Bloggers and Professionals

Lately I have seen a lot of talk about how there are so many bloggers out there who talk a talk that they have never walked. There are plenty of Internet "Experts" out there because anyone with a computer can have a web page. However that doesn't mean that everyone has the knowledge or experience to back up what they are promoting, heck sometimes some of the advice I have seen is downright ridiculous and dangerous. 

I wanted to clear some things about myself, just in case there is any doubt that I am trying to be an Internet "operator" or "expert". These are things that I am not, I do not have the answers to everything, I haven't even had the opportunity to take any courses from some of the awesome guys we have here in our community, this is why I do not offer advice on things I know nothing about. I did serve in the military but being a mechanic in the Air Force the most I ever received was weapons familiarization on the M-16, and even that wasn't all that in depth.

I haven't gone through any armorers courses, or taken any gun smithing courses. Everything I do, I have taught myself to do or I have consulted with guys I have a great respect for, and have been doing gun stuff far longer than I have. I have also learned from my own mistakes and the mistakes of others, which many times has brought a greater understanding of my firearms.

I am always pursuing a better understanding of the gear and firearms that I use, and in that process I like to write down my thoughts and share them with you awesome people who follow this blog and my Facebook page, which I truly appreciate. 

I hope that as time goes on I will have the opportunity to attend classes and expand my knowledge, and be able to share what I have learned with you guys and gals. I'm just an average guy who likes to get out and shoot, tinker, build, and learn; I never expect to be a professional or to be a big name in the industry. Rather I just want to be that guy that can help new and old shooters alike by bringing attention to the awesome options that are available.

Again I really do appreciate each and every one of you who follows this page, and appreciate you following and participating in this journey that I have been on so far.

Waffen Werks Post Range Thoughts

A couple weeks ago I gave my initial pre range thoughts on the Waffen Werks AK-74 I had recently picked up, and since then I have had the opportunity to head out to the range and run the rifle. So far I have run a total of 600 rounds through it and have a pretty good feeling for the rifle, but there are some issues that I have run into with it.

The first issue that I ran into with the rifle was a magazine issue, while firing the rifle it would sporadically not strip the next round from the magazine. For the first couple mags worth I thought that it could have possible been the mags themselves were an issue being that they were from Tapco, however out of the 6 total mags (4 Tapco and 2 Surplus) that I had for the rifle the first time I took out, 5 of them were sharing this same issue. Sometimes it would just require a quick pull back on the charging handle to get the next round to load, and other times it would create a double feed.

While I am still new to diagnosing issues with the AK platform, but the time that I have spent converting the Saiga, and tearing down both of the AK's that I have been using; I feel that I have a pretty good understanding of what the issue is. When I was out at the range I set the rifle down on it's back and checked to see how well the magazine catch was fitted to the mags that I was using. I know that when I was doing the conversion of the Saiga I ended up having to replace the original mag catch because I had taken too much metal off and the mags were now wobbling front to back and side to side (yes I know most AK's have side wobble). 5 of the magazines I was running that day had some front to back wobble and the 1 that I was not having any issues with had zero wobble. This lead me to believe that the magazine catch was the cause of the issue.

Since Waffen Werks offers a 1 year warranty on all of their rifles I emailed them while I had some down time at the range, and the cool thing was I had a response from Keith at WW by the time I got home. Even though it was a late Saturday afternoon he took the time corresponding with me via email about the loading issue. He agreed with me that it is most likely the magazine catch and had a UPS shipping label emailed to me so they can get it into the shop and fix the issue (all on their dime). 

The second issue I have had is getting it sighted in, out of the box it was very right and very low, again this has been another learning experience for me as I have been trying to get it sighted in perfectly. This last trip I made before sending it off to WW it was getting very close to being dead on, and even though I was having to compensate for the sights being off like they are right now once I figured out where to aim, it was ringing the gong at 100 yards with every shot, and when we went down range to grab the paper target stands I was happy to see that all of the shots had hit within the size of a paper plate. Even though it's not completely sighted in I can tell that it's an accurate USA barrel, and I have yet to notice any keyholes in the targets.

I will be posting a follow up once I receive the rifle back from Waffen Werks, I am anxiously waiting to get it back so I can head out to the range again and run the surplus mags and the 45 round surplus mag that I just picked up recently.