A little premature as you have not got the new spring installed and tested yet, but glad it is going to work out.
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A little premature as you have not got the new spring installed and tested yet, but glad it is going to work out.
Rifle back from Noveske with new buffer spring and h1 buffer it feeds with authority from all my mags topped off. Even with 31 rounds crammed into the PMAGS!
Thanks for everyone that helped me out. I appreciate it.
so it was a bad buffer spring? good to hear its running
Yep. Bad spring. It was in spec for length and # of coils but just weak. New spring and everything feeds great.
The folks at Noveske where great, same day turn around (my rifle was in their shop for a total of 3 hrs.), they sent me two new springs and a H1 buffer and didn't even charge me for return shipping (I didn't expect that since the problem wasn't with anything that was there fault)!
I am not calling into question Noveske's quality or people but I would still be concerned with the excessive wear on the original bolt catch and the receiver behind the bolt catch. I also see, in this case, this recoil spring as a band-aid. Relates to having trouble driving a nail? Get a bigger hammer. It would be one thing if the wear marks were not there and it was just having trouble stripping a round from the mag but... I am sure it is one of the problems but not the only. Think about this, not only is the bolt grinding on the bolt catch excessively, what is causing the wear on the receiver? There should be nothing contacting that point. The heavier spring is only providing more force against the drag created by the rubbing. Also, thinking about the mag. How does slamming on the bottom of the mag a few times make it chamber. I say the banging would make the BCG bounce a small amount to lessen the drag and allow it to chamber. I could be completely wrong, and I hope I am, but in this case I don't think so.
We replaced with a standard carbine spring.
ThisIs probably caused by this (Notice the device attached to the bolt catch) The bolt catch was probably pushed up slightly by the above device. During firing the BCG cycling would run into it and slam it back down, the "wear" spot is actually from the bolt catch impacting the lower at that point.
Thats what I thought and the first thing I noticed. I've gotten awayfrom all the add ons. Some cause more problems than they are worth. But they sure look good.
Hey sweet, a Noveske rep is in this thread! Thanks guys, y'all's turn around time seems like it would be pretty hard to beat :)
Just to clarify when I attended the VTAC class my rifle didn't have the "device" on it. The device is from Boonie Packer and I think is called the "redi-catch". If I'm not mistaken one of the moderators here, maybe Jay Cunningham, had one on his rifle and did a review of it, use to have it bookmarked. Anyway the redi-catch replaces the hammer and trigger pins. When you are not pressing on the redi-catch it is not in contact with the bolt catch at all (there is a gap between the two pieces). You press down on the lever and it rotates into the bottom of the bolt catch rotating it out to catch the bolt. So when firing I don't believe it would affect the bolt catch at all, I could be wrong, wouldn't be the first time.
During and after the class I noticed the heavy wear marks/gouges on the bolt catch (remember without the redi-catch installed). No one really had any good ideas what was going on. When I got back from the class I replaced the bolt catch with one from G&R and added the redi-catch. Since I've been back from the class I have fired about 200+ rounds with the redi-catch installed and other the failures to feed never had a problem. There aren't any gouge marks on the bolt catch now.
Just wanted to clarify that.
edited to add: I'm going to the range tomorrow to test fire/re-zero. Do y'all have some tips or things to look for while I'm there? Any tests that might be helpful in figuring out if there still could be an issue? I can take a camera with me.
Went to the range today and only had time to put 90 rounds through the rifle. Didn't have any issues with feeding the fully loaded mags.
When I got home I started looking at the faint line that is on the new bolt catch. I locked the bolt to the rear and looked at it and found that the area of the bolt that is wearing on the bolt catch. When it was locked back I could see that the line leads straight to the second bolt lug rotating counter clockwise from the extractor. I pulled the bolt and look at the back side and found the following:
BCM bolt (1500 rounds on it along with the old damaged bolt catch):
http://i53.tinypic.com/e7chzo.jpg
Noveske bolt:
http://i56.tinypic.com/2a619qc.jpg
New G&R bolt catch, about 300 rounds on it:
http://i51.tinypic.com/11qrbk3.jpg
Redi-catch, notice the gap between the bolt catch and the redi-catch as I advised in my last post:
http://i54.tinypic.com/2ag14eo.jpg
It's hard to tell from the photo's but there is a wear mark on the rear of the bolt on the second lug rotated counter clockwise from the extractor. Its on the rear facing corner of the lug, the part that would touch the colt catch as the BCG is being locked to the rear on the last round. The BCM bolt has a more prounced "ding" (about 1500 rounds on it) than the Noveske bolt (as of toady 90rounds plus whatever was fired at the factory) but they are there. I looked closely at the other lugs and while they had a slight radius they defiantly didn't have the rub mark thats on the 2nd lug.
The wear on the new bolt catch doesn't seem to be getting any worse. I guess If I wanted to test is I could load a bunch of mags with one round to simulate the BCG locking back and see if the wear increases.