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Posted: 7/31/2007 8:34:30 AM EDT
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I have a colt ar-15 a3 16 inch barrel, that I carry on duty. Needless to say, my life may depend on it someday and I need it to function 100%. I have a personal bushmaster and it functions 100% of the time. Anyway, the colt will fail to feed rounds out of almost every mag. This is with my reloads (reloads that work 100% in my bushmaster), win white box (carry ammo), and S&B ammo. I have tried at least 10 different mags in the colt that work 100% in my bushmaster so I don't believe that it's a mag issue. What is occurring is when I insert a fresh mag (loaded to 28 rds) and I either close the bolt or work the charging handle, the first round sometimes will be stripped off the mag and will hang up before entering the chamber. Sometimes the bullet will be pushed into the case or at least be dinged up badly. It appears that the round gets caught up on the barrel locking lugs (if that makes since) The rifle will also fail to feed when the mag is about 1/2 gone (during firing) and it seems that the round that hangs up is the round on the right side. Normally re-racking the bolt will cause the round to chamber but there has to be something wrong if I can't get through a mag without a malfunction. It doesn't matter if the rifle is clean or had 300 rds through it. I am liberal with the lube so I don't think that it's a lubrication issue. If this was my personal rifle, I would be putting it up for sale but since it is an issued rifle, there isn't a whole lot I can do except for getting it working. I'll be speaking with the Dept. Armorer tonight to see what he thinks. Any ideas? |
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Either the mag catch is loose/worn/not to spec, hence holding the mag a tad low in the lower. See if swapping the mag catches between the to resolves the problem with your reloads. To swap the catch, push the mag button all the way in with a pencil, and then spin the catch counter cock-wise to remove. When you reinstall, the catch threads should be flush with the button face. Also, If I’m ready your post correctly, this is only happening with your reloads alone, and it could be that your loads are too weak for the Colt gas system (buffer jolt to the back of the receiver weak/lack of stall and helping the mag recover before the forward B/C stroke). |
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Nope, it happens with all ammo tried. If it was just the reloads, I would assume that there was something not to spec with the reloads. Since it was happening with all ammo tried and all mags tried, I assumed that it was something with the rifle. If you tighten the mag catch, would that possibly solve the issue or do you have to replace? |
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Myself, I would just swap the catches in the Bushmaster and Colt and see if the problem switches to the other rifle at testing to confirm that it's the mag catch that is the problem at hand. As for just tightening up the catch on the button, you could try it since the jams are coming off the opposite side of the catch (that side drooping), but it just sounds like the ledge on the bolt catch it self was milled a bit low and the reason for the jams. Also, you have confirmed that the rifle is correctly stroking, hence the bolt will lock back on the last round out? If the rifle is not stroking correctly, it’s going to be jam city even if the mag was being held the correct height. |
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The colt has no stroking issues. It will lock back on an empty mag and never rides over a round in the mag. The bolt will always strip the round 1/2 way off the top of the mag when the tip of the bullet hangs up, causing the stoppage. I'll have to try and swap parts and see if that corrects the problem. |
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