AR15 5000ish round range report

r34skyline

r34skyline

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Hello,

Heres a quick show and tell for what an AR15 looks like after about just a little over 5000 rounds of use and how it wears.

Edit: I forgot to give a rough idea of cleaning cycle it's usually 300-1000 rounds for normal field strip and clean

Quick disclaimer the lower was initially a core15 unit, eventually got replaced with a colt canada sa20 lower which has around 3000 rounds of use. A geissele 2 stage trigger was installed about 400 rounds ago.

To satisfy the curious I will first go over the setup as is.

Upper is a BCM 11.5 inch FSB upper with a government profile cold hammer forged barrel
Trijicon tritium front post
PWS FSC556 muzzle device
Handguard is a Magpul MOE old style handguard
The strap around the handguard is the zahal narrow velcro sling adapter
Flashlight is an elzetta alpha with a high and low tailcap.
Flashlight mount is an Elzetta mount that would mount most 1 inch flashlights
BCG is all original, Daniel Defense F/A BCG
BCM Gunfighter medium latch charging handle
Rear irons is a Magpul MBUS pro
Optic is an Aimpoint Comp M4 with the killflash on it topped on an absolute cowitness ADM mount.

Lower is a Colt canada SA20 lower.
Geissele G2S installed a few months ago.(approx 400 rounds ago)
Grip is a Mapul K2+
Stock is a Magpul STR.

Optic and Irons zeroed for 100m



Let's go over the different variety of ammunition that was used before we look at the internal bits. No I have not used any steel cased ammo.
1500 rounds of federal 55 grain 223
1000 rounds pmc bronze 223 55gr
660 rounds federal independence 556 55gr
600 rounds federal black pack 223 55gr
1000 rounds imi 556 62gr
260 ae 223 55gr 223
100 rounds remington freedom bucket 55g

5120 rounds total

I didn't keep a detailed stock of what was shot on which date but the quantity there is accurate.


Now let's have a look at the upper receiver itself







As you can see where the BCG rails ride on the receiver are showing wear as is the area where the cam pin slots in, but the finish isn't completely worn off. The feed ramps look good, and while I couldn't get any pictures to come out good for the rifling, it honestly still looks new chamber and bore, obviously headspace check went good. I did not borescope the gas port for wear(mainly because I don't have access to one atm) but for the 10k whenever that happens I'll try to source one.

Up next we'll look at the BCG itself.









The BCG also has some wear on the rails, and on the gas key itself. There is a visible wear to the front face but it feels quite smooth.

Up next we'll look at the bolt itself I wanted to take one quick picture of how much gunk gets into the firing pin channel under the extractor for those that never clean it. Personally I don't clean it on ever time i take this carbine down but usually get the extractor off every 1500-2000 rounds... do what you will with that as a reference guide.







Bolt face itself has some wear off the face on the lugs. The back end of the lug is mostly good with a very small amount of finish coming off. No visible cracks found at the back of the lugs or at the cam pin hole. Bolt will be run till it breaks.

Now moving on to some other small parts such as the firing pin, the cam pin, the buffer, and the charging handle











You can see the wear spots by where the finish wore off on the charging handle. you can easily feel the wear line on the cam pin, and the firing pin looks new minus the carbon ring on the shoulder. Buffer has visible wear but the spring measured within servicable limits so it will be continued.

Nothing on this gun has broken over the last 5k rounds. And the main spring is still in limits for length so it will continue to be used. I have had 1 ammo related malfunction where the primer was faulty, was a m193 load of some sort iirc. The geissele trigger was installed because it's awesome, however one thing to note is the cc milspec trigger is actually pretty nice after a thousand rounds in.

Hope you enjoyed the review, if you have any questions feel free to ask.

Cheers.
 
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PinaKaleada said:
Damn! Always love to see how guns look when pushed to limits. This reminds me of the ongoing text Military Arms Channel on youtube is doing with their BCM rifle! Great work dude.
Click to expand...

5K is nowhere near "pushed to limits" for any AR15 of average or better quality. I put 5K through a NIB C8 Flat-Top Heavy Barrel during 8 months of training before deploying overseas. I considered that service carbine to be adequately "broken-in" and reliability-validated at that point, so confidence in my weapon was high. I never incurred any parts breakage or even a degree of wear that would lead to parts replacement despite expending another thousand or so rounds in harsh combat conditions.

YMMV, but modern service rifles such as the SIG Virtus are guaranteed (and warranteed) to go 20K rounds without so much as a spring replacement. Granted that is an extreme example, but it wouldn't surprise me if a decent piston AR such as the HK416 could easily match that performance. Continual product improvement means that such performance limits will eventually extend even further.

The fact is that many firearms owners in Canada will never fire enough ammo over their lifetime of ownership to wear out their modern guns. Well-maintained and cared-for modern firearms will outlive most of their owners, assuming they don't end up in the smelter beforehand...
 
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Bartok5 said:
5K is nowhere near "pushed to limits" for any AR15 of average or better quality. I put 5K through a NIB C8 Flat-Top Heavy Barrel during 8 months of training before deploying overseas. I considered that service carbine to be adequately "broken-in" and reliability-validated at that point, so confidence in my weapon was high. I never incurred any parts breakage or even a degree of wear that would lead to parts replacement despite expending another thousand or so rounds in harsh combat conditions.

YMMV, but modern service rifles such as the SIG Virtus are guaranteed (and warranteed) to go 20K rounds without so much as a spring replacement. Granted that is an extreme example, but it wouldn't surprise me if a decent piston AR such as the HK416 could easily match that performance. Continual product improvement means that such performance limits will eventually extend even further.

The fact is that many firearms owners in Canada will never fire enough ammo over their lifetime of ownership to wear out their modern guns. Well-maintained and cared-for modern firearms will outlive most of their owners, assuming they don't end up in the smelter beforehand...
Click to expand...


We might just get to find out one of these days :)

This did show up very recently

 
oh, so now they offer MR223s in gold instead of RAL 8000 eh? lol

Due to our magazine limits, our schedule of firing is probably very low relatively to what the rifles can do, so even less wear there.

I'll probably reach 5000 in my MR223 before you. I'll post something at that time. I dont plan on cleaning my piston for the next 2-3 thousand rounds. So we'll see what happens.
 
Bartok5 said:
5K is nowhere near "pushed to limits" for any AR15 of average or better quality. I put 5K through a NIB C8 Flat-Top Heavy Barrel during 8 months of training before deploying overseas. I considered that service carbine to be adequately "broken-in" and reliability-validated at that point, so confidence in my weapon was high. I never incurred any parts breakage or even a degree of wear that would lead to parts replacement despite expending another thousand or so rounds in harsh combat conditions.

YMMV, but modern service rifles such as the SIG Virtus are guaranteed (and warranteed) to go 20K rounds without so much as a spring replacement. Granted that is an extreme example, but it wouldn't surprise me if a decent piston AR such as the HK416 could easily match that performance. Continual product improvement means that such performance limits will eventually extend even further.

The fact is that many firearms owners in Canada will never fire enough ammo over their lifetime of ownership to wear out their modern guns. Well-maintained and cared-for modern firearms will outlive most of their owners, assuming they don't end up in the smelter beforehand...
Click to expand...

OKAY OKAY I must have misspoke. I didn't actually think 5k was the end of the service life. I retract the word "limit", I'll replace it with "used normally". I said it because most of us don't put more than 500 rounds through each rifle. I've got rifles that has shot ~2-3000 rounds and I know I barely broken them in.
 
PinaKaleada said:
OKAY OKAY I must have misspoke. I didn't actually think 5k was the end of the service life. I retract the word "limit", I'll replace it with "used normally". I said it because most of us don't put more than 500 rounds through each rifle. I've got rifles that has shot ~2-3000 rounds and I know I barely broken them in.
Click to expand...

LOL, it's all good!
 
Tiker said:
oh, so now they offer MR223s in gold instead of RAL 8000 eh? lol

Due to our magazine limits, our schedule of firing is probably very low relatively to what the rifles can do, so even less wear there.

I'll probably reach 5000 in my MR223 before you. I'll post something at that time. I dont plan on cleaning my piston for the next 2-3 thousand rounds. So we'll see what happens.
Click to expand...

Entirely possible since I will shoot the mr223 but due to ease of parts access will conduct the majority of training and practice with this ar. Odds are this will hit 10k before the mr hits 5k but I look forward to reading your report.
 
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