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Posted: 1/25/2008 1:36:17 PM EDT
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About a year ago, I went to an officer training course in Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. The final field exercise was on the coldest day of the course, 13 degrees at 0500. I had a M4, not my usual one with a M203, but since I was playing PSG that day they made me swap with another soldier. During our first engagement of the day, my rifle failed to fire, multiple times. Pulled the trigger, click. Cycled the CH, observed the round ejecting, let the bolt slam home, reaquired the target, pulled the trigger, click again. This happened 3 or 4 more times before I finally got a shot off, but it started failing to fire again. After jacking 2 or 3 more rounds out of the chamber, I got another shot off. Things started to go smoother now, but still had a few more rounds fail to fire, though not as consistantly as in the beginning. By the end of the magazine, the rifle was operating smoothly. I have no idea what the girl who had this rifle originally did to maintain it. I got it maybe 15 minutes before we stepped off, and literally just put a mag in it and worked the CH. My theory is that she over lubricated the fire control assembly, and when it got cold the CLP got thick and caused the hammer to become sluggish and fall slower. After a few rounds actually fired, the resulting heat generated warmed up the rifle and thinned up the lube. Hows my theory? Does it seem like the likely scenario? |
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I would say the other way around, with the lube finally migrating through the upper to clean the fouling (incorrectly cleaned) and allowing the parts to glide more freely (read CLP is not going to jell up at above zero temperatures). Now the big question is did you go after the forward assist on the recharges to confirm that the bolt was fully locking up? |
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