223 light primer strikes?? AR-15

marlin1895gs

marlin1895gs

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hey guys, so i was at the range today, figured i'd bring the AR along this time out, everything seemed fine, normal, i fired a few off a little quicker then normal type thing, but the 2nd one didn't fire, dented the primer, but didn't fire, i tried this a few times there after, same problem, try to fire quick but doesn't seem to strike the primer hard enough. if i pull the bolt back enough to reset the trigger it will go off, but again, if you fire slowly, like a couple seconds between shots at least, it has no problem.. any ideas? these were reloads, cci 450 primers, i did try some factory 55gr fmj winchester white box stuff, same deal.
 
Strip the bolt and clean the firing pin access. You probably have a bit of debris blocking the fall of the firing pin. Have see it happen several time.
 
Grinch said:
Strip the bolt and clean the firing pin access. You probably have a bit of debris blocking the fall of the firing pin. Have see it happen several time.
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This.

I had the same thing happen to me when I went out with an AR I had just bought off EE. The bolt carrier had looked like it had just been cleaned when I first recieved it, but after a few light strikes that failed to ignite, I took a closer look. Sure enough, the area where the firing pin shoulder rides towards the rear of the bolt carrier was so caked with ####, the firing pin was unable to travel the full distance forwards reliably.
 
hm, mine seems alright, i can see how that would happen, i dunno. its an 11.5" barrel, i've read a lot on buffers and #### for problems like this, i betcha i need a heavier one, or one of those fancy counterweight buffers or something. rather get rid of the problem right away then try to beat it around the bush
 
I could be wrong since I don't know what you've been reading, but I really doubt that changing to a heavier buffer would do any good at all in solving your problem.
 
try taking a standard piece of pipe cleaner, soak it in clp, then run it through the primer channel a couple of times. The channel can get choked up with crud from time to time and it can actually slow the forward movement of the firing pin enough to prevent it from detonating the primer. CCI primers are harder than most others, I understand, and thus take more force to properly ignite.
 
marlin1895gs said:
hm, i had cleaned it prior to bringing it out, but i did fire a good 50 rounds through it before i tried any sort of rapid fire.. is my buffer maybe too light or something, or would that have anything to do with it?
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Please confirm that when you say you had cleaned it prior to bringing it out you mean that you stripped both the bolt carrier and the bolt, and cleaned all of the interior of both - and then re-lubricated both - but leaving the firing pin and the firing pin channel clean and dry.

As others have already said, your bolt buffer has absolutely nothing to do with this at all.
 
ya i stripped the bolt and everything, never did clean the inside real well, just what i could do with twisting a peice of paper towel in there, it looked fairly clean, i'll try'er again with a pipe cleaner and see how that works. and make sure theres no crud buildup that won't dissolve with the clp.. thanks for the help guys.
 
marlin1895gs said:
ya i stripped the bolt and everything, never did clean the inside real well, just what i could do with twisting a peice of paper towel in there, it looked fairly clean, i'll try'er again with a pipe cleaner and see how that works. and make sure theres no crud buildup that won't dissolve with the clp.. thanks for the help guys.
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I don't think they mean just stripping the bolt. I think they mean removing the firing pin and cleaning in there. Cleaning inside the actual bolt.
 
marlin1895gs said:
, i've read a lot on buffers and s**t for problems like this, i betcha i need a heavier one,
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Buffers are only an issue if your rate of fire is starting to challenge the cycle time of the rifle, IE less than 0.1 seconds between shots. Anymore than that and your buffer is irrelevant.

That being said, light strikes are a sign that your bolt isn't yet closed when the hammer falls. And since you say it works fine at 2s per shot, it appears the bolt is closing, just really sluggishly.

Cleanliness and lubrication are the number one suspects. A weak recoil spring is a possibility. A bum disconnector could be the culprit, especially if it was able to drop the hammer upon trigger release in rapid fire.
 
makes sense, a lot of the info i read was probably from the states, might have a slightly different set up from me if you know what i mean.. i have it all scrubbed clean, forsure this time, and i replaced springs with a spare lower kit etc, see how it performs later this week.
 
Reloads? Did you clean the primer pockets before inserting the new primers? Did you seat the primers properly, so that the surface of the primer is slightly below the surface of the case head? Cases cleaned, trimmed? Lets take a look at the variables first guys before we jump to "It's the gun screwing up". What does it do with factory ammo?

Scott
 
on a recent shoot, I had two guns running, and both were experience the same rate of light strikes with the tactical AE 556. about 30% failure to ignite. There was indentation where the firing pin struck, however it did not seem that it was deep enough to ignite.

One was a Norc running PMAGS.
The other was an Stag running LAR10's.

We field stripped both the rifles down. all the way to removing the firing pin, wiping everything down with CLP, re assembling. and lubing the hell up with CLP till it was drip soaking.

There was only mild improvement.

we ended up with almost a whole box of 20 of ftf rounds. we tried to re shoot these to no effect either.

Was it the ammo? or was it that both happened to be super dirty?

Should I be replacing these stock trigger assemblies for something that is suppose to shoot 556?
 
So first things first lets check the firing pin protrusion on the assembled bolt and carrier.

Put the BCG together, push the bolt all the way to the rear, and the firing pin all the way forward. How much firing pin is protruding?
 
I would check also that someone hasn't done the "15 minute ar trigger job" which gets rid of one leg of the hammer spring for lighter trigger pull but causes more light strikes...
Ben
 
ben said:
I would check also that someone hasn't done the "15 minute ar trigger job" which gets rid of one leg of the hammer spring for lighter trigger pull but causes more light strikes...
Ben
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I do admit, this has been done on one of the rifles. I put the stock hammer spring back in...and give er a go.
still doesn't explain the other.

I checked the firing pin extrrusion, it's fine. I've never had issues with this ammo before...it must be something mechanical.
 
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