Is This Normal? > AR Discussions

Posted: 8/1/2004 11:02:14 PM EDT

Well, today, I cleaned my AR for the time time ever. I've fired about 400 rounds through her. Anyways, when I took it apart today, I saw little gold flakes in the teeth area of the chamber. I noticed, they came off my buffer. There's a ring mark on the buffer. Looks like the carrier slams into it and made it chipped, creating this ring. Is this normal?

Posted: 8/1/2004 11:31:23 PM EDT

[#1]

The "gold flakes" are metal flakes from the brass of the cartriages of your ammo. The ring on your buffer face is from the bolt carrier slamming home on it during the operation of firing your weapon. Nothing to be concerned about. Unless the face of your buffer is actually chipping huge chunks of metal off of it, then it's all normal wear and tear.

P.S. Not be be a troll, but, it was kind of hard to understand exactly what you were asking at first due to the grammer in your question. But I got it after I read it a couple times.

Posted: 8/1/2004 11:42:57 PM EDT

[#2]

yes it is a total loss, send it my way for proper disposalhug.gif

Posted: 8/2/2004 12:59:58 AM EDT

[#3]

Quoted:
The "gold flakes" are metal flakes from the brass of the cartriages of your ammo. The ring on your buffer face is from the bolt slamming on it during the operation of firing your weapon. Nothing to be concerned about. Unless the face of your buffer is actually chipping huge chunks of metal off of it, then it's all normal wear and tear.

P.S. Not be be a troll, but, it was kind of hard to understand exactly what you were asking at first due to the grammer in your question. But I got it after I read it a couple times.

Well, i edited some parts to try to clear it up. I did notice a few misplaced words. Anyways, i'm pretty sure these gold flakes, are from the buffer, since they match in color. There now is a silverish/metal ring on the surface of my buffer, where it use to be gold. So this is normal?

Posted: 8/2/2004 1:33:13 AM EDT

[#4]

Yes dammit. Now go wash your car.

Posted: 8/2/2004 2:38:43 AM EDT

[#5]

Take a look at the photos in this thread and see if the wear patterns match your buffer...

www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=3&f=118&t=188055

Posted: 8/2/2004 3:20:47 AM EDT

[#6]

Legion 6 is right. Even tho what you see at the back of the chamber is the same color as the front face of the buffer, it's not the same stuff. The metal flakes around the rear of the barrel are shavings from your empties---and that tells me you've got an aftermarket brand rifle with an aftermarket bolt in it. Not dangerous or anything; just messy.

Not trying to be snotty or arrogant, but the simple fact is that the majority of aftermarket AR makers don't finish off their bolts as smoothly as Colt (and maybe Bushmaster) and leave sharp edges, especially at the cut out area around the extractor slot. This results in tiny slivers of brass being shaved off the base of the cartridge case during the bolt rotation.

That's the reason why, even though 5 of my 6 ARs are built up on nonColt parts, all of them have Colt bolts and extractors. My first AR was (and is) aColt, and I never had any such problem. When I built up my second AR a few years back, using Rock River internals, and saw the brass shavings after 50 rounds, I found a source for used M16 bolts and bought a bunch of them. Problem went away.

Posted: 8/2/2004 4:31:29 AM EDT

[#7]

I need to check my carrier for burrs, I remember seeing chips in my buffer also. Thought it was normal till reading the above link to another string.

Posted: 8/2/2004 4:58:49 AM EDT

[#8]

The ring mark on your buffer won't hurt anything, it pretty common.

Posted: 8/2/2004 9:21:58 PM EDT

[#9]

Quoted:
Legion 6 is right. Even tho what you see at the back of the chamber is the same color as the front face of the buffer, it's not the same stuff. The metal flakes around the rear of the barrel are shavings from your empties---and that tells me you've got an aftermarket brand rifle with an aftermarket bolt in it. Not dangerous or anything; just messy.

Not trying to be snotty or arrogant, but the simple fact is that the majority of aftermarket AR makers don't finish off their bolts as smoothly as Colt (and maybe Bushmaster) and leave sharp edges, especially at the cut out area around the extractor slot. This results in tiny slivers of brass being shaved off the base of the cartridge case during the bolt rotation.

That's the reason why, even though 5 of my 6 ARs are built up on nonColt parts, all of them have Colt bolts and extractors. My first AR was (and is) aColt, and I never had any such problem. When I built up my second AR a few years back, using Rock River internals, and saw the brass shavings after 50 rounds, I found a source for used M16 bolts and bought a bunch of them. Problem went away.

Thx for the link guys.

Btw, my rifle is a complete bushmaster.

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