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Posted: 7/25/2008 12:32:58 PM EDT
| I was shooting today and everything was going to until i click nothing.....I took the Magazine out and the bolt is locked in the forward position but isn't closed all the way....What happened is it going to hurt my rifle. Also i can't get the bolt back or to tear the gun down the bullet is still inside. Help guys |
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Point the muzzle in a safe direction, and slam the rifle on its butt, pulling from the charging handle. It can be pretty tough sometimes just make sure you keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction. If you have a knife and don't care about marring your upper receiver's finish you can try to pry the bolt back also. If you absolutely can't get it like that, you may need to remove the buttstock so you can take down the rifle. |
+1...but make sure if you have a 4 or 6 pos stock it is all the way in before you do it. |
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I would not consider it "normal" since the gun isn't functioning the way it should. But this malfunction isn't uncommon. Unless you are a gorilla, your rifle won't be damaged but the round may be. After you get it out give it a good look to see if the bullet is mangled or if the case is bent, etc. Don't just blindly pop it back into the top of a magazine. It could be a dirty chamber (or a brand spankin' new one), or maybe something is wrong with the round. |
Well something sure happened. How many times had the case been resized? Looks like ands out of spec. case length and the headspace bug bit your AR. |
| That happened to me. I took it to the armorer at the range and he crammed the bolt back with a screwdriver. dented brass. i cant remember the brand, but it was boxed stuff from wallmart. Now i give a quick look over before loading. went back and put a couple hundred more through it. no sweat. |
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Don't slam, don't pry, don't pull like hell...push out both pins and you can take the upper off. Safe. Nothing broken. Now that it is apart, you can use a brass drift to drive the carrier back, make sure you are on the carrier and not the upper. A 1/2" brass drift is what works, place the business end on the rear of the carrier top, where the cutout ends and it becomes circular again. Angle the drift toward the barrel, about a 30 degree angle. Use a mallet and drive tha carrier out. |
Never happened in my 2 Bushmasters shooting about 8000 rounds of Wolf..... I bet your chamber was dirty and dry...... |
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There are probably a few things working together that made this happen. If his rifle is a DPMS as his screen name would lead me to believe, it is probably a tight chamber, maybe with no chrome lining, coupled with an over sized round he reloaded? If you have a collapsable stock, close it all the way, put pressure on the charging handle and smack the butt of your rifle on the grass (not concrete). You'll have this cleared in 3 seconds. |
Oil in the chamber is a bad thing. |
So, its not like your going to pull the trigger. Malfunctions like these happen from time to time. This is the way they are cleared. I didnt make this up. |
Just don't do that with a live round. They have been known to go off from the compression of the powder charge. There was an instance of that happening to a bench rest shooter a few years back that killed someone. With a fired round: works like a champ! |
Why is it that everyone questions this method of clearing the chamber until they see it done? |
+1 for what he said |
Guess thats one way to do it. That method is especially effective and a favorite of those who like to bring their guns home and use tools to clear simple malfunctions. 
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Well after 1 butt stock, and 2 bent charging handles, (tach latches are great for side loads on the handles), I always bring 2 rifles to the range so that way I can wait until I get home to fix the problem. |
 True that |
Charging handle isn't too strong, is it? If you get a ruptured case head, the extractor will be tightly forced into the barrel extension and nothing but hammering on the carrier will get it out. |
Agreed, if all else fails, tools may be required. But a hammer is absolutely not the first method I would advise. In fact it is the last. Smacking the stock on the grass while putting pressure on the charging handle will clear this malfunction 98% of the time. |
I agree. This was happening with one of my guns. Turns out my resizer wasn't screwed down quite far enough, and was leaving the case shoulder a tiny bit outsized. Once that was rectified, no problem. If you trust your guns safety (and you probably never should), you might try pulling both takedown pins, and manually cocking your hammer, then applying the safety, reassemble the upper and lower, then smacking the butt on the ground while pulling on the charging handle. Or, more extreme, If you feel you can, pull it apart and remove your hammer (pretty easy) then put it back together and try the smack the butt on the grass routine. |
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Ditto on Keith J's technique.. It has worked for me several times with no damage to any of the rifle parts. Pulling on the charging handle stresses a relatively weak $20 part. Slamming the butt can damage the stock. Tapping with a cleaning rod down the barrel will only drive the bullet back into the case and the ogive of the bullet may flare the threaded female end of the rod. Getting the rifle apart and tapping on the carrier is a sure fire way to go with little potential of busting up parts. |
Yes and that is the recommended method for clearing a round from between the bolt and charging handle or a double feed. When the case is partially chambered the extractor is pinned by the barrel extension and if you read the manual it recommends seperating the receivers and using a cleaning rod to remove the offending round. |
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Don't slam the buttstock. Take a rubber mallet and smack the charging handle lightly (unlatch it and pull back first) to loosen the cartridge. Running a rod down the barrel can damage it and it costs more than a charging handle. I couldn't get the upper and lower apart when it jammed. Pulled the pin and something on the upper kept it from swinging open. I wasn't familiar enough with the rifle to figure out what was jamming and how to move it. Prying wasn't going to happen, no real place to pry without damaging something I did want to replace. Used the rubber mallet a couple of taps... When it happened to me I found the shoulder was .003" larger than spec so I must have not run it through the die... |
You would think, seeing as this AR rifle is styled after a military weapon, that someone in the military would have seen this type of malfunction before, and would have developed an acceptable approach to dealing with this. Hmmmmm, maybe the way the military recommends would be the best approach..... Or, you could argue about it on the internet instead, basing your argument on your own beliefs on what is the best way to handle it. 
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| the only time I have had this problem was when using headspace guages. The bolt gets stuck almost every time, I'm not a fan of slaming a gun on the ground, it may not be my gun I'm working on. I find pushing the charging handle down on the side of a wood table or bench works well. If you need to, tap the stock with a rubber mallet. |
| I've cleared a couple of jams caused by steel case wolf ammo in a dirty chamber via the buttstock smacking on the ground method. It doesn't take a particularly hard hit using this method. I think it is one of the military field methods as well. How else besides using a cleaning rod could you clear an unextracted case in the field relatively quickly. Don't be afraid to use a little force on these things, just don't overdue it to the point you are breaking the charging handle or stock. If it needs that much force, definitely the brass drift & hammer technique at home will work better. |
+1 Just fucking smack the buttstock against the ground while pulling against the CH instead of listening to the forum warriors. It's the method that's taught in the military, and is in the manual. A lot of internet commandos here never bothered to read the fucking manual. |
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Read the manual, I bet it says to hit the butt on the ground - mine does. Anyone notice the OP has not been here for a while? Maby he listened to someone who told him to plug the barrel with a cleaning rod and set off a live round?  (closest think to a KB I could find)
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Actually that method of clearing a jam is for a case stuck between the bolt and charging handle or a double feed as per the manual. For case stuck in the chamber they recommend seperating the receivers, just checked it out in the BM manual that's here. |
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