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Posted: 1/16/2010 6:45:23 PM EDT
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I finally got out to shoot my new m-4 tac sol upper and only about 50% of the time it would actually fire. It cycled fine, but it seems like I'm getting light strikes. Even the ones that go bang have very light strikes.
The upper is on an aero precision lower with a DPMS lpk. I was using federal bulk and Winchester bulk. Any ideas on what could be going on? |
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DPMS LPK should have the rounded hammer which is the one you want. I have a few of these I use on lowers that get .22 uppers and conversions and none of them every has given an issue.
Check a few other things. First, make sure everything is CLEAN Make sure the firing pin moves freely. Its not so rare that a piece of crud can get lodged up inside where you can't see it. Shoot her with a blast of Gun Scrubber and then double check that the firing pin can move out far enough to hammer that rim on the .22. Make certain that the bolt is going fully into battery. It should move freely all the way forward until it contacts the breech end of the barrel. Head space on a .22 is inside the bolt face. The bolt should be firmly against the back of the barrel. Check the barrel and the bolt face where they contact and make sure both surfaces are square and fit nicely together. A burr or an incorrectly machined part can prevent this. Just stop and look everything over very closely. Sometimes you will look right past the simplest of things, we all do it. I have a Tac Sol upper and it has never malfunctioned on common ammo like Fed Bulk. |
| the hammer is not notched, so that's not the issue. The firing pin seems to be fine. It moves freely without problem. Both surfaces of the bolt and the barrel look fine and seem to be flush. I haven't heard of anyone else having much trouble, maybe I'm the lucky one. I might try sticking it to a different lower and see if that changes any thing. Does anyone else have a different idea or suggestion? Thanks. |
| I'm considering, actually, I'm a mouse click away from ordering the Tac-Sol and I'm wondering what rear sight works on the flattop .22lr upper. I have a Red Dot I'm going to put on it initially, but I'd like to have a flp up rear sight at will work. I don't know how to match compatibility with the high front sight on the M4 version and I don't want elevation adjustment issues. I'm an AR noobie so any help is appreciated.. |
| I switched lowers and it functioned without issues for the next 100 rounds or so. Then I was getting some light strikes again, so I took out the bolt and wiped it off and checked the firing pin, put it back in and it functioned again. Hopefully with more time it will keep getting better. It's just odd that it's so picky with lowers. Any idea why the different lower would function so much better? |
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blkro33
It's not just Tactical Solutions that's picky about lowers. Most uppers will prefer one lower over another either for a better fit or functionality. The lower I've mated to the Bayer 8" Upper is a very tight fit, almost tighter than I'd like but functionally it's perfect. Everything mechanical requires a break in to a certain extent, Everything should be fine very soon. I wouldn't worry much until 500 or 1000 rounds. If there's still a problem then we can work to fix it. rlandry6 As for a rear sight on the M4???? Maybe you should wait until you have the upper and take it with you to a few gun stores that have sights. I don't see well enough to rely on sights alone, I only use them to eliminate my Astigmatism, and to co-witness EOTechs. Sorry, not much of an answer. Spec |
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Anything like this?
http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=3&f=15&t=473100&page=1 |
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Quoted:
The upper is on an aero precision lower with a DPMS lpk. I was using federal bulk and Winchester bulk. Any ideas on what could be going on? I used my TacSol M4 upper on a factory S&W M&P15 lower and a brand new Charles Daly w/ DPMS lpk lower build with no problems from either as far as primer strikes goes. I shot Federal, Winchester, CCI and Wolf bulk and the only problems I had was the occaisional FTE where the brass got stuck under the charging handle. 
...and as far as functionality, how are you lubing your carrier group? I found a light coat of oil (I use Hoppes) spread by finger is more than enough. Quoted:
I'm considering, actually, I'm a mouse click away from ordering the Tac-Sol and I'm wondering what rear sight works on the flattop .22lr upper. I'm running a Bushmaster carry handle on mine. Front sight maybe 8 clicks down from mechanical zero. Best thing for me to use is the Army M4 25m zero target. |
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Quoted:
I finally got out to shoot my new m-4 tac sol upper and only about 50% of the time it would actually fire. It cycled fine, but it seems like I'm getting light strikes. Even the ones that go bang have very light strikes. The upper is on an aero precision lower with a DPMS lpk. I was using federal bulk and Winchester bulk. Any ideas on what could be going on? Wow very strange, I put the same Aero lower on my Tac sol today and used the same ammo. (win 333 and fed 555) It was Flawless with all mags . The Tac Sol was on my RRA lower with NM trigger and has always worked flawless. BTW, the Aero lower is sweet as hell! 
I don't get way some people have problems with the same set ups or different lowers. 
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My upper never really worked with my aero precision lower with DPMS LPK (which I planned on using exclusivly with this upper). Maybe half of the rounds would actually go bang. When I used another lower (SNS) with a DPMS kit it worked for about 150 rounds, then I had the light strikes again. I took out the Bolt and made sure it looked alright and cleaned some carbon off and then it seemed to work again. It is a little frustrating that most people seem to have no problems and love theirs and I'm not thrilled.
My $200 10/22 is much more reliable.
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havnt found any ammo thats reliable, or are you just using one or two brands? in my experinaces ammo in a 22 auto loader can be tricky to sort out. the only gold standard ammo that id trust to function almost 100% is cci mini mags.
if its not ammo then theres an issue that probubly at this point doesnt involve the lower. if thats the case you could send the upper back to tacsol , take it to a gunsmith or do some tweeking yourself. light strikes would likely be firing pin related, or ammo that isnt fully chambered. so theres 2 areas to look at for problems. 1: firing pin too short, broken, has a burr or bad or kinked spring, combination of issues, 2: chamber has a roughness, shaved lead buildup due to sharp edge at chamber mouth or feed ramp. something that could cause a round not to fully chamber, dirt crud or lead shavings . both of these issues would cause light strikes. i dont have the link but theres a thread that covers polishing the chamber/feed ramp areas. this is an area you dont want to overdue it on. im going to add this one point, and this may or may not apply to the op`s specific problem.... i see so many here who think federal bulk ammo is some kind of standard, this stuff for the most part is the cheapest ammo you can buy, why on earth its thought that it should work in every auto its put into is beyond me, ive got 40 years of 22 lr shooting experiance, and the one thing i can attest to in all my certainty is that federal bulk is crap ammo. yea it runs threw your 10/22, bfd, runs ok in your marlin, bfd, likely if you had 5 10/22`s in a row stuffed with federal bulk 2 or 3 of them would have issues with federal bulk, i know this why, because ive had 6 10/22`s and 3 of them wouldnt fire federal bulk with any consistancy. my mkI and mkII 22 pistols wouldnt run it, my mkIII will, go figure. had a high standard victor target pistol would only shoot the good target ammo and would choke on even cci min mags. ive shot federal thru a smith 10 shot 22 revolver, sweet gun , federal bulk would fire, but you got the bang pop bang pop pop bang thing going on, because its ....crap ammo. my tacsol works with the one brick of fed bulk that ive shot thru it. will it be good with the next brick? maybe, but its a maybe i wouldnt take a chance on if i was only going to take one ammo to the range. in that case id take a variety. but always take what im most confidant with, cci mini mags. you want to make for a real short trip to the range take only federal bulk, that has been the case for me in the past with ruger 10/22`s. jinx your outing take only federal bulk. now theres some runner ups to federal, the blazers, remmington goldens, though ive heard the remmy`s improved recently, i wouldnt bet a squirrel hunt on it. anything with coated lead bullets could be potentially a problem. aside from mini mags i like remmington viper , WW standard and hv in the 100 round packs, now had good luck with the 333 too but still prefer the stuff in the 100rnd boxes. and cci stingers. most any of those should work better than federal bulk. problem with the stuff is you get 550 rounds of crap and if it functions poorly and your only shooting it threw 1 firearm, it can take you thru some frustration as well as a fairly long time to wade thru 550 rounds of malfunctions. i had a box of fed bulk around for a few years trying o shoot it all away, eventually i did but it was a real bad lot. probubly would of been better to throw them in the river. thats enough of my rant, and im not putting this on the op, i see so many singing the praises of how they like federal bulk and im sure this influences what others might think should work in there rifles. and thats a bunch of crap. nothing works in every 22 all the time. |
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Fed bulk works in all 15 or so of my 22's, I might get a very small % of light strikes now and then do to a bad primer but that's about it. My Rugers don't like some Winchester but both TS upper and Sig 522 does.
My Tac sol has fed everything I tried so far (8 brands) including match ammo. It's a bummer that not everyone is enjoying the same.
I did a trigger job on my lower this morning (Fine ceramic stone on hammer/sear lightly bending hammer/trigger spring legs) (same crappy DPMS trigger group and lower as the OP) and will test it today and report back. The trigger breaks nice and clean now with little take up and all safety checks made, hoping for no light strikes. 
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Quoted:
Fed bulk works in all 15 or so of my 22's, I might get a very small % of light strikes now and then do to a bad primer but that's about it. My Rugers don't like some Winchester but both TS upper and Sig 522 does. My Tac sol has fed everything I tried so far (8 brands) including match ammo. It's a bummer that not everyone is enjoying the same.
I did a trigger job on my lower this morning (Fine ceramic stone on hammer/sear lightly bending hammer/trigger spring legs) (same crappy DPMS trigger group and lower as the OP) and will test it today and report back. The trigger breaks nice and clean now with little take up and all safety checks made, hoping for no light strikes. Shot 6 HC BDM mag fulls, every round flawless, even with the trigger job and modded springs. Maybe some bolts ride higher who knows. I'll see if I can run my TS upper on different lowers and see if it gags somewhere down the line.
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| ive ran my tacsol on my dpms lower and spikes lower same thing ,perfect, admittedly even with federal bulk. and the dpms has a light trigger spring kit in it. but i still dont have alot of trust in fed bulk, past experiences with it are hard to get over. i always take other ammo with me when i go to the range. |
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I appreciate the help and ideas that everyone has offered. I tried the same problem lower (Aero w/ DPMS kit), but swapped out the Hammer and Hammer Spring. It functioned without issue for the 100 or so rounds I blazed through before it got too dark. I'm much happier about life!
For me it seems like the main problem was a weak hammer spring. If anyone else is having light strike problems that is definately one place I would look. |
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