I have written a number of posts now about my purchase of a James River Armory Gallant, which is a Galil ARM. During function testing, I noticed that the surplus recoil spring that JRA used was on the weak side. I would pull the bolt carrier back just a bit and the spring couldn’t push it all the way closed.
Other ways you may find out your spring is weak is if it is ejecting brass a mile away, the recoil feels different or the back of the carrier is showing signs of hitting the rear of the receiver. I always function test new rifles or kit builds that I have done and would recommend you do the same.
What to do?
The fix is real simple – replace the old surplus spring with a new one. Now there is some confusion about the recoil spring because the Galil AR, ARM and SAR rifles are chambered in 5.56 NATO. They do, in fact, use a standard AKM recoil spring even though those rifles are chambered for 7.62×39. This means you have a ton of options – surplus, new old stock (meaning old but unused usually), plus new springs from ALG, Wolff, etc. In my case, I had spare ALG recoil springs on-hand used one
In Summary
It’s easy to swap out the recoil spring and the rifle functions great with the ALG unit. Definitely function test your rifles before going to the range the first time to avoid surprises.
I hope this helps you out.
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