Bronze Supporter
- Messages
- 3,523
- Reactions
- 7,489
Earlier this year I started procuring parts for a KS47 build. I have built several Ar's in 7.62x39 in the past and they are great but are a bit mag finicky. I started with a complete KS47 pistol lower and stripped upper and bolt from PSA. I reconfigured lower into a rifle and built out the upper using the same no fail 7.62x39 barrel I have used on most of my 7.62x39 AR builds. This barrel feeds well is gassed well and surprisingly accurate. It also has considerable weight with it's heavy profile. In the KS47 build it performed well but I kind of wanted a build that was a bit lighter so I patiently waited for a Faxon 16" gunner profile 7.62x39 barrel to come in stock. I have never used a Faxon barrel before but hear good things. It finally became available and I received and installed it a couple weeks ago. I am not sure what faxon does for prepping barrels for delivery but this one was absolutely filthy, taking the better part of an hour to get the brownish looking crud swabbed out. It did clean up nicely though. Yesterday I took it out and shot it and it was pretty decent accuracy wise in field expedient positions out to 100yds. It did however not want to cycle lower power ammo. It would fire and eject the first round but would not pick up the second round. This was with Bellom and Norma brass cased 123 fmj. Trying some of my 123 gold dot reloads it worked great. It also cycled fine with 123 barnaul steel cased soft points. The KS47 lowers ship with a Ar10 spring and a heavy buffer. They do this to help with feeding rounds from the mags.While this combo worked fine with the first barrel which is probably slightly overgassed and is in the carbine gas config. The faxon is mid gassed and probably has a slightly smaller port. For a light barrel the recoil impulse is great with the faxon so I will work with spring and buffers to find a combo it likes. I used 4 different ak mags and it fed with all but one which was a tapco 10 rounder. It would not even strip the first round out of the tapco so they are no go without mods. Overall I am happy with the KS47 platform and I am looking forward to getting it running with all ammo. I also want to bag it up on the bench and check out the accuracy potential. I would love to hear any KS47 input good or bad. So far I don't see any show stopping obstacles to getting this one to run correctly with all ammo but time will tell. 90% of the time I shoot full power reloads or full power steel case stuff but it would be nice to have this build work with all ammo so I will tinker on.
Last Edited:
