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Posted: 7/10/2005 12:37:47 PM EDT
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I recently bought an AR-15 and went out to fire it today. However, when I was shooting it I ran into multiple fail to feed issues, fail to fire, and a round that became deformed after it was fired. I think that out of 45 rounds fired, there was a fail to feed or fail to fire between 8 and 10 times. The lower is a Rock River lower but the upper is not nearly as high of quality. The magazines are supposedly GI magazines with the green followers. The ammunition that was being shot was brand new Winchester 5.56. There were several rounds that you can see the dimpling on the primer but the round did not fire. And then on the final round, the round fired it looks like the primer of the round just melted. The part where the firing pin hits is completely gone and you can look through the round. I am sorry that I do not have any pictures of the rounds but I could not figure out how to post pictures to this site. Does anyone have any ideas of what might be wrong and what I might be able to do to fix it. |
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No, I just tried the Winchester rounds. There was a limited number of options at the shop (you have to buy the ammunition there). One other thing, one of my friends was trying to figure out what wrong and he said that the bolt assembly seems to be really tight and that it almost sounds like it is grinding against the frame as you pull the charging handle. How can I determine whether or not it is the bolt that is the problem, the upper, or a combination of both. |
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A little more information would help. Just from what you typed based on bent case, failure to feed, it sounds like the rounds are being held up on the feed ramp. There's a number of things that can cause this but always first on the suspect list is mags and ammo. The 45 grain .223 being shorter sometimes jams into the ramp instead of turning. A used mag will often have the mag release holes too lose allowing the front to point down. Still yet sometimes the feed ramp is simply rough and needs a little buffing and oil. Worse cases are the lower has its mag release hole too low, out of spec, which is unusuall for a RRA or buffer spring is too strong throwing the bolt forward too fast jamming the round into the feed ramp. Usual first steps is insure the feed ramp is smooth and oiled, change mags, and change ammo. Don't panic for many new guns are tight at first and will losen up with some use. Hope this helps but a little more information would really make trouble shooting easier. Tj BTW, You did clean the rifle and oil before firing right? |
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I tried one of my friends magazines and still had fail to feed and fail to fire problems. I doubt that that magazine was bad because he has fired around 90 rounds using that magazine and did not have a single fail to feed or fail to fire problem with his AR-15. I looked at the feed ramp and it seems smooth. The entire gun was cleaned and well oiled prior to my taking it to the range today. If nothing else seems to be the problem, I will try new ammunition the next time I am at the range. |
| Just to make sure you know, there is a Troubleshooting forum with some tacked threads with a lot of info. That's also the appropriate forum to post troubleshooting questions in. The mod that runs that forum is very knowledgeable. |
| Could be the mags.On aluminum mags the feed lips are sometimes burred under neath.Are the cases scratched or have any horizontal lines.Burred feed lips and a new rifle where everything is tight can cause this.If rounds were hanging up on the ramps the bullets can be deformed,bent or pushed back into the case..has this happened?is the carrier key lining up with the gas tube?is the potruding part of the tube in the upper straight?.These are things to look for.As far as the ammo it could be a weak hammer spring or damaged firing pin check these too.If the mags are working in another rifle it could also be your carrier thats hanging up on the Mag or gas tube could also explain the light hammer strikes...change your carrier only with your buddies and see if its that.If the problem still happens then something like the magcatch hole could be out of spec and the mag sitting high.When you get the failure to feed is the carrier hung up over the mag lips or does it hang up behind the new round and not go forward at all? |
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