AR Sponsor
Posted: 1/12/2010 11:52:22 AM EDT
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Hello all, I know this is my first post, but everyone has to start somewhere.
Getting straight to the point, I want to know what are the best ways to keep an AR-15 running reliably. If you have first hand knowledge of what works or maybe what definitely doesn't work, please post them here. The reason I want to know is because I just bought a new Olympic Arms Plinker Plus (my first AR-15) and don't want it to turn into the dreaded jam-o-matic that you hear stories about. I know that I'm starting off at a bit of a disadvantage by buying a cheap AR-15, but I already bought it and couldn't really afford anything else. I have an above average level of gunsmithing skills (but I am not a certified gunsmith), I've already built a complete 1911 and fitted many other parts to other guns but I have limited AR-15 knowledge. I don't need a "tactical" tack driver (that's what my bolt gun is for), and really don't think that quad rail foregrips and a spiked flash hider would make the AR-15 run better, but I am interested in things like a gas piston conversion or any internal mods that improve reliability. Was anyone having big problems with FTFs before a gas piston conversion, installed a gas piston conversion kit and then all their problems were solved? Or are there any particular brands of mags or ammo I should avoid? I just want to learn what things are the most beneficial to making my new purchase run without failures. Not that I am expecting any, I put 200 rounds through it last weekend and didn't have any problems, I'm just trying to prepare for when the gun gets broken in/ worn out. I shoot at least 400 rounds a month through my 1911, I'm expecting to shoot that much through this AR-15, if not more since it is a ton of fun to shoot. I clean my guns after every shooting session (and my custom made Montana 1999 bolt gun every 30 shots) and keep everything lubed well, but I know sometimes that just isn't enough. Let me know what your favorite add-on/ mod is to enhance reliability. Note 1: I already did a search for "reliability mods" and "AR-15 reliability" on the AR-15 and Armory forums and didn't turn up anything in the past 30 days. I could only go 30 days back because I only have a basic membership. Note 2: I posted this in the Build Your Own section because I felt you guys had the most knowledge on individual AR-15 parts and the internal workings of the AR-15. Mods, if this is not the right place, please move it. |
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upgrade your extractor spring with a Bravo Co extractor spring upgrade.
Upgrade your ejector spring with a chrome silicon ejector spring change your buffer spring with a Tactical Springs chrome silicon buffer spring If your gun has an AR15 bolt carrier change it to a M16 bolt carrier Change your buffer to an H buffer I'll add more as I think of it Get good Mags either Pmags or USGI with Magpul followers |
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Quoted:
upgrade your extractor spring with a Bravo Co extractor spring upgrade. might not be a bad idea... but again.. you're sinking dollars that could be going towards a good gun. Upgrade your ejector spring with a chrome silicon extractor spring
change your buffer spring with a Tactical Springs chrome silicon buffer spring CS springs are junk and do NOT belong in the AR rifle. If your gun has an AR15 bolt carrier change it to a M16 bolt carrier
Nothing to be gained by this and again.. just buy the bolt group for your NEW build. Change your buffer to an H buffer
It's impossible to make that call over the internet. His gun might need an H2 buffer or the Carbine might be optimal. There is NO one right buffer... especially for an OLY. |
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My first AR was a DPMS. Non-chrome lined, no feed ramps, commercial buffer, not a true NATO chamber, YADA YADA. It was a great shooting gun and only had a couple of problems in the 2000+ rounds I put through it. I found ARFCOM and proceded to buy every damn upgrade I could find. What I ended up with was the coolest looking POS around. I had lights, lasers, Troys, EOTech, magnifier, Gripod, DD rail and on and on. I bought the best of everything and installed it on one of the cheaper made ARs out there. It looked awesome, but was to damn heavy and not reliable enough for me to trust my life too. I sold it all and started over with the important things I learned on here. Don't make the mistake of dumping a bunch of money in a lower tier AR, when you get done you will just have a way to expensive lower tier AR and it might not be any more reliable than it is now. If your Oly shoots good then leave it alone, shoot the hell out of it and save to buy or build a quality AR. If you hunt the EE you can get some smoking deals on parts or complete rifles. Then you won't have to worry about reliability issues.
First attempt: 
Second attempt: 
Now (My SOPMOD kit): 
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BANGBANG223, thanks for the tips. I bought three pmags to go with the one CProducts mag it came with. They work great so far.
Markm, also thanks for the advice. I'm already saving up to build a nice one. Maybe I'll have enough saved up to start a build next winter as long as I don't go over my ammo budget. I guess I'll have to practice some restraint with shooting the expensive guns- to me, .45 and .308 is expensive even though reload. Also, what's wrong with CS springs? I'm not an materials engineer, but I don't recall anything from any of my classes saying that CS and Al is a bad combination. |
| Polish the feed ramps. Make them smooth and match up perfectly. Probably not critical, but it really helped bring mine to 100% and its a free upgrade if you already have the Dremel. If its a SHTF/HD gun, think about a good MPI bolt, a machined gas key, and cam pin. The old ones make good spares in the parts bin. Make sure the key is staked WELL! I have good luck with wheel bearing grease on the cam pin and Mobile 1 or any good Synthetic oil on everything else. It also won't hurt to read the "What parts break in a carbine course?" thread. The biggest help to you is to research EVERY moving part one at a time and focus on how and why the work together as well as their weaknesses. This is what so many guys can't understand, they follow trends and have to buy only "top tier" stuff unnecessarily (cough, piston guys, cough). Brand and cost isn't usually that important as long as everything is decent, functions as it should, and you are running it correctly. |
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Quoted:
Keep the dremel away from the AR. Please. Spoken like a true "Colt or nutin" guy. This could be painful for some to hear but...If you send a gun in to have feed ramps cut or polished, they use aaaaaye DREMEL! Newbs should stick to polishing tips only, but jump right in. You can't Learn from not doing and their aint squat that can't be replaced in an AR. Oh, and NEVER touch the sear! Some of you guys really are scared to tinker with stuff aren't you? This is the most completely end user customizable, modular weapons system in the history of the world, and your scared to play with it? You should be ashamed of yourselves. You may as well go buy Fudd guns. [/scolding] |
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Wow. I expected there to be a few differing opinions, but this is pretty cool. It seems like I could do anything, or nothing and at least one person would agree with me. Thanks for all the tips and opinions, that's what make ARFCOM (did I use that right?) such a great resource. As for my personal opinions, I am not afraid of tinkering, but I won't do so without thoroughly understanding the theory behind it and going through it in my head a few times. I usually try to source pictures if it is a mod that is hard to picture. Here's some rules I now live by through my adventures with 1911s. Do you guys/gals agree?
1. Don't ever alter the stock geometry of a part unless said part is cheap and you already have a spare. Even though they might not notice it, polishing by amateurs usually changes some part of the part's geometry because they aren't patient. 2. Polishing by hand is easier and safer than using a dremel even though it may take longer. 3. I don't follow the rule "don't touch the sear" because the sear/hammer interface greatly affects trigger pull and if you want a really crisp single stage trigger pull you have to clean the sear up. 3a. Besides, stock sears and hammers are cheap. If you're messing with a jewel trigger you're nuts, they don't need any work other than installation and adjustment. 4. Don't mess with spring weights or spring geometries unless you are making a competition gun. In a competition, a malfunction costs points/time. In home defense, malfunctions could cost you your life. 5. Make modifications one at a time, and always thoroughly safety test your gun each time you make a mod. 6. When safety testing a gun, start with proof testing it with dummy rounds, then move to loading one round at a time, then move to two rounds, then three, all the way up to five. Then try a full magazine. 7. Drop in parts are great, but the stuff that really makes the gun yours is the hand work you've put into it. Properly hand fit parts are always better than drop in. Even the guys who have rattle can paint jobs have put more heart into their machines than the guy who ordered thier Sabre Defense uppers already built and call their gun "custom" Again, thanks for the tips/opinions/advice |
| Well..I'll chime in here. I have an Oly K3B M4 and I have no real complaints. YMMV. I am the second owner and it's had about 3500-4k rnds through it w/o a major malfunction and few jams, besides those from crappy mags. I have used it for everything from plinking to hunting and it performs. Having said that, I can't really think of too many upgrades you can do besides the normal rails, stocks, etc. My BCG gas key isn't staked the greatest, but that doesn't seem to be an issue right now. I like my Oly, but wouldn't waste money on trying to make it a tier 1 rifle while it still says Oly on the side. My only complaint is that it won't take anything but USGI and Lancer L5 30rnd mags. As of late the rifle is slated to become a total knock-around rifle and will be painted some desert-ish color.. depends on what I pick after several beers as it were. If I were you, I wouldnt worry about making it more reliable, just shoot it, have fun with it, make it all tacticool and buy something else down the road if need be. |
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Quoted: Lol. Went off the deep end a little there bud. The only Colts I "have" are issued ones, other than that I build my own AR's. Yes, I tinker all the time, I experiment all the time. What I don't do is take a dremel to the fucking barrel for 2 main reasons:Quoted: Keep the dremel away from the AR. Please. Spoken like a true "Colt or nutin" guy. This could be painful for some to hear but...If you send a gun in to have feed ramps cut or polished, they use aaaaaye DREMEL! Newbs should stick to polishing tips only, but jump right in. You can't Learn from not doing and their aint squat that can't be replaced in an AR. Oh, and NEVER touch the sear! Some of you guys really are scared to tinker with stuff aren't you? This is the most completely end user customizable, modular weapons system in the history of the world, and your scared to play with it? You should be ashamed of yourselves. You may as well go buy Fudd guns. [/scolding] 1- it's completely NOT needed 2- if you make a mistake...it's an EXPENSIVE mistake. |
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Quoted: Wow. I expected there to be a few differing opinions, but this is pretty cool. It seems like I could do anything, or nothing and at least one person would agree with me. Thanks for all the tips and opinions, that's what make ARFCOM (did I use that right?) such a great resource. As for my personal opinions, I am not afraid of tinkering, but I won't do so without thoroughly understanding the theory behind it and going through it in my head a few times. I usually try to source pictures if it is a mod that is hard to picture. Here's some rules I now live by through my adventures with 1911s. Do you guys/gals agree? 1. Don't ever alter the stock geometry of a part unless said part is cheap and you already have a spare. Even though they might not notice it, polishing by amateurs usually changes some part of the part's geometry because they aren't patient. 2. Polishing by hand is easier and safer than using a dremel even though it may take longer. 3. I don't follow the rule "don't touch the sear" because the sear/hammer interface greatly affects trigger pull and if you want a really crisp single stage trigger pull you have to clean the sear up. 3a. Besides, stock sears and hammers are cheap. If you're messing with a jewel trigger you're nuts, they don't need any work other than installation and adjustment. 4. Don't mess with spring weights or spring geometries unless you are making a competition gun. In a competition, a malfunction costs points/time. In home defense, malfunctions could cost you your life. 5. Make modifications one at a time, and always thoroughly safety test your gun each time you make a mod. 6. When safety testing a gun, start with proof testing it with dummy rounds, then move to loading one round at a time, then move to two rounds, then three, all the way up to five. Then try a full magazine. 7. Drop in parts are great, but the stuff that really makes the gun yours is the hand work you've put into it. Properly hand fit parts are always better than drop in. Even the guys who have rattle can paint jobs have put more heart into their machines than the guy who ordered thier Sabre Defense uppers already built and call their gun "custom" Again, thanks for the tips/opinions/advice All excellent points. Many a noob have screwed up their 1911 by taking a dremel to the feed ramp. |
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In your initial post, you asked about reliability. Now you're talking about messing with it? If you really want reliable, this is the correct answer;
1) keep it clean. 2) run it wet. 3) don't do anything not covered in 1 or 2. That about does it. The design has proved to be reliable over the last half-century of use. |
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Quoted:
In your initial post, you asked about reliability. Now you're talking about messing with it? If you really want reliable, this is the correct answer; 1) keep it clean. 2) run it wet. 3) don't do anything not covered in 1 or 2. That about does it. The design has proved to be reliable over the last half-century of use. Sorry if I came off unclear. First and foremost, I am interested in reliability. That's why I won't be messing with this gun (yet). I do like to tinker, though, and when (not if) I get another AR-15 I'll probably try out any mods such as trigger work and feed ramp polishing on this one first, but I really don't want to mess with this one until I have a "spare." That said, my main objective from the original post was to ask about things that I "should" do to this gun that I maybe didn't know about. Here's a slightly off topic question, but what does an accu-wedge do? I'm not really clear on that. |
| Well I tend to agree with all that has been said as far as the Olympic I would shoot it like crazy and save my money and build a rifle my last build was started from a lower that i had just laying around it was a vulcan (yeah I know don't even start) polymer lower. I took it and had it spec and it was in spec. so the first thing that I done was took all the components out and chunked them, replaced them with quality stuff. decided i was going to build a light weight tactical gun so I made the lower a SBR used a Rock river buffer tube, magpul CTR stock, Magpul MIAD grip, JARD trigger, dropped a carbon 15 11.5 inch upper on it a gemtech M402 suppressor, black hawk one point sling, pentagon tac light, trijicon tripower sight and ended up with a rifle that shoots 1 inch groups at 100 yards in a SBR say what ever you want about the lower but don't ever plan on selling it and its in spec and works and shoots great. http://i369.photobucket.com/albums/oo133/cjames502/edge.jpg |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
In your initial post, you asked about reliability. Now you're talking about messing with it? If you really want reliable, this is the correct answer; 1) keep it clean. 2) run it wet. 3) don't do anything not covered in 1 or 2. That about does it. The design has proved to be reliable over the last half-century of use. Sorry if I came off unclear. First and foremost, I am interested in reliability. That's why I won't be messing with this gun (yet). I do like to tinker, though, and when (not if) I get another AR-15 I'll probably try out any mods such as trigger work and feed ramp polishing on this one first, but I really don't want to mess with this one until I have a "spare." That said, my main objective from the original post was to ask about things that I "should" do to this gun that I maybe didn't know about. Here's a slightly off topic question, but what does an accu-wedge do? I'm not really clear on that. Nothing that makes them worth $3. They are to take the slop out of loser fitting receivers, but its cheaper and it does a better job if you just take a small O ring and put it over the lug on the upper that the pivot pin goes through. |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
Keep the dremel away from the AR. Please. Spoken like a true "Colt or nutin" guy. This could be painful for some to hear but...If you send a gun in to have feed ramps cut or polished, they use aaaaaye DREMEL! Newbs should stick to polishing tips only, but jump right in. You can't Learn from not doing and their aint squat that can't be replaced in an AR. Oh, and NEVER touch the sear! Some of you guys really are scared to tinker with stuff aren't you? This is the most completely end user customizable, modular weapons system in the history of the world, and your scared to play with it? You should be ashamed of yourselves. You may as well go buy Fudd guns. [/scolding] Not everything requires "tinkering" with by gun plumbers. Buy a quality rifle or build a rifle with quality components. Buy some good mags and keep well lubed. |
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Lol. Went off the deep end a little there bud. The only Colts I "have" are issued ones, other than that I build my own AR's. Yes, I tinker all the time, I experiment all the time. What I don't do is take a dremel to the fucking barrel for 2 main reasons: 1- it's completely NOT needed 2- if you make a mistake...it's an EXPENSIVE mistake. I chuckled when I wrote that, it surely wasn't the deep end. I would polish a barrel and cut ramps if I had to, but I was more referring to an AR I had with an A3 upper and an M4 barrel. That SOB was a Jam-O-Matic! It was necessary to do the job on the upper, and when I was done I realized the only reason more guys don't do it is the sand in their vaginas. I'm not even sure how you could truly botch the job unless you go all simple jack with a carbide cutter or sumthin. This isn't Glock talk though, most guys seem smart enough to handle it. I polished the 1911 but could never do anything else to the ramp. If that was screwed up, might as well get out the chop saw! 
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Quoted: Quoted: Lol. Went off the deep end a little there bud. The only Colts I "have" are issued ones, other than that I build my own AR's. Yes, I tinker all the time, I experiment all the time. What I don't do is take a dremel to the fucking barrel for 2 main reasons: 1- it's completely NOT needed 2- if you make a mistake...it's an EXPENSIVE mistake. I chuckled when I wrote that, it surely wasn't the deep end. I would polish a barrel and cut ramps if I had to, but I was more referring to an AR I had with an A3 upper and an M4 barrel. That SOB was a Jam-O-Matic! It was necessary to do the job on the upper, and when I was done I realized the only reason more guys don't do it is the sand in their vaginas. I'm not even sure how you could truly botch the job unless you go all simple jack with a carbide cutter or sumthin. This isn't Glock talk though, most guys seem smart enough to handle it. I polished the 1911 but could never do anything else to the ramp. If that was screwed up, might as well get out the chop saw! Fair enough, in a situation like that I suppose I may try to fix the issue myself. That being said, there are too many guys who feel the need to cut m-4 ramps just because it's the thing to do, not because they have a mismatch in parts. |
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As you can see, you can spend a ton of $$$ on "upgrades" that may or may not be required. In some cases, you might move backwards.
Instead of spending money on stuff up front, put 1K rounds throught the gun of different types - some Wolf, Centurian (223), M193, some 69 gr, etc. Just go to Aim and buy 200 rounds of each. Find your failure modes, if any, especially if the gun gets a little dirty. If you run it all with no hiccups, then great. Don't change anything. If not, then note the failure mode and address the problem –– upgraded extractor kit, different buffer, whatever. You'll also find out what is most accurate from your gun. I asked this same question about tuning an SBR I was building, and the best answer I got was "guns are individuals". If you were building from scratch, then, sure, start with the best components you can afford. However, for now if the particular collection of parts you have all get along with one another and result in a reliable package, I wouldn't do a thing besides a good visual check to make sure that there is no unusual wear and everything that is supposed to be staked is well staked. Oh, the one thing I personally would do, contrary to the above, is send my FCG to Bill Springfield. For $35, it will be a whole different (and better) animal. That isn't a reliability issue, just a shootability issue. |
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Quoted:
As you can see, you can spend a ton of $$$ on "upgrades" that may or may not be required. In some cases, you might move backwards. Instead of spending money on stuff up front, put 1K rounds throught the gun of different types - some Wolf, Centurian (223), M193, some 69 gr, etc. Just go to Aim and buy 200 rounds of each. Find your failure modes, if any, especially if the gun gets a little dirty. If you run it all with no hiccups, then great. Don't change anything. If not, then note the failure mode and address the problem –– upgraded extractor kit, different buffer, whatever. You'll also find out what is most accurate from your gun. I asked this same question about tuning an SBR I was building, and the best answer I got was "guns are individuals". If you were building from scratch, then, sure, start with the best components you can afford. However, for now if the particular collection of parts you have all get along with one another and result in a reliable package, I wouldn't do a thing besides a good visual check to make sure that there is no unusual wear and everything that is supposed to be staked is well staked. Oh, the one thing I personally would do, contrary to the above, is send my FCG to Bill Springfield. For $35, it will be a whole different (and better) animal. That isn't a reliability issue, just a shootability issue. I like the way you think. Shoot more, that's something you don't have to tell me twice. I've determined that it likes American Eagle (Federal) xm193 as well as Remington UMC .223. I'm a little worried to try Wolf because of all the problems I hear about with steel cases, plus I can't reload them. But, it's not quite the weekend so I have to wait two days before I can go. As another side note, does anyone know of any good free places near Colorado Springs to shoot? Ever since the public Rampart Range shooting range closed down I've been driving all the way up to Woodland Park to practice. I'm not saying that I don't like the safety of a controlled range, but I don't like to have to wait on everyone else to stop shooting so I can go look at my target. |
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