Skip to main content
Help Center Community Shop

Comments

5 comments

Date Votes
  • Don McManus
    Wouldn't the bolt cycle closed upon removal of the magazine?

    I guess I don't see much of an advantage to a hold open follower on an AK magazine without a hold-back latch in the rifle itself.
    0
  • cpermd
    quote:Originally posted by Don McManus
    Wouldn't the bolt cycle closed upon removal of the magazine?

    I guess I don't see much of an advantage to a hold open follower on an AK magazine without a hold-back latch in the rifle itself.


    BINGO

    CP
    0
  • beantownshootah
    quote:Originally posted by Don McManus
    Wouldn't the bolt cycle closed upon removal of the magazine?

    I guess I don't see much of an advantage to a hold open follower on an AK magazine without a hold-back latch in the rifle itself.


    One potential advantage is if your bolt were cut with stripper clip notches, once your mag was empty and the bolt locked back, you could then charge the detachable magazine with stripper clips without having to remove it.

    Edit:
    Yeah, to charge with strippers, you'd have to hold back the bolt with one hand while charging with the other. The only thing a magazine bolt hold open would do for you is save you the step of retracting the bolt manually before trying this.

    Note that I've never actually seen an AK with a stripper cut out; I don't even know if they exist. With an ordinary AK, the top cover would probably get in the way of using strippers this way anyway, so I think you'd also need a modified top cover to pull this off.

    The VZ-58s let you recharge with strippers, but then those also have a true bolt hold open feature, and I agree that's really the way to go, rather than hold-open magazines.

    I suppose another potential advantage to hold-open magazines is that they facilitate inspection of your empty gun by range-officers for safety reasons, and beat having to stand there manually retracting the slide!

    To answer the above question, in addition to the Chinese and Yugo mag followers, its possible to make your own "hold open" feature by modifying your mag followers.

    It is also possible to install a true bolt hold open feature to AKs, if you want to do that. One "poor mans" version is just a cut out notch in the sheet metal safety selector that can engage a retracted bolt if you raise it.
    0
  • mark christian
    The only other AK magazines with the hold open follower are the Yugoslavian magazines produced by Zastava. In this case the hold open feature is a simple signal that the rifle is empty; upon removing the empty magazine the bolt will close as the rifle has no hold open latch.
    0
  • 1KYDSTR
    In Addition to Marks always astute observations, the magazine hold open (as opposed to a reciever mounted hold open latch) would have the added disadvantage of trying to bust your fingers as soon as the first round entered the magazine and driving the stripper clip at a forward angle likely altering the geometry of the rounds entering the mag, causing a pretty nasty jam. There would be no pressure activated hold open latch to keep the bolt behind the rear of the mag; it would simply be impinging on the rear of the follower and as soon as the obstruction was gone(by inserting a round)it would try it's best to slam forward. Followers that dont activate a seperate hold open device and themselves are the hold open will work...just not nearly so well as one that is purpose designed and mounted to the rear of the well as the stripper becomes the hold open and the return spring pressure will make removing it after inserting the rounds a bit difficult. I know my Yugo SKS works fine with the stripper guide on the top of the bolt, but then again it is a milled reciever with different function intent. AK's are simple to the point of being crude and adding extra parts to the mix generally negates the design intent; simple, robust and largely soldierproof.
    0

Please sign in to leave a comment.

Recent Activity