FNHman
Marksman
Sort of a review/fix post.
I decided to go ahead and fix up my Century C39V2 the other night. These rifles get a lot of bad reviews from the cast carrier and bolt that Century used in these rifles and also from the incorrect guide rods on some of them as well. My rifle was not showing any carrier or bolt wear but I went ahead and swapped the cast carrier and bolt over to milled parts as this would be needed sooner or later anyway. I picked up the carrier and guide rod from another forum member a while back and have been holding onto it for awhile for this project. This rifle only has a few hundred rounds through it and by the looks could have went on for years to come as is and currently the head space was fine. I did preform multiple head space checks with some different milled bolts and found that the 3 $25 surplus milled yugo bolts I purchased all checked perfect. This was a nice surprise and kept me from having to remove the barrel pin re adjust head space and then ream and reinstall an oversize barrel pin. The 2 $40 polish milled bolts I checked head space on were too tight and I'll keep them for some of my parts kits I'll be building down the road. I also pulled 2 AKM bolts for some other AK's I have and they too checked out ok, so I dont know if I got super lucky or all these bolts hold better tolerances than people give them credit for. I also replaced the recoil guide rod assembly as the Century one was incorrect "too tall" and caused either carrier to raise up out of the rail when all the way back. I still have to reshape the hammer bump so it doesnt damage the rear of the milled carrier as reported by some uses that have done the swap on youtube. The USA trigger group has a reported rockwell harness thats higher than the milled carrier. It's been recommended that you can slightly change the shape of the hammer bump so when the carrier cocks the hammer back it does it at a smoother contact angle and eliminates any deformation or wear marks.
Another thing to watch out for is that the safety selector that on this particular rifle "and some other AK's so be careful" is the type that when the hammer is cocked and the top cover is off the rifle and you lift up the selector all the way straight up it will release the hammer and fire if a live round is chambered so I will be notching the internal part of the selector to prevent this from happening.
If your on the fence about these C39V2's and can get one for a great price as people are getting rid of them for cheap and your handy in the AK repair field I'd recommend you pick one up as these are nice rifles when fixed up but its not cheap to do.
If you do have one of these rifles its been recommended that you check your head space every 300 rds or so if your continuing to run the questionable cast parts. If I've left anything out feel free to chime in or bash......
Disclaimer, you should never preform any modifications to any gun. Pay a real gun smith.
I decided to go ahead and fix up my Century C39V2 the other night. These rifles get a lot of bad reviews from the cast carrier and bolt that Century used in these rifles and also from the incorrect guide rods on some of them as well. My rifle was not showing any carrier or bolt wear but I went ahead and swapped the cast carrier and bolt over to milled parts as this would be needed sooner or later anyway. I picked up the carrier and guide rod from another forum member a while back and have been holding onto it for awhile for this project. This rifle only has a few hundred rounds through it and by the looks could have went on for years to come as is and currently the head space was fine. I did preform multiple head space checks with some different milled bolts and found that the 3 $25 surplus milled yugo bolts I purchased all checked perfect. This was a nice surprise and kept me from having to remove the barrel pin re adjust head space and then ream and reinstall an oversize barrel pin. The 2 $40 polish milled bolts I checked head space on were too tight and I'll keep them for some of my parts kits I'll be building down the road. I also pulled 2 AKM bolts for some other AK's I have and they too checked out ok, so I dont know if I got super lucky or all these bolts hold better tolerances than people give them credit for. I also replaced the recoil guide rod assembly as the Century one was incorrect "too tall" and caused either carrier to raise up out of the rail when all the way back. I still have to reshape the hammer bump so it doesnt damage the rear of the milled carrier as reported by some uses that have done the swap on youtube. The USA trigger group has a reported rockwell harness thats higher than the milled carrier. It's been recommended that you can slightly change the shape of the hammer bump so when the carrier cocks the hammer back it does it at a smoother contact angle and eliminates any deformation or wear marks.
Another thing to watch out for is that the safety selector that on this particular rifle "and some other AK's so be careful" is the type that when the hammer is cocked and the top cover is off the rifle and you lift up the selector all the way straight up it will release the hammer and fire if a live round is chambered so I will be notching the internal part of the selector to prevent this from happening.
If your on the fence about these C39V2's and can get one for a great price as people are getting rid of them for cheap and your handy in the AK repair field I'd recommend you pick one up as these are nice rifles when fixed up but its not cheap to do.
If you do have one of these rifles its been recommended that you check your head space every 300 rds or so if your continuing to run the questionable cast parts. If I've left anything out feel free to chime in or bash......
Disclaimer, you should never preform any modifications to any gun. Pay a real gun smith.