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In case you are wondering where all the AK, Dragunov, and Hind photos went along with all of the memes, they have all been removed due to copyright concerns. Sorry folks. I’ll keep posting my work, projects and thoughts but that will be it.
Okay, so the last range trip went a lot better. The new Lancer L5AWM mags with Tromix followers worked great. The reliability on the pistol was coming along but not where I wanted it and the rifle was disappointing still but I knew what was going on.
7.5″ Beowulf Buffer Spring
My 7.5″ Beowulf pistol is running pretty well but I wanted to increase the forward force of the bolt carrier to strip the next round and chamber it. I was already running an H2 buffer but an other wise normal carbine spring. I upped my game to a Sprinco Red Extra Power Carbine buffer spring that they say is made with the “thumper” cartridges such as the .458 SOCOM, .450 Bushmaster, .50 Beowulf. I bought mine from Primary Arms.
The Mil-Spec Carbine Buffer Spring is on top. The Extra Power spring is on the bottom with one end painted red. That’s handy for knowing what spring is in the weapon at a glance.
I cleaned the pistol, lubed everything and installed the extra power spring and the H2 buffer that was in there. It definitely slammed home harder when I released the bolt.
When we go to the range next, I’ll be taking a standard carbine spring, an enhanced Sprinco spring and the carbine already has the extra power spring already installed. I’m also taking standard, H2 and H3 buffers with me.
Changed the Spring and the Buffer on my Full Size Beowulf Rifle
This rifle was built using an Alexander Arms DIY upper.
When we were shooting this, it had a hard time stripping the next round and chambering it. It dawned on me that they hydraulic buffer that I originally used wasn’t driving the bolt carrier forward hard enough. You see, a Hydraulic buffer has a piston inside that has a controlled leak down rate and, for whatever reason, it was dampening the stripping of the next round properly.
Top: KynSHOT hydraulic buffer and Mil-Spec rifle-length buffer spring. Bottom: Expo Arms 5.4oz buffer and Geiselle Super 42 Rifle-length buffer spring
The Kynshot buffer is very nicely made but I don’t think it’s the best choice for this application. I will save it for future projects.
When I cleaned the rifle prior to installing the new spring and buffer, the one surprising thing I found was that it was fairly dry. Why? I have no idea and this would have impacted functionality at the range also as I assumed I’d lubed it already before putting it away. Yet another example of my memory not being what it used to be.
Given that surprise, I went through and applied Super Lube oil and grease before installing the new Geiselle spring and Expo buffer. Afterwards, the action slammed home very easily.
I will take the hydraulic buffer with me back to the range for testing but am somewhat skeptical of it right now. The rifle is set for the next range visit at this point. Another Mil-Spec spring and buffer will be in the bag as well.
Conclusion
We have a ton of snow right now and I’ll have to wait to test my hypotheses. I expect that with the above changes, the two Beowulfs will run very well now.
I hope this helps you out!
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**@*********ps.com. Please note that for links to other websites, we are only paid if there is an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay and only if you purchase something. If you’d like to directly donate to help fund our continued report, please visit our donations page.
I’m still experimenting with my .50 Beowulf (12.7x42mm) rifle and pistol that I have posted about previously. I wanted to find better magazine options – both in terms of looks and reliability – than my modified D&H aluminum magazines. I tried a number of different options and then happened on using Tromix followers in Lancer L5 Advanced Warfighters Magazines (AWM).
Tromix Followers
A small cottage industry has popped up of people 3D printing followers to center the various big bore cartridges in a given model of magazine. I’m still tinkering with some of the 3D printed models but during my surfing, I came across a machined aluminum model from Tromix Lead Delivery Systems. Tony Rumore and his colleagues at Tromix specialize in the .458 SOCOM round but they came up with a really slick follower design that would work with the really slick Lancer hybrid AWM Magazines.
I ordered in a few for testing and they are really nice. Here are a number of views for you:
Lancer Hybrid L5 AWM Magazines
So the above Tromix followers are made specifically to work with Lancer L5 5.56/.223 AWM magazines. The AWM considered a hybrid design because the feed lips are steel The lips can be a weak point in the design of some polymer magazines.
At any rate, the AWMs are really nice. You have a bunch of colors and capacities and are a very nicely made. They also have a number of capacities *but* for the Beowulf, stick to the 10 or 20 round magazines. The Tromix follower is relatively tall and can’t negotiate the curve in the 30s. It can be made to work with the 20s and I’ll detail that more in a moment. I have some thoughts on how to modify the Tromix follower to get it to work in a 30 but haven’t had the time to tinker with it yet.
The 10 round 5.56/.223 magazines can hold 3 Beowulf rounds without any tuning. The slight curve to the 20 round magazines can cause the follower to jam and we’ll cover how to address that next.
Tuning and Installing the Follower
Push the the button on the bottom of the follower and slide the base plate off. Note, the magazine spring will want shoot out so just be prepared to control the spring’s expansion.
This is an original Lancer follower stull attached to the spring. It’s really hard to get the assembly oriented wrong due to the design. The follower can only go into the magazine body one way. and the spring can only attach to the follower one way.
The spring can only fit into the Tromix follower one way also.
You then slide the assembly back into the magazine and slide the base plate back on. It is that easy.
The tuning required has to do with making the follower slide as easily as possible in the 20 round magazine. If you don’t then you are going to find that the Tromix follower jams inside vs. reliably pushing the cartridges upwards the way it should.
Now whether you do it before you install the spring or after, use a buffer and go all around the Tromix follower and make it nice and smooth. I used a 6″ buffing wheel with buffing compound. The reason I said you could either do it before or after is that I had already assembled four magazines before I realized I needed to do the polishing. Just rub off any buffing compound left behind. You’ll notice that the follower surface is far smoother to the touch than before.
I have used this 6″ Harbor Freight buffer a ton over the years as you can probably tell from the photo. It’s what I used along with some black/emory buffing compound to polish the followers.
The next step is to apply three coats of Teflon to the follower and the inside of the magazine body. I’d recommend using a dry lubricant inside a magazine body so it doesn’t attract dirt the way a liquid or grease would.
My preferred lubricant for inside a magazine body is Dupont’s Non-Stick Dry Film. It sprays on wet and leaves a layer of Teflon as the solvent evaporates off. Be sure to shake the bottle before spraying so the Teflon is floating in the can when you spray.
Due to health and environmental concerns over Teflon, the Dupont formulation now uses a ceramic technology. It seems to work just fine and I have been using the ceramic-based product for several years now. Click here for the Dupont Dry Film Aerosol that I use now.
The trick I do is to use a heat gun to warm up the parts before I spray and then hit it with the spray lightly. I then warm it up again, let all of the solvent evaporate and then repeat for a total of three coats. I’ve hard far better luck getting a consistent thick layer of Teflon this way vs. trying to do it all in one spray.
The white dull look you see is the Teflon residue that will enable the follower to slide easier in the magazine body.
I spray the inside of the magazine body and all sides of the follower. Your goal is or there to be Teflon where ever the follower males contact with the magazine body. When everything is dry, reassemble each magazine.
Coat all four walls of the inside of the magazine body as well.
Testing
One quick comment – I do not recommend testing with live ammo. There are just too many things that can go wrong. I use A-Zoom 50 Beowulf Snap Caps to do my testing. They come in packs of two and I’d recommend having 4-8 rounds total for testing. Ideally, you’d like to load the whole mag you want to test so it really depends on what you plan on testing.
Get yourself 4-8 Snap Caps for testing. They are far safer than live rounds and hold up very well.
The Result
With the Tromix followers, the L5 AWM 10-round mags can hold three Beowulf rounds and the 20-round mags can hold seven. They are far, far more reliable than what I have been trying thus far.
The 10-round L5 AWM is on the bottom and the 20-round model is on top. You can see the big Beowulf rounds loaded to the capacity of each.
The weapon used first is this 7.5″ Beowulf pistol. Yeah, it bucks but I am trying to figure out the brake to use. There is a massive amount of unburned powder blowing out that pepper pot helical brake.
Target from 50 feet – rapid fire free hand. Yeah – feeding is way, way better.
The bottom line is that I am very happy with the pairing of the Tromix big bore follower with the Lancer L5 AWM 10- and 20-round magazines. I’ll experiment more to see if I can get the 30-round L5 AWMs to work but that is for another day.
I hope this helps.
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**@*********ps.com. Please note that for links to other websites, we are only paid if there is an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay and only if you purchase something. If you’d like to directly donate to help fund our continued report, please visit our donations page.
If you ever want to start an argument on the Internet, ask what is the best AK brand you can buy in the US or at least ask what is good a good brand. You’ll get a ton of opinions, hear say and even a few people with real experience will chime in.
The other day he sat down and took the time to create what I will refer to as “Paul’s List” to try and answer that question above:
Current 12-12-20 Question one: What new Ak do I buy? Current new production mass market AKs that are proven and a safe bet. Alphabetically · Arsenal, · Century imported WASR or Draco · IWI Galil ACE, · K-USA KP9p/r, · M&M Cugir AKs, · Palmetto State Armory GF3 – up, GF4, 103, AKv, 74 (the only 74 in new prod), · Riley Defense is hammer forged where it counts, should be ok? (test is not completed, ammo is expensive currently for just putting rounds through one for testing) · WBP Poland. Still pretty new, hard to say on this one. Maybe ok · Zastava should be ok, the ones Century imported were hit and miss. New ones have chrome lined barrels (yay and about time) and lets hope better metallurgy than Century imports. o Atlantic firearms often have decent kit builds to purchase, but are not mfg. new AKs. So do many kit builders, we have a list in announcements along with a list of where you can buy kits from. o Please let me know if I forgot any.
·Question two: What are good used AKs to buy? This is a great list Darryn Eugene compiled. AK variant buyers guide (models and variants G2G) 7.62×39 AKm/47 Variants · Mitchell Arms Imports, M-90/m-70 · Mitchell Arms Imports, M-72 · Zastava M-92 (inspect due to varying QC) · Zastava NPAP/OPAP (inspect due to varying QC) · Cugir/Romarm/Century AES-10B not to be confused with AES-10 (basically a long barreled wasr) · Cugir/Romarm/Century Sar-1 · Cugir/Romarm/Century Cur-1 · Cugir/Romarm/Century Wum-1 (check for “moon cuts” meaning a dish shaped portion cut out of the rear of the receiver to dissuade the use military stocks. · Cugir/Romarm/Century WASR-10 variants (only upon inspection) · Cugir/Romarm/INTRAC Romak-1 · Cugir/Romarm/INTRAC Romak-991 (dimple-less single stack pre WASR import. · FEG/Hungary/KBI/Kassnar Sa-85 variants post and pre ban. · FEG/Hungary/TGI Amd-65 builds (not to be confused with Clearview Investments builds) · Valmet, Literally any of them they’re all excellent. · Arsenal of Bulgaria/Las Vegas/Legion SLR 107 variants, SAM-7 Variants, SLR 101 Variants, SGL-21 Variants · BlueRidge/GordonTech/INTRAC SLR100h builds (Hungarian Type3 AK-55 kits on Bulgarian Receivers) · Norinco/Polytech AK47S series. · Norinco/Polytech MAK90 series milled and stamped models. (on stamped models identify whether it is slant cut or straight when figuring your price to pay. · Norinco/Polyech NHM-91 · Norinco/Polytech MAK-91 (20-inch barrel milled receiver rifle, neutered Polyech legend national match). · Norinco/Polytech Hunters. (great for galil/valmet conversion) · GSAD/Kengs/Siles Type 56, AK47S · Molot Vepr 1&2 models (model 2’s being the integrated front sight gas block set up) · Robinson Arms Molot Vepr Conversions · IWI Galil Ace series. · Izhmash Saiga series. · Intrac Maadi ARM · Century Maadi MISR SA (avoid MISR 90) · Intrac Maadi RPM, RML · Steyr Maadi 5.45×39 AK-74 Variants · Cugir/Romarm/Century SAR-2 · Cugir/Romarm/INTRAC MK-2 · Cugir/Romarm/Ratmil WUM-2 · Cugir/Romarm/Ratmil CUR-2 · 1st Gen Waffen Werks (identified by Nodak Spud receivers and Bulgarian barrels) · Arsenal of Bulgaria/Las Vegas SLR 105-104 variants · Arsenal of Bulgaria/Las Vegas/Legion FIME SGL 31 variants. · Marcolmar/InRange Ak-74/AKS-74 · Molot Vepr 1&2 Series · Robinson Arms Molot Vepr Conversions · Interams Tantal · Izhmash Saiga Variants AK-101/5.56 Ak variants · Romarm/Cugir/Century SAR-3 · Royal Tiger/FB Radom/ Beryl Archer · Arsenal Of Bulgaria/ Las Vegas SLR 106 series ( research serial number prefixes to identify potential problemed models) · Izhmash Saiga Variants · Norinco/Polyech 84S · Norinco/Polytech NHM-90 · Norinco/Polytech BWK-92 · Zastava/Century M85 (cannot verify quality of m85NP series) · Mitchell Arms M-90 · Arsenal USA (not to be confused with KVAR) K100 model. (Bulgarian milled receiver assembled with Bulgarian 5.56 barrel on 74 parts. · Arsenal Of Bulgaria SAM-5 · IMI/IWI Galil and Galil ACE variants · TENN Galil builds. · Valmet M72/65 variants. · Valmet Bullpup. M82? Can’t recall model during time of this list. And yes i know i could use google. Don’t judge me…
So for all you folks new to AKs, take a look a the above. The last AK I bought was an IWI Galil Ace and they are superb.
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PSA AK Webstore Links
Interested in an American made AK? Consider Palmetto State Armory (PSA) as a source. Click on the following links for the associated webstore categories for AK-related rifles, pistols and parts at PSA:
A recurring question I get is if a Bulgarian ARM-9 grip can be used on an IMI Galil rifle. Not easily is my answer and I took a bunch of photos so you can decide for yourself. You would need to add black epoxy to the inside back of the ARM in order to Dremel or mill it open further to duplicate the swing of the Galil’s lever – at least that’s how it looks to me because I don’t own an IMI Galil to experiment with.
So, here are some photos so you can see what I mean:
Note the difference in the shape of the ARM-9 grip’s notch on the left vs. the IMI Galil’s notch on the right
Here are the notches even closer.
Here’s the ARM sitting on top of the Galil for another perspective.
Here’s where you can see that the ARM-9’s original wall design is hollow behind the notch. It’s not an impossible change – if you were to abrasive blast the inside of the ARM grip and then use wax stripper, you could then fill that back in with black epoxy. It wouldn’t be an exact color match by any means.
Summary
So there you have it. They are different and definitely not a simple swap with out doing some epoxy work and then maybe a top coat of some finish if you want the colors to match. I hope this helps you out as you think through your options.
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The short answer is that they are the same thing. The bullet’s diameter is 0.50″ which is 12.7mm and the case length is 1.65″ or 42mm. The reason you see some vendors say they have something to sell in 12.7x42mm is they are trying to avoid a trademark problem with Alexander Arms.
Bill Alexander, of Alexander Arms, did all the engineering to bring to life both the round and the AR components to use it. He also trademarked the term “.50 Beowulf”. As such, anybody who wants to sell something and refers to it as being for .50 Beowulf would need to get the permission and/or license the use of the term “.50 Beowulf” to avoid legal problems. So, a lot of vendors use the generic metric designation of 12.7×42 to avoid legal hassles.
With that said, bear in mind that not all engineering is equal. I have never had a problem with Alexander Arms parts but myself and others have had plenty of headaches with 12.7×42 components from budget AR vendors who haven’t done the engineering. In my case, it was poor extraction with a Radical Arms bolt and extractor. So, buyer beware and research a vendor and their offering before you buy plus make sure they are reputable in general in case you need support. For example, Satern worked great for me and I wrote a blog post about the build.
Conclusion
So, short post this time. 12.7×42 and .50 Beowulf are the same round with different descriptions but be cautious to check out vendors selling parts using the metric designation. Some of them are selling junk so search for current reviews of products before you buy them.
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The typical semi-auto AK trigger has four parts – the trigger body, disconnector, disconnector spring and pin. Installing it can be a challenge because you need to properly align the disconnector while sliding the pin through from one side of the receiver to another. For me, with big hands, this task takes more effort than I want.
This is your typical semi-automatic AK trigger group. On the left is the trigger body, top right is the disconnector, under the disconnector is its spring and at the bottom right is the trigger pin. The challenge is getting this all assembled inside of the AK receiver as the pin needs to pass from one side of the receiver, through one side of the trigger, through the disconnector to capture it, out the other side of the trigger and finally out the other side of the receiver. Trying to get it all to align inside of the trigger takes some patience.
The Solution – Use A Slave Pin
There is an easier approach. We can slide a properly sized dowel pin to serve as a “slave pin” during assembly to secure and properly align the disconnector and trigger outside of the receiver. This simplifies life tremendously. The unit is assembled outside where you can see what is going on, is lowered into the receiver and then the actual trigger pin is pushed through and it displaces the slave pin – the slave just exits the other side of the receiver.
This is the slave pin. Note how one side is beveled more than the other. That is the side that is inserted first. The bevel helps move things around during insertion and then the 5mm body provides the actual alignment for the trigger pin.This is the assembled trigger group with the slave pin holding it all together.Normally this would be in the receiver but I want you to see what is going on. As the trigger pin is inserted, it pushes the slave pin out of the way and it exits via the opposite receiver hole.This photo shows how when the trigger pin is fully inserted, the slave simply drops out.This is an ALG semi-auto trigger and you can see how slave pin is exiting the receiver as the trigger pin is installed. So there’s the end result. A slave pin makes a world of difference. Note, that is one if our fire control group plates retaining the trigger and hammer pins.
If you’re like me and want an easier way to install AK triggers, these new slave pins are the way to go!
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