Here's the latest update on my Draco. I went to Knob Creek last week and they are now enforcing the chamber flag rule. I don't have a problem with that, but it was
a PITA with a Draco (or any other AK varient). I'd seen the Bolt Hold Open (BHO) threads, and decided to do it to the Draco... I did my mags a little differently.
There are BHO mags available (Bulgarian?), but they're not easy to find and they're not cheap. I am cheap, so I modified some of mine. Here's some pics; the one on
the left has a "common" follower and the two on the right have followers that will hold the bolt to the rear after the last round is fired with a couple of
modifications.
There are two liitle "bumps" on the inside of the mag body that keep the follower from going to the top of the mag and stopping at the feed lips; most people grind
them off but I decided to cut notches in the follower instead. I don't think that it will weaken it too much, but it's possible.
Both followers were cut using a dremel, I rounded some with a stone and made some square with a cotoff wheel to see if shape has any bearing on working life...
plus, I got lazy.
Here's what it looks like when the follower is holding the bolt open.
OK, that gets the bolt to stay open after the last round of the mag is fired... problem is the bolt slams forward as soon as you remove the mag. The solution is to
notch the safety lever. Again, these are also commercially available but not cheap. Again, I (ultimately) did mine a little differently. Initially, I put the
"standard" square notch in the lever and this worked as expected. Then I thought (uh oh!) to myself, "Self, if you angled the notch to the rear, you could pull the
charging handle back which would disengage the safety and you'd be ready to rock-n-roll!"
Well, almost. Seems that (at least on my Draco) that there's not enough material on the vertical axis of the safety lever to push it down far enough to clear the
trigger block. Bummer. But I was not to be denied! With trusty Dremel and files in hand, I set about cutting an angle on the lever so that it would clear when
racked, but allow the weapon to be safe when fully in the up/safe position.
This is with the safety lever in the full up/safe position, it completely blocks movement of the trigger as I did NOT remove any metal from the bottom of the lever.
here's a shot of the postion of the lever after pulling the charging handle from the BHO position.
Some beauty shots.
Draco's are cool!
P.S. I wonder if the Secret Service flips out when "AK" and "BHO" appear in the same message?
a PITA with a Draco (or any other AK varient). I'd seen the Bolt Hold Open (BHO) threads, and decided to do it to the Draco... I did my mags a little differently.
There are BHO mags available (Bulgarian?), but they're not easy to find and they're not cheap. I am cheap, so I modified some of mine. Here's some pics; the one on
the left has a "common" follower and the two on the right have followers that will hold the bolt to the rear after the last round is fired with a couple of
modifications.
There are two liitle "bumps" on the inside of the mag body that keep the follower from going to the top of the mag and stopping at the feed lips; most people grind
them off but I decided to cut notches in the follower instead. I don't think that it will weaken it too much, but it's possible.
Both followers were cut using a dremel, I rounded some with a stone and made some square with a cotoff wheel to see if shape has any bearing on working life...
plus, I got lazy.
Here's what it looks like when the follower is holding the bolt open.
OK, that gets the bolt to stay open after the last round of the mag is fired... problem is the bolt slams forward as soon as you remove the mag. The solution is to
notch the safety lever. Again, these are also commercially available but not cheap. Again, I (ultimately) did mine a little differently. Initially, I put the
"standard" square notch in the lever and this worked as expected. Then I thought (uh oh!) to myself, "Self, if you angled the notch to the rear, you could pull the
charging handle back which would disengage the safety and you'd be ready to rock-n-roll!"
Well, almost. Seems that (at least on my Draco) that there's not enough material on the vertical axis of the safety lever to push it down far enough to clear the
trigger block. Bummer. But I was not to be denied! With trusty Dremel and files in hand, I set about cutting an angle on the lever so that it would clear when
racked, but allow the weapon to be safe when fully in the up/safe position.
This is with the safety lever in the full up/safe position, it completely blocks movement of the trigger as I did NOT remove any metal from the bottom of the lever.
here's a shot of the postion of the lever after pulling the charging handle from the BHO position.
Some beauty shots.
Draco's are cool!
P.S. I wonder if the Secret Service flips out when "AK" and "BHO" appear in the same message?