Walnut
07-22-08, 22:17
I posted this these tips on an questions about bolt maintenance on a RRA, I typed it and it got longer and longer, so I thought I would do a general post. I have added a few things since the original post.
Cheers
Walnut
________________________________________________________
I have a 16" A4 RRA that I have been playing with for awhile now, these are the things I have done to my bolt/upper. I was having some feeding problems when I first got the gun, but now it running like a top. I figure that it easier for me to tell you what I have done for my gun to make it run good. Some may be over kill, but I runs good, so I have no complaints.
1. The standard recommendation is to replace the roll pin that holds in the extractor with an better one. Go to a hardware store and get a 1/8"x3/4" roll pin and replace the factory one (i got mine at Lowes). I find It is easier to start at the top at the and drive it out the bottom and start the pin at the top and drive it out the bottom. You'll get extra pins and you need them. This keeps the extractor from moving around with a shell under the lip and keeps the tension consistent.
2. Now I am super cheap and shoot cast bullets out of my gun and various other reloads, so my gun gets pretty nasty. I like to remove the extractor every 500 rounds and clean it out, I also pull out the firing pin at this time. Watch out for the spring loaded firing pin. It nearly went across the room the first time I removed it. One tip I can give is, I crimped the last coil on the firing pin return spring so it will stay on the firing pin. Now when you shoot it across the room, you keep the firing pin and spring together! I will take a Q-tip with a drop of oil and run down the firing pin channel to clean it out. That is all I do for that. I have discovered that oil in the firing pin channel causes light strikes on guns in general. I live in a dry climate so rust isn't really much of a concern.
3. Extractor tension was a factor in my gun running smoothly. I run a 8oz buffer and was having extraction/ejection issues, I would have empty casings staying in the gun with factory 115 FMJ ammo and get these gosh-awful jams. It got worse and worse to the point that I would get 3-4 jams per magazine. So I did step 1 and also tightened the extractor. The extractor is just like a 1911 extractor, (check Google, there is tons of tips on how to tighten it.) I just stuck a case in before I started bending and noticed how much of a "bite" there was and just bent the extractor a bit more until I got the tension up. I had to even remove a bit of the pad that sits behind the the extractor slot. My check was pretty high tech , put a loaded round in it gave it gentle whack on a open hand and when the loaded bullet didn't fall out, I stopped. (hold the bolt upright when you do it)
4. Polish the extractor (use a Dremel tool with a soft wheel and the red Dremel polishing compound) You don't want to change any of angles on the extractor YOU DON'T WANT TO REMOVE ANY METAL, JUST POLISH THE EXTRACTOR HOOK. Makes cleaning much easier.
5. Polish the whole bolt face with small felt bob. YOU DON'T WANT TO REMOVE ANY METAL, JUST POLISH THE METAL. I do this for easier cleaning.
6. Make sure the carrier key is tight/staked.
7. I also lightly polished the slot on the bottom of the bolt where the ejector rides (my gun likes the ejector to ride gently against the bolt). Makes the cycle a bit smoother and polish the area where the bold rides against the hammer.
8. The ejector seems to be a popular topic so I thought I would add to this. The reason is if you ejector is not set right, you may have unpredictable ejection patterns or intermittent FTE problems. I have broken this down to three parts, cleaning up the ejector and setting the angle and lastly, setting the tension of the extractor.
Part A. OK, the first thing is take the ejector totally out of the Hahn Unit or any other magwell conversion (you can keep in in the gun and the mag well conversion if you don't want or know how to get it out). Then I polish the all 4 sides of the ejector that sticks up out of the unit and get it nice and shiny. Use the Dremel felt bob with some red polishing compound. The reason is cleaning is easier and less friction from the bolt.
Part B. Now the next thing is clean up the angle of the ejector. If you look at the ejector, it is punched from steel and the edges are rounded over and ragged. What I do is keep the angle at the tip of the ejector, but just square it up, none of the rounded over garbage. Just give it few licks of a flat bastard file to the angle and make sure the head of the case will hit it nice and square. Now put the ejector back in the magwell conversion and put it back in the magazine well.
Part C. Setting the tension on the ejector. Make sure every is nice and clean on the bolt and upper. Lightly lube the bolt in the upper so it moves back and forth easily. DON'T lube the lower part of the bolt where the hammer and extractor ride or get any oil on the ejector itself. Take a black marker such as a "Sharpy" or "Magic Marker" and color the the entire ejector black. You'll do this several times setting the tension. Close the action and push in the take down pins. Now pull the bolt back and forth with the charging handle just enough to move the bolt back and forth a few times. Open the action, and check the ejector for wear. You will open and close the gun a dozen times before your done. Just make sure to push the take-down pins in every time.
You first want to get the bolt to start gently touching the side of the ejector. Then start bending the ejector up until it rubs just slightly against the top of slot in the bolt extractor groove. Basically you want a SLIGHT bit of upward and inward tension. To much tension will slow down the bolt. If you can imagine you are looking at the bolt from the breach face, the ejector is as high as it can go up in the ejector groove in the bolt and it is as far to the center of the bolt as possible without serious rubbing. You should be able to feel it rub just barely when you pull the bolt back and forth slowly. Keep in mind as you bend up you may have to change the side tension. Just watch your wear patterns on the ejector.
Make your bends easy and slow. Only move the ejector 5-6 degrees at once. The steel is plenty soft so don't go He-Man. Wipe off the "Sharpy" marker and lube it up like normal. if you put a drop of oil in the ejector channel on the bolt, you won't be able to feel it rub or just barely.
9. Polish up the feed ramp in your lower. I am using a dedicated Hahn Unit in case anybody cares.
10. I pulled the barrel out of the gun and polish up the chamber with some #0000 steel wool/oil wrapped around a old 9mm cleaning brush/rod and put it in a drill at low speed and polished it up. (old trick I learned while I was working for a gunsmith) and polished the breech face of the barrel. This was done just to make the cleaning easier. The breech of my gun gets pretty nasty so by polishing it, the clean up is much easier. The only reason I polished my chamber was that I got some light reamer marks on my brass.
I really need to take some pictures of all this, but but I am in Kuwait right now. Maybe when I go home for Xmas holiday I'll take some pictures.
That is about all I can think off right now. If you have any questions I can add it later to the post.
Cheers
Walnut
Cheers
Walnut
________________________________________________________
I have a 16" A4 RRA that I have been playing with for awhile now, these are the things I have done to my bolt/upper. I was having some feeding problems when I first got the gun, but now it running like a top. I figure that it easier for me to tell you what I have done for my gun to make it run good. Some may be over kill, but I runs good, so I have no complaints.
1. The standard recommendation is to replace the roll pin that holds in the extractor with an better one. Go to a hardware store and get a 1/8"x3/4" roll pin and replace the factory one (i got mine at Lowes). I find It is easier to start at the top at the and drive it out the bottom and start the pin at the top and drive it out the bottom. You'll get extra pins and you need them. This keeps the extractor from moving around with a shell under the lip and keeps the tension consistent.
2. Now I am super cheap and shoot cast bullets out of my gun and various other reloads, so my gun gets pretty nasty. I like to remove the extractor every 500 rounds and clean it out, I also pull out the firing pin at this time. Watch out for the spring loaded firing pin. It nearly went across the room the first time I removed it. One tip I can give is, I crimped the last coil on the firing pin return spring so it will stay on the firing pin. Now when you shoot it across the room, you keep the firing pin and spring together! I will take a Q-tip with a drop of oil and run down the firing pin channel to clean it out. That is all I do for that. I have discovered that oil in the firing pin channel causes light strikes on guns in general. I live in a dry climate so rust isn't really much of a concern.
3. Extractor tension was a factor in my gun running smoothly. I run a 8oz buffer and was having extraction/ejection issues, I would have empty casings staying in the gun with factory 115 FMJ ammo and get these gosh-awful jams. It got worse and worse to the point that I would get 3-4 jams per magazine. So I did step 1 and also tightened the extractor. The extractor is just like a 1911 extractor, (check Google, there is tons of tips on how to tighten it.) I just stuck a case in before I started bending and noticed how much of a "bite" there was and just bent the extractor a bit more until I got the tension up. I had to even remove a bit of the pad that sits behind the the extractor slot. My check was pretty high tech , put a loaded round in it gave it gentle whack on a open hand and when the loaded bullet didn't fall out, I stopped. (hold the bolt upright when you do it)
4. Polish the extractor (use a Dremel tool with a soft wheel and the red Dremel polishing compound) You don't want to change any of angles on the extractor YOU DON'T WANT TO REMOVE ANY METAL, JUST POLISH THE EXTRACTOR HOOK. Makes cleaning much easier.
5. Polish the whole bolt face with small felt bob. YOU DON'T WANT TO REMOVE ANY METAL, JUST POLISH THE METAL. I do this for easier cleaning.
6. Make sure the carrier key is tight/staked.
7. I also lightly polished the slot on the bottom of the bolt where the ejector rides (my gun likes the ejector to ride gently against the bolt). Makes the cycle a bit smoother and polish the area where the bold rides against the hammer.
8. The ejector seems to be a popular topic so I thought I would add to this. The reason is if you ejector is not set right, you may have unpredictable ejection patterns or intermittent FTE problems. I have broken this down to three parts, cleaning up the ejector and setting the angle and lastly, setting the tension of the extractor.
Part A. OK, the first thing is take the ejector totally out of the Hahn Unit or any other magwell conversion (you can keep in in the gun and the mag well conversion if you don't want or know how to get it out). Then I polish the all 4 sides of the ejector that sticks up out of the unit and get it nice and shiny. Use the Dremel felt bob with some red polishing compound. The reason is cleaning is easier and less friction from the bolt.
Part B. Now the next thing is clean up the angle of the ejector. If you look at the ejector, it is punched from steel and the edges are rounded over and ragged. What I do is keep the angle at the tip of the ejector, but just square it up, none of the rounded over garbage. Just give it few licks of a flat bastard file to the angle and make sure the head of the case will hit it nice and square. Now put the ejector back in the magwell conversion and put it back in the magazine well.
Part C. Setting the tension on the ejector. Make sure every is nice and clean on the bolt and upper. Lightly lube the bolt in the upper so it moves back and forth easily. DON'T lube the lower part of the bolt where the hammer and extractor ride or get any oil on the ejector itself. Take a black marker such as a "Sharpy" or "Magic Marker" and color the the entire ejector black. You'll do this several times setting the tension. Close the action and push in the take down pins. Now pull the bolt back and forth with the charging handle just enough to move the bolt back and forth a few times. Open the action, and check the ejector for wear. You will open and close the gun a dozen times before your done. Just make sure to push the take-down pins in every time.
You first want to get the bolt to start gently touching the side of the ejector. Then start bending the ejector up until it rubs just slightly against the top of slot in the bolt extractor groove. Basically you want a SLIGHT bit of upward and inward tension. To much tension will slow down the bolt. If you can imagine you are looking at the bolt from the breach face, the ejector is as high as it can go up in the ejector groove in the bolt and it is as far to the center of the bolt as possible without serious rubbing. You should be able to feel it rub just barely when you pull the bolt back and forth slowly. Keep in mind as you bend up you may have to change the side tension. Just watch your wear patterns on the ejector.
Make your bends easy and slow. Only move the ejector 5-6 degrees at once. The steel is plenty soft so don't go He-Man. Wipe off the "Sharpy" marker and lube it up like normal. if you put a drop of oil in the ejector channel on the bolt, you won't be able to feel it rub or just barely.
9. Polish up the feed ramp in your lower. I am using a dedicated Hahn Unit in case anybody cares.
10. I pulled the barrel out of the gun and polish up the chamber with some #0000 steel wool/oil wrapped around a old 9mm cleaning brush/rod and put it in a drill at low speed and polished it up. (old trick I learned while I was working for a gunsmith) and polished the breech face of the barrel. This was done just to make the cleaning easier. The breech of my gun gets pretty nasty so by polishing it, the clean up is much easier. The only reason I polished my chamber was that I got some light reamer marks on my brass.
I really need to take some pictures of all this, but but I am in Kuwait right now. Maybe when I go home for Xmas holiday I'll take some pictures.
That is about all I can think off right now. If you have any questions I can add it later to the post.
Cheers
Walnut