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Posted: 2/14/2008 8:41:16 AM EDT
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I went shooting this past weekend with a buddy who owns a POF piston upper and we had no problems until the end of the day. The bolt locked into postion out of battery and froze solid. We could not get the bolt back no matter what we tried. Both of us know AR's how to maintain and trouble shoot them and we tried to fix it in the field but could not exert enough force on either the bolt or charging handle to make it budge. To make matters worse there was a cartridge in bolt(unfired we eventually found out). After taking it home and removing the tele stock with a rubber mallet and a dowel we were able to remove the bolt. What we discovered was some metal shavings inbetween the bolt and the piston. The bolt and the piston were not damaged in any way. Confused we totally cleaned the weapon and discovered that the channel where the CH moves was missing some metal. Mystery solved right. Not really. The CH looked pristine but the channel has a small gouge in it now. What happened? Did some of the chrome plating or whatever POF calls it come off you think? If so why? We were shooting the rifle with a GemTech Halo Suppressor on the rifle but this has never presented any problems in the past and the ammo was Red Box American Eagle. Has anyone else had this happen or seen this happen before? The small gouge in the CH channel does not effect the operation of the rifle at the moment but it made me concerned about the rifle and my friend the owner also concerned, he did spend $1k on the upper so rightfully so IMHO. Any thoughts or ideas? Should he contact POF about a repair or replacement? Is this the infamous "tilting" that I have read about with Piston rifles? Anything you might know would be appreciated. |
| YES. It happened to me with my POF upper on my very first build!!! I thought it was the charging handle, but it wasn't. I called Chris DeSomma @ POF and he was baffeled as well. So, I started deeper trouble shooting. I COMPLETELY disassembled the upper...no obvious problems found, and I replaced the charging handle. Still, no relief. THen I moved to the lower. I knew that my RRA 2 stage nat'l match trigger applies pressure to the bottom of the bolt carrier...BUT That wasn't the culprit!!! I moved to the VLTOR clubfoot 6 position collapsable stock and its installation. I COMPLETELY disassembled my lower, including all pins. I reassembled the lower and took EXTRA care reinstalling the buffer tube, spring, and buffer and especially the nut. It solved the problem. I still to this day don't have a clue as to why it happened. But it hasn't happened since...ZERO failures...very accurate...and she's my first 'build' baby!!! |
| Let's hope that's the case with you as well. If the "rebuild" cures the issue then all is well. And we will both be scratching our heads for years to come. I truly think it was...hell, I don't know and won't speculate anymore. Let us know if it solved your woes. Then go shoot the hell out of it. |
I started to wonder the same thing! My buddy tells me after the fact that the last mag he used was not loaded with American Eagle after all. We did shoot a couple of mags out of it with some Igman 62gr. I bet the primer was what we saw and it was what caused the damage. I have seen this a couple of times when using Privi Partisan ammo and sometimes the dreaded Wolf. Looks like I will only be using US manufactured ammo in my AR from now on. |
Truth is, blown primers are just part of shooting. It happens... It sounds like that's what it was, and it's not anything you or the rifle did wrong. It's just Murphy rearing his ugly head! |
In about 30,000 rounds of 5.56 NATO stuff , I have had about 10 blown primers get stuck in the works of the trigger group or bolt/chamber and boltcarrier/reciever. This has happened in all of my uppers , piston uppers and gas uppers. Radway,M855,and XM193 , if I am not mistaken. It most certainly does happen, and when it does , its not always readily apperant. The little buggers are hard to see , especially when they fall out when things get unstuck. |
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