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Posted: 6/9/2005 3:01:07 AM EDT
| Went to the range with my brand new Bushmaster M4A3 to zero the EOTech. Only got to put 100 rounds of Black Hills 55gr FMJ rounds through it due to time constraints and had 5 or 6 cases of the same feeding problem. With a brand new green follower-NHMTG made 30 round magazine the first round fired out of the weapon did not eject all the way and the bolt went forward with a new round. This left me with a empty and a live round nose first toward the chamber. I cleared the weapon and kept on shooting. Went to a different GI- magazine (O-Kay) also with green follower and experienced the stoppage 3 or 4 more times. Weapon shoots very well holding a 1.435in group at 100 yards off the sand bags but with no confidence in it going bang every time you pull the trigger for three-gun competition. Should I try different mags to rule out bad mags? Put more rounds down range to make sure break-in is complete? Add Defender/O-ring to extractor to see if this helps? Send it back to Bushmaster for evaluation/repair? Any and all info/suggestions would be helpful.......Thanks-Trapfan. |
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Sounds like a new mag problem, Pull apart the mags and clean them. Once clean, very lightly coat all the parts with CLP, and re-assemble the mags. Now using a pencil (eraser side), fully push down on the follower (let it bottom out), and quickly pull the pencil to allow the follower to snap back up (do this twenty times per mag). Now since the mags are full of wood shaving, pull them apart again, and re-clean/re-lube them. --------------- Now on the rifle, www.ar15.com/content/guides/maintenance/ Ideally, the dead blow effect of the buffer allows the mag time to recover. If the mag is semi-binding (new rough inner surfaces) and the rifle is not fully/strongly stroking (again, new rough bearing surfaces), this can cause the rifle to have FTF out of the mag problems. Simple stated (like thousands of times before by Tweak and myself) make sure that the bearing surfaces of the rifle are lubed with CLP to add in the rifle self mating/break in in. If you want to run the rifle dry after words, do so, but wait until the rifle has broken in. Note: If someone wants to chime in with “I run my USGI rifle dry without any problems”, fine. Then they have to remember that there special rifle has was broken down daily for three weeks and cleaned (read repeatedly) before it was ever fired (read mated by hand). If anyone want to do the same to break there rifle in, I'm sure we can teach there wife to do a cleaning check on the rifle after each cleaning, and the proper way to throw it back in your check while saying that “I hope you wipe your ass better than this”, as she make you re-clean the rifle a few times each day. |
| The weapons bolt locks back after the last round is fired. Both mags that were tried are brand new mags. I have about 20 or so 30 round mags to try out. I also have 5 or 6 older 20 round Colt mags with the alloy followers. Was thinking of trying the old twenty round mags as they have worked flawlessly in my Colt Match HBAR. Now I am thinking it just might be that everything is too freaking new and needs some break in time. I will also try to clean inside the mags and lube them. At this point it can't hurt. Thanks for the tips.......Trapfan. |
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Update******* New Bushmaster M4A3 ran with out a hitch! I shot 300 rounds of the Black Hills 55gr FMJ rounds without incident. The new mags were the problem. My older Colt 20 round mags ran like a charm. The new BFI 30 round mag ran fine along with older Center Industries and Cooper 30 rounders. I will try to clean and lube ALL the new 30 round mags, number them and then evaluate their performance. Thanks to one and all for their help and input........Trapfan. |
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I find it a bit odd sounding that a magazine problem could cause an empty round to stay in the chamber. Tweak asked about cleanng the extractor and chamber. I would have thought perhaps the ejector. Perhaps everything got cleaned enough once the problems started that it worked OK on the second time around. Have you tried the "suspect" mags again? Does the problem still occur? |
| The internals were cleaned and brushed with Gun Scrubber, dried, then lubed with CLP before going to the range the first time. On the second go around the bore was dry patched, bolt and bolt carrier were wiped down(but not scrubbed down) and the inside of the upper was brushed and wiped off. I will have to do more T&E at the range to see if it truly was a mag issue or something else. But on the second time out for 300 rounds using tried and true old mags the weapon seemed to run flawlessly. Trapfan |
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