Hello, I need help with my new rifle. I recently bought an olympic arms m4gery. I took the rifle to the range and my excitement turned to disappointment. The rifle experienced multiple jams. It appears that the tip of the bullets were sometimes getting jammed at the base of the m4 feed ramps. The upper and lower had a tight fit and the only thing i found unusual was the tight fit of the magazine into the magazine well.
Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated. I have a bushmaster shorty ak and I rarely have a jam. However having invested money into this rifle I dont want to give up on it yet.

Are u shooting with the same magazines in each gun? It may be a bad magazine that is pushing your rounds south a little and they are hanging up on the feed ramps.

I have experienced this with some old worn out mags. Try bending the mag feed lips a little up?

mzzlebrk

In addition to your magazine we need to know what kind of ammunition you are using.  Is the bullet catching at the bottom edge of the feed ramp or is it actually touching the middle of the feed ramp?

I have that problem with a few mags i have that have black followers. I'm thinking of getting some green ones and new sprins to see if it fixes them.
GlenR-

I have used the same magazines in the bushmaster and I have not had that many failures to feed. However, some of my magazines are old and I am going to replace the springs and followers. The bullets appear to be getting caught at what I would call the base of the ramp (not the slope). Thanks for your help. I am using surplus ammo 55 grn. FMJ (I believe south african).

Have you looked in the -10?  Standard procedure is to push in the magazine button (all the way) and rotate the magazine catch (on the other side) one rotation to tighten it up.

You'd be surprised how often this fixes that kind of feeding problem.

Don't have a copy of the -10?  Get it for free here: www.mcdl.org/ManualDepot.htm (under Manuals).

I had exactly the same problem with a brand new Bushmaster factory built XM15-E2S-M4 16". The cartridge would jam right up at the base, so much so that I have one in my car where the bullet is practically bent out of the case. It happened on almost every new mag...

Did you try giving it a really good lube job? I went over mine quite well with some CLP and since then have had zero problems.

I want to thank all who have replied with possible solutions. I did give the rifle a thorough cleaning and light lube job before taking it to the range. Forest I will look into that manual and try the procedure to see if it helps.

It sounds like bad magazines.

Try a brand new, USGI.

Here are a few suggestions:

Did your problem happen on the first round out of the magazine and then carry on through the shooting or did it start to happpen later on in the mag?

If it only happened with one magazine that is probably the culprit.
Here is some general advice ta add on what others here have said.

For Magazines:

1: Disassemble and clean all your magazines and very LIGHTLY lube them.

2: Inspect the magazine bodies with all the guts removed-looking for dents, bulges, fractured spot welds and worn/bent feed lips. Making sure also that the follower moves freely inside the body.

3: I have seen OKAY amongst other mags. swell outward a few times and cause similar problems, with a full load and cause feed problems smilar to what you are experiencing.


Rifles and especially carbines:

1: New rifles sometimes require 20 or so rounds fired through them to seal the gas system and allow the weapon to cycle/feed properly. A good test is to load 1 round in the magazine and fire it a few times-if it locks back fully every time all is dinkum-if it doesn't then repeat 20 or so times if not you may have a bigger problem.

2: If ALL of your magazines are a tight fit I would be inclined to believe that the tolerances on your mag well might be out of spec. What it does is squeeze the magazines inward exerting side pressue on the magazine creating stripping problems during the feed cycle-In carbines due to the faster cycling of the action the round may not present itself in the right position during the closing stroke due to drag.

3: Another possibilitie can be a New Gun that is not properly "broken in" amongst many other things.
 

I picked up a new Bushmaster upper this week and had similar problems.  I attributed it to needing a break in.  I cleaned the heck out of it before I fired it, fired 100 rounds, cleaned the heck out of it again, fired 200 rounds, and then cleaned it up again.  The only problems I had were during the first hundred rounds.  I will fire another 200-300 tomorrow and verify it is functioning before I consider it broken in.

Lube it up pretty heavy when you go back out to shoot again, it is all new parts wearing with each other.  Extra lube certainly isn't going to hurt any!!