So, I bought a parts kit from Priest, got it all put together last week and test fired it this weekend.

Few things:
Don't be a pussy with the welder. I didn't have enough heat in my welds and the front trunnion came loose after 3 rounds.

I fixed all that, and it cycles just fine now. I have jamming problems with the lead nosed SP ammo, but it fed the jacketed HP stuff like nobody's business. Which was odd, because I read all about peoples AK builds feeding SP stuff and they had to mess with it to get the HP's to feed.

So, here's what the bullets do when it FTF. The nose of the bullet ends up at the top of the chamber face and it mangles the tip. The bolt rides up onto the cartridge body and then mashes it against the feed ramp. I'm thinking that the mag is too low and the rounds are going in too nose high. Since I can't do a whole lot about the mag's position I was thinking about dremeling the feed ramp to be a bit thinner so the bullet nose was lower entering the chamber.
good idea, or I shouldn't fuck with it and try to get the mag to sit up higher?

Maybe try another mag that you know works in another AK....otherwise you need the other people to diagnose. I changed mags with a Golani and it fixed the problem.

Maybe try another mag that you know works in another AK....otherwise you need the other people to diagnose. I changed mags with a Golani and it fixed the problem.

I forgot to mention, I tried the HPs in the mag that the SPs were jamming in, it ate the HPs no problem. The problem was reproducable using 3 different mags. I have no other AK to test with :(

Cycle some more soft points through it, look for the smear marks on the bullet guide(that flat thingie below the breech and between the front of the mag and the breech), file the areas that are marked down slightly to aid in feeding.

Cycle some more soft points through it, look for the smear marks on the bullet guide(that flat thingie below the breech and between the front of the mag and the breech), file the areas that are marked down slightly to aid in feeding.
sounds good to me. I'll attack it with the dremel tonight and see what happens.

so I took a longer look at it last night. Looks like the bullets are doing to opposite of what I thought. The nose of the bullet is hitting the lower face of the chamber, then it's bouncing up as the bolt comes forward and pinches the round against the bullet guide.

It doesn't look like it would take much to get them to feed properly, but I was scared to touch the face of the chamber with the dremel.
So, is it ok to radius the blunt edge of the chamber? Like I said, it wouldn't take much, probably just a touch with the sanding drum on the dremel to smooth out the sharp edge. It would not require getting into the chamber, just chamfering the edge of it above the bullet guide.

I've done it without problems on two of my WASRs but some may tell you differently. I am by no means the expert around here.

I've done it without problems on two of my WASRs but some may tell you differently. I am by no means the expert around here.

I couldn't see a reason not to, but this is my first adventure into gunfawkery and I don't want to bone it all up. I'll take off the pink panties tonight and just hit it with the dremel.

so I hit the bottom lip of the chamber with the grinding stone last night. I took off about a 1/16 of an inch from the face and smoothed it over. Then I hit it with the polishing wheel till it was mirror smooth. It seems to have fixed the problem. I won't have a time to test fire until this weekend, but it cycles the action a lot smoother now.

Be very, very careful putting any sort of cuts or chamfers into the chamber. If you remove too much material, you lose case support, and run the risk of a case rupturing and ruining your day.

Be very, very careful putting any sort of cuts or chamfers into the chamber. If you remove too much material, you lose case support, and run the risk of a case rupturing and ruining your day.
I made sure to not get into the area that was supporting the case. Really all I did was take the factory's beveled edge and radius it a bit. I did not get into the chamber proper, just the face of it on the bottom lip.

well, an update and another question.

Polishing up the bottom lip of the chamber seems to have fixed the jamming issues.

Now the only problem left is the big dent it's leaving in the side of all my casings.
I'd like to get some boxer primers ammo for this thing and reload, because 9 bucks a mag isn't gonna cut it. It looks as though the ejector is kicking the rounds straight back and into the corner of the dust cover.
What do I need to do to get it to eject shells more forward in the ejection port?

Move the ejector up closer to the chamber.

aks are designed to operate this way, it tosses the brass forward, thus not giving away the shooter position from a pile of brass next to them...cut the dust shield.

well at least it does something as designed.

I'll just take the dremel to the dust cover.

thanks.