Failure to go into Battery

**BushmasterFanBoy** · 06-17-08, 01:56

I experienced a failure today that I can only describe as a failure to go into battery. The bolt fed the round into the chamber fine, but the extractor claw did not close around the round and instead my bolt was simply pressed against the round, not fully gripping it or shutting completely.

I didn't notice this until I fired and heard "click". The round was fully chambered but the bolt had not fully shut on it.

The previous round ejected fine, and the new round fed smoothly into the chamber, at the time I found it a rather curious failure, but quickly cleared it.

The gun in question is a 14.5 in barrel with carbine gas system. It has a commercial dimension collapsible stock with an H Buffer installed. The only other relevant changes are a Bravo Co. Extractor upgrade kit.

Thinking my buffer spring may be in question, I measured it only to find it still at 11 inches about half an inch longer than my new Bravo co. spring I keep as a spare, and providing stiffer tension in the tube as well.

I did notice my gun was unusually dirty when I cleaned it, but there was no debris in the extractor area and the gun was kept well lubed, though it was running almost excessively hot.

I'm not sure if my spring is underpowered, my extractor has excessive tension or what at all may be the cause of that failure.

I realize that if you shoot often enough you will get a failure, but I want to keep my weapon systems 100% reliable.

**Robb Jensen** · 06-17-08, 04:52

If you're running a 0-ring on the extractor, take it off and test fire it.

**Heavy Metal** · 06-17-08, 09:03

Check for high areas on the back end of the extractor rubbing against the inside of the bolt carrier.

**markm** · 06-17-08, 09:18

Originally Posted by gotm4

If you're running a 0-ring on the extractor, take it off and test fire it.

Exactly! Get it out of there. It sounds like too much extractor tension.

**C4IGrant** · 06-17-08, 10:52

Could be a combo of two things (weak buffer spring) and overly stiff extractor. Remove the O-Ring.

C4

**Seth Harness** · 06-17-08, 17:01

Originally Posted by C4IGrant

Could be a combo of two things (weak buffer spring) and overly stiff extractor. Remove the O-Ring.

C4

+1 on that.

**Saginaw79** · 06-17-08, 17:54

I agree to the above, Its either an O-ring or bad buffer spring

**a308garand** · 06-20-08, 14:56

The O ring is not allowing enough movement in the extractor to snap over the rim of the cartridge. Ditch the O ring and give it a test fire

**BushmasterFanBoy** · 06-20-08, 18:10

Okay, I ditched the o-ring and put in my heaviest buffer spring (This one measures a tad over 11")

A few observations, first the O-ring hardly makes any difference at all. The spring seems to do all of the work. I'm not sure if the O-ring adds anything, and conversly, whether its removal will fix or start anything.

I didn't add this kit to my gun blindly though, it had problems dropping cases during ejection, wedging them into the carrier/charging handle channel, occurring only with high-pressure 5.56 loads. The kit alleviated those problems, and this is the first trouble I've had with the kit installed.

I'm going to run it some more this weekend to make sure any kinks are gone, and I'll be using the same ammo that triggered the dropped cases to make sure those don't come back either.