ORF Galil stovepiping, what would cause this?

[PILMAN]

I was at the range the other day shooting my Galil for the first time. I was using Wolf polymer cased ammo, some Czech ammo, Lake City, and Aquila. Rifle for the most part was very accurate, very little recoil, and fun to shoot, however I did run into some issues.

I shot about 300 some rounds through the rifle. The first 35 were the Wolf .223 military classic polymer cased and I didn't have any issues. Coworker shot it with wolf, 35 rounds, no stovepipes.

I loaded up a magazine up the Czech ammo and had one stovepipe early on after about 5 rounds. It was inside the gun jamming up the bolt carrier so I had to pull out the mag and pull back the bolt carrier. I shoot the rest without any issues.

I load up some of the Aquila ammo, about 13 rounds and my coworker gets a stovepipe every 3 rounds hanging out of the side.

I shoot again, this time with lake city M885 (on the box but M855), first 3 shots fire fine, I go to fire and nothing happens, I see my bolt carriers stuck and the round is not completely in the chamber. I pull out mag and pull back bolt carrier, one round goes flying out, another one already in the chamber falls out. I notice that the round that I extracted manually, the bullet is pushed all the way back into the case. Looks like it got pushed back when I chambered the round and there was a casing already in the chamber. I check the chamber again, field strip it, and look in there with a flashlight to see if theres a squib or something obstructing the barrel, it's clear.

I go back to shooting aquila and getting more stovepipes. I get fed up and go back to shooting my pistol.

Not sure what may have caused the stovepipes but the action wasn't very smooth, I lubed it when I got home and it seems to be a bit better. Also the gas piston was covered in this grey stuff that was hard to remove? I used eezox and wiped it down. Ran a 20 guage shotgun brush through the gas tube and it came out pitch black. I tried washing off the brush but the stuff is like goey, almost like glue or something and won't come out. I cleaned the barrel, seems fine, still haven't been able to clean the gas port, don't know what I need to clean that.

Some people I talked with said that the gun smith may have not cleaned out all the cosmoline and were claiming that could be whats causing my rifle to stovepipe? Not sure if this makes sense.

Other thing I noticed, sometimes bolt carrier hangs up when pulling it back (noticeably without a magazine in), perhaps bolt is hanging up or bullet guide not installed properly? something else?

I am not sure what would be causing these stovepipes, this rifle was built on a ORF Galil receiver with Israeli parts kit and Green Mountain barrel by a gun smith. Any ideas what could be causing this? Thanks.

I took video at the range, not sure if it's going to help at all as I didn't record the stovepipes .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJnoQHoO2F4&fmt=6

 

[Andrewsky]

C'mon, there's even a video.

Help him out!

 

[Vaarok]

You have goo in your gas system?

Sounds like you got grit + cosmolene = baked on hardened char-cake clogging things up.

ALWAYS decosmoline a firearm COMPLETELY before you try it out. Not only will you avoid things gumming up from baked cosmo "laquer", but you'll avoid possibly causing pressure spikes or other bad things from having viscous material where it shouldn't be.

 

[PILMAN]

You have goo in your gas system?

Sounds like you got grit + cosmolene = baked on hardened char-cake clogging things up.

ALWAYS decosmoline a firearm COMPLETELY before you try it out. Not only will you avoid things gumming up from baked cosmo "laquer", but you'll avoid possibly causing pressure spikes or other bad things from having viscous material where it shouldn't be.

Called my builder, he told me the cosmoline was cleaned out, and that the grey stuff was Anti-Seize. Also said the stovepiping could be from the casings bouncing off the bolt carrier?

 

[PILMAN]

No one else has any ideas?

 

[Evil Monkey]

A stove pipe? As in...

The gun fires
the bolt retracts and closes
but the ejected shell casing is sticking out?


There may be a few reasons why this is happening.

1. Not enough pressure. But even I don't believe this because from the video, your rifle seems to be ejecting cases very forcefully. However, the video didn't show the malfunctions. but if this may be the case, then the ammo is to blame for not generating sufficient pressure to cycle the action.

2. Either the ejector is a bit too short or the ammo's case head diameter is a bit too small (unlikely but still possible). If the ejector is too short then that means it's barely making contact with the rim of the spent casing that's trying to be ejected. Thus, it's not being forcefully ejected.

3. Interference. As the casing is being ejected, it may be bouncing off of the receiver or dust cover and returning into the ejection port. However, the video shows that doesn't seem to be a problem, but I'll throw in this possibility anyway.

That's about all the reason I can think of right now.

 

[PILMAN]

Thanks for the reply, yes ran into a number of stovepipes, I had maybe 2 or 3 that were failure to eject.

It was tossing the brass pretty far, not positive if it's a extractor problem as this point? Maybe it was the ammo I was using?