7.62x39 Zastava Problems.

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rickymo

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Indian Arm, BC
Just got one these neat little carbines earlier this week. Bought a case of Romanian surplus from lever arms to go with it. Went to the range yesterday fired about 60rounds of which 44 failed to fire. My first thought was that it was most likely the firing pin, but they are striking the primers fine no evidence of light primer strikes. As the day went on I was starting to think I just had a bad batch of ammo. I went to lever arms today had a long talk with an employee there. He was sympathetic and polite to me, but he kept assuring me that he had sold countless cases of that ammo with no complaints, and that my rifle was well known for having problems with the firing pin though I can't find any information to back that up.

Anyone have any problems with this rifle? The Romanian ammo? or the combination of the 2?
 
is your rifle full stock or half stock model? I have one in full stock and surplus is the only think I shoot
 
See if it is Canadian imported gun or US import first. Ones made for Canada have stronger striker springs and beefed up extractors for surplus ammo. Zastavas for US are much cheaper finnish and generally less quality this is why they cost less
 
wojnar said:
is your rifle full stock or half stock model? I have one in full stock and surplus is the only think I shoot
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erkner said:
See if it is Canadian imported gun or US import first. Ones made for Canada have stronger striker springs and beefed up extractors for surplus ammo. Zastavas for US are much cheaper finnish and generally less quality this is why they cost less
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it's the halfstock model from canada ammo.

###XX said:
Agreed... try the ammo with an SKS. Might need a harder firing pin strike for the surplus.
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eatredmeat157 said:
Do you have an sks you can use to run a few dozen rounds off to check the ammo?
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sadly no, had a D-model a few years ago but I sold it =S
 
rickymo said:
Just got one these neat little carbines earlier this week. Bought a case of Romanian surplus from lever arms to go with it. Went to the range yesterday fired about 60rounds of which 44 failed to fire. My first thought was that it was most likely the firing pin, but they are striking the primers fine no evidence of light primer strikes. As the day went on I was starting to think I just had a bad batch of ammo. I went to lever arms today had a long talk with an employee there. He was sympathetic and polite to me, but he kept assuring me that he had sold countless cases of that ammo with no complaints, and that my rifle was well known for having problems with the firing pin though I can't find any information to back that up.

Anyone have any problems with this rifle? The Romanian ammo? or the combination of the 2?
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Interesting!

I was about to purchase the same rifle to shoot some of my surplus ammo.
I will wait to see what happens here.

erkner said:
See if it is Canadian imported gun or US import first. Ones made for Canada have stronger striker springs and beefed up extractors for surplus ammo. Zastavas for US are much cheaper finnish and generally less quality this is why they cost less
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With all due respect, where did you find out about this?
Zastava is (relatively) small manufacturer, not sure that they produce different grades of the same firearm.
Could this be similar story as American Colts not being up to par with ones sold in Canada?
 
If the primer strikes are indeed deep enough, then it's the ammo. What else could it be?
I wouldn't do anything till you rule out the ammo with a "control" gun
I'm leaning towards light strikes.
Compare empty casings from the zastava and from the control gun. Compare primer strike depths.
 
So basically you have US import gun, they are meant for civilian ammo only. Plus Canadian warranty centre will not do any service on your rifle. You pay $70-$90 less for US import but you will get weaker striker spring, weaker extractor and less fit and finish. It is best to ask dealer where they got zastava first canadian importer who is Baikal Canada or they got it from century arms int in US
 
Try calling Baikal maybe they will let you have one of upgrade packages with better spring and extractor that is meant for steel cases. i bough one of the canadian imports it shoots everything, surplus civilian no difference
 
I have the full stock one, and fire both commercial and surplus through it without problems.

(edit to add)...

When in doubt, if Lever Arms has had anything to do with it, they'd be my primary suspect for the source of problems. These are the same people who sold "non-corrosive" surplus ammo for years, in spite of all evidence (and complaints) to the contrary.

If you shake hands with someone at Lever, count your fingers after.
 
I've had issues with Romanian ammo before in my vz58. Deep strikes on the primer and I had tried to shoot them again but it still wouldn't fire. I loaded them into my sks and all of them went bang. Out of all the surplus ammo I've gone through, Romanian was the least reliable.
 
lanis said:
With all due respect, where did you find out about this?
Zastava is (relatively) small manufacturer, not sure that they produce different grades of the same firearm.
Could this be similar story as American Colts not being up to par with ones sold in Canada?
Click to expand...
I remember seeing I believe it was corwin arms on here who when he first mentioned the full stock model that it had seen some upgrades and was designed to fire steel case ammo
 
Does the ammo go if you try it a second time. I get this with Czech surplus in my sks. It has a wolf spring kit installed. These springs are a little lighter than factory for a better trigger pull. The stuff that misfires goes off on the second attempt , nothing really wrong with the gun or the ammo they are just a bad mix
 
dnepr said:
Does the ammo go if you try it a second time. I get this with Czech surplus in my sks. It has a wolf spring kit installed. These springs are a little lighter than factory for a better trigger pull. The stuff that misfires goes off on the second attempt , nothing really wrong with the gun or the ammo they are just a bad mix
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I have tried, and havnt had any rounds fire on a second attempt.
gonna be borrowing a friends sks on tuesday, to test out the ammo.
 
took it to the range again today.

The romanian stuff shoots fine out of an SKS

the zastava has preformed as follows

Romanian Surplus: 60 rounds fired; of which, 44 failed to fire with 0 going off on a second attempt to strike the primer.
Norinco M43: 40 rounds fired; of which 20 failed to fire with around 10 going off on a second attempt.
federal fusion 123gr soft point; 20 rounds fired, 0 failures.
American Eagle 124gr FMJ; 20 rounds fired, 3 failures to fire, with 1 going off on a second attempt.

it groups pretty well tho, 1-2" groups at 50m are a cakewalk. Iron sights are dead on from the factory.
 
rickymo said:
took it to the range again today.

The romanian stuff shoots fine out of an SKS

the zastava has preformed as follows

Romanian Surplus: 60 rounds fired; of which, 44 failed to fire with 0 going off on a second attempt to strike the primer.
Norinco M43: 40 rounds fired; of which 20 failed to fire with around 10 going off on a second attempt.
federal fusion 123gr soft point; 20 rounds fired, 0 failures.
American Eagle 124gr FMJ; 20 rounds fired, 3 failures to fire, with 1 going off on a second attempt.

it groups pretty well tho, 1-2" groups at 50m are a cakewalk. Iron sights are dead on from the factory.
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It sounds like your getting soft primer strikes , maybe to much heavy grease in the bolt, weak spring, something binding , firing pin protrusion out of spec , the 100 % reliability with the federal makes sense assuming they use the same primers in the factory ammo as they sell to reloaders . Federal primers are supposed to be the most sensitive of the commonly available to hand loaders . I hope you get this sorted .
I really want one of these rifles as soon as someone brings some left hand models into the country
 
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