i purchased my first AK type rifle and shot it for the first time yesterday. Its a Tantal sidefolder and I have to say, im in love with the damn thing…I know its heresy around here, but I thought of selling off an AR for another AK variant.
I have read of AR barrels have to be replaced due to being “shot out,” has anyone ever had to replace an AK barrel? Is the estimated life of a chrome lined AK barrel similar to that AR barrel? Lets assume non-corrosive ammo since thats a pretty large variable im guessing…Just curious, thank you.
The problem with any gun built from a parts kit(with a surplus barrel) is you have no idea how many thousands of rounds have already been down the tube. Shoot the gun until you notice a big drop in peformance downrange and dont worry about it. My 2 cents FWIW.
I have changed out a few barrels and it’s not something you want to do. Of course if you have a hydraulic press it will be much easier. Having said that I have seen AK’s in Iraq used and abused that we still able to shoot effectively.
It was built by Interarms out of Houston on a NDS-2T receiver. Its nothing special, but at $525 w/ 2 mags, I thought it would be a good intro into the AK realm.
I was trying to determine if you have the original Polish barrel or one of the Green Mountain US barrels that Century put on their builds.
Most of the Tantals that came in and were cut into kits had decent barrels on them. There was a batch that had bad barrels, but that was fairly early on, and you’d know it if you got one.
As IG said, changing a barrel on an AK isn’t at all like changing one out on an AR, it’s a significant gunsmithing operation.
The chances of a US civilian shooter burning up a chrome lined barrel are pretty low, but as others have stated, on a kit build, you don’t know how many rounds have been down it full auto, which is much harder on the barrel than semi auto fire.
Arsenal Bulgaria, which uses cold hammer forged chrome lined barrels, rates the system life of their AK’s in military service to 15,000 rounds. That’s full auto fire.
What kind of ammo are you shooting, mil-surp?, is it corrosive?
You can wear out a barrel if you are shooting corrosive ammo, and not desalting the barrel before proper cleaning right after shooting.
Any bbl will wear out over time with enough shooting and cleaning, chrome lined or not. I also share your AK fever, and I was concerned about my Yugo M70 underfolder. It has a US made bbl as part of its compliance parts. This bbl is not chrome lined, but neither were the origionals and the original owners shot the crap out of those things using corrosive ammo exclusively with minimal cleaning.
If you have a chrome-lined bbl, as most AK variants have, you should expect a longer bbl life than non-chrome lined.
I’m sure ammo will have an impact, steel jacketed bullets, corrosive ammo, all will increase wear and tear. But regardless you should be able to shoot the crap out of it for years to come. Enjoy.
FWIW there was an article a few months ago, I think it was in the shotgun news anthology, that compared barrel wear for different calibers. I don’t think they had 7.62x39 but they had 30-30. It’s my understanding that those are pretty similar rounds and the article rated 30-30 as pretty near unshootoutable with reasonable use and care.
