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Posted: 8/21/2009 4:41:34 PM EDT
| Just bought my first ar...opted to do it piece by piece out of curiosity. Just got the charging handle, installed it. It seems very difficult to charge the bolt. The bolt slides in and out extremely smooth, but the charging handle causes a lot of friction and is scraping against the top of the upper receiver. Is this normal? I have a tube of brian enos slide glide that I am using for lube...its done wonders for my other guns. The top front of the charging handle seems to taper upwards a bit at about the last quarter inch, is it supposed to be that way? I don't see how I could have bent it. Handle, upper, and bolt carrier are all from RRA. Let me know what you think, thanks. |
| Put the charging handle upside down on a table or other flat surface with the thicker end piece that you actually grab onto hanging off of the surface. Push the end of the charging handle forward towards the flat surface until it stops due to the extra thickness of the part that was overhanging the flat surface. The charging handle should lie perfectly flat. If the front end of the charging handle isn't flat on the surface then it is bent and should be exchanged. That would absolutely cause the difficulty you are talking about. |
| Guess I will have to. I hit it with a hammer and got it to straighten a little, but I had to beat the hell out of it. There is simply no way I bent it installing it, even though I am new at this. I am 1 year away from being a mechanical engineer and I can say with certainty that RRA sent me a bent charging handle, or it was bent during shipping (except that the box it came in was in good condition, I still have it). No sense in even trying to call them, and they never respond to my emails, I think that is the last product I will buy from them. If they are so overwhelmed they really should stop taking orders. Just canceled a barrel order after waiting over 3 months for it. At least its a cheap part. |
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Quoted:
Damn, definitely not flat. I'm tired of dealing with RRA. I did nothing that would have bent the handle. Every company makes mistakes. What makes a good company is how they fix their mistakes. I am pretty sure they would be more than happy to exchange it for you (assuming you are able to make contact with them). Luckily charging handles are cheap. You could probably straighten this one yourself and be GTG. The charging handle's only job is to pull the BCG back (and to collect carbon). If you pound it straight then it will do its job for you. Just make sure that the inner channel is also 100% free of bulges or protusions. |
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I've read a number of threads in the past couple of months about charging handles that are bending. I guess I was looking for these as I've seen 4 charging handles myself since the first of the year do this. I think some less than stellar quality CH's hit the market. |
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Yep. Buy a MILSPEC CH. They're thicker than the commercial CH that you have and take more abuse. |
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