I’ve got a buddy who built his AK about 8 years ago from an 80% receiver and a “virgin Yugo parts kit”. He couldn’t get it to headspace consistently, and made a mess of the whole thing. I’ve only seen it once about 7 years ago, he fired it once then threw it in the back of the safe. Apparently he messed up a couple of the rivets in the kit, had to finish it with screws, and the barrel was chambered for something other than x39, plus the company he bought the kit from was out of business by the time he realized, so he had to buy another barrel from elsewhere.
Now his opinion of all AKs is that they never will headspace. He tried his gauge in a few AKs at a shop and had similar results.
Any idea why he’s have these issues? I thought maybe he had a kit that needed a 1.5 mm receiver and he put a 1mm receiver on it, maybe that would be a problem? I asked, and he didn’t know there was a difference.