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Posted: 9/3/2013 7:58:56 AM EDT
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First of all this is my first post on AR15.com and my name is Austin. I got the bug to build one of these this summer and decided to collect parts and try my hand at it.
My rifle: PSA assembled lower (stock buffer spring and LPK) Double Star flat top upper Midwest PX BCG (w/o reliability enhancement kit) 5.56 AR Stoner 16" barrel Low profile gas block form local gun shop I don't have an action block or a barrel nut wrench so I went to a local gun shop and used theirs and put the barrel on with the help of one of their employees. When I was first shooting the rifle it shot awesome. The firing pin was striking dead center in the primers and it was ejecting casings what I thought was really far (every bit of 15') Shot 40 rounds through it and didn't have a single hiccup. Cleaned the rifle that evening and lubricated everything kind of on the heavy side. Went to shoot it a couple weeks later at a range and started ejecting just as far as before but had a couple problems ejecting empty casings. I went through the procedure to get out the casing and went on shooting. This probably happened 3 times. I cleaned my rifle the next time and lubricated it again and put it away until yesterday. We were wanting to shoot it at a cookout and so I brought about 200 rounds and noticed right at the beginning it wasn't ejecting very far at all like 7' at the max. I kept shooting which probably was my first mistake. Then we kept running into FTE and the casing staying in the chamber, which the ones I could not reach I would just slide the BCG forward and the ejector would eventual grab it and fling it out and then we would continue to shoot. (Looking back I wish I wouldn't have). We finally got one stuck so good we could not get it out with our hands or the BCG and we thought well no big deal we will just take it home and stick a cleaning rod down the barrel and tap on it and it will come right out ... wrong. This casing is jammed pretty good and I cannot get it out for the life of me. So now what do I do? Do I buy an action block and a barrel wrench and take the barrel of and see if I can get it out like that? or do I buy one of the broken shell extractors and see if that does the job? I've never used a broken shell extractor so idk how well they work and this thing is jammed really good. The ammo I was using was .223 Tulammo 55gr steel casing and PMC X-TAC 5.56 62gr. I was told (afterwards) to never mixed steel and brass cased ammo in the same session. Is this true? Should I have mixed .223 and 5.56 in the same session? I was having jamming issues when I was using just Tulammo and not the PMC stuff. So I think that the issue has to do with my extractor and I will be upgrading it. The casing that is jammed now is Tulammo |
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Is the stuck case still intact? I'm assuming yes since its a steel case that is stuck.
If so a broken shell extractor won't do any good. Invert the rifle muzzle down and squirt some penetrating oil around the outside of the case. In the meantime run to the local hardware store and buy a section of 3/16" wood dowel. You could also use brass or aluminum if it's available in your area. Pound the stuck case out with the wood dowel. You can use a cleaning rod if you wish but you're likely to bugger it up, and possibly the bore. |
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Quoted:
Is the stuck case still intact? I'm assuming yes since its a steel case that is stuck. If so a broken shell extractor won't do any good. Invert the rifle muzzle down and squirt some penetrating oil around the outside of the case. In the meantime run to the local hardware store and buy a section of 3/16" wood dowel. You could also use brass or aluminum if it's available in your area. Pound the stuck case out with the wood dowel. You can use a cleaning rod if you wish but you're likely to bugger it up, and possibly the bore. The stuck case is still intact. I tried the cleaning rod yesterday and did ruin the rod and hopefully not the bore. I will get a 3/16" dowel rod and have squirted some oil in it. Thank you Does anyone have any ideas why this happened and how to prevent it? Is upgrading my extractor parts enough? Would not enough lubrication cause these issues? |
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I have no experience with Tula but a quick search tells me that some rifles don't like it and stuck cases are fairly common. Changing the extractor won't help. If you can tap it out with a cleaning rod then the extractor doesn't have a chance. I assume you mean lube in the chamber? NO, never have lube in the chamber. Yes, oil for storage, but patch it out before shooting. I'm guessing it is the coating they put on steel cased ammo, polymer if I remember correctly?, that melts when hot and sticks in tight chambers. It works great in AK's because their tolerances are not as tight as the AR. |
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I know I probably shouldn't use Tula lol I have used a ton of it through my Taurus 709 and never had a single problem but I don't think that thing is picky at all.
I am half embarrassed to go to a gun shop to take my barrel off and unjam the round and put my barrel back on because I like the DIY stuff and don't like to ask for help (even though I'm on here asking for help lol) I guess I should just buy the action block and barrel nut and do it myself since I can' unjam it? Or do I have any other options. and its hard to pass up Tula when you can find it for $5.27 a box around here but you get what you pay for |
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Quoted:
I'm guessing it is the coating they put on steel cased ammo, polymer if I remember correctly?, that melts when hot and sticks in tight chambers. This is a 90's internet myth. You can stick a blowtorch to any lacquer or polymer coated shell and it won't melt. Tula is fine. Steel case doesn't expand like brass so it lets carbon build up in the chamber more than usual.. Just remember to keep your chamber clean when you switch from steel to brass (and versa) |
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Step one, no matter what, you have to get the bolt unlocked.
To do this, pull down on the charging handle while giving the butt stock a hard blow on the ground. If you have a telescoping stock, either pull it off the tube, or set it all the way in before making the butt stock blows to the ground while pulling down hard on the charging handle. If you do not get the bolt to unlock, then hand the rifle to someone else to make the hard butt stock blows to the ground while pulling down hard on the charging handle since you are wimping out on the blows. Once the bolt unlocks, it either going to pull the spent case, or the extractor is going to slip off the rim so you can at least lock the bolt back on the catch. The trick to removing a stuck case is a single piece cleaning rod, and all you need to do is seat it down the barrel flush against the web of the case, and give the handle a hard palm blow to knock the case out. Again, if you can not hit the handle of the single piece steel cleaning rod hard enough to drive the spent case out with your hand, then put your purse down, and go find a man to give the handle the needed hard enough palm blow. Now on the steel case ammo, The cases are sprayed with either poly or laquer to prevent the steel from rusting, and when the ammo loads and ejects, small parts of the coating gets scrapped off to create a powderized fouling of such in the rifle. There is no standard cleaning solvent that will dissolve such powderized fouling, so it has to be scrubbed out of the rifle/chamber instead. So on that note, the chamber has to be cleaned each time with a chamber brush and CLP. The CLP is being used more as a suspension fluid really as you chamber brush clean the rifle by hand. Lastly, since you are having problems with chamber cleaning, then guessing that you are having overall and lubing problems as well. The bore of the barrel gets cleaned with Sweets solvent, the rest of the rifle gets cleaned with CLP (BreakfreeCLP works fine), then the lube used for the upper bearing areas is CLP as well. Since you are shooting steel case ammo, make sure to lube the B/C on the wetter side inside and out, which will migrate to the rest of the upper bearing areas to lube them as well. |
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