Several times this past weekend after hunting I had one heck of a hard time getting the chambered unfired round to eject. The charging handle would barely budge. I had to continually mess between the charging handle and forward assist assembly to finally get the rounds to eject. Felt like the bolt assy. jamming somewhere. Never had this problem before.
I did have the gun apart for cleaning recently, so I'm wondering if I may have something misaligned.
Hoping the more experienced folks on here can point me towards what to check.
Posts: 1,685
Threads: 55
Joined: Mar 2011
First thought is insufficient shoulder setback on resized brass, but additional details needed.
Handloads or factory ammo?
Drifter
These are factory Alexander Arms Nosler 120 BT. AA upper with AR Stoner barrel and bolt.
Posts: 1,685
Threads: 55
Joined: Mar 2011
DW61 Wrote:I had to continually mess between the charging handle and forward assist assembly to finally get the rounds to eject...
I did have the gun apart for cleaning recently, so I'm wondering if I may have something misaligned.
When you had it apart, was the forward assist removed?
Drifter
I had this exact same problem with my new .223 wylde chamber I had custom built, took all I had to finally pull bolt back. One time I even pulled the bullet from the case and flung powder everywhere. Then had to ram the bullet out from the muzzle end. Anyway it shot fine and after shooting I was able to cycle it no problem.
Drifter Wrote:When you had it apart, was the forward assist removed?
Negative, Just a quick basic cleaning. I should add that the cases eject normally when firing. The first day I noticed the issue with the manual problem (thought it was a fluke) I thought I had bumped my scope so I stopped by the range, fired three rounds, and the gun operated fine. The problem now seems to arise when I try to eject a round manually. Guess I'll take it apart again just to see what happens. I'm just a little concerned about safety right now. Don't need any surprises this weekend..
DW61 Wrote:These are factory Alexander Arms Nosler 120 BT. AA upper with AR Stoner barrel and bolt.
That is most likely your problem, sadly. It sounds like the type of malfunction you're describing is Failure to Extract, whereas Failure to Eject would mean the case is easily extracted from the chamber, but fails to be ejected from the action.
FTExtract and FTEject are 2 different symptoms, with different causes. My money is on your chamber being too tight for the AA Factory ammunition, or a gas system issue.
There's no telling what reamer was used on your barrel, or what QC was used, if any. What barrel length do you have, and what is the gas system length? Hopefully it's just a gas system issue, which may or may not be remedied.
You'll get a lot of help here, but we'll need specifications:
Gas system length:
Barrel length:
Gas port diameter:
Bolt carrier type:
Buffer type/weight:
Pics of cases might help
Test a dummy round for fit and function in chamber
Will the rifle chamber a round, then be able to extract it if unfired?
If you encounter this type of malf in the future, use the "mortaring" technique, which has some caveats to it...carbine or rifle stock, and safety with muzzle awareness. If you have a collapsable stock, collapse it all the way first, then tap or slam the heel of the butt on the ground while pulling on the charge handle.
I greatly appreciate the inputs, and I believe you are 100% correct about the AA factory ammo. When I got home from work just now, I tried some factory Hornady AMAX ammo and it extracted fine. Tried AA Nosler ammo and AA 123 Lapua Scenar and they both had the FTExtract issue. They eventually extract, but it takes many tries and way too much effort and cursing. As mentioned before, the AA factory Nosler ammo ejects fine when fired, but causes extraction problems when not fired. I haven't fired the Scenar yet. Hope this makes better sense with the correct terminology.
If it is the chamber, which it sounds like it is, then there's not many options are there? Shame, since it really shoots well. Guess I'll stick with Hornady. Thanks!
I've got an ar stoner barrel. I had to get rid of some 123 noslers because they would lodge into the rifling. The amax was fine. To get the noslers to work I had to get my oal less then 2 inches. Must be something going on with qc.
Simple: It's some oddball chamber that isn't 6.5 Grendel. AR Stoner barrels aren't made in the US, so the concept of QC at those price points on top of their margins don't add up to a standardized product worthy of US consumption, in my opinion.
This is why AA held licensed Grendel manufacturers to a strict agreement to follow the Grendel chamber dimensions, so that we would have standardization across the industry. Maybe the barrel can be reamed with a Grendel reamer.
I thought Er shaw made ar stoner barrels. Who does reaming for a Grendel? What does something like that cost? The gun shoots good with amax and 129 sst , so for how much I shoot it that's all I need. But I do hate to be tied to 2 bullets.
Pretty sure shaw makes the stoner barrels, as far as reaming, try to price with 2-3 smiths, tell them what you want, then call PTG and price your own reamers. you could resell them or rent them to forum members.
Bill Alexander
Unregistered
Stoner barrels are not sourced from Shaw.
The Grendel chamber is a SAAMI standard as is the ammunition. There will be some variability depending upon the reamer wear, but it is inside the tolerance envelope.
Manson usually has HSS reamers and for a project like this a solid pilot could be used. Unless you want to strip the upper you will need an extension handle. If the head space is correct use a stop reamer.
Bill Alexander Wrote:Stoner barrels are not sourced from Shaw.
The Grendel chamber is a SAAMI standard as is the ammunition. There will be some variability depending upon the reamer wear, but it is inside the tolerance envelope.
Manson usually has HSS reamers and for a project like this a solid pilot could be used. Unless you want to strip the upper you will need an extension handle. If the head space is correct use a stop reamer.
Oops! Sorry bout that. Read on the Internet so you know it's true!LOL.
Out of curiosity, where are they sourced from?
Bill Alexander
Unregistered
No idea!
No one I can find, but not a huge concern.
Posts: 1,685
Threads: 55
Joined: Mar 2011
I thought Stoner / Grendel barrels were Liberty brand at some point in the past, but could be mistaken.
Drifter
Drifter Wrote:I thought Stoner / Grendel barrels were Liberty brand at some point in the past, but could be mistaken.
They were, until Liberty realized there was no way they could make a profit and stay in business with no margins on their end.
I've had a very similar experience with an AR-stoner brand barrel/bolt in 5.56. Long story short. Excessive headspace. Caused the back end of the casing to expand and get stuck in the chamber.
Did you ever get the problem remedied?
Edit: just realized your problem was extracting an unfired round. Not the same as my issue.
|
