So my AR180 self destructed today...

hmm.i guess just thinking about it, if the rifle was missing that part #14, it shortened the whole piston rod assembly.

and with it shorter, it had more space to come out and get snagged up on the receiver.

that's probably what happened =(
 
How far back is your gasblock? Does the MI rail force the gasblock to sit further forward on the barrel? This extra room may have given the op rod parts enough room to come forward and bind up on the receiver.

Or you are missing that part, thus allowing the whole unit to come forward enough and bind on th receiver. The MI rail would allow the piston to sit on the rifle as if everything was fine.

Either way, I conclude user error, so all the AR15 cheerleaders can go suck an egg.

Anark, can I buy that bent piston off you?
 
How far back is your gasblock? Does the MI rail force the gasblock to sit further forward on the barrel? This extra room may have given the op rod parts enough room to come forward and bind up on the receiver.

Or you are missing that part, thus allowing the whole unit to come forward enough and bind on th receiver. The MI rail would allow the piston to sit on the rifle as if everything was fine.

Either way, I conclude user error, so all the AR15 cheerleaders can go suck an egg.

Anark, can I buy that bent piston off you?

I think that the gas block would still be in the same location becuse it had to be lined up with the gas port. That port / hole is very small and if it isn't 100% lined up, you wouldn't be able to cycle any rounds.

May be there was play in the piston and he didn't notice, then when cycled the piston would have too much play and eventually would bend.
 
well... it's spring actuated? so it could've worked a bunch of times before getting snagged on the side of the gasblock or the hole...

i dunno. wild speculation.
 
I am not real familiar with the rifle, so bear with the question. How is the piston in the gas block that pushes on the op rod retained? I am just wondering how much bolt action shooting you'd want to do with noting inbetween you and the gas block piston. I am sure it is just fine and plenty strong but with a "never seen that" before kind of failure having occurred maybe be careful till Wolverine sorts out what happened.

Glad your hand guard did'nt get broke!
 
I think that the gas block would still be in the same location becuse it had to be lined up with the gas port. That port / hole is very small and if it isn't 100% lined up, you wouldn't be able to cycle any rounds.

May be there was play in the piston and he didn't notice, then when cycled the piston would have too much play and eventually would bend.
I was grasping at straws with the gasblock thing. figured it was worth mentioning as it could have been a factor.
 
One way or another this problem should be easy to figure out. Can the firearm be used without the part? Probably not? How many times did you fire it this time out before there was an obvious problem? When is the last time you had it apart? How many times have you stripped this firearm to the point where this part would be 'free'?
 
What do you want, it's not an AK47 or so. Too many parts, too much money, that means marginal reliability. Capitalism wants YOUR MONEY...
 
to bend the rod like that, there was WAY too much pressure, soft metal, or more likely too much space allowing the rod to build up momentum before striking the bolt. check the bolt as well for damage.
 
If you assembled your AR without the cam pin, it would probably KB.....
If you assembled your VZ58 without the locking wedge, it would probably KB.
You might be able to blame user error on the rifles design if it is very complicated affair. Fortunatly these are simple rifles with very few parts.
 
I did some checking with my AR180B. It is possible to install the piston assembly with out the connecting link and have everything stay in place. It is loose and flops around, but it won't fall apart on its own.

Here is my theory:
The piston assembly was installed with out the connecting link, this allows the piston room to move forward towards the gasblock. As the bolt carrier moved to load the next round, this may have hit the piston enough to have it slam forward and leave the hole in the front receiver trunnion, jamming up in front of it. The next shots expanding gases had no where to go, and the weak link was the operating rod, and it bent.
 
If you assembled your AR without the cam pin, it would probably KB.....
If you assembled your VZ58 without the locking wedge, it would probably KB.
You might be able to blame user error on the rifles design if it is very complicated affair. Fortunatly these are simple rifles with very few parts.


You must be an engineer to put the BGC back into an AR receiver without the cam pin.
 
If anark had been using the factory original handguards there wouldn't have been an issue as it would have been pretty obvious that the link was missing. The MI handguard really blocks the area near the receiver and would support and guide the spring and rod well enough that a person could overlook the missing part.
 
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