Posted by Elias on October 11, 1998 at 08:05:49:
Tantal,
I finally checked my old postings about replacing the pitted barrel on my romanian AK74. Thanks for the information about the differences in diameter between the romanian and bulgarian barrels. Having had problems with my first 74, I bought another from a different distributor and have the same problem with the barrel pitting after cleaning, firing and cleaning again. So has a friend that bought romanian 74. So that's 3 guns with the same problem. I know KVAR sells romanian 74 barrels, and installing another romanian barrel would avoid the diameter differences I'd run into with a bulgarian barrel. I'm worried I'll run into the same pitting problem with a newly installed romanian barrel. I want to take care of the problem the first time around and not have to send the gun out to get fitted with a bulgarian barrel and all the other neccessities because my newly installed romanian barrel pitted. On the other hand, you say that I could theoretically avoid case ruptures by using the bulgarian barrel. That sounds good to me, but I haven't had any jamming problems. What I really want to avoid is another pitted barrel. The romanian replacement would definitely be the cheapest way to go, but I only want to replace once. Have you had any experience with pitting of either type of barrel on the AKMs rebuilt to AK74s with bulgarian barrels, or with the romanian guns? Have I just had the misfortune to run into 3 bad romanian barrels? Which option would you pick-- romanian or bulgarian?
Sorry this post is so long, and thanks for your time.