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Posted: 8/4/2008 6:51:10 PM EDT
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Hey guys long time lurker, finally decided to join and I need some feedback. Sorry if this is really long but I like to provide all the info I can. First off the rifle in question is a Bushmaster M4 type "patrolman's carbine", the ammo is Sellier and Belloit 55gr FMJ, and mags are C products with Magpul followers. I've put aprox. 1k rounds through her and keep her pretty clean. The other day I was out firing some rounds when it kept having this problem. I would fire a shot and a jam would occur. The fired case would still be in the chamber and the next round would get jammed into the back of it. I would clear the jam and have to close the bolt to get the case out of the chamber, usually with minimal effort. By like the 6th time it happened the charging handle felt like it was stuck and required gorilla strength to pull out the case. I looked at the case and it didn't seem damaged or anything, except on one where the lip of the case where the bullet sits was a little bent inward nothing to bad though. I took her home and gave her a good cleaning but this time I used CLP to lube it instead of remoil like last time, cause when I took her apart she looked pretty dry inside. Damn remoil in the aerosol can, avoid it like the plague!! I took her out today and shot a full 30 rd mag with no problems. Then on the second mag it started to happen again. Only twice this time though and one of the times after pulling out the mag the chambered case fell out cause I had the rifle pointed up at the time. Sorry here's the questions. Anyone have this happen to them? And if so did you fix it? This has only recently started to happen and I've read it may be the extractor spring, but my rifle is still pratically new and I think it's wierd if the spring is worn out so quickly. I checked the extractor itself and it looks brand new so I don't think it's that. I ordered a new spring kit from Bravocompany.com and should have it this week hopefully. Has anyone used this kit and is there a difference between a blue insert, the one in mine now, and the black one it comes with? Here's a link for it in case anyone wonders which one, http://www.bravocompanyusa.com/BCM-Extractor-Spring-Uprade-Kit-p/bcm%20extractor%20spring%20upgrade.htm Well once again sorry for the long post and thanks to anyone and everyone that can help me out with any info. |
| Thanks for the reply Quib. Yeah I clean the chamber, I use the AR bronze chamber brush to clean it up and the AR mop to sop up any excess solvent/ crud. And I have another AR mop to lube the lugs and chamber too. Do you think my extractor wore out so quickly? I plan on picking up a field repair kit that comes with one but hopefully I get a little more life outta the first one. And what do you know about the black vs. blue insert, if there is any difference between them that is? Also on the Bravo kit did you use the little O ring that comes with the kit? And what exactly is it for? |
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Pull the extractor and take a good look at the edges of the grabbing claw. If needed, use a small jewelers file and clean up and edge burs found. As point out, it may be that your extractor spring was weak to begin with, and needs to be replaced. Myself, I do believe that you can have too much spring tension, and often just suggest that when a new spring it bought, either a Colt M-4 black insert or Wolf extra tension spring is only used for most of the rifle out there. Going with both a stronger spring, and O insert can leads to problems with loading, and even bending the rims forward/causing them to snap on ejection when the now too strong extractor (tension) has to make it's way over the rim of the case at loading. Also, if your rifle tends to have a lot of brass flake fouling, then a debur'g of some parts may be in order. Here with such, the problem may have just of been that the extractor may not have been able to seat back to it's normal at rest position (holding the rim with authority, and the reason that it was slipping off during the pull. As for a spent case that is hard to pull if the bolt does lock back down on it, that is normal since the case as it is being extracted (out of the chamber) will swell a bit, and when shoved back into the chamber, has more chamber tension than normal. P.S. Welcome to the site!!! |
| Thanks for the welcome Dano, you guys have a great site here with an awesome community from what I've read! I was wondering that myself about the O ring addition. I guess it's designed to make the strong spring stronger. Which seems like overkill like you stated. I have some brass flakes that I've seen while cleaning but it's usually only a little and it on the bolt face and bolt lugs. It's not a lot though and it's not really anywhere else that I've seen so I didn't think anything too serious about it. Is that normal? And I see you called the black one a Colt M4 insert. Is it any better than the blue one in anyway that you know of? |
| Well I just got my BCM extractor spring upgrade kit and installed it with the o-ring. I'm going to take her out next week and hopefully it'll solve my problem. I'll report my results just in case someone is out there just like me, wondering what to do and if this will fix the problem. |
| Well I took her out shooting yesterday. Same mags, ammo, etc. Put about 200 rounds through it, loading the mags from full, to twenty, to ten, and to even only 5 rounds at a time. And after rapid firing, double tapping, and triple tapping through all the mags I didn't have a single malfunction! All rounds fired were extracted like they were supposed to and there were no more feed jams caused by the straggler left in the chamber. All I did was add the spring kit from BCM, so if anyone reading this ever runs into the same problem I described, you should have your solution here. And for the record I used the new spring with the o-ring supplied and haven't had a ripped off case head yet. Also for the readers from before thank you guys for all your input and opinions. |
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