I recently purchased a PSA AK556, It fails to feed most of the time and sometimes instead of putting the cartridge in the chamber it throws it out on the ground. Sometime feeds low and pushes the ballet back in the casing. Sometimes it feeds high leaves the cartridge poking up out of the ejection port. With steel case it fails to extract the case from the chamber every 4-5 shots if it feeds that many without some other failure. I hope this rifle is just a very rare exception. PSA has it back in shop for repair. Anyone else have these issues.
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An update if anyone cares. I received this rifle back from PSA, took it to one of my shooting places and fired 2 pmags of M193, all functioned perfectly, I then fired some 55 gr soft point, they all functioned perfectly. Last of all I fired a mag of steel case, only 1 failure to feed in this mag, that one tossed the cartridge about 10 ft to the side rather than putting it in the chamber. Whatever PSA did is a great improvement. I don’t know how many if any test rounds they fire in each weapon as QC but it seems if it was many they could have saved some freight and repair work if this weapon would have been shot 5-10 times as a function test before sales.
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Out of curiosity, did they tell you what they did to get it to work? Usually, it’s something like replacing the extractor or BCG, but I don’t know AKs very well. Glad they got it going for you again! I haven’t had too many issues with any PSA equipment - I had to adjust some mags to fit for my KS-47, but that was pretty fun to do. AK mags evidently have no standardized specifications, from what I’ve heard.
Thanks for letting us know - I’m guessing a lot more people have read your issue than you think. Someone like me wouldn’t know what to suggest, but I’m learning more every day!
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Here’s what they said.
Upon arrival, the rifle was taken to test fire and shot two full 30rd Pmags flawlessly. The ARK is a rifle that works great with MagPul Pmags; however, other magazines such as aluminum GI mags - they are not reliable or recommended to use in this rifle. Pmags are the desired mags to be using. The rifle was also checked for headspaced and then re-headspaced. After it was re-headspaced, the rifle was taken back to test fire where it shot three more full 30rd Pmags without any issues. Lastly, it is recommended to use 5.56 in this rifle because .223 does not have enough pressure cycle the action properly causing feeding issues.
I don’t think they are telling the whole story, I sent pictures of the failures and when I got it back it functioned much better though I didn’t try M855 and some of the failures I got were with that.
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They ran a lot through your rifle for you! Maybe that broke it in just enough… thanks for letting me know what they did!
Thats my thought…between headspacing and using it they broke it in good.
Sounds like I’m having the same issues. Bought a PSA ar-k 556. The rifle would not eject. Used gen 2 pmags and tried 3 types of ammo. It gets better, tho. Eventually the bolt carrier and piston locked up. Closed! Would not open. Thought about using a mallet. I chose not to and reset the trigger thinking maybe it would free something up. I did this a dozen or so times, keeping gun pointed safely down range and pulling the trigger. On the thirteenth or so try the gun fired. I wish I was making this up, but I’m not. Looking back I should have recorded it. Well, they have the gun now. A $1300 new gun that needs to be torn apart and rebuilt. This gun should have never left the factory. Complete QC FAIL! The more I think about the situation the more it angers me. I really have ZERO confidence in PSA’s products. I mean, I can deal with the PMAG issue, but only 5.56? Does it have to be above 60deg outside with a certain relative humidity. AK’s should eat up anything they are fed. I am really thinking about contacting them and just getting my $$$ back. I guess I’m still within that time frame. That way I can avoid myself anymore headaches and get something I have confidence in and can rely on. The one I got was an absolute lemon.
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I think their chambers are not well machined. Shooting smooths this out some. Like you observed their QC is poor I’ve heard others say this about some of their other products. I’m disappointed with this issue in an above average priced firearm. They probably won’t get any of my money ever again. It’s a shame that any company produces lesser quality firearms and says we should purchase American made when their product is clearly inferior.
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I failed to mention other quality issues. The front sight had to be drifted almost completely to the left to shoot with the open sights. Then when you take the front top hand guard off it takes 20 minutes to get it to fit back in place. I used AK’s a bunch in the Army and none of them had this issue.
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I love the looks of the gun, especially the 13.7" w/pinned flash hider. Definitely not worth the $$ so far. I have owned plenty of AK’s from budget to top of the line. I would expect these issues from a bottom tier rifle, but not what I paid for this. As far as that goes I have never had issues like this with a new gun. Even bottom tier. Quite frankly I think it is completely unacceptable.
Hey they can repair it with the warranty
Should a brand new gun, fresh from the factory really need to be repaired. Back to PSA for a month. That’s great.
So did you lube the gun? Having to mortar it is a result of either not lubing it, a dirty chamber (which could be ammo related) or ammo.
Gun was not dirty. It would not eject a single round. I would think an AK should survive being shot or not lock up before approx 12 rds. I mean it is an AK right
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I bought a brandy new S&W EZ-9. Had it a few days and got a recall on it and had to send it back because of a possible faulty hammer. yeah, it happens.
Ak556 
sorry I had too
I know this is an old thread, but I’d like to share a bit of hope with my experience with this rifle. I bought one this past Christmas holiday sale as a blem, and I’ve just today slowed down long enough to shoot it this morning. I ran 120 rounds of various ammo through it (old Federal 5.56, RORG, unknown bullet weight Wolf steel case, etc.) in both new and old USGI PMags, as well as a couple of Brownells aluminum mags. While very accurate, feeding and ejection were spotty, at best. I had cleaned and lubed the rifle with Lucas Heavy Duty CLP beforehand. Once the range cleared and I was the only one present (so that I could really crank through some ammo), I field stripped the rifle and hosed the rails and bolt carrier grooves with sloppy amounts of CLP. After that, it ran WITHOUT A HITCH and locked back after every last round for every mag. I cleaned it up, and next time out I’m going to try running it with ex-Garand Lubriplate grease so I don’t have a dripping mess; I’ve got the obvious wear points from today’s range session coated already. But apparently, lubrication is key, especially during break in.
The only untoward thing I noticed was a bit of peening of the bolt’s lug that rides in the bolt carrier raceway; I didn’t see any on the lugs that lock into the trunnion. The bolt carrier raceway has what seems to be a sharp transition that may cause this, but I don’t think this lug is part of the critical process during the decrease in pressure, and only serves to rotate the bolt out of battery once the carrier has moved rearward the appropriate distance, if I understand the AK function correctly. I’ll try to post some photos later this week. Once it started running, it really got fun and was a dream to shoot. Again, this thing is an accurate shooter! Any thoughts on the lug wear?
Welcome to the PSA community @makhnoblackflag 
Here’s an image of the bolt, with the area of wear noted above encircled (I’d post more, but new users are limited; more perhaps later!). Again, I don’t believe the peening of the bolt’s lug to be a big deal, but I’d appreciate any opinions. Thanks!
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I dont have an ak556 ao cant say for sure…but i would either a) do a warranty repair or b) see if that is just a normal “break in”.