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Thread: Magazine Catch issues

  1. #11
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    I had a similar problem, and post but I also noticed shaved metal and bare aluminum in the upper. I attributed this to being an "off" brand. I bought a used BCM upper from a fellow member. This new one is way worse. I just figured it was normal at that point. I really have to press hard to lock a magazine with the upper installed.
    "Oh, its a wonderful day! My sun is shining, my birds are chirping, my humongous chicken defeated Elmo." Huxley

  2. #12
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    It was a Frankengun. Guy said the parts came from some place I had never heard of, so I didn't retain the name. Is there a ________ Armory or something like that?

    NOTE:
    Edited to remove the name as it was speculation. In light of the actual place having now been named (see Spt. 5 posts), I wanted to make sure I was not impugning any outfit that did not deserve it. Although I don't believe an AR parts house exists with my postulated name, again to be on the safe side I have removed it. Thanks- Ned
    Last edited by Ned Christiansen; 09-05-10 at 12:59.

  3. #13
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    One more thing. A few, actually.

    This was one of the very few AR's I've seen where the headspace was off... on the short side. No wonder, the bolt face recess was .007 shallower than any I've seen. I've never seen this dimension vary more than a thousandth either way. Reamed for headspace, although that makes this a one-bolt gun. Replace the bolt with one to spec and it'll have .007 too much headspace.

    After changing nearly everything but the lower receiver, barrel and bolt group, extraction problems started(hadn't seen this before as the gun would not run long enough to show it). Dammit! Forgot about that oversized gas port. The area of the gas port is over double. Brass cases were getting rims nearly pulled out by the extractor. I have restricted the hole in the gas block, thinking that'll do it.......yes, the extractor has a good spring, black buffer, and D-ring.

    "If I'd known then what I know now"...... I'da told the guy let's flatten the upper, bend the barrel double, weld the bolt to it, box it up with the bent buffer tube, and send it back with some Vaseline. Oddly though the 16" barrel is a decent shooter..... 3" at 100, EoTech with no magnifier, Hornady steel-cased training ammo.

    Oh yeah, even the buffer tube castle nut was cheezoid. About 1/16th shorter, with a big chamfer on the ID, so it had maybe three fewer threads at work.

  4. #14
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    Gun went for 250-plus today with no probs. Should have another 750 through it in the next few days.

    Another gun with parts from the same outfit would not retain mags; same roundy mag catch..... same fix: replace with mag catch made right. These bad ones, the flat catch part was stamped and not machined, causing the rounded edges.

  5. #15
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    This gun went 1100-plus rounds this week, not one single problem. Still no guarantees, I told the guy..... who knows when the bolt might break, trigger pin might separate, etc. This gun was so bad that one just can't tell about the parts.

    This guy and his partner brought four more rifles to class Thursday to have them checked out by Pat Sweeney and me.... they came from the same source, a guy who has built a few AR's but has a ways to go in terms of how to put them together right (and none of us were born with the knowledge), where to get the parts, and essentially, how the AR gets used and abused in training.

    I don't know much about Airsoft but I'm starting to wonder if these were Airsoft-ish parts on these guns. Many of them had a Made-In-China feel to them. Pat and I took two guns each and we each saved one and basically called the other "unsalvageable". Good Lord they were bad. All had the Cheezoid castle nut. All had the Cheezoid mag catch. All had short headspace, and being "in the field" as it were, all I had was the headspace gage but I'll betcha headspace was short because they all had the same rejected bolts with .007 or-so-short bolt face recesses.

    Some parts appeared to have black paint as the only finish.
    Last edited by Ned Christiansen; 08-29-10 at 00:35.

  6. #16
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    The mag catch. Top, how it's supposed to look.

    Bottom, El Cheezo. The edge that catches the mag is so rounded, it simply doesn't work. Disgusting!

    Last edited by Ned Christiansen; 08-28-10 at 12:15.

  7. #17
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    Yikes that's not good!!

  8. #18
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    Left, a buffer tube castle nut.

    Right, a buffer tube castle nut wannabee, as found on these six carbines.

    1-wrench doesn't fit (maybe why they were loose)
    2-close to 1/16" shorter
    3-huge chamfers on inner diameter, which combined with 2, reduces thread count to about 1/2
    4-finish is black spray paint

    Last edited by Ned Christiansen; 08-29-10 at 16:15.

  9. #19
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    Sweet baby Jebus!

    And the next time I hear some booger-eater proclaim their "Brand X is just and good as (fill in the blank)" I'm going to send them to this post.

    The phrase "Buy once, cry once" is so true.....

  10. #20
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    After Ned and I overhauled the ones that actually wanted to work, they went 100+ rounds each in the next five minutes without a problem.

    Still, told the LEO who had brought them that they were best used as training guns, and not duty guns.

    The list of what was wrong with them was long, inclusive, and impressive. including things like the buffer weights being bare turned aluminum, not having been andodized. When Ned went to drive out the retaining pin, to see what kinds of weights were in them, he could push the pin out by hand.

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