RRA LAR15 10 Round Reliability and General Issues

BigGameHunter

BigGameHunter

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I have noticed that out of my 4 10 round magazines for my AR 2 of them work flawless, one works 90 percent of the time and the other was failing on the 4th round every time. It was nose diving and causing a lockup of the action. After I took a dremel to the feeding lips and got them the same as the other ones (burrs, narrower space, etc) it seems to work fine. However what are some tips to avoid "nose dives"?

I did notice that when one magazine would do it then all of them would until the action was taken apart and relubed as if the nosedive knocked it off kilter. Also when it was jammed most of the time it could be solved by slapping the bottom of the mag and it would automatically cycle the round as if the mag wasn't seated properly however i am sure it was and i think it was just the ammo being seated slightly downward.

I am new to AR's but not to semi autos (My Mini 14 is a tank but not as pretty)and was wondering what types of tips anyone has for these type of malfunctions beside removing burrs and smoothing surfaces as well as lube (I switched from oil to dry silicone lube which may have helped)

Out of all of this rambling I was just wondering are M4/AR platform rifles finicky and require gunsmithing tinkering? Also I put this in here and in gunsmithing as I was not sure where I would get the most relevant results so Moderaters can feel free to remove one of them if they see fit. Thanks.
 
My Norc M4 has run without a hiccup that was not self induced. Never needed any break in time and feeds from the LARS mags perfectly.

Check that the tip of the bullet is not catching on something at the front of the mag and hanging up. Try pushing the follower down a few times to check for any rough or narrow spot in the mag - maybe got a bit crushed.

There might be an issue with your mag release not being in the right height although can't see how that is likely.

Maybe yours needs a break in????

I am using a syn grease and it is working really well. I have not done anything for over 200rds and it is running 100% with my handloads.
Jerry
 
Check the springs, early Lar 15 mags had the wrong spring in them and it caused problems like nose diving miss feeds ect. I bought my mags and contacted the seller and got them to send the replacement springs for two of mine, no problems with the new springs. I'm not sure where you could get the proper springs now if yours are the weak old type. Try Questar or Wolverine maybe.
 
I have 9 of these mags and have never had a problem in my RRA. I have seen guys have problems with them in the Remington AR.
 
dremeling the burr off the one magazine helped it immensly and since it hasn't had a problem but it was brutal when I first got it.

I just tried again.

2 Dark black ones (New ones that came with rifle). Work flawlessly with 5 rounds in them. With 10 they nose dive.

2 Dark Grey Work most of the time with 10. Flawlessly with 5.

It seems like the spring tension when the magazines are full is causing something similar to a video I seen on youtube where the BCG doesn't have enough force to chamber and binds. I am wondering if the springs of the mags are still too firm and it is doing that as with a few rounds they work fine but at full cap they nose dive and destroy the bullets. Like ram the brass right into the casing.

Also if only one round is put in any magazine it has always cycled no matter what perfectly and these tests are dry runs as I have only put 20 rounds through this gun and the magazines where full. Could just manually cycling even though I am racking it fully not be enough power as if while its jammed if I pull the charging handle back and let it rack it will cycle most of the time as well as smacking the bottom of the clip it will cycle which is why I think it is the magazine springs are too hard but i am not sure.
 
Mine didn't work with 10 rds when it was new.
It seemed like the spring was a bit too stiff.

I let it sit for a few weeks fully loaded, and now it works great.
 
Lazerus2000 said:
Mine didn't work with 10 rds when it was new.
It seemed like the spring was a bit too stiff.

I let it sit for a few weeks fully loaded, and now it works great.
Click to expand...

LOL that is actually what I ended up doing last night. Hopefully I can get a few others to ring in on other tips as everyone elses seem to run perfectly.

Update: Still 5 as max amount. Any more and its hit and miss. If I didn't have bad luck I wouldn't have any. I am starting to think that mini 14 is a far superior weapon if not just for the reliability factor alone as I can't be the only one with several ####ty mags or a problem with the gun. I just put the mini comment in to see if people will start to give me proper solutions instead of just bragging about there mags. I don't see what else can be much different. Cheap stamped aluminum frame, cheap spring, teflon (self lubing, anti tilt bs) follower that tilts and causes nose dives. Sorry for the venting but please someone give me a good answer for a change. I know its not a 2000 dollar AR but its not that bad either. Thanks for any good responses.
 
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Well I wouldn't blame problems caused by cheap mags on your AR.

These mags are cheaply built and quite flimsy. They can be made to work in anyone's gun with varying degrees of success.

I have a bunch of them and run them in my Stag.

I took them all apart and cleaned them up and removed a few burrs and irregularities around the lips etc. I took material off the stablisers to increase capacity to 10.5 rounds. I then lubed the inside of the mag body and the follower with dry graphite spray.

At this point all the mags work perfectly if I load one at a time and shoot them dry before reloading. (No 10+1) A couple of them will feed reliably from a closed bolt start. (10+1 yeah)

What the difference is I don't know yet.

When you take your mags apart be very sure to get the springs positioned properly upon reassemby. If the spring in not square your follower will not run square to the mag body.

I have seen a lot of guys use these mags and most of them seem to run okay but have similar problems to what I have experienced:

1) Won't drop free with Tacpuls installed
2) No 10+1 capability

That being said they are still better than 5's

John
 
Thank you for this response. Did you put dry lube on the springs or just the body and follower? Would silicon lube work, its dry as well. I did clean up the burrs as one of them was really bad and wouldn't work at all which is now slighly working with 5 rounds. But that right now is what these 10 rounders are is 5 round mags. Hopefully they do break in and I can put 10 in. What confuses me is the first time I shot the first one i got i put 10 in and went of without a hitch even letting her rip. Maybe its just me manually cyclying the action and not allowing the force of the gas do it that is causing it but I won't get a chance to range this gun for a while again. As long as its not causing damage to the AR and just wrecking ammo for now then I can try and be patient until i find out the solution.

It could just be human error as well because nothing has changed since I acutally shot it and now except hot gas cycled the action perfectly and maybe I am doing off kilter, ect. I am not babying the action if thats what you think. I am giving it a full racking. I am sure it will get sorted out eventually but til now its one of those things that really urks me.

John in B.C. said:
Well I wouldn't blame problems caused by cheap mags on your AR.

These mags are cheaply built and quite flimsy. They can be made to work in anyone's gun with varying degrees of success.

I have a bunch of them and run them in my Stag.

I took them all apart and cleaned them up and removed a few burrs and irregularities around the lips etc. I took material off the stablisers to increase capacity to 10.5 rounds. I then lubed the inside of the mag body and the follower with dry graphite spray.

At this point all the mags work perfectly if I load one at a time and shoot them dry before reloading. (No 10+1) A couple of them will feed reliably from a closed bolt start. (10+1 yeah)

What the difference is I don't know yet.

When you take your mags apart be very sure to get the springs positioned properly upon reassemby. If the spring in not square your follower will not run square to the mag body.

I have seen a lot of guys use these mags and most of them seem to run okay but have similar problems to what I have experienced:

1) Won't drop free with Tacpuls installed
2) No 10+1 capability

That being said they are still better than 5's

John
Click to expand...
 
Have you considered contacting the dealer that sold you the mags and getting them replaced?

From my playing with semi autos of all kinds, the main area for functioning problems are the mags. If the mags aren't right, reliability stinks.

My experience with these 10 rds mags has been positive and those shooting these in my area also have had good luck.

Now if there was a 'bad' batch that got out, you will be fighting them forever.

Try using a pmag or Brownells mag or something else just to confirm that the rifle is not the problem. Try another LAR mag that is working in another AR and see.

You shouldn't have to fight your mags to get them to work.

Jerry
 
That is a great point - check the OAL of the ammo used. If the tips are dragging on the front of the mag, they will cause the ammo stack to dive.

There needs to be some clearance between the bullet and mag.

Jerry

PS they drop free out of all the Norc M4's I have seen :)
 
Where did you buy the LAR-15 ten round magazines?

Were they purchased from us... or purchased new from a dealer or used off the EE?

Mark
 
2 Were from a Dealer Brand New
2 were from EE and were pretty much new

The ammo is winchester white box 45grain. standard ammo

They drop free no problem. Never had an issue with them not coming out of the well.

After it does it with the one magazines which is the main culprit it will do it with all the others including the crappy norinco stock mags it comes with however they work just as good/bad as well.

Note: All mags including the slightly used 2 I bough all have less than 10 live rounds through them. I just know they have worked and then if I load a couple extra in go from loading 5 rounds into the 10 rounders to 6,7,8,9 or 10 they will start doing this which is why I think the spring needs to soften up as the more it is under tension the more the problem happens.

If I load 1-5 rounds in the magazines it takes away 99% percent of the problem besides with the one magazine which when under 5 rounds is about 90 percent up from 25%. But these are 10 round magazines and expect them to run as that or I would buy a whole whack of PMAGS or whatever other mags are out there but I have 6 mags right now so I don't really need anymore until I can shoot on a frequent basis.

So to recap

Mags work good as a whole with 5 or less rounds in them
Put more in they start to nose dive and jam up really good
Winchester White 45 gr
Brand New Norinco M4 with 20 live rounds down the pipe
Magazines in question are 4 RRA 10 rounders

THanks
 
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