Retrieved: 12/06/2013

One of my "someday" projects was to build a closed-bolt companion to my M11A1. "Someday" was long enough that the M12 came out, which is exactly that. The M12 uses the same Atchisson-patent internal bits as the M11/9; big sliding sear frame, double hook hammer, etc., just scaled down as needed for the smaller A1.

M12 kits exist; they're far more expensive than I want to pay. I have some M11 flats, but the FCG bits to populate one are still expensive. And the bits are complicated castings, hard to duplicate by ordinary means.

The other day while cruising the net I saw mention of a striker-fired MAC. I finally wound up having to ask about it on Uzitalk.com. A helpful member pointed me to the Partisan Avenger.

It took a while for the exploded view to make sense. The striker is U-shaped, with a short firing pin on one side, a back plate, and then a long bar that goes forward to the front of the bolt, presumably in a milled slot. The lockwork is all up front in a drop-in tray. The original safety slider is retained; there's a rectangular hole in the tray for it to stick up.

The front of the striker is near the front of the bolt; the striker contacts the sear and stops. A generic MAC-ish trigger and disconnector tip the sear.

Altogether, I think it's a simpler setup than the usual closed-bolt arrangement. And though it probably doesn't matter, it looks like it would be entirely drop-in to a standard MAC frame; no hammer axle holes would be needed.

Mostly, this looks doable with MUCH less fiddly work than the usual closed- bolt bits; simpler than a PPS43 FCG, anyway...

TRX
August 01, 2013

Unfortunately, the disconnector (part 11) looks very similar to the one in my slappy open bolt M11A1. When the sear tilts back, the disconnector pushes the trigger back.

The trigger and disconnector look very similar to ordinary MAC bits. Partisan may have used them to save money.

Some thoughtful design (translate: staring blankly for long periods of time) might come up with a better trigger/disconnector/sear arrangement. To me, the important part was how the U-shaped striker moved the FCG bits all up front instead of routing them around the magwell.

I still haven't figured everything out. I'm not seeing a spring on the striker, for example. Then there's the ridiculously large ejector spring (41) and the curiously stubby ejector rod (32) which also looks like it's on the wrong side of the bolt to act as an ejector. I think the drawing may be a little weird.