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Posted: 6/1/2005 4:16:49 PM EDT
| How many rounds can I fire before I need to replace my bolt? The reason I'm asking is because my extractor broke after firing approximately 10000 rounds of steel cased ammo. When I went to the gun store last week to buy a new extractor the guy at the store said if it had that many rounds through it the bolt needed to be repaced. Is he right or insane? |
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I doubt that the gun store guy knew what he was talking about. Extractors are easy to replace, and have no affect on headspace. Bolts, on the other hand, are the critical link in setting your headspace, so you shouldn't mess with them if you don't need to. Are there any visible flaws in your bolt? Does it bind? Any burrs or gouges? How does the fillet at the base of each locking lug look? I'll bet that it's just fine. GI rifles go through way more than 10k rounds on a regular basis without needing any major parts replaced. |
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There are rifles on here that have more on them than that. I think he was either trying to sell parts, or pretend that he could inform you on something you didn't already know. Besides, I think it would depend on the individual bolt itself. Some from Model 1 have broken lugs fairly early, others can go more than 20,000rds without a problem. Just inspect yours and makes sure it's in good condition, and you should be fine. WIZZO |
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I think it depends a lot on the firing schedule... one of the local ranges does heavy duty testing using M4A1s exclusively on full-auto and they report broken bolts or lugs are not uncommon by the 7-10k mark. At the same time, I see ARs with bolts that have gone twice that and are still headspacing OK. I think a lot of it depends on heat, gas pressure and cyclic rate. All three of these are higher in carbine length gas systems than they are in rifles, so the problem crops up sooner in the shorter gas systems. |
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