first off i got my pcr-16 tonight... i also have a new bushmaster shorty...anyway... i live the bushy, and their is just a little play between upper and lower... gun is all original with about 500 rds through her without missing a beat... the olympic... has no play...between upper and lower... also a nice trigger... fit and finish is flawless... now having said that... white grease is still all through the gun... but i tried my 20 round thermold... a bushmaster 10 round and the clip it came with.... my GI 30 rounders are somewhere else.... anyway... when bolt and carrier are back... all the clips insert fine... but when i put the carrier forward... i have to strugglw with them all to go in and lock???? //// normal? what causes this? with that said it is still only 5 hours old to me... anybody have this quirk??? thanks.....

Ah, er, what clip?

Congratulations on your new rifle!! Now, for the problem. I had a similar thing going on with mine when using Thermold mags, though, GI mags were fine.

I figured out that the indentation on the side of the mag wasn't high enough for the mag latch to slip into and lock in place. What I did was lightly file the top edge of the mag-lock indent on the mag itself with my Dremel tool(making sure to not round off the edges). I repeated this process until it seated fine. Now, all my Thermolds function flawlessly.

Good luck!

I'm not sure how much struggling you're doing, but when you insert a magazine, you should just have to slap the bottom and have it lock in place.  What exactly do you mean by "struggle"?

my bushmaster mags fit fight in my PCR7 Magwell, the USGI and SA80 mags are fine. With a bit of tetra grease, and use, the bushy mags seem to fit better.

Umm,... Were your mags loaded when you were trying to insert them into the mag well w/ the bolt forward? This might be the problem. You were trying to "push" the top round down deeper into the thermold!

On a good portion of thermolds I have seen, a small amount of material must be removed from the TOP of te feedlip (NOT the inside lips of the feed lips) for this very purpose!

I would not rcommend removing any more material from your mag catch. Then again, it would be a cheap fix if you take off too much material, and the bolt starts to fail to strip a round when it cycles.