Tweet
JackCheese
I've spent a lot of time with the Ag42b and its red headed stepbro the Hakim. I know of 2 Hakim that had catastrophic failures. I was witness to one of them so I put in some time to study the problem/s with these rifles and they aren't insignificant problems.
Its pure luck that we haven't heard of more problems. All the problems are ammo related in that surplus ammo with too slow a powder type was fired. What results is the bolt being opened too soon. Ouch. It completely shreds the stock as the gas blows down through the magazine well and blows the magazine to who knows where. The Hakim has one single advantage over the Ljungman in that it has a gas port adjustment to limit the amount of gas reaching the bolt carrier. But the Hakim I saw come apart in the shooter's hands just had an incorrect gas setting.. it let too much gas go downstream.
One of the inherent design faults of both of these rifles is a weak bedding system. The middle triggerguard screw has almost no wood support so it cracks and comes apart way too easy.
These are the exact empties from the Hakim that came apart. The one on the far left is the last one fired. See that nice gapping tear just above the web?
This Ag42b was owned and fired by a very experienced collector. He put 10 rds of Danish 6.5x55 down the bore.. well.. he had 10 rds in the magazine. The Danish is notorious for having dangerously soft jacket material that loads up the bore to the point of creating very high pressure. High enough that it completely dismantled this rifle. The shooters in both cases were not seriously hurt. Wood splinters in the left forearm was about the worst. That does say something about the Ljungman design but not a whole lot.
My opinion of the Ag42b, and Hakim by proxy, is that they were incompletely designed and tested rifle systems. They were intended to be maintained by lower level regimental armorers because they were built with unit construction design. Easy replacement of parts by sub-sergent grunt REMF. The barrel attachment design of the Ag42b is real easy to change out. Everything about it is easy to work on.
That being said, neither the Ljungman or Hakim is close to being equal, let alone superior, to the M1 Garand. It just ain't so. I do like the way the Ag42b comes to the shoulder. Its a very long semiauto rifle and I like the balance but since witnessing the Hakim coming apart I just don't trust either one of them anymore. Use caution with these rifles and be extremely cautious as to what ammo and what burn rate you trust your well being with. Under no circumstance should you use Turkish 8x57. Too slow powder burn rate, not nessessarily loaded too hot as its loaded to German specs, but some Turk ammo has been clocked at velocities that far exceed what it should be.
Dutch
Comment