Colt magazines are actually made by Okay, and carry the 33710 CAGE Code stamped on the mag body. Only difference between Colt and Okay mags are the floor plates. If you wish to pay a premium for a pony on the floorplate, well... Thermold mags. I have not had good results from Thermolds. They have a number of issues, including not plugging in all the way on some receivers. On the other hand, there are very few USGI type mags that won't work well, particularly with newer anti-tilt followers such as Magpul, Duramag, or even the GI "green followers". The Thermold mags sometimes, with some receivers, will not go in all the way due to the molded shoulder that hits the bottom of the mag well. Also, the notch at the back of the mag where the bolt catch finger goes into the mag and is lifted by follower, the notch is too small and prevents the mag from fully inserting.
I haven’t noticed any issues like that but I built my first ar haven’t even fired it jus dry firing a little bit and I noticed the bottom of my bcg has a terrible wear mark on the front bottom part almost like it’s grinding against the hammer when it slides back, what does this mean?
I bought some crappy melonited barrels from Chandler Hardwoods, none of them lasted more than 500 rds because the gas ports enlargeed to over 1/8 inch. Pass them by.
With every semi auto pistol I own as a routine procedure I always polish the feed ramp at the bare minimum. Sometimes I find it necessary to go a bit further with it by opening the ejection port depending on the gun can make a huge difference too. Porting and polishing can be done either by a competent gunsmith or do it yourself "IF" you feel comfortable with your own level of gunsmithing experience. Since my project build was to complete a .450 Bushmaster upper I had already opened up the ejection port of a standard Bushmaster stripped receiver and polished the feed ramp of my "New" .450 Bushmaster barrel.In my own experience more times often than not the magazine has been the culprit for most of the problems when trying to feed any hungry firearm but sometimes there can be multiple problems. Another consideration to always bear in mind is the ammo. Does your firearm like brass or even steel cased ammo and will it feed FMJ, SP or hollow points both with reliability ? Will it voraciously eat all of it flawlessly or be finicky eating only one type ? All 3 types of brass and steel cased can have a very small and slightly different OAL. Small differences between manufacturers can be all it takes to cause failing to fire or failing to feed problems. IMO all firearms should at a minimum eat FMJ ammo ultimately ejecting the casings at a 3'Oclock position from an AR-15. If not buffer weights and springs can be your problem too. I recently had a learning experience that the back of the bolt head lugs themselves were catching on the edge of the brass casing of the upcoming factory round in the magazine as the bolt slides back before the ejection of an already chambered round. It turns out the "Brand Spanking New" 3rd party Bolt I had purchased by itself separate from a carrier to change from my 5.56 bolt to install into my existing OEM carrier so I change up to the .450 Bushmaster had made it past their Quality Control leaving very sharp squared off corners on the back of the lugs. Couple this with the known stacking issues of using a 30 round G.I magazine modified with a single stack anti-tilt follower intended for use with .450 Bushmaster ammunition and it became apparent before ever firing the 1st live round I was going to have jamming problems just by manually cycling rounds through the weapon. The diagnosis was the hard part.The fix was unbelievably and amazingly simple. I used a small fine grade stone to slightly smooth off 2 of the corners of the bolt lugs ever so lightly taking care not to remove to much material by hand that can happen when using a Dremel tool. The second part was to pinch together the magazine at the top just a little bit with a pair of 420 channel locks.
I built a rifle for 450$.. like a month ago. It has a few quirks but functions ok I need to polish out the chamber live rounds tend to get stuck some times, I've gone through about 3 or 4 charging handles before I found out what was causing the wear. I'll have to polish out the ramps too it likes to Mar up rounds on the right ramp.
I love the ergonomics of the A.R. 15. But there's always some little something that can cause a catastrophic problem at the worst time. A Arsenal AK is my go to gun now. I have not cleaned in months to see it is will have issues 1,500 round later I'm still waiting.
good vid. quick question,is it common to have a bad/bent firing pin from a new BCG, mine its spikes NiB BCG and last week took it to the range, it did fire ones,second time it would like dent the primer,since i can do any dissasembly at the range i had to wait till i get back home. so i took out the BCG and notice the firing pin it wasnt align with the hole,it moves freely and it wont go in the hole till i took out the pin and put it back in it looked fine. so i dry fire with some dummie round, took out the BCG and firing pin was again misalign.
I'm a Quality Manager for a gun manufacturer which produces thousands of BCG's. You have a bad bolt. Sounds like there's runout in it from the manufacturing process.
On the uper it look like there was a key marking. If so that's a forge uper. And that would mean it the same forging company that makes arrow precision. Not saying it is Arrow precision. But it would gave you a idea where it came from
As a 13 year veteran I am no stranger to an AR/M4/M16. I just recently built my own billet upper and lower 80% with a 14.5 1/7 twist barrel with free float rail and carbine length gas system. Today I took it to the range to fire it and it fired beautifully without even having to adjust my Magpul MBUS flips (hit 6" low and left of bulls eye at 50yards) however being I'm in California I was using 10 round mags (Kalifornia compliant) made by American Arms or some shit. Anyway with the bolt locked all the way back it would chamber the first round after hitting the bolt release, fire and eject the brass but would not feed the next round. Sometimes it would out a dent down the length of the brass as if the lug was riding down the too and the bolt would go forward on an empty chamber. Other times the round would get hung up on the ramps. Upon building the rifle I noticed that the upper feed ramps did not match the barrel ramps all that well and there is that noticeable ring or gap where the two align. I figured this was the problem, I also cycled rounds from a Magpul PMAG to be sure it wasn't just a mag related issue. I'm glad to know that my hunch was correct. I'll let you know how it goes.
Jason - I am interested in how you are able to improve your rifle reliability. I believe that many people have this same issue with their rifle including a coworker of mine who has been complaining about jamming. I know AR15 rifles and parts are mass produced so quickly that the manufacturers really don't test them all nor go the extra mile to polish the feed ramps or make sure that the m4 ramps are lined up etc. so personal modifications like this are going the extra mile to improve the performance.
Texas Guns n' Ammo Channel in addition if you're having extraction issues you might want to be sure you are using a mil-spec buffer spring and not some commercial POS, and also an examination of the bolt carrier extractor might be good to make sure the spring is good and it's able to grab the round casing properly.
Texas Guns n' Ammo Channel I used a dremel to match and polish the feed ramps. I also did some experimenting with different magazines, I have noticed a quite the variation in height of the top round and where it sits in many different magazines. Im hoping to get this damn thing dialed in next time I hit the range. It feeds fine when you rack the charging handle and it fires and ejects the brass no problem. I just hope it's not a gassing issue.
+Jason Evans --- Also live in So Commifornia. Jamming 1st round ONLY when I release the BCG using the BAD lever ONLY. Feeds it fine if manually pulling back on charging handle & releasing slam shut from the open locked position (after the previous mag empties). Only seems on most (not all - maybe 70%) my Lancer 10/30 AWM mags. The standard mil spec metal mags don't do this. And no jamming of any other rounds. Also, does not seem mag spring related since a full Lancer mag feels to vary from one to another, but not necessarily correlating w/ those mags that jam. Using a NiBoron BCG, so it is slick, but I do feel quite a bit of drag where is slides along the top of the hammer when I slowly close the BCG to it's locked forward position without letting it go slam shut. Checked the buffer tube and spring, and they're perfect, as well as the spring length. In addition to possible feed ramp issues as shown here, SHOULD THERE BE NOTICEABLE FRICTION BETWEEN THE BCG AND THE HAMMER TO THE POINT THAT IT DAMPENS ENOUGH INERTIA TO LOAD THAT FIRST ROUND FROM THE LANCER MAG? OR IS IT A COUPLE OF VARIABLES? Very frustrating. I suppose trying several other mag brands may also help answer this, but am I missing something else here? Thanks for your service.
I'm not defending or belittling anybody here, however, charging handle roll pins shear, often if you run a rifle hard, did on the original colts and every brand made (although in my years as a gunsmith I've never seen a busted bravo company handle, although they're pretty new yet). Allen bolts break when you don't use any anti seize on assembly. Feed ramp tool marks are also quite common, and I spent some time building automatic weapons, usually some time with a stone will remove the tool marks.
white castle - thanks for the comments bro - sounds like you made a good decision with the daniel defense fore grip. Can't go wrong with DD - it's one of the top brands for sure. Nobody who knows anything about guns will say different about that. The UTG quad rail is probably one of the best you can get for the money, however, but it's still not daniel defense. Thanks for subbing too - look for more videos in the future man!
Great great video man...i mean, it sucks that you had to waste so much money to share the info. but you will be doing alot of new shooters good should they hopefully see this. I am going to do alot to my AR but will be doing it right, at least I hope. i was going to get the UTG free float quad rail for one, but then decided on the Daniel Defense Omega 7... $250 but i've read great things about it, plus it seems like the only 2 piece option of its quality that doesnt require a whole bunch of work
Wow bro!! Yeah always stick to reputable companies when putting parts on ur rifle. Remember you gun may save ur life one day! Or maybe it won't if u go the cheap route! Live and learn brother and save for quality, don't settle for less on your rifle.
