Range day w/ my S&W 5.45 upper

[sdacbob]

Finally got to the range to try out my S&W 5.45 upper. Mated it to my Bushmaster lower. I pulled 5 boxes of Wolff 5.45 60gr out of my stash and 4 of my spare C-Products 5.45 mags out along with the mag that came with the upper. 25rds in a box of Wolff so I figured I'd load down the mags to 25.
My first problem happened while loading the mags. Not one of the 5 new C-Products 5.45 mags would take more than 20 rds! I've had 4 of them loaded up for over a week and even unloaded one last night and tried to reload it again but still 20rds.
My second problem, and possibly my own fault, was that since I was going to use the Wolff 5.45 ammo, I didn't change out the hammer spring with the heavier one provided. On my first mag I had 9 primer dented, failure to fire rounds. Of those 11 rounds that did fire, 2 of them keyholed at 50 meters! I put my second mag in and the first to rounds also failed to fire. After that I cleared the weapon and put it away.
Not a very satisfying day with the 5.45. On the other hand my LMT and GSG5 all functioned just fine. That GSG5 sure is quiet with sub-sonic rounds too.

[Jay Cunningham]

You NEED to change out the hammer spring.

[sdacbob]

I didn't think I'd have to with the Wolff ammo but I guess I'll have to now.

[Iraqgunz]

Out of curiousity. Can you not use 5.56 mags with the 5.45 ammo? I only have 2 rounds here that was "found' somewhere and when I loaded it into a Colt mag it was fine. Who makes good mags for the 5.45 upper? I have been pondering the purchase of one of these uppers because of the ridiculous cheap ammo prices.

[Iraqgunz]

I could have sworn I read somewhere that they include the spring because it has to be changed as in not optional for proper function.


I didn't think I'd have to with the Wolff ammo but I guess I'll have to now.

[subzero]

C Products is the only one I know of making dedicated 5.45 mags. I have heard a lot of talk about using 5.45 in other magazines, but I have not seen anything that would lead me to believe it'll work. Supposedly the HK mags will work, but I sold all of mine months ago. D&H mags with a green GI follower bind up around 12-15 rounds. PMags are no good after 5 rounds or so. You can keep loading long past that, but the bullets nosedive in the mag significantly. In short, I don't think there's any mag or mag/follower combo that'll allow 25+ rounds of 5.45 to be loaded and fired without failure.

I would try and hassle the Magpul guys about 5.45 PMags, but they're so busy I know the idea would get blown off and rightfully so.

[sdacbob]

C-Products is the only one I know that makes them, HK and USGI mags will work but I hear the last round may not feed and the mags won't fill completely. Palmetto State Armory carries the C-Product 5.45 mags for $16.99.

I thought the spring was only for the surplus ammo because of the harder primers. I mean mine put a hell of a dent in the primers but they still failed to light off. I haven't used any of my Bulgy ammo yet, thought I'd try out the Wolff first.

[Jay Cunningham]

Someone told me that the Lancer mags will work but I have no idea. You can get some rounds to feed from USGI's but not many. The only place making these mags is CProducts, unfortunately. C4IGrant and myself have pointed out that while the general magazine geometry seems OK, the feed lips need work, as does the follower and especially the weak spring.

[Boss Hogg]

I speak from personal experience; Lancer mags DO NOT work. Nor do HK. Nor PMags. Once you get more than 6 +/- rounds in the magazine, they start nosediving and won't feed properly.

$16 for a dedicated 5.45 mag is reasonable IMHO given that ammo is 1/3 the cost of .223. It's not like you need 100 mags. (well, maybe some do.... :D)

The longer I've had my 5.45 upper the more I like it. The trigger pull is somewhat stiff, as a result of the extra power spring, and the gas blowback is really noxious, but my wallet thanks me. A friend of mine who is a very accomplished shooter and SOF veteran is getting 1 moa with 7N6 corrosive surplus ammo.

[Jay Cunningham]

Additional info if some missed it:

https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=18015

[cptx123]

I use old surplus 30 round mags that are beat to crap, they will hold 20 to 22 5.45 rounds and feed no problem. 60 grain ammo keyholes evry round in my rifle, 53 grain will key hole about 5 out of 100 rounds. Iam to lazy to send it back to smith, I figure when I get done shooting my 7000 rounds out of it I will change the bolt and barrel an be on my way. They do make a nice range rifle.

[usaffarmer]

The HK mags in 5.56 work very well with 5.45. You need to change the hammer spring that came in the kit.

[zgrins1]

We've only fired 250 rds. through my friend's upper. BTW this upper was brand new when we got it and it only had 1 factory mag with it. I did change the spring for the orange one on my friends Stag lower. Ammo was Russian Surplus 7Н6 from 1976. Did not get to shoot it for groups as by the time we got to the range all firing positions were taken and we ended up at the plinking range blasting at trash. First of all non of my mags could reliably feed anything more then 5-6rds. and I had 5 new USGI with Wolff springs and Magpul followers, 2 P-mags and 2 L5 Lancers. So we ended up using a factory one. Not a single glitch. First 20 -30 rds. were used to approximately zero his Eothing(no irons) using a piece of cardboard about 10-15 yards away and a pair of binos. Then we were shooting at soda cans and Sprite bottles between 50-75 yards. At the end I did 3 mag dumps with leftover rounds, but since we only 1 mag I had to stop and reload between dumps. Overall impression was nice. However loading this mag was a pain. I wander if anyone knows of a good loader for them as my Lula will not work with 5.45.
And thank you guys about cleaning tips on the upper- thanks to members of this site there is no rust.

[sdacbob]

Well I changed out the hammer spring the other day and went back out to the range today. No malfunctions at all. All rounds fired including the struck primer rounds from the other day. The only issue I had was the bolt didn't lock back after the last round but other than that I'm very pleased.:)

[Littlelebowski]

Lancers work fine for me albeit you can only load 28 rds and they're a bit tight in my S&W magwell.

I've experienced some keyholing but nothing that is even worth mentioning statistically.

[Littlelebowski]

Also, I have 6 C Products mags and no problems with those whatsoever. I'm beginning to think that my 5.45 AR experience is a bit of an anomaly since I essentially have no complaints and am very pleased with my purchase.