotgun by taking it apart to install a bunch of modifications I had planned.
The first step was to give it a careful external exam. The Lynx had a nice heavy uniform dark parkerized finish – probably a manganese “park” given the color. There was some type of preservative on it that had the most interesting smell. I have no way to describe it other that to say it did not smell like the typical cosmoline-ish anti-corrosion coatings I was used to. Note, parkerization does not prevent rust but what it does do is create a textured surface that oil, preservatives or even weapons finishes can “grab” hold of an stay in place. For example, when I build an AK, I have found that abrasive blasting, followed by manganese parkerization and then Norrell’s Molyresin is a remarkably durable finishing process. By the way, I have a post on how to do make and apply your own manganese parkerization.
The rivets were pretty good – in a few cases the domes were flatter than others, which is me nit picking, but they all were sitting nice and snug against the sheet metal. Rivets are pretty amazing and result in strong attachments of the forged trunnions to the sheet metal as long as they are formed properly and the Lynx’s rivets are solid.
I found it interesting that the front trunnion sits on top of the sheet metal receiver. The fitment was pretty good.
There were reports of early models having sharp edges but I did not see any. All edges and the parkerized finish were well done.
I did notice that the rear stock screw as a bit chewed up by whomever installed the rear stock. Normally you see this when someone uses a screw driver blade that is too small. Not too bad and since I planned on replacing the rear stock, I really wasn’t worried about it.
The selector lever was noticeably loose. On most AK rifles, it takes a bit of effort to move the lever between the safe and fire positions. The lever on the Lynx moves very easily. I’ll bend the lever slightly or use a center punch to increase the depth of the detent. Again, not a big worry.
Because the shotgun is brand new and the fire control group and the inside of the receiver are all parkerized, the action was pretty rough. This was to be expected – the parts need to wear in. I knew from experience that cleaning and better lubrication would help.
The muzzle cover was easy to remove and threaded nicely. It is threaded to use Saiga chokes and brakes.
The dust cover has an additional retainer spring and pin that you do not see on most AKMs to hold the dust cover in place. Notice the attention to detail that the retaining button is shaped to allow the dust cover to clear it better.
A nicely done optics side rail is already installed and begging to be used.
It’s a good thing that is there because I really think you will want to run a red dot either via a scope mount or on a front rail. The Lynx’s sights are to the front and rear of the gas tube. The rear has a dovetail and can be drifted with a pin punch to the left or right. The front sight is threaded and can be adjusted up or down. They definitely are functional but I don’t care for them at all to be perfectly honest.
…smallest dot = basically no gas, no rounds will usually cycle when the regulator is on this position. Next smallest dot = “00” buckshot, high velocity rounds and slugs. Next to largest dot = all things in between your results and field testing will be required to see what your individual shotgun will run in this setting. Largest dot = birdshot and other lower powered ammunition.
You’ll notice it has an AK-74 looking buttstock but it is actually hollow and very light. It’s nicely formed and installed but the net result is that the shotgun is light overall but very front-heavy. I planned to replace the buttstock, grip and forearm from the start and I will describe what was one and why in future posts in this series.
It uses Saiga magazines also. One five round mag comes with the shotgun and SDS now sells 10 round magazines also that you can readily find. It’s actually harder to find spare five round SDS-brand magazines right now than the 10 round units.
By the way, if you are interested about how it shoots, I haven’t had a chance to take it out yet. In researching the shotgun and how durable it was, I talked to Paul Popov and he has 350 rounds through his with no signs of trouble. I also talked to Justin McMillion at JMAC Customs and they have put through about 500 rounds also with no problems showing up. Here is a great overview video from Justin and his wife Ashley:
To sum it all up, I was pretty impressed with my initial just out of the box assessment. I’m certainly not done though as I bought the Lynx specifically to customize and blog about. The custom Lynx 12 blog series will have two more posts – one about disassembly and then one with the customizations I made.
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I built an Uzi a few months back and had trouble with it firing. A challenge a person has in the firearms industry is finding time to enjoy shooting! At any rate, I took it out the first time and had really light primer strikes with the firing pin – I’m talking you could barely see there was contact. So with the Uzi refusing to go bang, I had to do some digging.
I got into Uzis because of all the movies and TV shows in the 1980s. I decided to finally make one during the Winter of 2017/2018 and chronicled my efforts. The first time to the range resulted in a lot of good natured ribbing from my brother-in-laws as we could not get it to fire. We could hear the striker hitting real hard but no bang. Luckily I had other guns for us to shoot so I put the Uzi back in the bag and took it home where it then sat for a couple of months.
I did some digging and process of elimination and got it down to a few possibilities that in some cases I had already addressed. The following is my journey and what I did to sort matters out.
Lubrication
The Uzi closed bolt system is a huge chunk of metal and moving parts. When brand new, these parts still have their porous surface finishes on them, rough spots from machining and what not. You need to make sure everything is lubricated. Remember the old saying of it slides, use grease. If it rotates, use oil. I used Tetra gun grease on all sliding parts. I definitely wanted the big bolt body to slide easily. I also did put a light coat of Mobil 1 Full Synthetic 10W30 on the firing pin but really nothing rotates in there. In the trigger group, I used the oil also on all pivot points.
For me, I heard the need for this when I assembled the carbine for the first time. There was a very dry slow-moving sound and grating feel when I first ran the action during assembly. After lubrication it made a world of difference. I could feel and hear the striker hitting far harder. The important point is to lube your weapon. This definitely helped but it did not solve my problem in this case but I could tell it would definitely impact the operation of an Uzi.
Note: When I wrote this I was using Tetra Grease but I am now using Super Lube and it works fantastic on my Uzi. Click here for the write up.
Top Cover Bent
To be honest, I thought for sure this was going to be my problem after a fellow at McKay suggested I check it. I always thought the cover seated hard and I could not release the latch without a tool. As soon as the fellow suggested it I put one and one together – I bet it warped when the third party welded on the Picatinny rail section.
So, I did some digging on the web to figure out what to do. It turns out that you should be able to insert a 0.005″ feeler gauge between the bolt and the cover at the ejection port. Guess what? It wouldn’t go in – the first rib was tight and the far rib was impassable.
Before I go further – one quick comment on feeler gauges. Not all are equal. I have a few in my toolbox but the one I use the most is is this ABN unit shown above. It is accurate enough and it has a ton of gauges. I point this out because not all of these gauge sets are complete. For example, several of my gauge sets jump as the manufacturer just included the blades needed for their equipment. I’d recommend getting a set with a lot of SAE and metric blades so you have flexibility. For the Uzi dust cover, you need the 0.005 and 0.015 gauges.
Next was to take some plywood stock I had lying around and make a jig. Basically you want two pieces of wood (any wood to avoid marring) that are the same height. The top cover will be suspended between them so you can adjust the cover either up or down.
I then made two little punches. One is made by gluing and brad nailing two pieces of 1/2″ plywood together so I could hit both ribs of the top cover at once. I also made a punch out of a single piece of plywood to adjust just one rib. I then got out one BFH (big frickin’ hammer) to whack with.
If there’s one thing I have learned – don’t go crazy hitting stuff. I put the jig right on the floor for good support and then the dust cover on it. Note that on the front part, I pushed the wood block back until it was supporting a thicker part and not just the thin neck.
So, I gave it a tap – not a very hard one with the thick piece on both ribs and took it over to test. It sure went on the receiver easier. Wow – it overshot the mark. I could now very easily insert the 0.015″ feeler gauge too. My understanding is that you don’t want it that loose or you risk the bolt jumping the sear and resulting in an uncontrolled mag dump. No joke – I don’t need that in my life ever.
I took the cover off the Uzi and flipped it with top now facing up and I tapped down even lighter. It really is surprising how easy the dust cover bends. I thought given the thickness of the sheet metal and the two ribs it would be much stronger but no.
I then took it back and installed it on the Uzi. It was starting to fit better. I definitely noticed that the ribs were different in terms of their gap so I switched to the smaller 1/2″ plywood punch and focused on one rib at a time. Tap and test, tap and test. If I went too far one way, I would flip the cover and tap it the other way.
After about 15 minutes I had it dialed in. The 0.005″ gauge would slide in and the 0.015 gauge met just a bit of resistance.
In working the action you could both feel and see the improvement. As always, there was a nice firm thud of the striker. Problem solved? No – it wasn’t. Argh. It was a definite improvement in operation but did not solve the problem.
The Uzi Bolt Blocking Latch
The web is a wonderful thing. I continued to surf around and read more about peoples’ experiences with Uzis not firing. Finally I read one that caught my eye – the striker has a particular orientation that must be followed to clear the bolt blocking latch. Wow. I knew I didn’t know about that when I installed it because the light strikes definitely indicated the striker wasn’t reaching the primer and this would explain a lot.
Okay, #31 in the above diagram is the bolt blocking latch and #30 is the spring. The bolt blocking latch’s purpose is to reduce (not eliminate) the chance of an out of battery firing. It does this by blocking the striker’s base. In normal operation, it is depressed and the notch in the base clears the latch as it travels forward to touch off the primer. Now there are three key things here and I’ll tell you what I messed up.
The spring must be installed correctly.
The latch must move freely
The striker must be rotated such that the notch is in the right place- you can install it 180 degrees opposite.
So, your’s truly bombed the last one. I did not realize there was an orientation issue. The model B striker’s base is a half circle. The notch must be at the bottom to clear the latch. In this next photo, you can see I have it installed backward:
The following photo shows the installed Uzi bolt blocking latch. See how the bottom part sticks out? That is what will need to clear the notch when it is depressed during normal operation.
Note, I was working on a full size Uzi with a McKay semi-auto receiver and bolt group. Your bolt group may look a bit different.
When installed correctly, the striker sits in its seat and the seat sits in the striker guide like so:
You can see in the above photo how my latch was chewing on the improperly installed striker. As a visual reference for the correct orientation, see how the striker’s base is facing the part of the guide that has a depression in it. When installed, it will look like this:
You can see an immediate difference because when you depress the latch, the striker can fully travel forward and sticks out of the bolt face ever so slightly. That’s what we want!
Verdict – problem solved and fun was had at the range yesterday. The Uzi is still wearing in and smoothing out. We put about 100 rounds of 124 grain S&B FMJ through it.
The carbine was accurate and a lot of fun. If you didn’t read my other posts, there is a rifle length 16″ barrel hidden under the fake can. The weight of the carbine made it really soft to shoot so the girls and I had a lot of fun.
I am going to find a bit bigger optic for it – probably the Vortex Crossfire like I am running on my POF-5.
Regardless, I hope this helps you out!
If you find this post useful, please share the link on Facebook, with your friends, etc. Your support is much appreciated and if you have any feedback, please email me at in**@ro*********.com. Please note that for links to other websites, I may be paid via an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay.
