AK Side Rails on stamped receivers

[Nari]

Hi everyone it would seem that the perfect zero concept on stamped receiver AK rails is a misconception.I own a stamped romanian with factory side rail riveted on.I bought a K-Var side rail scope mount(very nice) and a scope and installed it.I used a laser boresighter to dial it in.I removed the mount then re-installed it to see if it would sustain perfect zero.Much to my dismay it did not retain perfect zero.I scratched my head and decided to examine it further to see why.For starters I should have known that stamped metal receivers will flex-for two the rail itself has only 3 rivets and there is a small gap in between the rail and the receiver which allows the rail itself to move.What a let down!!!!!!!If this was a milled receiver I'm more than sure this side rail would work properly.Now I have to see what kind of solution I can come up with to remedy this problem.Anyone else having this problem?Let me know about it and what you did(if anything)to remedy the problem. Also I'm curious to see how this setup reacts when the receiver heats up from firing it. :(

[quadfan]

Even the one on my VEPR-k needed help,not the rail itself,but the mount! The rail was attached very well,but the weaver rail on top of the mount was not even close to lining up!! I basically had to redrill and mount the weaver rail,and take the mount apart and dremel some off of one of the vertical rails to make it line up. But now it works pretty well!

[Flak 2]

there were some posts over at AKnet on how to tune the rail type scope mounts. I remember their was an issue with a certain mount and the way it attached to the side rail to retain zero. You might want to do a search over there.

[Nari]

this seems to be an issue with the rail and not the mount-it moves when the mount is on it.It appears I will have to drill out the rivets and use screws or rivet it again.I will probably use epoxy in addition to screws/rivets to insure a rigid rail.

[Nari]

Problem solved.I drilled out the rivets for the rail and the rear trunnion.I drilled and tapped for 10-32 hardened allen bolts which I cut down to size.I threaded the rail on the 2 forward rivet holes and bolted them from inside the receiver and the third hole in the rear bolts to the trunnion which is also allen heads now to.I also used 2 part epoxy between the rail and receiver to insure rigidity.I discovered that the rear trunnion was not straight either and corrected it as well.The rail is now solid as a rock.I will say that the Romanians dont do very good assembly of these guns-I guess you get what you pay for.Too bad I live in California or I would buy a VEPR.Atleast I managed to hold on to 2 AK's before they were outlawed.

[Flak 2]

if I had to take a guess. I'd say Century Arms who imports the Romo SAR rifles pays about $125.00 a rifle.

If I remember correctly they gave about $35-42.00 for FAL kits. Theres a guy that assembled rifles for century that used to post on some firearms discussion boards.