AR Failure to Cycle, Interesting find

[Madball13]

So my buddy who works at a gun shop / shooting range gives me call and tells me a customer brought in a pre ban DPMS that will not cycle, it will shoot but not cycle a second round. He removed the BCG from his gun and slapped it in the DPMS and it ran fine. So i go in last night to shoot and end up taking a look at the gun, tried shooting it and it won't cycle. The spent case does not get stuck and is in battery when i pull the handle back. So i remove the BCG and disassemble and am unable to to get gun scrubber to flow through the gas key and finally decide it is clogged. The guy who owns the goes home and get pipe cleaner and i hit the key with barrel blaster but for the life of cannot get anything through. I finally take a look with a flashlight into the gas key where in meets up with the gas tube and i see something lodge in the key. I recognized what was stuck in there and we decided to remove the gas key from the carrier and get a brass punch and bang out the obstruction.

After a couple of whacks out pops a small rifle primer.............

 

[EddieCoyle]

He was probably shooting reloaded Federal cases.

 

[Madball13]

if so how would the primer get in the gas key?

 

[EddieCoyle]

It falls out during ejection, bounces around inside the upper, and gets scooped up by the gas key on the way forward.

I didn't mean to imply it was easy...

 

[bubbaj]

I can't say I've ever seen that before. But it's not surprising. Strange things happen.

 

[Madball13]

It falls out during ejection, bounces around inside the upper, and gets scooped up by the gas key on the way forward.

I didn't mean to imply it was easy...

That's actually what we were thinking, but the odds i figure are pretty high

 

[Scrivener]

It falls out during ejection, bounces around inside the upper, and gets scooped up by the gas key on the way forward.

I didn't mean to imply it was easy...

And here I thought you'd find a way to blame it on a .40.........

 

[SecondAmdFirst]

And here I thought you'd find a way to blame it on a .40.........

LOL

 

[EddieCoyle]

And here I thought you'd find a way to blame it on a .40.........

And here I thought you'd say that an FCD would've prevented it.

 

[FiremanBob]

Unless the cat put it there.

 

[Sprocket]

He was probably shooting reloaded Federal cases.

Corollary question:
What is it about Federal cases that allow this? What does the head stamp look like? Are there other cases that should not be reloaded?

 

[Finalygotabeltfed]

Corollary question:
What is it about Federal cases that allow this?

Soft brass that deforms when fired. The primer pockets loosen up and increase the likelyhood of primers falling out when reloaded.


What does the head stamp look like? Google is your friend.



Are there other cases that should not be reloaded?

Not many for this reason, most are pretty good retaining primers on subsequent reloadings.

 

[Sprocket]

OK - so I know I've got some F C marked casings in 223 Rem - I'm hoping the 556 stuff is good - Lake City and the XM193, etc.

resuming google search

 

[FPrice]

And here I thought you'd find a way to blame it on a .40.........

Or a cat.

 

[EddieCoyle]

Corollary question:
What is it about Federal cases that allow this? What does the head stamp look like? Are there other cases that should not be reloaded?

You can reload FC cases, usually just not more than one or two times. If I have some FC cases that I know are once-fired, I'll load them, then reserve the rounds for use at an event where I'm not going to be able to easliy retrieve my brass.

I won't bother picking up random FC cases at the range though.

 

[Remsport Mfg]

This is not all that uncommon. One of the first places to look when an AR becomes a single shot gun and shooting reloads..

 

[center442]

Does the Federal soft brass issue apply to all their .223 brass? I was just wondering if their Gold Medal Match ammo brass had the same problem. I've been throwing all Federal .223 brass I come across into my scrap bucket rather than reload it. Not a big deal since I don't have much of the Gold Medal stuff, I was just curious if they used a different quality of brass in those rounds. Nice ammo, but $$$.