I have been building my first .308 AR piece by piece to save on cost. I will describe the problem then I will list the possible culprits.
Drawing back the bolt with the charging handle all seems well, engage bolt stop, OK so far. NOPE, the bolt catch is catching on the bolt carrier and not on the face of the bolt. Disassemble and check, the bolt carrier will not travel far enough into the buffer tube for the bolt face to clear the bolt stop. The bolt face is about 1/2" forward of the bolt stop. My parts, with dimensions, are as follows:
REDX arms bolt carrier 7 7/8" long. With bolt installed and pulled forward 8 7/8'' long.
UTG Heavy buffer for .308 carbine 3 1/4" long.
JSE Surplus .308 carbine spring 11" long.
Mil spec Black Hawk buffer tube from Palmetto State Armory 71/4" outside length, 7" inside length.
After all my reading and questions here and at other forums I thought I was proceeding correctly. I milled out an 80%Arms lower, bought a REDX arms upper, put in a Black Hole 308 barrel from Surplus Arms and Ammo, CMMG lower kit from 80% arms, added a CMC trigger and torqued and checked and fussed as best I could. Would someone check the length of their bolt carrier to see if mine is too long? Did I make a mistake with the mill spec buffer tube? The Heavy buffer? The spring? Was I supposed to sacrifice a goat on the alter of .308?
I would appreciate any help with this as there is some sort of simple noob error here.
Thanks