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Posted: 4/5/2009 5:12:26 PM EDT
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Hi all- I was out shooting my new AR-15 for only the second time the other day. After putting in the first mag, I pulled the charging handle back, but the first round failed to chamber. Tried pulling the charging handle again, and another fail to chamber. When I say "failed to chamber" I mean it was like the mechanism was totally failing to catch the round at the top of the magazine; the first round was just hanging out there at the top of the mag like nothing was going on. I popped the mag out & re-inserted, and then everything worked fine.
After firing a couple of mags I popped another mag in and this time the first round chambered only half-way, and got stuck. I popped the mag out and cycled the action thus ejecting the partially-chambered round, then re-inserted the mag and everything was good. This is the only prob I've had with the gun, other than this it has functioned beautifully. No other fail-to-chambers besides these two cases when it happened immediately after inserting a new mag. I'm thinking this was caused by operator error; i.e. I failed to fully insert the mag, and the action couldn't properly catch & chamber the round. For you experienced guys out there, does this sound like a plausible explanation? Is it common to see this sort of problem if a mag is not fully seated? The gun is a Colt 6920, PMag 30-round M-series, Federal XM193 LC 08 rounds. Here at home I just tried chambering rounds from all of my mags, being careful to fully seat the mags upon insertion, and there were no issues chambering the first round. The prob is I won't be able to shoot again for a week or two so I can conclusively verify that this was indeed operator error, and it's bugging me...! Thanks, Jimmy |
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Jimmy,
It appears you have answered your question there. I believe it was the mag not fully inserted in the well. That can happen and usually is the problem. The only thing that concerns me is when you said you tried chambering rounds at home. I hope you weren't doing this with live rounds indoors and that you live somewhere that you can do this outside, in a safe direction. Say, not towards a neighbor's house. Take care and enjoy your new rifle! |
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Quoted:
Jimmy, It appears you have answered your question there. I believe it was the mag not fully inserted in the well. That can happen and usually is the problem. The only thing that concerns me is when you said you tried chambering rounds at home. I hope you weren't doing this with live rounds indoors and that you live somewhere that you can do this outside, in a safe direction. Say, not towards a neighbor's house. Take care and enjoy your new rifle! What he said. If you don't have any, you can buy snap-caps from multiple vendors that should be used for at-home testing. |
| I like to give my mags a little "love tap" on the base when I insert them just to be sure they're fully seated. It's also not a bad idea to yank down on them a little after insertion just to make sure they are locked in. Your rifle and your mags are both still brand new too, and a little break-in will probably smooth things out too. |
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Quoted:
I like to give my mags a little "love tap" on the base when I insert them just to be sure they're fully seated. It's also not a bad idea to yank down on them a little after insertion just to make sure they are locked in. Your rifle and your mags are both still brand new too, and a little break-in will probably smooth things out too. Quoted:
How many rounds did you have loaded in the mag that was inserted? Slap 'em on the bottem to make sure they are fully seated. Some Mags will not seat fully when loaded with 30rds in them, unless the bolt is open. |
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I had the mags topped off with a full 30 rounds. The bolt was closed (forward position) when I inserted the mags, well at least for one of the problematic cases it was, I think probably for the other one as well if I remember correctly. Is it true then that loading a fully topped-off mag with a closed bolt can lead to issues? Do you guys load 28 rnds into your 30-rnd mags?
From what you guys are saying sounds like I should give the mag a nice firm slap into the magwell and a test-tug, maybe think about loading only 28 rnds, and also pull the bolt back first...? That's a lot to remember when I have bad-guys running up on my ass! The test chamberings I did (which were successful) all had only four rnds loaded in the mags, slapped up against a closed (fully forward) bolt. Thx, JH |
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Slapping the mag on the bottom after it's inserted can cause problems- if the bolt is open, the top round in the mag can pop out and give a messy double feed. Not always, but sometimes. It's a habit i don't want to get into, and if someone is shooting at me I don't want to be thinking about open bolt vs closed bolt techniques.
I prefer to use the same technique as with pistol mags- a quick and firm push, but no slap. Finally, P-Mags have some nice features but can be tight in the mag well of some guns. You may want to test and do some careful sanding if necessary, or use GI mags. |
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Quoted:
How many of you load a full 30 rnds into 30 rnd mags vs loading 27 or 28 rnds? Is it common to load a couple rounds short of a full 30 if planning to insert the mag on a closed bolt? JH I find that 30 rounds in Cproducts magazines are very difficult to seat with the bolt closed. Take out 1 round and it's a lot easier. There is a lot of pressure on the stop against the top round with ithe mag topped off. So in combination with the mag not seating all the way and the force of it being full ,I have have seem the same chambering problem before with my rifles. I usually only fill my mags up to 25 rounds so that I know I will never have this problem. |
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As a follow-up just wanted to post that I was shooting over the weekend and tried all my 30-rnd PMags again, each topped off with a full 30 rnds. This time I was careful to fully insert each mag (used a closed bolt as before), and had absolutely no probs whatsoever. Lesson learned: *always* give the mag a firm push into the magwell, and double-check that it's seated properly with a tug!
JH |
| Don't forget to slap the mag against your helmet or your hand so all cartridges move to the back of magazine. It will help with feeding because the bullet won't get stack against the ramp. Also lube the hell out of the bolt and bolt carrier so the velocity of both is higher to improve feeding. I had this happened this Sat. First two rounds hanged up but after that no problems. |
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Quoted:
Don't forget to slap the mag against your helmet or your hand so all cartridges move to the back of magazine. It will help with feeding because the bullet won't get stack against the ramp. Also lube the hell out of the bolt and bolt carrier so the velocity of both is higher to improve feeding. I had this happened this Sat. First two rounds hanged up but after that no problems. gotcha will do- jh |
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