X95 - Bulk pack Remington .223 UMC, issues

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Silentknife

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Hi, hopefully someone here can help a guy out. I think I have diagnosed this issue to be my ammunition (that I unfortunately bought a 1k rnd box of)

Brand new IWI x95. Tested with dura mag, cross mag, Magpul p mag gen 2, 3. Remington .223 55gr UMC FMJ
I've fired about 350-450 rounds thru the rifle. Cleaned the gas tube and bolt carrier/ receiver rails and lubed as per the manual.

Two failures to feed thatIm encountering are rounds getting pushed up partially into the chamber and pinched by the bolt carrier, and a new round not being stripped off the magazine when the bolt closes.
Haven't been able to really narrow down which mags are the problems I've basically experienced it in all the mags, intermittently. Sometimes I can make it thru a whole mag no issues. Alternative some mags have have multiple.

Trying to determine if I just got some poor quality rounds that don't have enough pressure to fully cycle the bolt every time, if it's something with the rifle or my shooting. I have run a few mags of Winchester .223 55g and 5.56 55g and didn't notice this issue with these rounds. If that's the case are there any tricks I can try to at least shoot off this remaining box of bullets without much this much frustration?
 
I would suggest to try downloading your magazines by 1-2 rounds and trying them out. I have had issues with Cross mags loaded to 10 rounds as they are loaded too tight. You may have to shave the underside of your magazine followers in order to give a little bit of spring when fully loaded.
 
Silentknife said:
Hi, hopefully someone here can help a guy out. I think I have diagnosed this issue to be my ammunition (that I unfortunately bought a 1k rnd box of)

Brand new IWI x95. Tested with dura mag, cross mag, Magpul p mag gen 2, 3. Remington .223 55gr UMC FMJ
I've fired about 350-450 rounds thru the rifle. Cleaned the gas tube and bolt carrier/ receiver rails and lubed as per the manual.

Two failures to feed thatIm encountering are rounds getting pushed up partially into the chamber and pinched by the bolt carrier, and a new round not being stripped off the magazine when the bolt closes.
Haven't been able to really narrow down which mags are the problems I've basically experienced it in all the mags, intermittently. Sometimes I can make it thru a whole mag no issues. Alternative some mags have have multiple.

Trying to determine if I just got some poor quality rounds that don't have enough pressure to fully cycle the bolt every time, if it's something with the rifle or my shooting. I have run a few mags of Winchester .223 55g and 5.56 55g and didn't notice this issue with these rounds. If that's the case are there any tricks I can try to at least shoot off this remaining box of bullets without much this much frustration?
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Difficult to tell by just one piece of information. But first, you need to make sure it is not a magazine problem. Magazine lips dragging the bolt carrier, or the pin is too tight the round is too hard to strip off, but you said that you have cycling issue on full magazine with no round fed......so

Ammo could be of low pressure and not cycling the system properly. If that's the case, there is no cure. Saying this because the bolt carrier may not travel far enough to strip a round off or only do so marginally. This is an under gas issue.

UMC aka used to be run by Remington ammo is on the "low" side of velocity, at least in the past. They are a tame 223. The pressure curve of this ammo may be off for the X95.
 
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greentips said:
Difficult to tell by just one piece of information. But first, you need to make sure it is not a magazine problem. Magazine lips dragging the bolt carrier, or the pin is too tight the round is too hard to strip off, but you said that you have cycling issue on full magazine with no round fed......so

Ammo could be of low pressure and not cycling the system properly. If that's the case, there is no cure. Saying this because the bolt carrier may not travel far enough to strip a round off or only do so marginally. This is an under gas issue.

UMC aka used to be run by Remington ammo is on the "low" side of velocity, at least in the past. They are a tame 223. The pressure curve of this ammo may be off for the X95.
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Thanks this is kind of what I'm leaning toward. I did also borrow a few mags from a buddy(worn in and run on his ar) and experienced some similar failure to feed issues. The fact it's so intermittent seems like some of the rounds just don't blow the bolt back as far as it needs to go to properly pick up a new round. Ill chalk it up to rookie mistake of buying bulk rounds that I haven't tested for function and consider it to be good training for failures I guess haha
 
Painkillers said:
I've had zero issues with this ammo in my x95. I think you've got a mag problem/s.
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Interesting, out of 9 magazines? Fired full mags of Winchester 223 and 556 without stoppages, my mags and borrowed mags. The first few hundred rounds of UMC I only had one double feed then things started getting weird. I'll sit down tomorrow and do some more calculated testing and try to put a pattern together.

I'm wondering if it's also potential operator error as I'm new to the platform? Seems pretty straight forward. Load rounds to magazine, insert mag to rifle, tap and rack the slide or let the bolt slam forward with the release. I've been tapping the mags to set the rounds flush with the back as well, although I'd reckon recoil should do alot of that too. Sometimes the last round bolt hold open doesn't function after firing the last round as well.

Thanks for the input
 
Silentknife said:
I've been tapping the mags to set the rounds flush with the back as well, although I'd reckon recoil should do alot of that too. Sometimes the last round bolt hold open doesn't function after firing the last round as well.

Thanks for the input
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That won't be the issue.

Did you field strip it and take a look at the gas components attached to the bolt carrier for obvious abnormalities?

Last round bolt opener depends on the upward lifting force of the magazine follower. If magazine is not right, it may not work. It also typically fails when the system is under gassed, so the bolt group doesn't go far back enough for the lever to engage on the edge of the bolt. With AR , sometimes under gassed ammo or gas leak will have the bolt carrier instead of the bolt lug engaged by the bolt opener - that's your recipe for partially stripped round wedging in between .

Either magazines are the issues, or the rifle is under gassed. The rifle is under gassed could be an ammo issue, or it could be something in the gas system ( broken, clogged up) Look for the obvious first.
 
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greentips said:
That won't be the issue.

Did you field strip it and take a look at the gas components attached to the bolt carrier for obvious abnormalities?

Last round bolt opener depends on the pressure of the magazine follower. If magazine is not right, it may not work. It also typically fails when the system is under gassed, so the bolt group doesn't go far back enough for the lever to engage on the edge of the bolt. With AR , sometimes under gassed ammo or gas leak will have the bolt carrier instead of the bolt lug engaged by the bolt opener - that's your recipe for partially stripped round wedging in between .

Either magazines are the issues, or the rifle is under gassed. The rifle is under gassed could be an ammo issue, or it could be something in the gas system ( broken, clogged up) Look for the obvious first.
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I did field strip and run the supplied piston tube cleaner down the tube, I can see the small end of the port looks open down there with a flashlight, the piston itself had some blue foul gunk caked on it, I assume some factory assembly grease type thing. I cleaned this off and wiped the piston basically dry, just a tiny sheen of CLP on it. Not sure if I should be drying it off with alcohol or something? This seems to have had no effect on the issue though. I suspect that this lot of rounds just has a high percentage of rounds in it that don't quite have the pressure required to reliably cycle the bolt fully. Without any gas adjustment available I am stuck with this issue unless I write off this case and buy another type. However previous post from user Painkillers notes zero issues with the same rounds. I guess every lot of cartridges is different as well as every rifle.

Cheers
 
Silentknife said:
I did field strip and run the supplied piston tube cleaner down the tube, I can see the small end of the port looks open down there with a flashlight, the piston itself had some blue foul gunk caked on it, I assume some factory assembly grease type thing. I cleaned this off and wiped the piston basically dry, just a tiny sheen of CLP on it. Not sure if I should be drying it off with alcohol or something? This seems to have had no effect on the issue though. I suspect that this lot of rounds just has a high percentage of rounds in it that don't quite have the pressure required to reliably cycle the bolt fully. Without any gas adjustment available I am stuck with this issue unless I write off this case and buy another type. However previous post from user Painkillers notes zero issues with the same rounds. I guess every lot of cartridges is different as well as every rifle.

Cheers
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No alcohol or anything funny. Wiping it down with a light coat of CLP is fine. The blue/green stuff is copper residue.

You should mark down the lot number and sent it to UMC aka Remington ammo now owned by VISTA which also runs Federal. It could be a factory issue with their powder mix. Most of the 223 ammo made are consumed by semi auto sporting rifles in the US, they should work in semi. X95 is not uncommon in the US

You may even get a coupon or partial rebate, worth a try.
 
greentips said:
No alcohol or anything funny. Wiping it down with a light coat of CLP is fine. The blue/green stuff is copper residue.

You should mark down the lot number and sent it to UMC aka Remington ammo now owned by VISTA which also runs Federal. It could be a factory issue with their powder mix. Most of the 223 ammo made are consumed by semi auto sporting rifles in the US, they should work in semi. X95 is not uncommon in the US

You may even get a coupon or partial rebate, worth a try.
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Thanks! I figured that light coat of CLp would be fine. I'll try and reach out to them and see what happens. I figured this rifle would basically run anything
 
Have you tried a LAR15 mag - ie (non pinned or non crimped)? LAR15 mags are still legal (for now) and that's all I run in my X95. I have had issues with PMAG G2 and G3 30 pinned to 5

But that said if it only happens with UMC, that definitely narrows it down.

Would still try LAR15 mags with the UMC just to confirm and rule out all possibilities.
 
thegazelle said:
Have you tried a LAR15 mag - ie (non pinned or non crimped)? LAR15 mags are still legal (for now) and that's all I run in my X95. I have had issues with PMAG G2 and G3 30 pinned to 5

But that said if it only happens with UMC, that definitely narrows it down.

Would still try LAR15 mags with the UMC just to confirm and rule out all possibilities.
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I believe one of the mags I borrowed from a friend is a lar 15rd stamped to 10, I'll run another test to confirm. Thanks!
 
Silentknife said:
I believe one of the mags I borrowed from a friend is a lar 15rd stamped to 10, I'll run another test to confirm. Thanks!
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I think the LAR15s should be only 10 rounders double stacked. But the ones I have are native 10 rounders, not pinned, not crimped.

I do know for sure ammo can be a culprit. I was using some WWB 5.56 55g on my WK a couple of weeks ago and literally every 2-3 rounds it was jamming or stove piping sideways, etc. When I swapped to PMC 5.56 55g no issues. Went back to the WWB and the jamming started again. Clearly that was an ammo issue.

I do think the other poster's suggestion of feeding in 8 rounds or so out of 10 is a good idea. That for me seems to fix issues with mag seating on a closed bolt with a full mag on my X95.
 
thegazelle said:
I think the LAR15s should be only 10 rounders double stacked. But the ones I have are native 10 rounders, not pinned, not crimped.

I do know for sure ammo can be a culprit. I was using some WWB 5.56 55g on my WK a couple of weeks ago and literally every 2-3 rounds it was jamming or stove piping sideways, etc. When I swapped to PMC 5.56 55g no issues. Went back to the WWB and the jamming started again. Clearly that was an ammo issue.

I do think the other poster's suggestion of feeding in 8 rounds or so out of 10 is a good idea. That for me seems to fix issues with mag seating on a closed bolt with a full mag on my X95.
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I just grabbed one of those mini size lar 10rd mags to add to the testing. I've also reached out to Remington to see if they can provide any info, they got back to me quickly and are going to put me in touch with their Canadian contact, despite not being able to send the rounds back for testing.

I'll try downloading all my cross mags and doing some further testing with some 5.56 that I picked up today and update later.

The only reason I grabbed this box was to avoid the green tip PMC 5.56 that was actually cheaper cost per round due to wanting to shoot steel targets and avoid potential wildfire hazard shooting on crown land.
 
thegazelle said:
Have you tried a LAR15 mag - ie (non pinned or non crimped)? LAR15 mags are still legal (for now) and that's all I run in my X95. I have had issues with PMAG G2 and G3 30 pinned to 5

But that said if it only happens with UMC, that definitely narrows it down.

Would still try LAR15 mags with the UMC just to confirm and rule out all possibilities.
Click to expand...

very good solution i got that issue with my mpII and got rid of the pmags ...
 
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