We had approximately 1.25 million rounds of Wolf Gold .223 prior to the COVID shutdown and had received another half million rounds of the Wolf M855. Since then, we've managed to source other ammunition to include Federal and I believe Magtech. We've always kept a large inventory in the event of situations like this and while some of our competition is having a hard time sourcing ammunition, we've kept business and usual. We are now looking at sourcing a larger supply from overseas in addition to our current sellers to double our standing inventory.

V/R
Ron

Now that is a true "ammo whore".

Smart man.

Have you ever thought about Scrooge McDuck-ing into that swimming pool of ammo?

On the cam pins breaking, do you think it's from the feed cycle or the extraction cycle?  I.e., which puts more stress on the pin; slamming into the back of the slot on feeding or the front of the slot on extraction?

I'd think it would be on the extraction due to gas pressure and all that, but I really don't know.

I think you’re right-

It’s got to be during extraction- that’s when the tensile and torsional loads across the thinnest portions are highest.  During chambering, the cam pin is mostly pushing against the back of the forward bolt section.  Peak acceleration/highest loads I would expect to be between the beginning of unlock until the expansion chamber vents (bolt extension occurs), and it certainly looks that way in high speed video.

That is not an E3 bolt

Shit your right i just noticed no lobster tail extractor, those rounded lugs got me

Yes, on the extraction cycle.  Again, an LMT enhanced carrier or the Surefire OBC both have modified cam pin paths to increase the dwell time to reduce bolt and cam pin breakage.  Would be interesting to hear if BFV has tried either.

Heh!  I'd like to see a picture of that stash!

Here's an idea for a Vegas caper movie: "Rob the casinos?  No, we're going after Henderson's .223 stash!  What could go wrong?"

I'd watch that!

***Potential favorite scene: "Now I have the minigun. Ho Ho Ho". BRRRRRTTTTTTT!!!

This

Good reason to keep your chamber clean: possibly prolong bolt life.

I have to ask, five times longer than what? The Army just started using round count as a metric for bolt replacement. Prior to that it was replace if there was a gauging for actual mechanical failure, or when the barrel was changed. Some bolts went 20k rounds, some broke before 1k rounds. Not trying to argue, just trying to seperate marketing from fact.

30 days worth of 7.62x39 cases

One of my all time favorites- just beat the shit out of it until it breaks

Info on pg 32 here.

How do Lancer mags hold up? That brown translucent color is what sticks out most to me with the Aug. I bet most people wouldn't notice a difference between them and the original mags.

How many times do I have to throw my Aimpoint down the driveway to get that "battlefield worn" look?

87

Loan it to BFV for a month and it'll have more wear than you'll accomplish in a lifetime.

On the bolts, where do they seem to break?

AUG mags have always popped the top round up if slammed in, even when new. Some mold numbers are more prone to this than others. The guidance from Steyr-Austria has been "do not slam the mag in on an open bolt. This isn't an AR and it's not necessary"

V/R
Ron

We used the Lancer mags on the line for awhile and we didn't notice enough of a difference to choose them over the Magpul for the price difference (from what I remember). That being said, my RSO's still like the Magpul magazines better because they insert properly into certain weapons better and they don't have to continually slap the magazine to seat it.

V/R
Ron

I can't remember if I posted it or not but we had a factory HK-416 do the exact same thing.

V/R
Ron

Yes sir.....

Attached File

The front fell off!

I have been a long time lurker on this site.  Watching this thread a long time.  Recently made an account since gmail was finally allowed (don't have a "professional" email).  Part of the reason I made an account was to come on this thread and say this...

THANK YOU Henderson Defense for creating this gold-filled thread!

Might just be the picture, but I didn't see any MP, MPC, or MPF marked bolts in that group.

And?

Those would be bolts supplied by military contractors. Unmarked bolts are civilian market.

And your point is?

From a military POV, the info in this thread is useful in seeing how resilient civilian market ARs are, but military weaponry is in a different realm.

First, lets run some numbers. A Brigade Combat Team will roll out with about a million rounds of small arms ammo (.50 cal and smaller). A rifle company of less than 200 men can expend 100,000 rounds in a firefight. Thus, Henderson Defense firing 500,000 rounds a month is a big meh. During the days of the Cold War of NATO vs. Warsaw Pact, it might get a one line mention on a brigade monthly summary of operations.

Let's drill down to the M16/M4 in that rifle company. Standard loadout is 210 rounds, and many guys will carry as much as twice that if they can. Thus, in a firefight, it is possible that a single weapon (not machinegun) puts 300 rounds downrange. A firefight every day at Cold War intensity could be 9000 rounds per weapon per month. Or, the just over 100 M16/M4 equipped infantrymen would expend up to 900,000 rounds in a month of ultra high intensity combat. Some of those weapons would undoubtedly, fail, but the point is that this is what the M16 was designed to do. And just as importantly, it was tested to do this in any kind of weather from -40F to 140F.

The reason it can perform as well as it does is the Technical Data Package. The TDP specifies the tolerances for every part. Example - a takedown pin should have a diameter of .250 inches. The TDP specifies how much deviation is acceptable. Is it anywhere from .248 to .252 or .247 to .253? Only the TDP formerly owned by Colt, and now owned by the Army knows. Mil-spec really means every part conforms to the specifications required by the TDP, not it looks the same as the military uses. Until just a couple of years ago, only Colt and FN had access to the TDP. FN was prohibited from using TDP data to sell parts and weapons manufactured for the civilian market while the TDP was owned by Colt. Thus other manufacturers had to guess at parts tolerances. Based on my experience with them, some such as BCM guessed well, others did not.

The usage rates at Battlefield Vegas are well within military norms, and real mil-spec weapons would have BCGs replaced every 6 months at 50,000 rounds and barrels once a year at 100,000 rounds assuming the weapons are maintained properly. Both should be inspected at every 10,000 rounds for excessive wear and guaged for remaining in spec.

Short barreled weapons present increased wear issues. When fired, the M16 puts 19,000 psi of pressure on the bolt face, the M4 puts 24,000 psi on the bolt face and shorter barrels even more than that. This is why SOF gets to go outside of the rules of the rest of the Army on procurement and maint. They have higher OPTEMPO and thus increased wear on equipment used by people who are much too valuable to get killed, so money is put into inspecting and replacing parts long before they wear out and fail.

As a Troop Commander I was big on this because lives depended on it. As a business model, you only have to worry about customers getting the sadz (unless it blows up and your insurance company gets involved).

How reliable of a weapon you think you need and for how long determines how much risk you are willing to take in what you buy.

Some interesting, if outdated, info there.  

But I'm totally baffled about what this has to do with someone interested in buying broken scrap bolts to make...things.

Cause dammit, you're gonna want, nay  NEED  that milspec rating for your modern art masterpieces.

Holy wall of text Batman. Not once in my posts did I say these were in any way shape or form the best bolts or whatever you think I was talking about. Obviously, I'm not wanting to make guns out of broken bolts. At least I hope that's obvious. I said "I have "things" I make from old bolts". End of statement.

THANK YOU! This is exactly what I'm trying to wrap my brain around.

Missed this thread for 5+ years.

My bolt keychains demand the highest of quality bolts. Only those forged by Thor's hammer are worthy of EDC!

That is rad!

Sitting in the gungeon one night and saw a piece of brass tube and thought "that looks awfully close to the same diameter of a bolt tail" and a few minutes later this was born.

Not exactly.

Special Forces and the Ranger Regiment use the same supply chain system as all other Army units for Army-common weapons.  In the case of at least one forward-stationed battalion, their direct-support small arms maintenance is from the Air Force and Marine Corps by Joint Memorandum of Agreement.

Our armorers and supply guys have a little more intimate familiarity with the shooters and their weapons, as SF ODAs have at least two weapons guys each, responsible for keeping up on their team's maintenance.  If the part is Army-common it's a simple Class 9 part requisition.  If it's a SOF-queer item the part has to come from the SOF depot.

Info in this thread is an eye-opener for many folks to see what breaks and what they might want to stock up on.

According to the now widely available TDP, the take down pin is .250 and made from steel alloy 8620 or 86L20. Heat treat by carburization to .010+.005 total case depth and Rockwell hardness 15N 89-91. The take down pin hole in the lower is 0.251 +/- .001

I wish you every success with your art project and apologize for discussing weapons in this thread.

Widely available or not, I have failed miserably in a cursory search.   Could be useful info for making replacement parts.

@boltcatch


Poke around HERE some.  

Thanks.