Yesterday's Weapons Forums

Or more accurately, NOT locking problem. The latch to lock the slide open when the magazine is empty sometimes fails. When operating it manually it almost always fails, holds for a fraction of a second, then slips sideways out of it's notch.

This is on a Vostok .22.

The latch itself is loose on it's pin (looks like a tiny hex socket grub screw but I can't find my magnifying glass to be sure). It also looks as if it may be bent open just a wee bit. The underside of the latch intrudes into the mag well just a little, but when the magazine is inserted it pushes this part to the side, pushing the latching surface away from the slide.

The underside of the grip has been ground away, presumably to provide clearance for this latch, as if at one time it was too tight, but it now has way too much clearance. It seems a bit of an odd design if the latch, metal and moving a lot, was supposed to be guided by rubbing on the plastic grips. It would be bound to wear out of alignment quickly. So I'm thinking refilling those ground away areas really won't fix the problem.

Does anyone know if the latch pivot is a screw and how to get it out? Or if screwing it IN further would solve the problem? Or if getting a replacement from Numrich, assuming it is available, would solve the problem?

Would there be any reason for that latch to be supposed to be able to spring to the side? It seems unlikely. I think it's only function is to stay out of the way until that last round is ejected and the thumb button on the mag pushes it up. But what do I know.

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Them that know, know that they know. Them that don't know don't know they don't know.

Any chance we could see some pics? SW

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Slava Ukraini!!

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Them that know, know that they know. Them that don't know don't know they don't know.

I looked around about your Vostok (means 'east') & parts are going to be a problem. You might end up living with the issue. SW

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Slava Ukraini!!

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Them that know, know that they know. Them that don't know don't know they don't know.

Ah. Problem solved, at least for now.

I simply unscrewed the latch until it was flush with the end of the screw, then held it snug against the frame while I turned the screw into the frame. Even with the loose fit of screw to latch it did come to a snug stop before the screw went so far into the receiver that it interfered with the magazine.

It still cants out a little bit, but since it started snug/flush against the frame the little bit of movement is less than the thickness of the slide. It locks in nicely now when the slide is moved back manually.

Now to give Princess Leia a call to find out where she got her barrel extension

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Them that know, know that they know. Them that don't know don't know they don't know.

Score some black Loctite & away you go! I'm glad you found a solution - I looked around & really didn't have anything to offer. SW

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Slava Ukraini!!

me either but i enjoyed seeing this

Hey Steve, Tom in Hungary could help this guy out.

BRGDS, A

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In the end, there can be only ONE

Yep, got it sorted. Took it to the range last week and it performed fine. (Scope problems with my Remington 597 ... couldn't even find anything on paper. Gave up and while waiting for a line call so I could move to the 25 yd range I fired off a magazine of the Vostok. Those were the only holes in the paper!) (Aside: got the scope, magazine feed and lock-open problems on the 597 fixed eventually. My daughter likes that one. It'll probably go to her once/if she ever gets her PAL)

Too bad we can't add suppressors. (And apparently if it looks like a suppressor then it IS a suppressor.) I'd love to build up a fancy barrel extension for the Vostok to convert it to a Princess Leia pistol. Maybe I can slide a wooden dowel down the bbl and build it up to look like that. Totally non-functional, just cosmetic, but at least probably wouldn't get me in trouble with the CFO.

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Them that know, know that they know. Them that don't know don't know they don't know.

As Andrey mentioned, we have a close friend in Budapest who has access to some of these obscure parts. I can check with him if you like. SW

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Slava Ukraini!!

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Them that know, know that they know. Them that don't know don't know they don't know.

"Hey man, just what you see."
From the original Terminator movie when Arnie goes shopping for gons.
;-) A

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In the end, there can be only ONE

It's been a while since I was out to the range, but went today, with my grandson and took the Vostok (plus some others). Mostly it worked fine, once I remembered you could adjust the front sight), except for some misfeeds. Mostly, if I loaded it worked fine, but mostly, if he loaded he'd get one or two misfeeds, usually in the first few rounds.

Any ideas what might be causing this? I'm guessing just cleaning the magazine might help. It certainly did with the Remington 597 mag with a similar problem.

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Them that know, know that they know. Them that don't know don't know they don't know.