AR Sponsor
Posted: 7/26/2009 5:48:50 PM EDT
|
Was at the range today, shot approximately 20 rounds and then had a mis-feed. Cleared the round and cycled another round. Tried to fire and nothing. Manually ejected the round, took out the BCG and this is how I found the bolt. Both lugs on either side of the ejector were gone. It's from an Olympic Arms, approximately 13 years old with less than 500 rounds on it.
Any ideas what would cause the failure? http://i774.photobucket.com/albums/yy23/Bayou_Tiger/IMGP5621a.jpg |
Poor Oly Quality control?
Replace with this Bravo company is good to go. Read the description for more info. 
|
|
Quoted:
Was at the range today, shot approximately 20 rounds and then had a mis-feed. Cleared the round and cycled another round. Tried to fire and nothing. Manually ejected the round, took out the BCG and this is how I found the bolt. Both lugs on either side of the ejector were gone. It's from an Olympic Arms, approximately 13 years old with less than 500 rounds on it. Any ideas what would cause the failure? http://i774.photobucket.com/albums/yy23/Bayou_Tiger/IMGP5621a.jpg 13 years with 500 rounds? Poor thing died of old age! Just replace the bolt. They all break eventually and yours broke at one of the classic failure points. You should check headspace when replacing the bolt. BSW |
|
Call Oly, they will replace the bolt for free.
The problem is, during heat treating, the case hardening went too deep, which made the bolt too brittle. Simply, it's a manufacturing defect (other manufactours have the same problem once in a while as well) and a new bolt will swap right out to get the rig back up and running. |
|
I'd just replace the bolt myself, and chalk it up to lessons learned.
I would not ship the upper unless I thought there was legitimately something that needed examination. If you ship, best case scenario is you save a few dollars on the price of a bolt, but it comes home with another Oly bolt. I'd pass on that. |
|
As stated, all the manufactures (including Colt) have had problems with bolt not being heat treated correctly (read they are too brittle and the lugs sheer off).
Oly wants to confirm that the new bolt head spaces correctly on the old barrel, and it it doesn't, they will replace what ever is needed to make it right before shipping the rig back. If you have to pay for the shipping to them, then hit up Oly for a couple of items for free to offset the cost of shipping (maybe a USGI mag or two, depending on the shipping cost to them). Trust me, they will do this as well without a second thought, since as stated, the bolt was defective from the start. |
| Of all ARs on the market, I have seen Olys as the most failure-prone, in areas such as lower reciever components and things like what happened to you. The failure you experienced was typical of a bolt head failure, but on a gun like say a colt, hapens WAY after 500 rounds, and usuallu after the operator sheepichly admits to having excessively fired on ful auto recently or even when it occured. |
|
Quoted:
Call Oly, they will replace the bolt for free. The problem is, during heat treating, the case hardening went too deep, which made the bolt too brittle. Simply, it's a manufacturing defect (other manufactours have the same problem once in a while as well) and a new bolt will swap right out to get the rig back up and running. I agree it's a heat treating problem with the material. I have seen this many time over the years with other non firearm parts. 
|
| Dano is correct. Oly probably wants to assure that the marriage of new bolt and an old chamber/bbl extension result in an acceptable headspace, among other things. For instance, when the bolt lugs failed, excessive force could have been transferred to the mating bbl extension lugs at the 4:00 to 8:00 position in the photo. The condition of the bbl ext. lugs needs to be checked out as well. |
|
Quoted:
Call Oly, they will replace the bolt for free. The problem is, during heat treating, the case hardening went too deep, which made the bolt too brittle. Simply, it's a manufacturing defect (other manufactours have the same problem once in a while as well) and a new bolt will swap right out to get the rig back up and running. Shipped the entire upper back to Oly....Got it back today with a new bolt and the headspace checked with no questions asked. Great service and quick turn around from Oly. Thanks to all for all the great advice. |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
Call Oly, they will replace the bolt for free. The problem is, during heat treating, the case hardening went too deep, which made the bolt too brittle. Simply, it's a manufacturing defect (other manufactours have the same problem once in a while as well) and a new bolt will swap right out to get the rig back up and running. Shipped the entire upper back to Oly....Got it back today with a new bolt and the headspace checked with no questions asked. Great service and quick turn around from Oly. Thanks to all for all the great advice. No free GI Mags? 
|
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Call Oly, they will replace the bolt for free. The problem is, during heat treating, the case hardening went too deep, which made the bolt too brittle. Simply, it's a manufacturing defect (other manufactours have the same problem once in a while as well) and a new bolt will swap right out to get the rig back up and running. Shipped the entire upper back to Oly....Got it back today with a new bolt and the headspace checked with no questions asked. Great service and quick turn around from Oly. Thanks to all for all the great advice. No free GI Mags? I asked in the letter when I shipped the upper back for possibly GI Mags or logo items to offset shipping, but nothing. |
| i dont understand why you would want another Oly bolt, saying that every company has its problems is not a legitimate argument, yes even Colt LMT BCM may miss something in their QC, but at nowhere near the frequency tha Oly has problems, people who run their rifles hard know which brands work, and for a scant $75 BCM bolt why not get something with great QC behind it, i only say this because it would suck for the new Oly bolt to break a few hundred rounds in |
|
Quoted:
i dont understand why you would want another Oly bolt, saying that every company has its problems is not a legitimate argument, yes even Colt LMT BCM may miss something in their QC, but at nowhere near the frequency tha Oly has problems, people who run their rifles hard know which brands work, and for a scant $75 BCM bolt why not get something with great QC behind it, i only say this because it would suck for the new Oly bolt to break a few hundred rounds in I'd have a spare bolt handy, and it wouldn't be from Oly either. OTOH, the OP is running less than 40 rounds a year thru his rifle. That bolt will probably last another decade, is headspaced, and only cost him shipping. BSW |
|
Quoted:
Any ideas what would cause the failure? Uh... it's an Olympic Arms. The worst mainstream AR you can get. I would suggest replacing the bolt with a GOOD one, but with OLY.... in spec parts often DON'T fit.... I'm not kidding! There was a guy who had a receiver that wouldn't mate up to the other half of an IN SPEC gun. Oly told him to pound sand because they out of spec POS was fitted to another out of spec receiver at the factory. Nice! 
|
AR Sponsor