AR bolt won't lock open
The bolt on my AR won't lock open on an empty mag. If I manually depress the bolt locking latch and slowly lower bolt it will lock open. I've tried a half dozen different mags.
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Could be a bad spring. 0 -
Check the step on the forward face of the holdopen. Is it deformed or dirty? Open the bolt and hold it open manually, look down into the ejection port and insert an empty magazine. Watch to see if it presses the holdopen into place. If the mag locks into place before the latch moves into place to lock the bolt the geometry of your lower may be out of spec by just enough to keep it from locking back on empty, but still allowing feeding. 0 -
You most likely, will have to take a pinch, and take the roll pin out, and check the spring, and plunger, that power's the bolt catch. Also you might want check to see if you have a broken lower reciever. It would be broken in that area of the bolt catch, from dry firing, without an upper reciever in place, and the hammer hitting the lower reciever housing by the bolt catch.
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EDIT 1
quote:(I wouldn't use BrakeKleen)
Brake cleaner is the same thing as the high pressure "Gun Scrubber", just the Gun Scrubber is 2-3 times more expensive.
EDIT 2
quote:Maybe so BUT I've seen the BrakeKleen bleach the finish on AR's. I haven't seen the synthetic safe version of GunScrubber do this. I'm trying to help the guy and prevent him from butching up his rifle.
For goodness sake, that finish is HARD ANODIZED aluminum. Most of the time, it is applied to Mil-spec standards, at that. It might appear to have a dry hazey look, until wiped off, but it is far from damaging it. Please do consider that most brake calipers on high end automobiles are aluminum.0 -
You may have some crud in the bolt catch plunger recess or some time stiffened lube same place. Could also be something in the buffer tube preventing the bolt from going fully to the rear when fired or a gas blockage that's not fully cycling the bolt(but still enough to pick up another round). 0 -
Thanks for your help guys. I'm going to take the latch off, clean and lubricate to see if that makes a difference. If that doesn't work it's going back to the shop where I bought it. 0 -
Have you tried more than one magazine? 0 -
I had the same problem, the recoil buffer spring was too long.I had three springs on hand and only after some frustration noticed that the spring I was using was longer than the other two on hand. I belive what was happening was the compressed spring would not let the bolt fully retract. Clipped one rotation off the spring, no more problems. Good luck. Onejaeger 0 -
In the interest of time and possibly finish damage, I'd suggest just flushing the bolt catch plunger recess with some GunScrubber or any light lube(I wouldn't use BrakeKleen) and blow it out with air. Driving the pin out and back in can ding the finish of the lower for little to no real gain. 0 -
{Brake cleaner is the same thing as the high pressure "Gun Scrubber", just the Gun Scrubber is 2-3 times more expensive.}
Maybe so BUT I've seen the BrakeKleen bleach the finish on AR's. I haven't seen the synthetic safe version of GunScrubber do this. I'm trying to help the guy and prevent him from butching up his rifle.0 -
Is your BCG moving freely and fully to the rear? In my futile quest eliminating "AR Whoooosh" I put some sort of plastic tab in the rear end of the buffer tube. It shortened the available distance the BCG would travel by just enough to keep it from clearing the BHO lever. 0
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