I tore down my Tavor SAR for cerakote. I have only shot it once ever a while ago. When I put it back together seemed to have trouble getting the barrel seated. Then it seemed to seat and the barrel lug engaged as far as I can tell. However, the charging handle will only lock forward if I let it really slam home. Is this normal? I honestly dot remember though I thought I could latch it forward on my own . Also if I don't slam it home it seems Out of battery slightly but the trigger still drops the hammer. This concerns me.

Any thoughts? I know AR's well but don't know the Tavor.

Thanks in advance,

Z

2 possibilities I can think of.

1: the coating is interfering with tolerances and will continue to until it wears down in high friction areas.

2: you locked the barrel with the charging handle in place and the first time it didn’t seat well because not having the BCG in place for the charging handle assembly to rest on and the forward retention device for it removed the op rod of the charging handle slid down and got munched on by the locking mechanism biting  a chunk out of it and bending it in the process. If that happened there is a good chance it also dented the gas tube that the piston rides in. So now the piston is getting stuck from that extra friction. To check this disassemble your gun at least taking out the charging handle to check for damage preferably just pop out the barrel and pull the charging handle and gas tube out. Since the gas tube is polymer damage to it may not be obvious. A good way to check it is drop it over the BCGs gas piston after removing it and see if it will go down over it without assistance. I accidentally chewed up my charging handle assembly and gas tube when I forgot to remove the charging handle on my x95 while swapping my barrels and the symptoms where the same as what you described so that’s my guess.

Lastly most rifles the hammer can drop if it is slightly out of battery they keep from kabooming in that scenario by having the geometry between the hammer and firing pin not work unless it is fully in battery. This is also present in many pistol designs. An example would be my marine buddies who were posted at 8th and I said there was an extremely dumb game some of the marines bored on duty would play with their m9 called mushy trigger. The game being they would press the barrel into their thigh enough to knock firing pin alignment out of whack so it wouldn’t fire but still be close enough to in battery that the trigger mechanism would work, they would then pull the trigger. Extremely stupid idea and game but same principle. Pics would also help if neither of these end up being the issue. Good luck.

Your description of the charging handle sounds pretty normal to me.  If you lock the bolt back the charginging handle moves freely but has a light stop all the way forward.   Easing the bolt forward with the charging handle on a lightly used Tavor might not close in battery.   If the charging handle moves freely with heavy weight/feel that is normal as the Tavor SAR has a pretty strong recoil spring and similar in strength to an AK.  Similar long stroke gas piston as AK but in a bullpup.

As long as you retract the charging handle release the handle to let the bolt fly forward and the bolt seats in battery I’d say your gtg.   Tavors are pretty tight when new, I wouldn’t think Cercoating would change much on the Tavor as far as function.