First Round Not Stripping with Bolt Release?

[Whit]

Like it says, I am having trouble with my 6.5 G upper not stripping the top round off the mag when using the bolt release. Seems to be worse with certain mags, but not sure. Any ideas?

[grayfox]

I can only think of a couple things, maybe others will chime in...
Can you give some details on the parts for the rifle's construction.
And what make(s) of mag you have, and their capacity.

Have you tried a few different mags? Could be that mag is sticky or not presenting the round high enough...?
Or maybe the mag isn't inserted fully up into the magwell...?

For me, I always pull the CH back first to strip the first round, does that method strip a round.

[Sticks]

Is this on a very first round, or bolt lock on the last round fired?

If the latter, you are under gassed and the BCG is locking on the carrier at mag drop, not the bolt face (IIRC) I went through this with my current preferred target rifle. First trigger pull at the next stage was on an empty chamber. I had to tune the gas a little better to cure my ills.

[Kswhitetails]

It sounds like almost every other new Grendel I've run. Most likely this will smooth out as you use it. The steel mags in Grendel are buggers for gripping the first rounds because the spring tension is at it's peak, the lips are new and sharp, and the whole system is dealing with "new surface" friction. Let things work a few times, coupe mags, and see if they don't improve.

[rabiddawg]

Make sure you have some free space in the fully loaded mag. If the top round is too tight they won’t strip properly

[Whit]

Can you give some details on the parts for the rifle's construction.

Sure. It's a generic milspec M4 upper receiver, AA 16" fluted midlength bbl, M16 bolt carrier, AA hard-use bolt, JP adj gas block.

And what make(s) of mag you have, and their capacity.

AA-marked E-landers, a couple of the 24-round and one 10-round. Happens with both capacities.

Have you tried a few different mags? Could be that mag is sticky or not presenting the round high enough...?
Or maybe the mag isn't inserted fully up into the magwell...?

Mags I mentioned above are the ones I've tried. Of those, one does it almost every time (a new 10 round), one about half the time (a fairly new 24 round), and one rarely (a not so new 24 round). As far as not sticking up enough, I don't know. I don't think there's a problem with my mag release or anything on the lower. My 5.56 upper doesn't do this.

For me, I always pull the CH back first to strip the first round, does that method strip a round.

Yep, no problems there. CH will charge just fine. That little bit of extra momentum is all it takes, and that is what I usually do. It's just that when shooting from a rest to sight in or test reloads, it seems like I get fewer first round flyers if I use the bolt release instead of the CH. Maybe it's all in my head, but that seems to be the case anyway.

Is this on a very first round, or bolt lock on the last round fired?

Very first round. Set cleared gun in rest with bolt locked back, insert loaded magazine, hit bolt release, get perfect sight picture, squeeze trigger ("click"), cuss, check chamber (empty), cuss, use the CH. Rifle cycles fine on gas.

It sounds like almost every other new Grendel I've run. Most likely this will smooth out as you use it. The steel mags in Grendel are buggers for gripping the first rounds because the spring tension is at it's peak, the lips are new and sharp, and the whole system is dealing with "new surface" friction. Let things work a few times, coupe mags, and see if they don't improve.

This is where my head is at. I was just wondering if there are any spots on these mags that usually require a little TLC with emery paper or anything, or if there was some other trick that everyone knows but me. Sounds like they just need to wear a little.

[grayfox]

Here are some smoothing places to consider.
1. The inside edges of the feed lips, the ones that grab/guide the cartridge. (your used -24 mag has fewer problems, suggests this)
2. Clean/maybe dry-lube the mag sidewalls until all is broken in better.
3. Look for the top spot-weld in the rear of the mag inside, sometimes this rubs on or slows down the follower. I carefully emeryed this down on a couple and it helped them.

4. And, bolt carrier sliding/friction in the upper maybe? here it's a question of just more break in... maybe some very light lube? (I like to run dry but then I use NiB or nitrided pieces so they are already pretty slick. New and Phosphated... rougher)

I wouldn't be seriously worried until I have at least 50 rounds downrange on the rifle system... to allow all the pcs to break in on each other as mentioned above.

Hope this helps.

[Whit]

Here are some smoothing places to consider.
1. The inside edges of the feed lips, the ones that grab/guide the cartridge. (your used -24 mag has fewer problems, suggests this)
2. Clean/maybe dry-lube the mag sidewalls until all is broken in better.
3. Look for the top spot-weld in the rear of the mag inside, sometimes this rubs on or slows down the follower. I carefully emeryed this down on a couple and it helped them.

4. And, bolt carrier sliding/friction in the upper maybe? here it's a question of just more break in... maybe some very light lube? (I like to run dry but then I use NiB or nitrided pieces so they are already pretty slick. New and Phosphated... rougher)

I wouldn't be seriously worried until I have at least 50 rounds downrange on the rifle system... to allow all the pcs to break in on each other as mentioned above.

Hope this helps.

Thanks. Wilco on the magazine deburring. Rifle has well more than 50 rounds through it, but two of those mags have seen very little use. I doubt the BCG is dragging on anything. I don't see anything noticeable anyway, no odd wear marks or anything. The carrier is nitrided, and pretty smooth. I usually run with a thin film of oil. I'll smooth out those mags and see if the problem continues.

[Texas]

Like it says, I am having trouble with my 6.5 G upper not stripping the top round off the mag when using the bolt release. Seems to be worse with certain mags, but not sure. Any ideas?

I take the mag apart and use 0000 steel with oil to smooth the underside of the mag lips and top portion of the sidewalls. Round the inside lip on the front of the mag, dry and reassemble. You may want to use dry graphite for lubricant

[cwlongshot]

Its Bad to lube a magazine...

But I agree in smoothin things up some!!

I had this problem with a ACS magazine.

I bought a couple Elanders and ZERO ISSUES SINCE!

CW

[Kswhitetails]

I use graphite as a lube in my mags, rub by hand until your fingers are all black, making sure to get the surfaces shiny in the top and bottom inside the mag. Rub down the follower, so that it is solid on the sides. Then, use a clean rag and rub the inside 3/4" clean top and bottom to keep them from making everything (hands, receivers, rounds) from turning graphite gray... The things get REALLY slick, and the followers act like they want to follow a round into the chamber. I might be playing with the designed required friction built into the mags, but so far they all work so well I can't complain. They are so much easier to load too. It's dry, so there's no added dust sticking to them, the rounds, or the guns.

I've never seen anyone advise for this, or against it. Some call for moly powder, but I've never seen that on a shelf like I do Graphite. It's an experiment so far that is working out better than I had hoped. It cured lots of ills in my ASC junk boxes.

[Whit]

The trouble continues. I actually loaded and then tried to unload rounds from that ten round mag, and they will not even slide out by hand. You have to pull the rounds out by the bullet end, twisting them up and out of the mag to unload it. The feedlips are noticeably messed up. Anyone know a trick to straighten them out without making it worse? Otherwise I guess I'm going to take some steel roundstock I have laying around and try to use it as a mandrel and get a ball peen to hammer the lips back into shape.

[VASCAR2]

E-Lander mags have very stout springs when new. I found the easiest way to unload the mags was to use piece of hard plastic (letter opener) to push down on the next to the top round. With the tension off the top round I can slide it out. I always load my new E-Lander mags to capacity and let them set. I even manually unloaded them a couple times which seems to speed up the wear in process. Once my E-Lander mags are worn in they have been gtg.

It is entirely possible you got a defective mag. You can post pictures of the mag but you can also compare the feed lips on a functional mag to the faulty mag. Brownell’s sells a tool for adjusting feed lips but I’ve had success using needle nose pliers to tweak the feed lips on faulty mags.

The floor plate on the E-Lander mags are easily removed and I’d disassemble them to see if there is an obvious problem. If you bought the mags from AA give them a call before you do any mods as they have been very good about replacing faulty mags.

The most common issue with E-Lander 6.5 Grendel mags seem to be poor spot welds and how the front of the mags bow in reducing cartridge overall length. A couple of my E-Lander mags look a little wrinkled at the rear of the feed lip where the cartridge rim rest. They might look different than my other E-L mags but still function 100%. Even though the E-Lander mags are a pain when new I still prefer them to my ASC mags. Once worn in my E-Landers don’t rattle as much as when they were new.

https://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-tools-supplies/rifle-tools/magazine-tools/ar-15-m16-magazine-feed-lip-tool-prod21511.aspx

[A5BLASTER]

Op.

If you have a 20 round pmag or know someone who does and will let you use it.

Take the spring out and put it in the elander and see what it does.

Might make it worse, might do nothing, might fix it up.

I have had not one problem with my elanders, but when I got them I loaded them full and put them in my gun safe for provably two weeks before messing with them.

I just finished modifying a 26 round cpd mag to get it to work and had to use a 20 round spring from a pmag, it works perfectly now after doing that tweaking a feed lip and changing the follower to one from a asc mag.

Give the pmag spring a try and see if just load up the elander and put it away for bout two weeks.

[Whit]