Well, I knew it had to happen eventually. About done with my 3rd case of Q3131A...and my first FTE.....it didnt stovepipe....somewhow the casing got flipped and wedged in the port as it was being ejected, and as a result, the new round was stripped out of the mag about halfway, and the bolt jammed into it hard. No drama in clearing it, just pulled back the charging handle, held on its side, and the empty and the jammed up live round both fell out.

I released the bolt on the next round in the mag and resumed shooting without any more malfunctions. Fired about 60 shots before the jam...and then about 40 after without any issues....

Should I worry about this and look into it deeper, or just blow it off and accept that it happens once in a while ?

My guess is that the round was under powered and the powder load wasnt enough to fully cycle the bolt. It didnt feel like a dud...but I have never had any issues so at this point, I am blaming the ammo.

The rifle is a pretty new Bushmaster M4 style 14.5"....surplus mags that I have used for thousands of rounds without any problems ever....recently installed M4 type telestock / buffer....and only Q3131A.

Can I still trust my SHTF weapon? Or is time to buy an......<gag>...AK ?

If you find a semi auto rifle that is 100% relable let me know.  I wouldn't worry about it myself. If it continues to happen on a less than 3,000 rd basis you might want to look into it.

stick w/ the AR

AKs arent better; i've seen aks jam