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Page AR-15 » Troubleshooting
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Posted: 11/16/2018 11:20:02 PM EDT
Hey folks! First time poster here, relatively new to the AR world, so here it goes!

I recently put together an AR with all brand new parts. I bought an Anderson stripped lower and a PSA fully assembled upper. I’ve put about 400 rounds through it now in 3 good shooting sessions. Everything works really well, not a single FTF (feed or fire), and it ejects spent brass extremely consistently at about 4 o’clock. It has a rifle length gas system and a carbine buffer, which I was told should be perfectly fine to run.

So, when the BCG moves over the top round in the magazine, the two lower lugs put a pretty good scrape across the body of the cartridge, leaving a pretty good amount of brass in the gun. This happens to every round in the magazine, with all 4 different types of mags that I have (including USGI mags and pmags) which leads me to believe that either lower is slightly out of spec (most likely imo) or my upper is out of spec, or a combination of both.

I know that issues like this have been posted here before, so I’m sorry for the repost but I couldn’t quite find the answers I was looking for. I’ve heard of other people having a similar problem as far as mags fitting kind of high into the upper, so my question is does anyone have a recommendation for a magazine where the feed lips are a bit lower or the distance between the mag catch and the lips is smaller? Is there a chance it could be over gassed? Just asking before I waste a bunch of money buying random mags. And I know this isn’t a tremendous issue, it just bothers me a bit being a new gun and if it can be solved with different mags then I’ll do that! Thanks!

Here’s some pictures







Link Posted: 11/17/2018 2:46:57 AM EDT
[#1]
Looks like the extractor may be shaving the brass when the bolt locks/unlocks. Remove extractor and lightly clean up the edges, corners with some 400 emery cloth.
Also, what ammo/brass are you using?
Link Posted: 11/17/2018 3:06:09 AM EDT
[#2]
Link Posted: 11/17/2018 9:48:07 AM EDT
[#3]
Tagging for later.
Link Posted: 11/17/2018 10:11:59 AM EDT
[#4]
OP...before you work everything over as shown in the second post...

In your photo of the BCG that shows the underside, it appears that the carrier has a burr on it. It's along the edge of the transition from the bottom to the front face of the carrier.  This part of your carrier makes contact with the top round in the mags everytime the gun cycles. I'd focus on smoothing that one spot out and test fire.

Be very cautious with doing all of the other smoothing work on the BCG as everthing is heat treated.

On the fee ramps, I'd clean the brass off and look for any rough edges. If you see them, use a small set of files to knock the edge off. If you have a dremel and buffer pad with compound, you can polish the ramps.

....of course you could also ask @PalmettoStateArmory to square it away for you, they've stepped up their customer service in the last year significantly.
Link Posted: 11/17/2018 11:08:53 AM EDT
[#5]
Run a few mags of Wolf Steel cased ammo through it.
See if it smooths it out.
I had a new build that was doing similar stuff and that fixed it for me.
Most likely that small burr on the underside of you carrier just needs smoothing.
Link Posted: 11/17/2018 1:37:39 PM EDT
[#6]
Thanks for the great replies everybody! Much obliged.

A couple of the pictures I shared can be deceiving. What looks like a burr on the underside of the bcg is actually a small flake of brass that’s clinging onto the edge. These pictures were taken immediately after I ran 200 rounds through it rather rigorously lol. It was perfectly clean before this round of shooting. I wanted to show a good representation of what was going on in there. However, I don’t doubt for a second that’s where a majority of the brass shavings/gouges are coming from.

The first thing I did after test firing the gun for the first time and seeing so much brass was I broke it down and cleaned up any small burrs or abnormal edges I could find (which wasn’t much). The whole bottom side of the carrier caught my attention because of how sharp all the edges were. I took a jewelers file and very gingerly knocked the edge down where I felt it would help. And I mean VERY gingerly.

I’ve been an aerospace fabricator/machinist for a number of years so I’m very well aware of the importance of perfect fits and tight tolerances. I wasn’t sure of how sharp all of these edges need to be on the whole carrier so I barely touched it. I probably just need to go a bit more.

I’ll try running some steel cased rounds through it first and see if that does the trick. If not, I’ll start with knocking down that edge on the bottom of the carrier. If that doesn’t help then I will work my way forward on polishing things up.

I was somewhat convinced that something was out of spec because of how it was impossible to secure a fully loaded mag with the bolt forward. After doing a bit of research I understand that that’s not so uncommon. Also I was a bit concerned with how much the bcg actually presses the top round down in the magazine. You can see how much the top round is compressed into the mag in the picture below. Is this normal? Thanks for the help everybody!

Link Posted: 11/17/2018 4:14:26 PM EDT
[#7]
Link Posted: 11/18/2018 1:49:13 AM EDT
[#8]
Thanks for the replies Dano523. I’ll get back to you tomorrow with some more pictures after I break into it again. I appreciate the advice and instruction! Will let you know what I find
Link Posted: 11/19/2018 10:53:40 AM EDT
[#9]
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