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Posted: 2/25/2007 1:34:18 PM EDT
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I bought my first AR last weekend, Bushmaster M4A2 - 16" barrel. I took it out for the first time today and had problems from the start. Put in a full 30 round mag, pulled back the charging handle and it would not go forward... the cartridge would not load. It was an aftermarket mag, so I figured it was a problem with the mag and I pulled out the factory mag. Tried it and it loaded a shell fine. Shot of 2 or 3 shells and it failed to load the next shell despite the fact that the bolt had completely closed. Pulled the charging handle again and it loaded fine. Then a shot and the same thing. This went on for the most of the mag. On occasion the round would jam part way into the barrel and the bold would not close completely. Tried another clip and same thing for about half the mag. Finally, the bolt closed the whole way except for about a 1/4 inch. Tried pulling the charging handle back and Nothing. Jammed hard. There is a shell most of the way into the barrel. I was shooting Wolf .223 HP 55 gr. I bought it in bulk and have run about 300 rounds through my mini 14 with no notable issues. Any help would be greatly appreciated. |
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It's not the ammo. The first thing I'd check would be the charging handle. Shotgun the rifle and see if the handle moves smoothly with and without the BCA installed. I had a problem similar to yours and the CH was out of spec (too big). I guess a tight chamber could cause your problem but I have no experience with that. The experts will chime in momentarily and provide the official answer. |
| i had a similiar problem about two weeks ago, and i know this sounds dumb, but are u sure u loaded the rounds properly in teh mag? im new to the ar, only took it shooting once so far...im away at school, so its sits in my closet next to the ammo...and i made a real stupid mistake while loading up a few mags, i put the first few in wrong, and the rest just kinda followed suit. the way i realized it was when i was done loading the mag, the top round i realized was sitting to low to load properly. i only ask cause mine showed the same symptoms. just tryin to be helpful, gl. |
At the risk of showing my inexperience, what does "shotgun the rifle" mean? Pop the takedown pin to pivot the upper from the lower? Thanks |
Roger that! |
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I separated the lower and upper. The bolt appears to be all the way forward, but the bolt carrier is back about an 1/8 of an in (the pressure against the butstock buffer/spring actually caused the upper and lower to bounce apart when I opened the front pivot pin. I still cannot cycle the charging handle. Its stuck. Any help is greatly appreciated. JDE |
Sorry, but you have him beating his head against a rock with that advice. Bushmaster rifles with less than a 1K round counts of live fire are going to have problems with Wolf coated ammo. At about the 1k Mark of live fire and cleanings, the chamber wall/conditions will have been polished out enough to allow the rifle to digest the coated ammo (still need to lubed on the heavy side with CLP, and then you still chance sticking a round in the chamber). |
This was the basis of my suggestions but glad someone finally showed up to provide the official answer. Sorry for any time-wasting I caused. |
| If you are saying the CH is stuck and you are unable to pull it back and extract the cartridge still in the chamber, then collapse your stock all the way (assuming it is adjustable) use your thumb and forefinger on the CH, make sure your head is clear of the muzzle, and slam the ass end of the stock against the ground. This will get the round out. Then lube the hell out of it and shoot brass cased ammo through it for a while. |
+1 |
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Thanks all for the help. I separated the lower and upper. After much effort & prying I got the BCA to back out of the upper. Pulled the cartridge and put it back together. I ran about 10 rounds through it (the most I thought my wife would let me get away with at 8:30 p.m. with the kids in bed) into the hillside behind my house without any issue. As suggested, I'm going to lube the crap out of it and run a pile of rounds through it. Thanks again. JDE |
Better solution on red high lighted part is to just pull the stock off the receiver extension, via pulling all the way down on the butt stock cam, and slipping the butt stock off the rear of the tube. Some of the new type stocks will crack if you don't butt-rub square with the ground. |
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