Couple questions? Ammo related. Gun back, UPDATE last page

I have been shooting pmc full metal jacket 55 grain out of my bushmaster predator 1/8 twist 20" barrel and it doesn't shoot all that great and I've noticed that after about 300 rounds the last 1/4" of the brass case at the end towards the primer is bulging slightly on the fired cases. I looked in the chamber and noticed there was some brass flakes in there so I cleaned them out, do you guys think that bulging was just from the case not seating fully in the chamber or is that slight bulging normal. Also should I be shooting heavier bullets out of that twist and if thats true what weitght has worked well for you guys out of the 1/8 twist rifles thats fairly cost affective.

what is "not shooting all that great" equate to?

do you have pics of the cases in question?

It just doesn't group very well it cycles fine. here are the pics, I think i described it somewhat incorrectly its more of a ridge that steps down at the end but there is definately a ridge that you can feel and see.

Not normal. I would stop shooting that rifle and figure out what's going on.

Looks like an out of spec chamber

Ok so what do I do about that. I'm the original purchaser of it new. Should I just go through bushmasters customer service I suppose. And I should say that they don't all look this bad but that is definately the worst one out of the 80 or so rounds I shot yesterday. Thanks

Yea, somethin' phunny with that...

I'd contact BM and see what they say. Those cases should not be bulging like that in a spec chamber.

I have almost all of the spent brass since firing this gun new and I just went and checked it out, it all has a slight ridge that you can feel when running your fingers over the brass its just not as bad as the one in the pictures.

Agree with the above posters, stop shooting....contact Bushmaster.
Save those cases, they might need them.
They might also want ammo brand and lot numbers....save any boxes.

Thanks I gues I will, I was never happy with the accuracy maybe thats been part of the problem all along.

Let us know what BM says. Can you shine a light in the chamber and inspect it? Is there a flaw that you can see?

Just out of curiosity why would they wnat the brand and lot numbers of the ammo, could that have been part of the problem, bad ammo?

Yeah I looked in the chamber last night and I saw some light scratches at the top of the chamber length wise like it was rubbing more there possibly when the round was going in or out. Nothing else seemed wrong.

STOP SHOOTING!

Some how you have an oversized chamber, you are lucky you haven't blown your rifle up yet.

Either the chamber was cut way to big or someone got in there and polished too much material away.

Contact bushmaster if nobody worked on that rifle, if you had work done take it back to the place that did it.

No I've never had anyone work on it just a guy with 5 kids trying to have fun on a budget. Well I'm glad I posted this I was just going to let it go but it just kept bothering me so i figured it couldn't hurt to ask.

So does this kind of thing happen often or is this fairly rare?

It looks chamber related but they might ask.
Just CYA suggestion.

It's kinda rare and dangerous.
The barrel will need to be replaced I'm sure, but BM should take care of it.
Other than its issue now that is a nice looking gun. I hope they get you fixed up quick.

I was over in the bushmaster section in industry and it seems as if customer service at bushmaster has gone downhill hopefully this is not the case and they will fix me up quickly, gopher season is here.

I have the same upper, and yeah, I cant say that my brass has that sort of deformation.

Is it possible for this to happen if the round wasn't seating properly because the chamber was dirty or would it not even fire if it wasn't seating all the way.

If the round is not seated the bolt can't rotate enough for the firing pin to protrude enough to fire the round.

The majority of the time damage like what happened to your rifle was caused by someone lapping or polishing the chamber and getting carried away.

Then they remove too much material and when you fire the brass has to swell up further to seal the chamber.

If you get an extra soft or hard brass it may not swell and might just tear and then the gas vents out the rear of the chamber into the receivers.

Well his gun definately has not been worked on at all. I have had it for a little over 2 years and I bought it brand new. I have shot maybe 300 rounds through it, put a PRS stock on it and leopuld scope on.
I just want to make sure there is most likely something wrong on bushmasters side before I have to send it to them. I heard they moved and customer service is not there high point right now. But I will think positively for now.

I talked to bushmaster today and they were very polite and friendly, I will be shipping it off this week to see if they fix the problem. So far so good.

I really doubt the cheap PMC FMJ 55grain ammo will ever group that well.

As far a budget fairly accurate ammo, I have had decent luck with the Prvi Partizan Match ammo. I had 1/7 barrels and the 75 gr shot well. But since you have a 1/8, maybe the 69gn would be better.

http://wideners.com/itemdetail.cfm?item_id=8740&dir=18|830|845

Good luck with Bushmaster

Bingo - that's exactly what I was going to post as well. Out-of-spec chamber is my primary guess.

tag for outcome.

PMC is good ammo, I have had no problems with it at all. PMC is made in factories in South Korea that used to make ammo for our troops during Vietnam war.
IMO, PMC is the second best ammo made outside the USA.
Call Bushmaster.

That's a bit too much swell. The chamber is too big or the brass is too small. You can measure the brass and see if the chamber is towards the big side, you might have to do a little trig to get the number at that point on the case.

I've shot quite a bit of PMC over the past few years. I have the Bushmaster Varmint Special 24" SS (1:9) w/ similar accessories as yours. I usually get 1.5" @ 100 yds (+/- 0.5"). With good Hornady ammo I get about 0.75" (+/- 0.25").

I'll admit that I don't scrutinize every spent case, but I almost always will scrounge a few to look for abnormalities and have never seen a case like yours. I'll side with the others and speculate on an improperly bored chamber.

I dealt With Bushmasters Cust. Serv. a few years ago. I needed the ultra-small allen wrench for the 2-stage adj. trigger. I sent an E-mail request for the size of the wrench required, so I could special order one. This was just after "The" election, so it took them about a month to get back to me. In the mean time, someone on ARFCOM got me the info I needed. When Bushmaster did respond, they sent me a free wrench along with a catalog and sticker. They also apologized for the delay, as they (like everyone else at the time) were slammed like never before. I was satisfied with the way they handled my very small problem.

They actually responded faster then Magpul did, as I requested the size of one of the small screws on their UBR stock at the same time. (I have a problem with small parts, so what) They sent me a whole new set of screws, but it took longer and there was no sticker. I'm not complaining about either, because my problems were not only trivial, but my own fault... and they both shipped me the stuff I needed, without me even asking for it, for free.

Good luck, I'm confident they will take care of you. It may just take a while. Keep us updated on the outcome.

I thought they were going to pay for shipping but they told me since it was over a year old that they wouldn't be doing that. They did say that if it was a warranty issue I could ask them to refund the shipping, fair enough. I will be shipping on Friday, I too hope it won't take a long time but who knows these days. Thanks for all the input and help, I will definately keep this updated as things happen

Topic Moved

Fed ex tracking indicated that Remington received the rifle yesterday. Today I received an e-mail that there department received it so will see how long it takes and what they do.

out of curiosity, did you include a few rounds that you'd already fired?

Please keep us updated!

Yes I did, they strictly told me not to send spent casings, they said it was illegal. I was pretty sure it wasn't illegal so I just sent them with it. The automated e-mail they sent me said it was with the repairman and was being worked on whatever that means. Hopefully it will be back by next week.

Keep us posted. Hope the military closely inspects the rifles they get from these guys .....................

Yeah I heard they picked up part of a new contract for M4's for the military.

Yeah I heard they picked up part of a new contract for M4's for the military.

The gun came back today. They rechamfered the muzzle crown and it looks like s**t you can feel the rough nicks in the metal at the crown. They polished the chamber. I also complained about the loosness of the upper to lower fit which I know doesn't really matter, so the put an accuwedge in there. What is the yellow deal by the way. I am most unhappy with the muzzle rechamfering I think it will be less accurate now what do you guys think.

Yellow thing is a chamber flag

Bushmasters are well known for having out of spec chambers.

What about the muzzle bs.

how old is the gun?
What letters are before the serial number?

If it says Windham on the side chances are its the old bushmaster's fault/
When they transferred to Ilion location and used up all the barrels and old stock uppers/lowers Remington
checks a barrel 100% for headspace before it's put on a gun!

Shoot it first before you proclaim judgment.

Welll I was hoping somebody would say shoot it first, maybe I am over reacting, maybe it wil shoot well. The letter at the beginning of the serial number is "L" and it is a Windham made Bushmaster.

Oh no, not another muzzle crown/chamfer thread...

Shoot it OP, chances are it's just fine.

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