Powerman

Darn, the wife took the camera. I will get pics later. The old extractor is a little deceiving. The cut is there, and it is square. It grips on a empty case. Just at the edges there is that angle piece that makes it look... angled. I filed one side off and will show you later. But that very edge does not contact the case.... meaning it does not prevent the case rim from sinking into the cut. The claw does fit to the neck of the case, and grabs the full width of the rim face. Never the less... it didn't work before, but now it does. So there you go. :))

Thanks 98. And originally I did not help because it was short stroking and I did not know what a failure to eject was. So I think I did not explain the actual problem in the beginning accurately. You will have to give me a pic, because I can't quite see what you are saying. When I compare the two, the cut out for the old extractor seems adequate compared to the new one... but ya, I do not have enough experience to say what is right or wrong.

That's exactly what I am thinking.... but I think I will just start with the upper for now. :)

OK, officially calling it. Reliable. 200 more rounds today not a single hiccup. Didn't even use any lube during the shoot. Normally I would throw some on the rings and carrier in the middle. There is a still some gas leaking at the block. It is from the tube/block, not block/barrel. Not nearly as much as before. I cleaned it off after 100 and still some after 200. Perhaps it will seal, maybe not. Front and back like before. I can't say good or bad on the Tactical Springs buffer spring. Seems like before. Not a lot of noise. But with all the work, it did feel "solid". I can't tell a big difference between it and the AR-10 spring, but I should get some longevity out of this one. All my brass was 3:30, completely consistent through out. I was shooting American Eagle 7.62. My brass is not marked anywhere at all. I cleaned up the chamber with the 800 grit flex hone. It had a mirror finish before. "Rougher" now, but 800 grit is still "polished". I can't see anything on my fired brass that wasn't there before. May or may not have been needed, but I know it is clean now, and so is my brass. I'm sure I stretched this out longer than needed by not being systematic about it.... but YOU GUYS ROCK!!! You sure did help me a lot, and I learned a lot along the way. I can't thank you guys enough. Bring on the Zombie Apocalypse!!!

FBI stats say an attacker has 8 seconds of useful consciousness with a bullet straight to the heart. Arteries are still small targets..

This is the area where my OCD really comes in handy. Trust me, when I clean my gun, it's empty.

Don't take it personal... seems like those that like to tinker love 1911s. Most the people I know buy them as projects... that has nothing to do with their reliability. I like doing my own work... but I'm not into tinkering for sport.

No doubt. At this point, I can't pinpoint what exactly was the problem. Bit of gas leak. Bit of fouling in the chamber. Extractor spring not strong enough to overcome those. What ever. This thread and this problem has taught me a lot about my rifle. That is always good. I'll get it all polished and cleaned up, and forget all about this.... hopefully. :D

Well? The block end was leaking. The key end seemed to seal tight, and had a nice clean part. I just mean it fit in the key well. But the block end was blowing out from front and back. Lot's of carbon on my barrel because I got tired of cleaning. And when the block came off... it was sealed. No carbon between block and barrel. So I took the block off again just so I can clean up all the carbon on the tube end so I can tell if it is leaking now. The gunsmith never saw one like that either. But since the DPMS block leaked as well as the PRI one, I am going with gas tube. Cheap fix to put on another one. Hopefully no leaks now.

The polish was something I wanted to do anyway. I mean an extractor spring alone wasn't root cause. I replaced that with another that many people run with no problems. I don't think it needs reaming, but I'll make sure it's clean. The buffer spring I didn't think was a problem. It's cheap to run a good one so I did. That at least was from a good article on reliability, which I still would not count mine as at 200. No semi-auto I have ever had has not run reliably. So this one has some proving to do. I do think it good to go now though. Some cleaning up and fine tuning is all. Trust me, my idea of fun isn't working on stuff forever. This build has been out side my norm. I don't own any 1911s if that tells you any thing. :D

So I got my Tactical Springs "reliability kit" today. New buffer spring and extractor springs. I don't need anymore extractor springs, but thought I would check out what they had. Why not for $3? And I thought I would post it here instead of other places. So the spring on the left is the BMC spring. The ones in the middle are the Tactical Springs kit. You put the small spring inside the large one instead of using other type of elastomer posts. No O-rings either. You can see it isn't quite as thick as Jp's spring on the right... but stout none the less. Interesting dual spring set up. They sent along a tiny bottle of lube so now I will keep both with the rifle for emergencies. My chamber hone gets here Friday, and I got my barrel all cleaned up from the gas tube leaks. I'll get my chamber polished up, and then get to the range next week. Can't wait to see how it all runs.

uuhhhhhh.... thanks? :))

So I decided to go with Tactical Springs, and it got here today. The buffer spring is a buffer spring. I probably won't get to run it till next week. But the rest is cool. I got the "Reliability Kit" with the extractor springs. while it is not quite as beefy as the JP "enhanced" extractor spring... it is much stronger than the standard or the BMC extra power spring they sell in their kit. If you wanted a stronger extractor spring... this is definitely it. Now I have two spares. They also sent along a tiny bottle of their "Machine Gunners Lube". It's just 3 ml, but is designed to fit in battery compartments. So it is a tiny little bottle I will now keep in my butt stock compartment along with a extractor spring for emergencies. Nice of them to include that.

Or just buy a gun and go to the range. Perhaps read up on marksmanship and ballistics... :auto:

I know you said you don't care for DPMS... but they just released their G2 series which is very interesting. Especially the Scout. I have been looking at what is out there for a .308 carbine basically. I built my last rifle, and may just build another upper for it and go that route. I do not know all the "off the shelf" stuff out there, but there is nothing "mythical" about anything you want. You will get exactly what you want.

When I got into this I found out it isn't as simple as one thing. So I wanted to keep the thread together to keep all the great knowledge shared by you guys. I ordered a 800 grit flex hone to polish my chamber. I'm confident my chamber is right, and the hone is the best way to clean the surface. I'm not worried about redimensioning the chamber. I not getting crazy, just want the surface clean. I went ahead and ordered a Tactical Springs buffer spring. They had one specifically for AR-10 tubes as well as standard M4 carbine tubes. I got their "relibility" kit with extra power extractor springs just to see what they had. I'm covered by JP, I'm just curious what they have. Can't wait to get to the range and run it.

Yep, I had to call them to find out. The one I see is the "Orange" one made for standard 308/M4 setup. Never saw the "Red" one that is for what you say. Glad I got that cleared up. To make matter worse... as if 308 isn't non-standard enough... I do run a full Armalite H3 buffer setup for my LR-308. I forget the differences and always have to account for it. ' ... things we know now...

I want to get a new buffer spring... but have no idea which one. Right now I have a AR-10 spring uncut, and a carbine buffer tube for collapsible stock. Slash has a very good rep, but says never use flat wire. Many upgraded springs are flat wire... but I have never seen an explanation for it. Tactical Springs says they make one specifically for .308 but all their stuff says for standard 7" buffer tube. It is my understanding the CAR tubes are 7 5/8' ??? Some say extra power is good, some say no. So what the deal, what works best?

So I decide to find a gunsmith here. Send a few e-mails. One guy said $175 for headspace/ream/polish/test fire. Another guy said a few bucks and see what he thinks... I go to him. bunch of old codgers sitting around drinking coffee and talking about shooting their M1s off the back of his 64 Willis... :)) Head space is good. He says my chamber isn't tight. Showed him plenty of brass... he said my gas tube is trash... which I knew. I asked if he had one... My block was sealed, it was all coming out the end of the tube. Said he has never seen a gas leak like that.... said tube was $13 so make it an even $20 bill. I asked if he wanted to clean up my chamber... but he said between my extractor and fixing a gas leak, he does not want to fix something that isn't broke. Run it and bring it back if I have any more problems. 15-20 minutes I was on my way. Nice guy. I think I'm going to buy a good buffer spring and call it good for now.

While the little angled lug is the same, other stuff is not. The body is smooth for one and the material is not scooped out next to the lugs like Robos is. Mine is also laser marked JP, but that does not mean anything. The extractor I have is the original JP one from the bolt I bought new back when. The new extractor is the new JP enhanced extractor. They said the old ones were just common sourced parts... could be DPMS or someone else. The new extractor may indeed be sourced from someone... not the first time a company claims it's theirs... but they did go as far to say they made them in house, not made by someone else. <dontknow> I had never taken my bolt apart before this. So after maybe 1000 rounds... there were shavings. But it seems like there are more now for only a couple hundred rounds. So more.

My brass does have a circle mark where the ejector is. That is scraped. I don't see how, but it is. The rest of my brass is not chewed up or scraped up... but I certainly have lots of shavings.

To listen to JP, this is a common enough problem to the point they made a new extractor. I can't really speak to that. Even BCM offing a better spring and some that use o-rings says the springs can be/get weak like any spring can. They could have just stopped at providing a much stronger spring and continue to use DPMS extractors. I'm not sure the exact need for this, but their point is using AR-15 based parts for a .308 is not enough force. Having said that, I have no problem acknowledging I may have other issues... and for others that have ejection problems, this may indeed be a band-aid that masks the problem instead of solving the root cause. Just like any other system that uses springs... using a stronger one overcomes other problems. There are other signs my chamber might be a little tight. Not glaring, but possible. I would have to find a GS here to finish my chamber. I do not really just want to rent one and go to town. A hone would clean things up, and might be enough, even though I understand the compromise being made. So I do think there are a couple other things to do.... HOWEVER, when everything is working right, having a nice strong extractor spring that will not wear out as fast is a good thing. Even if the actual claw design is either/or, the spring is certainly strong enough.

So on the DPMS extractor, the slot extends past the bolt face just a hair inside. Off the bolt, the claw rides more on the neck of the case. It is a bit longer/wider. On the JP extractor, the slot is flush with the bolt face, and the claw is a bit narrower and seems to fit more on the shoulder of the case rim. Assembled, neither feel different with a bullet. Both seem secure and movement is the same. When I opened up my bolt this time though, there are a lot of brass shavings. Either way, it seems to have fixed my problem. Obviously, I can't really say if it is the fit of the extractor, or just the sheer power of the beefy spring.

Ya, I said the slot for the case was tighter, but I'm not sure if it matters. When all assembled, the ejector will have tension on it and the case will be seated on the forward inside edge of the extractor. Ill take a look if the "slop" is inside the bolt face on the old extractor, or if the the new one is indeed a tighter tolerance when all together.

Here they are.