An estimated 100 million Kalashnikovs have been produced world wide with some form of porting in the gas system for excess gas, either on the gas tube or the gas block itself.
If it were an issue, it would have been rectified decades ago.
Agreed. Either will work fine in pretty much any AK setup. So it’s nothing to worry about.
If someone has a choice of which to go with, those are just Fuller’s reasons to go with no holes in the tube…
Today I shot my Saiga along side with a friends SAR. Saiga felt like it had a maybe a bit more recoil than the SAR, but not significant.
The thing I am most worried about was how hard the bolt stem and firing pin have been hitting the rear trunnion. The end of the bolt has a bit of a dent(on the end of the bolt) where it strikes, and it has only been a little over 200 rounds now.:blink:
I think I will just drill some holes in my gas tube. I still have the original handguard on my rifle and don’t want to change it until I have enough money to buy a new setup with aimpoint.
I think the gas block is chrome lined so I guess I don’t want to drill on it yet.
I will see what happens after several hundred more rounds.
Thanks for the input guys.
On a side note: I got to shoot some guns that I had not shot before. German Makarov, Carbon 15 with stainless fluted barrel and a CETME. After that we proceeded to get nice and drunk. Will have a bad headache tomorrow.
I don’t think porting the gas tube will do anything to help your situation.
Watch this video: http://ultimak.com/ShortGasTube.htm
If a huge gap doesn’t affect it, I doubt holes will do anything. Porting the gas block would definitely soften this up, but the problem is how do you know how big of a hole to drill.
My RPD was designed with a gap like that.