I have discovered (and should have known) that when I pull back on the cocking lever, everything is fine until I hit that last 2" of travel. Then the Striker Spring starts to really compress and causes quite a bit of resistance in that final bit of travel. Even with the gas port opened all the way, I suspect what is happening is the bolt is slowing and possibly just not making a clean recoil to the rear and it actually is short stroking on some cartridges.

I think the designs of these semi autos generate added physical barriers that the original design parameters have problems overcoming. Not being a "hammer fired" weapon seems to be the biggest issue. I think it would have been a reliable conversion, if the original gun had been hammer fired. I believe all Striker Fired designs have this issue to some point. I have heard of problems with MG43 rebuilds (semi auto) and even the DSH RPD seems to have had problems in the past. They just don't receive the same "engineering" abilities that a large arms manufacturer can apply to get a design working properly and reliably.

I own a Madsen LMG semi auto. It works with the crappiest of old surplus ammo. That is because except for the full auto modification to maintain semi auto ONLY functioning, it is still a hammer fired weapon and no new springs have been added to the design to operate a striker.

So it would seem my solution may be to: A. open up the largest gas setting to over-gas the gun and drive the bolt back hard enough to overcome the striker spring in the system; B. find a spring of somewhat lesser spring force, that will compress easier, yet still have enough power to drive the striker home for a positive strike and cartridge ignition. or C. hand load really HOT ammo above and beyond military spec. That seems like the LEAST desirable choice.

I am still open to suggestions.