WEAPONS > Firearms

AR15 issues

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Bear9350:
I was at the range Monday night for our long range league night.  I offered to spot for a 12 year old kid who was shooting his dad's AR-15.    When the kid squeezed the trigger, I could hear the hammer release, but there was no mark on the primer from the firing pin.  Each time we would need to beet the charging handle back to extract the round.  He was shooting some reloaded ammo.  I'm not sure of any specifics of the gun or the ammo.  The father kept trying to blame the new mags on the issue, as last time there was no problem.  It sounded like it was a fairly new gun though with only about 50 rounds through it.  Everybody else that was present seemed to agree that it wasn't a mag issue but we weren't able to reach a consensus on what the problem likely was.

I thought that he may have loaded the rounds to long.  When the round was chambered and the bolt closed the bullet was shoved into the lands of the barrel making it difficult to remove.  Because the round was to long the bolt didn't fully close.  When the trigger was squeezed the hammer was released but it didn't actuate the firing pin.  Hence no primer strikes on the primer.

I'm not really sure of the mechanics of an AR15 so maybe one of you guys with experience could chime in and let me know if this seems plausible or if there is something else going on.  Mostly I just want to make sure that if the guy comes back next week I don't have a gun blown up next to me, or worse, in a kids face.

Atkinsmatt:
I think you may well have it.  After an inspection of the firing pin, try some store bought ammo.  I have had similar issues with reloads except it would fire but not extract and you had to beat the charging handle back.  Not the way I want to treat my gun.  The reload may fire fine in one rifle but not another.  That is why there is a gauge to measure chambers.  Factory ammo is loaded a little more generic if you will to allow it to fire in almost all guns.  The person who reloaded it may have done it to shoot in his gun or may have not even measured the OAL.

Some others here can probably tell you more than I can.

Nate:
I would say that from what you have described, it definitely sounds like a failure of either chambering or locking.

here is a link to what I am talking about:

https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/3-22-9/c04.htm

longball:
As far as the length of the round is concerned, if the rounds fit in the mag they should fire in the gun. If not, the problem probably lies with the chamber dimensions.

Is it possible that he used a standard sizing die instead of a small base die and the resized diameter of the case is the problem?

Edit:
If I remember correctly the SAAMI spec for 5.56 is longer than the AR mag so it seems unlikely to me that length is an issue. I know I can single feed some 223 rounds from one of my bolt guns into my BCM but they will not fit in the mag.


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Bear9350:
I have no idea what he was using for a die.  I thought about it afterwards, but I had some factory .223 on hand that I should have gave him to try out.  I do know that his rounds would feed from his mags.

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