Description
A-Zoom 5.45×39 Snap Caps are machined aluminum dummy rounds cut to 5.45x39mm dimensions, two to a pack. AK-74 pattern rifles are built from a mix of imported, converted and American-made parts, and dummy rounds are the fastest way to find out whether a given combination actually feeds.
How A-Zoom 5.45×39 Snap Caps Are Built
Each round is CNC machined from solid aluminum billet to full cartridge dimensions and hard anodized red. One piece, no separate case head, no plastic body. Nothing shears off and leaves a case body in the chamber of a rifle whose bolt you would rather not strip at the range.
The primer end holds a proprietary polymer cushion instead of a live primer, rated by A-Zoom past three thousand strikes. It slows the firing pin roughly the way a real primer would, which is worth something on a design with a free floating pin.
The red anodizing makes A-Zoom 5.45×39 Snap Caps obviously inert. That is useful when surplus 5.45 with corrosive primers is also on the bench and you would rather not mix the two.
Why AK Pattern Rifles Need Dummy Rounds
Magazines are the usual culprit when a 5.45 rifle stops feeding. Surplus bakelite and plastic AK-74 magazines vary enormously in feed lip condition, and hand cycling A-Zoom 5.45×39 Snap Caps through each one is the quickest way to sort the good from the tired.
Build checking is the other job. Rifles assembled from parts kits benefit from a careful function check before live fire, and confirming that rounds present from the magazine, chamber fully and extract cleanly is exactly what inert ammunition is for.
Storing the rifle with the hammer down on a dummy round rather than an empty chamber is worth the habit as well, since it keeps the mainspring relaxed without leaving the action cocked in the safe.
- Caliber: 5.45x39mm
- Quantity: 2 per pack
- Construction: CNC machined solid aluminum, hard anodized red
- Primer: proprietary polymer dead cap, rated 3,000+ dry fires
- Design: one piece, no case head to separate
- Uses: dry fire practice, magazine and feed testing, extractor checks, action release
- Made in the USA
- Manufacturer item: PA12285 / UPC 666692122859
Field Notes
Ammunition supply is the practical argument. Imported 5.45 has been intermittently unavailable for years, so every function check you can run with A-Zoom 5.45×39 Snap Caps is a live round you still have.
They are also the right tool for practising manual of arms. Loading, charging, clearing and unloading an AK pattern rifle are motions worth repeating, and doing it with inert rounds means the repetition can happen anywhere.
The polymer cushion is a consumable. When the face is deeply cratered and stops rebounding, retire that round rather than continuing to strike a dead cushion.
Running other Eastern bloc chamberings? The line also covers 7.62×39 and 7.62x54R. Construction details are published by A-Zoom.
For AK-74 owners and anyone commissioning a 5.45 build, A-Zoom 5.45×39 Snap Caps are the right tool. MAG5 Firearms stocks them as manufacturer item PA12285 in the two pack.
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