I bought an Oly 16" upper about 2 months ago.  It shoots great and reliable but when I load it with a cartridge and try to take the live cartridge out by pulling the charging handle, the cartridge gets stuck.  I can't get the cartridge out no matter how hard I pull the charging handle.  I have to tap the charging handle with a plastic hammer or fire it to clear my rifle. I'm using American Eagle and UMC from Walmart and it does the same thing.  At first I was thinking it was tight and new but after 1,000 rounds the bullet still gets stuck. Any help from you guys would be appreciated. Thanks.

You need to have your headspace checked.  Oly is notorious for out of Spec chambers.

They like to say that they have tight tollerances....  What a joke!

[b]Edit to add[/b].....   YOU SHOULD HAVE BOUGHT A COLT!!!

First option is send it back to OLy and ask them to fix it - this should be covered under warrenty.  Next option, if your impatient and want to have a go yourself is:

First, are/or have you cleaned the chamber - with the appropriate brush?  Some AR's with tighter chambers dont like crud.

If the chamber is clean, then you may have a burr.  To check, clean the chamber and either use a dental pick or similar object and slowly move it around the chamber feeling for areas that it catches on something or use a quick and look for snags.  Also, if there is a burr, it should (most likely) be scratching your cases.  So examine a clean new round (to make sure it doesnt have any scratches before you chamber it)and chamber the cartridge, then extract the cartridge and look for linear marks.  I realize this is tough in your situation.

Once/if you find a burr and are still feeling like playing gunsmith on a factory warrenteed rifle, you need to polish it out.

Next area of possible problem could be your extractor, remove your extractor and place one of these [url]http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/gunslingerdoc/detail?.dir=/guns&.dnm=orings.jpg[/url] over the spring and reinstall.  At the same time inspect your extractor for damage or crap/debris under the rim.

Hope this helps. keep us posted

Putting bullets in the chamber will to this all the time.  Putting in a complete cartridge is a better idea.

The only way to clear a bullet, cartridge, or cartridge case from the chamber is to use a cleaning rod to drive it out.  This assumes you can separate the receivers so you can do it safely.  Don't stick a rod down the bore unless the bolt is out of the rifle if this is a live cartridge.

Since this rifle won't handle standard ammunition it needs to go to the factory for adjustments.

-- Chuck

Huh??

How would he do this with his action stuck in battery?  I think the condition he is describing would require a vertical buttstock blow on the ground while pulling the charging handle.

Cleaning rod would work best if there was an obstruction and the weapon could be dissassembled, but I don't think that's what he's describing.

Thanks for the quick reply.  Fixed the problem and it's working now.  4gma was right on with the burr on the chamber.  I loaded a new cartridge and  extracted it with my plastic hammer again. Sure enough there was a scratch on the lower part of the cartrige.  Upon inspecting it with a flashlight, there was a rough spot on the upper part of the chamber.  Got my dremel tool and thank God that I have a long polishing bit that could reach that rough spot.  Polished it for about 2 minutes and upon testing it again the cartrige came out smoothly.  Yahooo!!! Thanks 4gma and all you guys that gave me tips.  Sure appreciate all your help in fixing this problem. Also cartridge do sound a lot better Chuck. Thanks. What am I thinking calling it bullets.  Duh?

556man :-)))

Glad to help.  Keep hanging out here though and you'll learn alot - I sure did.  In good faith I can only reccommend that you never, frequent the equipment exchange or look at any posts with pics - Or your wallets gunna to get much lighter! [}:D]

Markm --

The only way a [i]bullet[/i] could be stuck in the chamber would be with the cartridge case elsewhere.  You're absolutely correct that if there's [i]cartridge[/i] in there with the bolt closed putting a rod down the bbl isn't going to push it out without moving the bolt carrier to the rear and camming the bolt open.

-- Chuck

I gotcha!  He was just refering to the cartrige as the "bullet".