Last December I finally bought my dream rifle. Non-Rest. Bushmaster ACR. Got it on the EE for a fair price. I love competition shooting with rifle. 3Gun, CQB that kind of stuff. Conversion I'm told was a Questar barrel done by them. Ive heard good things.
I got it home. Checked it out and realized that the gas block was canted off to the 1 o'clock position. Contacted the seller and notified him he says he has had no issues with the rifle so I figured I would try it out to see if it made any difference.
Further inspection revealed that the barrel nut locks up towards the 7 o'clock position. Again I made an assumption that this may be an aesthetic problem only and I should give it a try.
Took it to the range. It was a little more work getting this zeroed than any AR I have had. It's almost if it had a zero shift of a couple MOA every few rounds I fired. Finally it seemed to settle and I was printing 1.5" to 2.0" groups with Federal .223 ammo. Which is what I shot up to that time. Had one FTF malfunction. Round fed halfway into the chamber before getting crushed by the bolt. Chalked that up to a possible bad magazine.
Shot the rifle in a local CQB match in spring. Rifle performed admirably. No stoppages. Little long and heavy. Still learning the rifle and scope. Not used to scopes at all so scores weren't my best but still managed to post the best score overall for the day.
Started shooting 3 gun. About one a month. Have been having the same FTF malfunction as before. At least one a match. And after each one I try different Mags. After one match I did some reading and read that early ACRs were over gassed. Possible fix is new Gas regulator, piston spring, and recoil spring.
Also maybe my factory loads were too hot causing misfeeds. So I loaded some .223 with minimum charge. 55gr going 2650 fps. Real soft shooting. Cycles the gun and shoots about the same accuracy wise.
Shot another match soon after and rifle shot well. Had a malfunction on the last round of the last stage. Inspected the rifle for and my Alexander Arms mag the follower was stuck down so pinned that on the mag.
Then I shot the BC 3gun. Every other stage FTF. Real concerning. Seemed to be reduced by using ATRS mags but still happens. Got home and placed an order for the new ACR gas system parts. That's about where I'm at at this moment.
So I want to love this rifle. But it's not being very good for me reliability wise. Back of my mind every stage is where is it going to wad up?
So does anyone have an idea where this thing could be going wrong? Is the gas system over gassed? Does the canted gas block impede on the gas port? Or maybe the front trunnion is worn out/ out of spec?
If anyone has any suggestions I'm all ears. I really want to love this gun.