Been gone awhile, traded in my Grendel on a Creedmoor. But have finally come to the realization that I'll probably never get to stretch it out to 1000 yards, so why have a 1K yard rifle? So to take its place, I came back to Grendel, only in the AR platform this time, my previous rifle was a Howa 1500.
So this is a budget build, BCA side charger upper and Aero Precision lower. Yesterday was my first chance to shoot it, and I was only able to put about 35 rounds through it. Fairly well behaved for a new build, but I did have some hiccups, most notable was several failures to extract, which also resulted in some double feeds. Also had issues with the slide not locking back on an empty mag. I blame some of it on ammo, I was shooting some reloads left over from my previous Grendel, and some on just everything being new and tight. That said, a few issues I have questions on.
So I have 1 factory cartridge, something Federal with what looks like a Speer TNT bullet. I get 1.86" with my case comparator, fired brass was coming in at 1.96+". Is it just me, or does that seem high?
Because of the extraction failures I pulled the extractor and looked it over pretty carefully. Couple of things got my attention. First, not the extractor but the ejector, the spring seems REALLY stiff. It's been awhile since I played with an AR, is that normal? On the extractor, there was a little rubberish nub inside the extractor spring, doesn't really seem to have a purpose, other than possibly acting as a bumper. Do I need it? Also, the lower bolt face edge of the extractor is slightly higher than the bolt face, shouldn't it be flush?
Fit and finish on the upper is actually better than I expected, although there are some rough spots, most notably the feed ramps. I'll be pulling the barrel so I can polish those, and I'll be checking headspace at the same time. Any other suggestions for things to look at? Any other suggestions in general? Thanks.
Dave
So this is a budget build, BCA side charger upper and Aero Precision lower. Yesterday was my first chance to shoot it, and I was only able to put about 35 rounds through it. Fairly well behaved for a new build, but I did have some hiccups, most notable was several failures to extract, which also resulted in some double feeds. Also had issues with the slide not locking back on an empty mag. I blame some of it on ammo, I was shooting some reloads left over from my previous Grendel, and some on just everything being new and tight. That said, a few issues I have questions on.
So I have 1 factory cartridge, something Federal with what looks like a Speer TNT bullet. I get 1.86" with my case comparator, fired brass was coming in at 1.96+". Is it just me, or does that seem high?
Because of the extraction failures I pulled the extractor and looked it over pretty carefully. Couple of things got my attention. First, not the extractor but the ejector, the spring seems REALLY stiff. It's been awhile since I played with an AR, is that normal? On the extractor, there was a little rubberish nub inside the extractor spring, doesn't really seem to have a purpose, other than possibly acting as a bumper. Do I need it? Also, the lower bolt face edge of the extractor is slightly higher than the bolt face, shouldn't it be flush?
Fit and finish on the upper is actually better than I expected, although there are some rough spots, most notably the feed ramps. I'll be pulling the barrel so I can polish those, and I'll be checking headspace at the same time. Any other suggestions for things to look at? Any other suggestions in general? Thanks.
Dave
Comment