Problems with my new NEA 10.5"

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mac100

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Just recieved my new NEA 10.5" rifle and I could not believe how light it was.
The finish on it was great and the machine work inside and out looked good.
The first thing I noticed before going to the range was the insane trigger pull.
I pulled the trigger and my gauge bottomed out before the trigger broke free, and can only guess that the pull weight was between 12-15lbs:sok2
I thought the safety was on at first.
Then I went to the range to fire and sight in and ran 160rds through it.
I kept having problems with the gun firing 2shot double taps when firing from the bench and can only speculate that it was bump firing due to the strong trigger pull.
Nevertheless there were also other problems, one of which when you try to pull back the cocking handle it would catch on the washer for the stock lock ring, after filing this down flat, the problem was rectified. You can see here in my blurry photo where it took the finish off from getting stuck on the ring
stockring.jpg

Also noticed the pin for the bolt release kept working its way out and I had to keep an eye on it and kept pushing it back in. I later staked both sides when I got home to hopefully prevent this from happening again. Luckily I have 2 other AR's to copy off of and see how they were put together to help me rectify these problems
Boltrelease.jpg

Now here's the major one, and the rest of you guys may want to check this immediately. I took the bolt out to clean the bolt and barrel and noticed that the screw had loosened off that holds the gas port down on the bolt. Had this loosened off more, it would have gouged the top of the reciever and eventually could have jammed the bolt into the reciever. To solve this problem I simply tightened the screws and then staked both sides just like my Colt HBAR's bolt. Here is a photo comparing the 2, also my DPMS was staked as well, so I am not sure if it was just my bolt that did not get staked or if they are all like this.
NEAbolttop.jpg

I took my stones to the trigger and got my pull down to 7lbs which is the same as my HBAR, but I found the steel on the sears to be soft and am not sure if the steel has been hardened. Regardless I will be replacing the trigger and all the springs in the rifle and I don't reccommend anyone doing any trigger work on these themselves. I do reccommend replacing the trigger though.
Anyways I am going to try it out this weekend with the mods in place and feel that the gun will perform alot better. I am happy with the rifle and I do understand that there are always some bugs to work out with such a new rifle. I hope this does not discourage someone from purchasing one of these rifles, because they are good and it maybe that this is just my rifle that had these problems.
They have a full warranty, so you could always send back for repairs. As for myself I found them easy to fix and I have already waited long enough for this rifle, and you will have to pry from my cold, clamy dead hands to get it from me now:ar15:
 
Did you run this by NEA? I know they mentioned in another thread that they outsourced some bcg's from another manufacturer. I would be interested in knowing if this is one of those, or one of their "new" bcg's. I haven't seen a bcg in a loooong time that isn't staked. #### I saw a norincrap the other day with a staked key on the bcg.

Is anyone aware are these other parts outsourced or made in house?
 
Not staking the bolt carrier key is a MAJOR sin. :(

I was under the impression that there werent any manufacturers not staking the bolt carrier anymore other than some weirdo stuff for Hi Power.

Hell you can even by a staking precision tool now.
 
You're the second guy to pop up with the gas key issue and I'm not thrilled to hear about your trigger.

I ran into a doubling problem with the trigger after about 500 pulls. After about 200 rounds down range I decided to just break in the trigger on the couch.

I was getting sick of the heavy pull. So I just released the hammer into my hand, recocked and then reset the trigger and pulled again ~300 times All while watching Godzilla VS Gigan,:rockOn:

The next time I hit the range it was doubling and would fire as I released the trigger to reset:eek:.

Upon inspection I noticed that the sear area and trigger contact points had rounded and would no longer catch after the disconnector released on reset.

So, in short you are right. The trigger is soft metal. I am going to replace mine with a 2 stage anyway so I'm not that pissed off. To get by for now, I just filed the front edge of the disconnector so it holds the hamer back long enough to reset the trigger. I know this won't last; as the sear and trigger continue to wear, I'm going to run out of reset distance to spare.:(

I won't be supprised to hear more of these stories as people start racking up the round counts.
 
Also, aren't the triggers supposed to be assembled with lighter trigger springs than what were used in the first batch? My friend just purchased an NEA 15 rifle so I will have to let him know to check the gas key.
 
After reading Misanthropist's review, he states that the bolts are staked, so is it just mine that was overlooked. Anybody else have any of these other issues that I have stated, or am I just the unlucky one?
 
You're the second guy to pop up with the gas key issue and I'm not thrilled to hear about your trigger.

I ran into a doubling problem with the trigger after about 500 pulls. After about 200 rounds down range I decided to just break in the trigger on the couch.

I was getting sick of the heavy pull. So I just released the hammer into my hand, recocked and then reset the trigger and pulled again ~300 times All while watching Godzilla VS Gigan,:rockOn:

The next time I hit the range it was doubling and would fire as I released the trigger to reset:eek:.

Upon inspection I noticed that the sear area and trigger contact points had rounded and would no longer catch after the disconnector released on reset.

So, in short you are right. The trigger is soft metal. I am going to replace mine with a 2 stage anyway so I'm not that pissed off. To get by for now, I just filed the front edge of the disconnector so it holds the hamer back long enough to reset the trigger. I know this won't last; as the sear and trigger continue to wear, I'm going to run out of reset distance to spare.:(

I won't be supprised to hear more of these stories as people start racking up the round counts.

Somebody should do a rockwell hardness test on the trigger for comparative purposes.

This is a serious issue, in the US guys have been charged for missfiring rifles that have doubled due to worn out parts as possessing a full auto without tax stamp.
 
Did you run this by NEA? I know they mentioned in another thread that they outsourced some bcg's from another manufacturer. I would be interested in knowing if this is one of those, or one of their "new" bcg's. I haven't seen a bcg in a loooong time that isn't staked. s**t I saw a norincrap the other day with a staked key on the bcg.

Is anyone aware are these other parts outsourced or made in house?

even if they out sourced there BCG's they could still stake the gas key themselves. When I worked at one of the above sponsors we checked every rifle that left the shop and a few carriers would come up from the US unstaked, but we had the staking tool and did it ourselves.
 
Somebody should do a rockwell hardness test on the trigger for comparative purposes.

This is a serious issue, in the US guys have been charged for missfiring rifles that have doubled due to worn out parts as possessing a full auto without tax stamp.

Not cool at all. At least this happened on one of the last cold days of this winter and the only guys at the rifle range were the "regulars". If it was a busier day I'm sure I would have had some unwanted attention. That was the main reason for modifying the disconnector for now, so it holds the hammer back longer and I don't get a repeat of this. Well that and I don't want an out of battery Kaboom. ;)

I have put an additional 120 rounds through it since my modification without any problems, but I don't plan on taking it out again until I swap the trigger group out completely. For now, in a function test it works fine, so CYA has been accomplished as far as I'm concerned.

BTW USP, if you have access to the facilities or equipment to perform a hardness test, let me know. I'll donate mine since it will be scrap once I pull it out anyway. However; if it does turn out that it was not hardened properly, that still does not neccesarily make it so for all of the rifles out there. A sample group of 1, does not a study make. ;)

For now, I will assume myself and the OP may have received some components in the LPKs that are out of spec. I don't think at this time this is wide spread, otherwise I'm sure there would posts all over about this by now. Mine wore out well under 1000 rounds. I'm going to assume there are people on this forum with many more than that through theirs by now.
 
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Wow Mac100, looks like you had some real issues. I just pulled my bcg to check mine and I'm staked.
...the trigger thing makes me a little nervous though...it will be interesting to hear NEA's response to that.
 
Since I'm still waiting for my ATT I haven't got the chance to shoot mine and try the trigger, but my BCG is not staked either... I was hoping maybe mine wont come loose but now it seems to happen to all of us
 
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