Armalite M-15 complete failure, gun out of comission.

[H1500308]

I shot a 30 round magazine through my M-15 Saturday then put the gun away for the night. The next day, I inserted another magazine and pulled the bolt back to chamber a round, round chambered fine, pulled trigger, hammer didn't fall and trigger bound up. I also heard something rattling inside the lower.

Field stripped the gun and found the buffer retainer missing from it's normal position and wedged between the disconnector spring and the inside of the lower. The small buffer retainer spring also fell out. Obviously the recoil buffer and spring 'sprung' from the buttstock. It appears that a small piece of metal is missing from the top of the buffer retainer. The disconnector spring was also bent.

Has anyone else had this happen before on an armalite or other AR variant. If so, does anyone know why this happens...bad part?? This is a stock M-15 with less than 1000 rounds fired.

Repair parts are on the way from Armalite.

Thanks

 

[Zak Smith]

Was the stock loose, at all?

The receiver extension tube is what capture the the buffer retaining pin. If the receiver extension tube backs off a little bit, the pin can escape.

If that's not the case, then it was either put together wrong or you had a fluke parts failure.

This failure mode is extremely uncommon.

 

[H1500308]

Zak,

Thanks. After I posted this I did some reading and it appears that the buffer tube was not covering the buffer retainer. I also have a RRA M4gery that I compared and sure enough the RRA tube covers the edge of the retainer and on the Armalite, I can insert and remove the retainer at will. The tube does not cover the retainer at all.

I'm now wondering why this didn't happen earlier. I'm sending the whole thing back to Armalite for repair.

Thanks..

 

[Zak Smith]

There's no need for the buffer retaining pin and spring other than convenience. I know people that run without it for reliability.