I ordered two of Hydra Fire's Roller Cam Pins to try.

One of the reasons I was interested is because of my use of aluminum bolt carriers. My Smith Enterprises aluminum is starting to show serious wear after over 30 years of use.

I was hoping their "roller" would help reduce wear in the cam pin track.

Well, they showed up today.

The machine work appears flawless, I wish I could say the same about the QPQ finish.

In several locations I'm seeing what appears to be bare steel (silver in color)

EDIT - ahrion is correct. ONLY the roller is QPQ.

I have high hopes for the concept and like the idea, unlike the unit from POF this unit should continue to reduce drag. As I understand the POF design, it's primarily designed to help stop the wear caused by the top of the cam pin against the upper receiver. Well after a few dozen shots on a standard design cam pin it has worn all that its going to wear off of the upper receiver.

I'll report back later if any issues show up.

Here are a couple of factory pics...





Here is a cutaway representation....

I bought one About a month ago and was telling people on these forums about it. I was accused of working for them because I posted a few pics and said it seemed better than the POF cam pin.

Aside from that, the roller portion on mine hasn't worn out at all, and the top of the receiver is unscathed. I emailed one of the founders and he told me that the roller is melonited and everything else is black oxide.

I may grab one of these for my aluminum carrier.

So what does this offer over the POF rolling cam?

Rotation happens on the bearing surface of the carrier.  It's more about preventing the grooves that wear in the cam pin or extending the life of your carrier than protecting your upper like the POF does.

 

Preventing that friction in the. Carrier causes faster interaction between the bolt and carrier. And I havent found any wear or scratching on my upper in result of the lack of rolling on the top of the cam pin.

Thanks now there is another part I must have

I like it. My only concern is the strength of the now reduced diameter pin, but I don't think that's under extreme load.

Do they make it in KAC cam pin size?

The weakest point of the cam pin is where the hole for the firing pin is drilled, it's the same thickness on the Hydra Fire at that point.

Ordering mine right now... Didn't take much for you to persuade me... You must work for them!  JK

Decided to contact the manufacturer first about my question....EDIT, I tried, but the website won't allow me on...

After seeing this thread last month I looked into Hydrafires website and ordered one to check out. I liked the concept so why not?

After receiving it I checked it out thoroughly and installed it. A few days later I went to the range sent just over 600 rounds down range. I got home and as always got busy cleaning the rifle. The first thing I noticed with the HydraFire cam pin was the majority of the finish on every part other than the roller was gone. I don't know what they finished it with but it did not hold up and left the majority of the pin shiny from bare metal...not a big deal to me honestly.After 600+ rounds my rifle was filthy and needed a lot of work so I guess I didn't pay too close of attention to the pin. I cleaned up everything and reinstalled the HydraFire.

Last night I took my rifle apart to grease up my SD-E with new grease I just received. I pulled the CH and BCG while it was apart to wipe it down and re-lube it. This time I really gave the cam pin a close look. To my surprise the roller portion, specifically the lower end of the roller, has multiple tiny hairline cracks in it. To be sure that's what I was seeing I looked through a jewelers magnifier and sure as shit there were faint cracks all the way around. While they are tiny cracks, they are bound to get bigger I imagine and eventually the roller will fail. I'm glad I caught it before it broke and chewed up my $$ carrier and bolt.....

I swapped in a new cam pin and will no longer be using the HydraFire. Hopefully they will stand behind their product and refund my money.....we will see.

That doesn't sound right. The entire pin is Black Oxide which is a really crappy coat as it's not durable at all. However the roller is QPQ Nitride which increase it's tensile strength and hardness. I believe it's also SS which makes it a little better.

I'm surprised. Keep us posted updated.

Will do. I sent the owner a question a few weeks back and he responded quickly and seemed like a good guy. I imagine he will be interested in seeing my cam pin if it is indeed a freak occurrence. I tried to contact him again today but the website isn't working? I'll have to wait for it to get back online before I can send him a message I guess....

I have one pic that shows the cracks but it's not as clear as I'd like or enough to see in detail what's going on. The cracks are very small but can be felt with my fingernail. Its a tough picture to take. iPhone with jewelers magnifier held up to the lens, a light(not too bright or too dim) pointed at the cracks from an angle.... once it's all perfect I have to tap the screen to focus on the correct spot....I need an extra hand.  

Here's the best pic I have so far to show the cracks. I'll try tonight to get a couple better shots if possible. You can see the top of the firing pin channel at the lower right for reference with the arrows pointing to the cracks...there must be 10-20 of them all the way around---->



Here's an example of the finish wear--



Here's a somewhat better pic I just took. It sure looks like this one is very close to if not all the way through. I have a couple other pics but Photobucket is being a twat

The Black Oxide coating comes off quickly. It's literally the easiest and cheapest coating. The main thing it's for is to make parts black because that's how crappy it is.

Try to email:
[email protected]
[email protected]

These are the owners.

Thank you for the contact info. It looks like their site is back up and running for me as well.....

Obviously the cracks I noticed and needed a jewelers magnifier to view are minute. When I first noticed them I just thought they were tiny scratches but when magnified it seems clear to me that they are the smallest of cracks. Given that they appeared after only 600 rounds, I can only assume they will get worse and the roller will at some point fail. What that would do to my other components if it happened while firing the rifle I don't know but frankly am not interested in finding out. Am I overreacting? Would you continue using this pin given the pictures I posted?

I'd get in touch with them first and send them the pics. They may replace it.  Keep us updated.

Yikes. I'll stay away

I'll be getting mine back from mad custom coating in a month... I'll let you know how it holds up after mad black coating (thin lubricated Cerakote finish).

I sent a email including pictures to Hydra-Fire detailing my issue. I received a response quickly. They thanked me for bringing it to their attention and informed me they have definitely never seen anything like this before.They said they "desperately" need to the pin back to give it a detailed analysis. First off they need to actually confirm what I'm seeing are cracks. They appear to be cracks to me but it is entirely possible they aren't I suppose. I certainly am no expert in metals etc. They asked for me to give as many details as I could about what ammunition I was using, the components of my rifle, specifically the BCG, which I immediately gave them.

They said they will have an envelope here tomorrow for me to send it in. They started my refund already and I'll have it as soon as the bank processes it.

I believe them 100% when they say they have never seen it before. The tone of the email I received was clearly concerned with getting to the root of this issue and figure it out ASAP. It's completely possible that I got that 1 in a million bad one. I once cooked up a can of green beans and only after I ate about half of it I noticed that one of the green beans was actually a perfectly color matched and perfect length grasshopper Have you ever had that happen? Of course not, it was one in a million It's important to note that it's still not even verified yet that what I was focused on are actually cracks. I'm confident they will thoroughly investigate this issue.

Any company, no matter what they make or how much QC they do will eventually have one bad one get through. I'm a reasonable person and realize that. I'm more concerned with how that company responds to an issue. In my opinion Hydra-Fire couldn't have handled it any better. While they have already refunded my $$, I very well may purchase another and give it another go. I like the idea behind the product and believe their research that shows it reduces wear/friction and will outlast a standard cam pin by a long shot(not their words, just a summary of what a seem to remember reading on their site).

I really want to try one (or 4)

This is what a suppressor is doing to one of mine:

I think a lot of us would like an update on this!!!

I sent the cam pin back this weekend so they should get it soon. Hopefully they will share their findings.....