i was shooting some federal ae 55 grain 223 ammo today and had a failure to feed. the bcg was about a half inch OOB so i did the usual pull the charging handle and slam the stock on the ground. i did this several times and nothing. i didn't baby it i was looking to break the concrete but it was locked up solid. i got home and had to remove the buffer tube to remove the lower. some work with a mallet and plenty of oil finally got the BCG loose. a crushed up primer was found between the charging handle and the BCG. it was my first popped primer in many thousands of rounds fired.


i know this is not news to any one but make sure any ammo you use for self defence at least has crimped primers. crimped case necks would be a good idea too. if this happened at a bad time i would have been holding a $2,000 baseball bat.

I have had this happen several times to both me and others on the range with me. What I have learned is that first try to move pry the bolt forward and the situation is resolved most of the time.

FWIW, don't ever mortar a weapon unless you absolutely have to do it. (ie you are in a gun fight)

If your rifle locks up at the range or in a class, and basic action to clear the problem doesn't work, stop what you are doing and delve into it with some sense before smashing things on the concrete. Mortaring a rifle often makes the problem worse.

On my rifles two of them have the "Wylde" chambers which are great for target and hand loads. But some times when I shoot a full 556 round crimped or not it will pop a primer, some times locking up the trigger action. Also can see some marking on the face of the recoil piston in the stock. Having a brain fart on what they are called.

 The hotter rounds just did not work well with the tighter chambers.

It's not like its gonna blow up.



explain how it will make it worse?



 

I have seen my share of bent receiver extensions, broken but stocks (even when collapsed fully), and a broken lower. Try and mortar a bolt over ride and then tell me it didn't make the problem worse. A blown out primer lodged over the bolt is another similar example of how forcing an object further into where it shouldn't be is a bad idea.

I work as a contract armorer for the military, and ammo that causes problems could come from any source, they don't have to be reloads or non-crimped primers.  I've seen, and worked on several, M4's and M16A3/A4's that will come in with the trigger not able to move, and the weapon can't be put on safe.  A popped primer somehow worked itself down below the trigger and the bottom of the receiver, lodged itself in there to boot.  After seeing this the 1st time, I know what to look at when I see this come in.  I've found small rocks, and a piece of twig in there...tell me how that got in there!  Ammo is 1st tier Lake City M855 ball ammo, so anything is possible in these days and time.  

how many now?





So you've seen at least two (since you use plural from) bent tubes plus a broken receiver.So that's at least 3 broken guns from a pogo move out of how many??? I don't believe you at all.





You would be the first person I've heard that's broken not one, but 3 rifles, from a pogo.  Out of all the mil posters and armorers on here that would make you a anomaly in the world of the AR.





Just not believing you. Now if you would have said one broken weapon, maybe.





 

I remember asking about those lower receiver "rugs" DPMS makes that try to protect the trigger group from being jammed-up by popped primers.  Some folks said they do not work, others said it wasn't worth it, because the problem is so rare.  But I wonder, with manufacturers probably going "balls-to-the-wall" right now to meet demand, don't you all feel that QC will suffer?  And this problem might become less rare?  Also, why doesn't someone alot smarter than me come up with a design change to isolate the vulnerable trigger mechanism from this little monkey wrench that can stop it up?

I dont really care if you don't believe me. Keep beating your rifle on the ground when it locks up, doesn't effect me one bit.

My last build (my do everything favorite to be AR15 carbine) has popped primers 2X.  The first time it locked the bolt up just far enough back that I couldn't open it up.  Had to remove the stock/buffer tube and use a soft faced mallet to drive the bolt forward (I'd already checked with a cleaning rod and determined there was no live round in the chamber, juct the empty case of the last round that fired and it was not the one that blew the primer out).

Second time is the most important one to share.

We where shooting up above the garden at home and suddenly pulling the trigger got funny.  Sometimes it would go off, sometimes not.  I ejected a good round with no primer strike on it and attempted to fire again.  It didn't go off.  I was sitting so I dropped the muzzle down and started to take the rifle off my shoulder and lay it down and it went off.  I dropped the magazine, ejected the round in the chamber it had just loaded from the magazine and took the receiver halves apart.  The hammer would not cock/lock.  There was a primer up under the trigger and wouldn't let the trigger move to its "rest" position.

That is the only time I ever had a fire arm go off without pulling the trigger (I mean I had pulled it, it didn't fire, and I was preparing to lay it down and get up when it went off - but my finger was not on the trigger at the time).

In my case it was pressure.  My standard load for AR15's was just too hot for that rifle with the originally purchased RRA chome bolt/bolt carrier and chrome line barrel.  I checked headspace and compared to some other AR15's and while the go ga. allowed the bolt to close there was no "slack" like there is on the other rifles.  I got them all out, when through all of them with the headspace ga. (go ga.) and found the one with the most slop and swapped bolts with the new carbine to get a little bit more slop, not much, but it was enough.  Last trip to the range my standard ammo showed no sights of primer flattening or ejector printing on the base.

Big thing is those primers under/around the trigger can cause a dangerous condition.  Keep the muzzle downrange/up in the air all the time, even when not preparing to shoot.

As a guy who has shot ADCOM 98 ammo, I can attest to this method.  If you want to learn how to deal with popped primers, find some ADCOM ammo.  I still have most of that case laying around, figure I'll bust it down for components since I guarantee you'll have at least two popped primers for every 20 round box.



 

Hell, I had my fair share of popped primers.  I did not have a jam when it happened to me.  All I did was find the spent casing by chance with the missing primer and did a quick tear down of the weapon to check where the primer went.  The funny thing it was a batch of Malyasian surplus ammo I picked up a long time ago.

I had that happen when stuck an anvil arms barrel on my upper for a while.  Despite being labeled 5.56, it would pop primers and lock up the bolt at least once a box or so with 55gr Winchester 5.56, likely due to headspace issues with the barrel.  Put my spikes mid length barrel back on and had no problems.  Check your barrel and be sure the headspaving is correct and that you aren't having some sort of overpressure issue because of that if it is happening repeatedly with new ammo.

Luck of the draw, 2 outa three locked up my  action. Im not gonna beat them on concrete unless my life depends on it, then yes I would try that....

I had a popped primer during the slow fire 600 yard stage of a high power match. The primer lodged itself under the trigger and locked the trigger up good. This was in a 5.56 chambered rifle with middle-of-the-road .223 spec handloads on twice fired brass and hand-weighed powder charges.

Fixed the problem on the line and had time left to finish the stage with out being rushed. You never know when something like this will happen...

1DD

Only reason I can see to beat any firearm on the ground is if I'm out of ammo and the perp moved.