M305 - My Bolt Fell Apart

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KomplexMojo

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Second trip to the range with my M305 yesterday. :ar15:

30 shots in and it stoped working. It took me a few minutes to determine what the issue was.

The bolt (assembly?) came apart. The firing pin and spring were still there but the ejector and another piece (I don't know the name of this part) were missing. I later found the shell ejector on the ground. I actually have video of the event. I'll look into posting it when I figure out how.

Please note that I'm not very knowlegable when it comes to guns, nor do I have the tools, so I followed the advice on the forms and I've never taken the bolt assembly apart.

I'm missing a piece now. Can anyone tell me what this piece is called? It is the removable piece that you can see when you look at the bolt from the top (on the roller end).

I've only had the rifle for two weeks, should it be the store's responsibility to replace it (either the rifle or the bolt)?

If not can I buy this part separately?

I love how the gun shoots but the two times I've times it out have been cut short with issues (see my other posting about losing my semi-auto).

Thanks for any responses. Mojo.
 
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wow sorry to hear about your bad luck.... i dont know to much about these rifles (YET... waiting on mine) people with more insight will be along shortly, and can possibly help you
 
I had the same thing happen to me on my norc. I ended up picking up all the parts I needed at treelinem14 .com then reassembled everything. According to M14doc, this is something that can potentially happen to all m1a models.

There's several threads in this board that show you how to reassemble the bolt with a 30-06 casing. A neat little trick that works, but difficult if you cant find the casings at your range.

It was such a pain in the ass to reassemble with my bare hands so I ended up picking up a $70 dollar bolt assembly/dissassembly tool. The tool worked wonderfully and now I can reassemble the bolt in less than 5 mins.

If you want to avoid all that hassel of buying the tool, I'll be willing to fix the thing for you once you source all the parts. Just pay the shipping costs both ways and I'll reassemble it for you free of charge. PM me if you want to go this route. That goes for anyone else who has run into the same problem. Just paying it forward as Hungry would put it.
 
Interesting range observation from yesteday.

History
It was the first time I had tested my 2009 Poly with live ammo since my bolt fell apart on me two months ago. I couldnt remember what ammo I was using when this first happened, but I was only shooting MFS and Remington on a regular basis. I reassembled my new parts into the bolt and everything worked fine with blanks.

Testing
Sighted in at 50 yards with MFS 147gr. FMJ. Rounds shooting high and to the right with my first 5 round grouping. No feeding problems and consistent 3-4 inch groups = 6-8MOA. Consistent with all my other range visits where I have thrown about a total 500 rnds of this stuff through it.

Sighted dead centre after my second mag. No problems. Insert the third mag in and within two rounds the bolt blew out the extractor and extractor spring. This was quite a WTF moment as all springs were unmodified and USGI replacements. How could this happen so soon?

Luckily I found the parts on the paved ground and reassembled the bolt. Function checked it and 'twas ready to go. Loaded up another box of MFS. Within two mags, the bolt blows up again. This time the extractor is nowhere to be seen and the spring is next to the spotting scope. Bolt was unable to be opened at all from the closed position and the oprod would not open. I had to get a rubber mallet in order to safely open the action while keeping the muzzle down range. After 15 minutes of searching with a magnet, I find the extractor under the bench to my right.

Reassembled the bolt with all the same parts and now switch over to Remington UMC 150gr. FMJ. Not a single problem with any of the 200 rounds put down range. 1-2 inch groupings with fliers included. 2-4MOA with three rounds all touching each other.

Next was Winchester .308 FMJ 147gr.. Fired flawlessly as well with all 80 rounds that I had. Similar grouping results as Remington +-0.5"

Then I switched to Hornady Superformance SST(red tipped) 168gr. Flawless functioning and feeding. Two boxes fired with all groupings within 1 inch at 50yards. So 2MOA. I love the detail that goes into the packaging. I think all manufactures can learn from how hornady labels their boxes with lot numbers, ballistic coefficients(0.447), muzzle velocities(2840fps) and 100-500 yard ballistics data under standard conditions.

Decided to go back to MFS to give it a benefit of a doubt. Within the first 10 rounds. The bolt blows up again and I cant find the extractor. Buddy two lanes over ends up finding it for me after I finished swapping in a new extractor from my emergency kit.

Fired off my last box of Hornday, and still no problems.

Conclusion
There seems to be something with MFS that causes my rifle to spit out the extractor. All other brands of ammo that I have tested will not have any issues in my rifle. I can find nothing wrong with my bolt, or the new parts I place into it. The bottom of the bolt is flush with the extractor, and the extractor might even me slightly recessed into the bolt.

Because I have thrown MFS in the rifle in the past with no problems, I'm thinking that there is either an issue with the more recent lots of MFS. If its not an issue with the powder, then I suspect its an issue with steel casings.

I think I'm going to stay away from steel cased ammo and MFS for a while. Its frustrating dealing with these types of range stoppages on the m14 and I dont always want to lug a bolt tool and tool box to the range. I previously stopped shooting MFS in my AR15. It would not cause stoppages but it was a pain in the ass spending two hours to clean out copper fouling out after every visit.

In order to draw a better conclusion, I'm wondering if people could chime in with the ammo they were using when their bolt falls apart on them.

Thanks
 
@Wildcard91....I had it happen to me the other week. I was firing some of that 7.62x51 Norinco steel case ammo from Canada Ammo at the time. I know MFS ammo is steel case too...perhaps that has something to do with it? Anyway, I ended up finding all the parts except for the extractor which I was able to obtain from Marstar but I'll be damned if I can get the thing back together. I've seen the 30-06 trick done but could not find an empty 30-06 case during my past few range trips.
 
Hmmmm. I have fired so far 120 rds of the norc steel cased and no bolt blowout yet. But I'll update if it does happen. Got another 400 rds to go through yet so we'll see.....
 
has anyone every chronied the MFS 147gr 308? I'm wondering if I could rule this out as a cause, but I just dont have enough data points.

I doubt it has to do with the load since Hornady's Superformance are super hot. The box of 150 SST I have from Hornady shoots 3000 fps in standard conditions and 168s are labeld with an MV of 2840. These rounds have not caused any problems as of yet. Even if the MFS stuff is inconsistent and has an extrahot load in the random casing, I doubt this would vary significantly from Hornady's max MVs.

Again, my offer stands to anyone who is unable to repair their bolt using the 30-06 method and doesnt want to buy an expensive tool. I'll use my bolt tool on it if you send me the parts and shipping costs.

I'm going back to the range again this weekend with some friends. Seeing how many of them still have MFS left over from the last visit, I'm going to conduct an experiment with the extractors. 50 or 100 rounds on the current extractor, then swap out all parts with my emergency kit and the old extractor for the exact same number of rounds. At least this might rule out a crappy extractor as the cause.

@Mantis, How many rounds do you estimate you put down range before the extractor blew? So that leaves us at two blown extractors both with steel casings.

Anyone with blown extractors using brass?
 
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