AR feeding question

[taliv]

David if you take the OP title and description at face value you might be correct. However, if they knew enough to carefully observe the operation they prob would have figured out their problem already. Honestly my first reaction was also that the responses were wildly inappropriate but we really need a more accurate description of the malfunction and it’s possible it’s not a feeding issue

 

[MistWolf]

Holy cow! The lot need to dress yourselves up on failures. (Reducing the mag load?? Replacing extractor spring/o-ring? HUH??)

It’s either the magazine causing the round to nose dive, or you need to polish the ramps. (Check the ramps for a shard of metal on the edges)

THIS is what causes a round to jam, and case damage.

Bunch of voices here doing more harm than good.. oy-vey!

Here's the thing- a weak extractor spring commonly causes jams and case damage. When the extraction spring is weak, the extractor doesn't hold the rim enough to fully compress the ejector. This causes weak ejection and the case will bounce off the shell deflector and back into the action. Or, the case doesn't eject at all.

When an empty is caught in the action, it blocks the round from being fed into the chamber. When the round gets blocked, the bolt over rides the base and the round gets dented. All too many ARs don't use a Colt or Sprinco spring. I believe the extractor spring for the 20 inch AR is used instead. It works fine with the softer cycling of a rifle gas system, but it's not enough when used in a 14.5 or 16 inch carbine. It may last for awhile, but in my experience, somewhere 500 & 750 rounds, the spring is done. The AR starts malfunctioning and it's usually misdiagnosed as ammo, magazines, short stroking, over gassing and my personal favorite- so grossly over gassed the carrier is out running the mag spring.

My first AR was a 16 inch middy from PSA and it had feed problems right from the start. I sent the upper back to have the feed ramps polished. PSA handled the work skillfully and turn around time was good. They gave me friendly and cheerful customer service. But the problem came back. I tried different mags, cleaning, lubing, different ammo, heavier buffers, different springs-

What finally fixed the problem was installing a Colt M4 extractor spring.

Weak extractor springs are common enough that when trouble shooting an AR, the first thing I do is install a Colt extractor spring before I begin. Not starting with a good extractor spring only makes trouble shooting more difficult. I have also helped several AR shooters with their malfunctions and almost every AR has needed the extractor spring replaced. The last one I helped with had a weak extractor spring, leaky gas key and an out of spec gas tube.

My first AR was a 16 inch middy from PSA and it had feed problems right from the start. I sent the upper back to have the feed ramps polished. PSA handled the work skillfully and turn around time was good. They gave me friendly and cheerful customer service. But the problem came back. I tried different mags, cleaning, lubing, different ammo, heavier buffers, different springs-

What finally fixed the problem was installing a Colt M4 extractor spring.

The problem Encoreman is trying to fix may be due to a mag causing a nose dive. But it's not the only likely source of the malfunction described. What ever the source of the malfunction, it won't be easy to isolate if the AR doesn't have a good extractor spring. A Colt extractor spring is cheap, easy to install and eliminates a lot of future headaches.