I had a heck of a time getting my gun to initially feed today, it just did not want to take the first round off the mag. I used another mag and it still would not take a round. Eventually it did and worked fine. The gun was clean, any ideas are appreciated. I clean with Hoppes # 9 and lube with BreakFree CLP, I was thinking maybe the gun was over lubed, maybe I should just use CLP?.

Thanks,
Steve

Please explain the failure in more detail.  When the first round fails to feed, where does the round get hung-up ?  One thing I can say at this point - I really doubt it is because of over lube with CLP.  With AR's, ther is NO such thing as applying too much CLP.  Sure it gets messy, but no failures.

Thanks for getting back to me.

The first round would not come off the mag. I would put the mag in, release the bolt and fire but no bang so I took the mag out to inspect to find the first round was still in the mag. I agree with over lubrication, I can't see this being a problem, maybe I was not loading the mags right?. I am new to black rifles.

Steve

Sounds like a mag issue to me, are you using USGI mags, or are these aftermarket mags.  Basically it sounds like the mag is sitting too low in the receiver so that the rounds are not being pushed up into the path of the bolt.  Buy some good mil-spec mags and see if that solves your problem.

These are new Bushmaster mags. I had been doing a lot of dry firing before this event occured with no mag in the gun. I will see what happens this week at the range and if it occurs again I will call Bushmaster.

Many thanks,
Steve

Is the mag fully seated?

Are you saying you insert the mag, rack the bolt and it doesn't feed? Or do you get the first round off then it doesn't feed?

The feed lips are all ok? Not cracked or broken?

Wow, a unique problem indeed.

Here is my quess.

You are new to AR's. This means that you are afraid to slap hard to fully seat the mag.  A mag loaded to full capacity is difficult to seat sometimes.  What mags are you using ?  Where did you get the mags from ? what capacity are the mags ?

Try this.  Load only about 5 rounds into the mag.  Try this for a while.  If the gun feeds ok, then graduate up to loading 7 rounds in the mag.  Then, work up to nine rounds per mag.  By then, you will have acquired a feel to detect when the mag clicks and fully seats.

By the way - If the mag does not seat correctly, the mag will fall enough (gravity) to prevent the bolt from reaching it.  But, on the other hand, the mag is still in position enough for you to not notice that it has fell a fraction of an inch.  All it that is about 1/8 inch from being fully seated, and the round will be too low to feed.