Third Party Press

PTR44 Semi-Auto MP44

I would grind the FA cam off to make it "not readily convertible".

I did just that and I brazed a piece of carbide steel into the auto sear slot. The carbide steel piece penetrates enough to allow my modified op rod to pass but will stop an F/A op rod. Now, converting the rifle to "featureless" in order to make it Kompletely Kalifornia Kompliant without adding a silly grip fin is a totally different animal.
 
I was wondering if someone would mention the FA sear trip on the bolt. Having that in the rifle is absolutely no different than rebuilding an AK parts kit onto a semi auto receiver using the original unmodified bolt or putting a FA capable bolt in your HK 91/93/94 (which again has a semi auto receiver). It's perfectly legal. However, once you cut the FA lever slot in the receiver, now we have problems.
 
Last edited:
I was wondering if someone would mention the FA sear trip on the bolt. Having that in the rifle is absolutely no different than rebuilding an AK parts kit onto a semi auto receiver using the original unmodified bolt or putting a FA capable bolt in your HK 91/93/94 (which again has a semi auto receiver). It's perfectly legal. However, once you cut the FA lever slot in the receiver, now we have problems.

Right on the money.. I just found it interesting that it matched the WW2 and not the PTR.. I did receive my stripped Op Rod from Dingo (Thank you very much!) and it closely matches my PTR original with the trip on the opposite side.
 
We make both FA and SA bolt carriers, same with the rest of our guns. Expecting more semi rods next week
 
Alrighty. I took the rifle out to the range both yesterday and today. Yesterday was 30 rounds of reload ammunition that came from someone who used to own an original matching MP44. I saw the rifle some years ago but I never fired it nor do I remember who made it or when. I only remember that it was in VERY nice condition. He passed on and the family sold the rifle but I was given all of the ammunition including German wartime, Czech, East German and reloads made from 30.06 and .308 cases. I was also given components including empty fired cases and formed cases that were ready to reload as well as Hornady and Speer 125gr bullets. Bear with me, as I am going somewhere with all of this. I know that the reloads must have worked in his original MP44 even though the shoulder profile is quite different than the factory steel case stuff. I know this because I have a large bag of fired brass that looks just like the loaded rounds. Now, my question was....would it work in my rifle? Why no, no it won't. Out of 30 rounds I tried (ten rounds per magazine each time), only 13 would allow the bolt to close. Those thirteen had shoulder profiles most like (although still unlike) period factory rounds. They fired but either he down loaded them or they stuck in the chamber pretty good because all but a couple fell out of the ejection port about three inches and plopped down on the table. A couple flew but only about five feet. However, they are now fire formed to my chamber so I pretty much know what it looks like in there. The ones that would not chamber would bind the action up pretty good, requiring me to bang the charging handle on the edge of the table to get the action open. So, did his original rifle have a sloppy chamber? I don't know....maybe. So yesterday was a failure but I kind of expected it given the shoulder profile on the rounds.
Last night after cleaning, I removed the firing pin and put five rounds of East German in the magazine. They fed and ejected just fine although I did have one case of the bolt not picking up a round. I know that is a problem with SSD magazines. So, I was confident for today. I picked out the most beat up box of 1961 DDR rounds out of the stash and another box of 11 mixed DDR rounds from 1958 and 1961.
Today, I headed out again with 19 rounds of 1961 DDR and 7 rounds of 1958 DDR. One magazine had 15 rounds while the other had 11. I had one case of the bolt not picking up a round in each magazine. I also had 7 dud rounds that did not go off. However, I had no jams of any kind and, while I was primarily testing function and not accuracy, I had no problem hitting approx. 5 " rocks at 100 yards. I didn't even bother to take a target, preferring instead to just aim at objects lying in the berm.
Let's look at some rounds first:



Starting from the left, we have a 1943 German round, a 1946 Czech, 1962 East German, fired 1961 East German, form fired reload from my rifle and reload that would not chamber in my rifle. Remember that all of the reloads are formed from 30.06 and .308 brass. Note the much less distinct shoulder profile on the unusable reload compared with everything to the left of it.

Here are 5 random DDR cases that I fired:





I will get some Privi Partisan as my primary ammo but I don't have any yeti. I'll probably end up reloading too at some point.


Now on to the bolt and carrier. First up is the bolt. At this point its round count is 82. I'm using the one numbered to the rifle until Dingo's are imported. It looks like it is a getting good purchase on the locking block:






Where it interacts with the locking cam on the carrier looks ok:




Looking at the bolt from the front, we can see that the left claw on the carrier is engaging it more than the right BUT it was like this before I installed the new carrier so that doesn't tell us much given the low round count:




There is also a bit of peening where the web on the carrier hits. BUT these marks were there BEFORE today and ARE NOT caused by the new carrier:



There is some crud in there that makes the curved area look rough and beat but it's smooth. The peening is on either side of that area just where the radius begins. Problem or normal? I have no idea as I have no prior experience with these rifles.


The carrier has a round count of 32.

Left side of unlocking claw area looks fine:




Several shots from different angles of the right side showing some peening of the web.







These marks were not there before I fired it. Again, normal or not, I do no know. I only post them because they are there. I have rifles that exhibit peening of parts as they mate so it does not particularly bother me so long as it does stop at some point. You guys with original carriers, have you seen this before? Again, I am NOT saying this is bad because I have zero experience with these rifles so I don't yet know what is normal and what is cause for concern. Time will tell.

That's where I'm at. Once I begin my "in detail" thread, I'll incorporate this information into that thread but I figured it's relevant here too.
 
Last edited:
Not having experience with this particular rifle but lots with machine guns in the Army I would take a stone or very fine file and remove any flash or peen. VERY little until the pieces played nice. This happened often when replacing a component. IMHO it was 'normal' and not anything to be concerned with.

FWIW my first M60 when I got to permanent party had been badly abused. It would not run worth a shite and I noticed the leading edges of the locking lugs on the bolt had big pieces smashed off the corners probably from letting the bolt slam forward. I cleaned up and rounded those off nicely so it would engage and lock up in the chamber very smoothly without the spring or op rod. That gun functioned great once I got it dialed in.
 
That makes perfect sense. I thought about this over some lemon chicken, mashed potatoes and asparagus and decided it doesn't bother me. Here's why.....

The receiver is essentially two round tubes that intersect. The upper tube guides the carrier while the lower one houses the bolt. Both bolt and carrier can rock side to side a bit but that bit is a very little one. So.....if the web in the carrier and the corresponding cut out in the bolt ae not perfectly aligned (probably kind of common given the construction of the stamped receiver), you are going to see exactly what we see here until it wears to the point that they no longer hit each other when reciprocating. It can only continue to a point because the receiver wall only lets the bolt and carrier move side to side so much. Once it reaches that point, the parts are mated and it should stop. Does that make sense? It does to me but I'm afraid I can't put it into words as well as I would like to. Anywho, once it wears in, you just dress the edge to clean it up.

Whatever the case, the rifle WILL be sent off to get the once over by the MP44 Wizard. But he told me to shoot it a bit before sending it out to him so that I could see what I had first.
 
Last edited:
Great pics and nice "after-shoot" analysis, interesting reading.

I am not sure I am interested in shooting the old steel cased ammo in my rifle, but it appears you have had success with them.
 
Love it "MP-44 wizard" I could not have said it better. I think he has found himself with a new nickname

great report.
 
He passed on and the family sold the rifle but I was given all of the ammunition including German wartime, Czech, East German and reloads made from 30.06 and .308 cases. I was also given components including empty fired cases and formed cases that were ready to reload as well as Hornady and Speer 125gr bullets. Bear with me, as I am going somewhere with all of this. I know that the reloads must have worked in his original MP44 even though the shoulder profile is quite different than the factory steel case stuff. I know this because I have a large bag of fired brass that looks just like the loaded rounds. Now, my question was....would it work in my rifle? Why no, no it won't. Out of 30 rounds I tried (ten rounds per magazine each time), only 13 would allow the bolt to close.

Careful with casings made from 8x57, 30-06, Win270 and 308 brass! If the necks have not been reamed to .321-.322 after forming, inserting the 125gr bullet will expand the neck to where it will prevent the round form chambering completely. This results in excessive downward pressure around the slot underneath the receiver (causing the bolt to break through the slot), damage to the front edge of the locking block and damage to the rear locking edge of the bolt.

http://www.k98kforum.com/showthread.php?9416-PTR44-Semi-Auto-MP44&p=132835&viewfull=1#post132835
 
reaming

Careful with casings made from 8x57, 30-06, Win270 and 308 brass! If the necks have not been reamed to .321-.322 after forming, inserting the 125gr bullet will expand the neck to where it will prevent the round form chambering completely. This results in excessive downward pressure around the slot underneath the receiver (causing the bolt to break through the slot), damage to the front edge of the locking block and damage to the rear locking edge of the bolt.

http://www.k98kforum.com/showthread.php?9416-PTR44-Semi-Auto-MP44&p=132835&viewfull=1#post132835

I've made and shot/reloaded hundreds of the reworked cases. Reaming to the correct size is absolutely necessary even though it is the most pain in the arse part of the conversion process along with annealing. Annealing really should be done, probably best before the reforming. Something I encountered is the "ring of death" that's a flowing of brass from the shoulder to the neck/shoulder junction after a couple or so reloads of the cases. I did not understand why my bullets were getting difficult to seat till I read about that issue on Cast Boolits Forum. Re reaming is needed if that ring is encountered. Kind of a down side to using the reformed. Upside is since the reformed have thicker case walls they seem to be more durable plus since a reduction in powder charge is needed there is a savings of about a grain and a half or so less than what would be used in a Privi or FNM case.
Pete
 
..pain in the arse part of the conversion process along with annealing. Annealing really should be done, probably best before the reforming.

Totally agree. When you have cases that are either expensive or difficult to form you want to get the most reloads out of them as possible. The flame and pie plate technique really works well. It's well documented on the interwebs as is the oatmeal fired into wet newspaper fireforming technique. Pro tip. Tell your significant other BEFORE you do this, especially if it's in the basement. :laugh:
 
Great pics and nice "after-shoot" analysis, interesting reading.

I am not sure I am interested in shooting the old steel cased ammo in my rifle, but it appears you have had success with them.

Nothing wrong with the E. German surplus ammo, Just do proper corrosive cleanup. I wish I would have purchased more of this ammo 10 years ago when it was available.
 
Nothing wrong with the E. German surplus ammo, Just do proper corrosive cleanup. I wish I would have purchased more of this ammo 10 years ago when it was available.

I am not an expert in this, but have noticed many of the steel cases in my collection rusting from the inside out, I would be concerned about a possible case separation on a round that looked fine, but may have been weakened in this manner.

I have thousands of rounds of surplus East german that I bought, while collecting Kurz, usually to get a few dozen WW2 rounds that I wanted for my Kurz headstamp collection, buying someones collection etc.,

I have avoided shooting them, mainly because I don't shoot much and have enough PPU, but also because of reading about how badly the E German was stored and how case failure was a potential issue, and in an original rifle this could be damaging to expensive parts.
*Info. was from the IAA ammunition collectors forum, if I recall -

Again, not an expert, just careful with what I put through the rifle. Sounds good that you guys are safely shooting it, if I run out of PPU, I guess I have a rainy day reserve.
 

Military Rifle Journal
Back
Top