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Zastava M70

• easy
• Shop tier 2
• medium confidence
• Rifle
• long stroke piston
• toolless field strip
• surplus

field strip ~2 min · reassembly ~2 min · detail strip ~40 min

Specifications

Model-specific safety

• The safety lever also covers the charging handle slot. With the lever up on SAFE the bolt cannot travel far enough to inspect the chamber properly — rotate it down before clearing.
• The magazine rocks in and out and is not released by a button. Rock it forward and out.
• The recoil spring assembly is under compression and springs rearward when the dust cover is removed.
• Gas system parts are extremely hot after firing.
• Surplus ammunition may be corrosively primed. Clean with a water-based solvent the same day you shoot.

Under spring tension

• Recoil spring assembly
• Magazine spring

Easily lost parts

Recoil spring guide rod tab · Gas tube lever · Firing pin retaining pin

Tools

No tools required for the field strip.

Shop difficulty

Shop tier 2 Tier 2 — moderate among rifles and carbines, for the full job: strip to the parts that get coated and put it back together working. 51 parts (ZPAP M70 list) in an AKM-pattern action with a bulged trunnion. As with every AK, the job is the fire-control group: the hammer and trigger pins depend on a correctly routed retaining spring, and the hammer spring is strong. No timing.

Parts: 51 numbered parts (Complete ZPAP M70 semi-auto rifle (51 line items)), from Semi-Automatic Rifle ZPAPM70 | 7.62x39mm Owner’s Manual and Safety Instructions — Zastava Arms (Kragujevac) / Zastava Arms USA, p. 24–25 zastavaarmsusa.com [4].

Bench time: about 45 min to strip, 75 min to rebuild (estimate). AK fire-control group, bolt, furniture, gas tube, rear sight.

Small parts: 3 pins, 13 springs, 0 detents or plungers (counted from the manufacturer's parts list (one per key number unless a quantity is given))

What comes off for coating

• Receiver: dust cover, recoil spring assembly, bolt carrier and bolt, retaining spring (shepherd's hook) or plate, hammer, trigger, disconnector and springs, safety selector, magazine catch, rear sight leaf — AK trigger pin punch / slave pin
• Bolt: firing pin retaining pin, firing pin, extractor pin, extractor, spring
• Furniture: upper/lower handguard and retainer, pistol grip screw, buttstock screws, gas tube (lever)

Special tools

• AK fire-control slave pins or punches — Hammer and trigger pins
• Zastava front sight tool (optional) — Front sight adjustment

Known pain points

• The AK pin-retaining spring can sit several ways and only one is correct, so the group has to be trial-fitted. (reassembly)
  Owners report: AK Reassembly - It Took A Lot Of Wriggling — Ballseye's Boomers (owner blog) ballseyesboomers.blogspot.com [7] — “Not only are there several ways this particular spring might possibly fit, only one of which was correct, but you have to continually reassemble the hammer and trigger group into the receiver to see if you got it right, then take them out again if wrong.”

Fit or check on rebuild

• Retaining spring in both pin grooves — Trigger pin walk-out.
• Function check (safety, trigger reset, feeding, extraction) — Standard after any detail strip. No single source.
• Re-zero sights or scope — Sights and optics come off for coating, and point of impact must be re-confirmed. This is a standard check, so no source.

This is Pew-Takedown's rating, not the manufacturer's. How tiers are rated. Forum reports are owners' experience, not specifications.

Procedures

Torque specifications

No sourced torque values from the manufacturer are recorded for this firearm. Where a fastener has a specified torque — action screws, scope bases, muzzle devices, barrel nuts — get it from the manufacturer or a gunsmith rather than estimating it.

Reported by other sources — not the manufacturer

Materials and factory finish

As stated by Zastava Arms. Prep, masking and cure depend on these; a polymer or aluminium part, a nitrided or anodised finish, and a blued steel part are each a different job. Variants with other finishes may exist — check the maker's page for the exact SKU on the bench.

Parts list

Transcribed from the manufacturer's parts list (Semi-Automatic Rifle ZPAPM70 | 7.62x39mm Owner’s Manual and Safety Instructions — Zastava Arms (Kragujevac) / Zastava Arms USA, p. 24–25 zastavaarmsusa.com [4]) — Section 6 "ZPAPM70 exploded part view" (p. 24) and "ZPAPM70 - Part List" (p. 25), for the US semi-auto ZPAP M70 (PAP M70 family, which the entry lists as an alias); not the select-fire military M70.. Key numbers refer to the exploded view in that document.

Function check

• Verify the rifle is unloaded with no magazine inserted before each step.
• With the safety lever on SAFE, confirm bolt travel is restricted and the trigger does nothing.
• Rotate the safety to FIRE, charge the rifle, and press the trigger. The hammer should fall.
• Hold the trigger back, charge the rifle, and release slowly — you should hear the disconnector click.
• Confirm the dust cover is locked down and the recoil spring tab protrudes through it.
• Confirm the magazine rocks in and locks positively.

Maintenance

Lubrication points

• Bolt lugs and body
• Carrier rails
• Cam track in the carrier
• Gas piston (a light film only)
• Hammer and trigger pivots

Cleaning notes

Corrosive surplus primers leave salts that rust a bore within days. Flush the bore, gas tube, piston, and bolt face with hot soapy water or a water-based solvent the same day, dry completely, then oil. Keep the firing pin channel dry — a firing pin held forward by congealed grease causes slam fires.

Suggested inspection interval: roughly every 1000 rounds. This is a general guideline, not a manufacturer specification.

Wear parts to inspect

Recoil spring · Firing pin (check it moves freely) · Extractor and spring · Gas piston · Rivets and trunnion on high-round-count rifles

Common issues

Similar manual of arms

• AKM / AK-47 Pattern Rifle

Sourcing