AMD-65 BUILD 

It's really not so hard!

    Here are some instructions of how to build a Hungarian AMD-65 rifle from an 80% receiver. You can legally build a firearm as long as your currently able to buy a firearm. I am not responsible for your state or local laws concerning the building of a firearm, contact the ATF for answers on how to legally build a firearm. Since the Clinton Crime Bill has sunset back in September it is now legal build a rifle with folding stocks, pistol grips, bayonet lug, flash hiders ect. but you are not allowed buy law to build an assault rifle due to a bill that George Bush Sr. passed back in 1989. There is a way around this though. You can build rifle but you can not use more than 10 imported parts as stated by the ATF in your build your rifle must be 922r compliant. Therefore I am installing several us parts to keep my semi auto rifle legal. Also the rifle only has a 12" barrel to keep the 12" barrel you must register the firearm as an NFA or National Firearms Act. Short Barreled Rifle (SBR) it will cost you $200 for the tax stamp. What I did was purchase a muzzle brake barrel extension and had it permanently welded to make the barrel the legal length of 16 1/4". 

    First I started buy purchasing a blank bent piece of metal from ak47.org for the receiver  I used a drill press and a dremel tool to do all of the holes and magazine cutout. 

Blank receiver with blueprint attached. Some holes drilled.

Top view of receiver after top rails were trimmed, trigger hole cut and filed and rear pistol grip hole cut.

Cutting magazine well with dremel tool.

Filling the magazine well for final fit.

  Test fit mag make as tight as possible.

Test fitting front and rear trunion. Use a clamp to hold in place. After I clamped them I noticed that the bolt carrier was a little to tight and would not slide freely so I dremeled a little off the left and right until it slid freely.

Test fitting bolt carrier clearance.

Here is the receiver being clamped to the front and rear trunion looks pretty good.

Next it's time to install the U.S. made gas piston. The pin is very hard to see it is located about 3/8" from the piston and at the 9 and 3 o'clock position. I drilled it out with an 1/8" drill bit.

I used a 1/8" pin to secure the piston to the bolt carrier.

The next step is the hardest thing to do in your build. I used a drill press to drill out the factory rivets to be able to tap the holes for the assembly bolts. Hake sure you don't go to deep or you will drill into the chamber and that will ruin your barrel. The rivets are hard to drill out because the lower smashed part of the rivet wants to spin when the drill bit goes down.

The next step is converting the full auto bolt carrier into a semi automatic configuration. This is done by grinding down the full auto sear catch that is located on the rear of the bolt carrier. This step MUST BE DONE no automatic parts of any kind can go into your build!! 

To install the rails I used the 6/32 screws that were supplied with my blank kit from ak47.org . I kept the rails 1/16" away from the front trunion for space to weld the rails in place after final adjustments. To keep the rails parallel to the top of the receiver I grinded down a 1/4" bolt to .244 of an inch and used it as a spacer between the top of the bolt rail and the underside of the lip where the bolt carrier slides on the receiver. 

The center support was made by cutting down a 1/4" carriage bolt to the proper length. I cut off the threads of the bolt and used only the unthreaded top part of the bolt. After I cut the bolt to length I drilled and tapped the top and bottom of the bolt then threaded the holes. It really added strength to the receiver plus when the hammer is released it stops on the center support when the bolt carrier is off for cleaning.

The next step in the build is to harden the steel in the receiver. You need to harden the bolt rails and the hammer and trigger holes. I did this by using a oxygen and map gas torch. You need to heat the areas to be hardened until it reaches 1500 degrees the metal will glow orange. After it reaches that temperature you must quench it in salt water to harden the steel. The steel will turn a bluish color after hardening.

After the receiver was hardened I sanded the receiver until it was polished and smooth. I use a gun blue from WalMart it worked ok but I will parkerize it down the road sometime.

Finally here is the finished rifle with the permanently attached muzzle brake welded to the barrel.

Here it is with the stock opened. Now all I need to do is get it head spaced and test fire it.

TEST FIRING SUCCESS !!

After one slight problem the rifle fires great. I forgot to put the spring in between the disconnector and the hammer. The hammer wouldn't stay back after the first shot. I can't believe I did that. After putting in the spring it cycled great. What a flame thrower check it out below. You can tell by the smile on my face how happy I was about my first AK build.