Herk308

Took a while to get to the range since my neighbor works in HVAC and they are just now getting out of their busy season but @survivalshop sent me an ejector spring for my neighbor's rifle, free of change and I just want to publicly thank him for his generosity! We installed the spring and went and shot about 200 rounds of German FMJ (the stuff with the "MEN" headstamp). Previous to replacing that spring, my neighbor's rifle would work pretty well for the first part of the day but start stovepiping after a little while. This time, there was a couple of stovepipes right away but they stopped after a bit of shooting. Perhaps the spring had to 'break in' a bit? I don't know if that's a thing but my neighbor wants to do another shooting session soon to test the rifle more. It's encouraging that the stovepipes actually went away as he shot more.

Very much want!

Unfortunately, I just sold it. I suppose that I could have had a gunsmith ream out the chamber or something, but I was so angry with how PSA treated me that I just wanted that thing gone; I didn't even want a reminder that PSA existed! Well, if yours actually chambered and fired ammunition, then you got a better gun than I did! I hope that a reputable company (like FN) built your barrel so that you don't have the burred chamber issue that I had. When mine crapped the bed on me there wasn't a Gen 2 yet so perhaps the Gen 2 exists to fix all that was wrong with the original? In any case, all that matters is that yours works.

I did and they responded by saying that they were voiding my warranty because I had put a low-profile gas block on the gun. I couldn't believe what I was hearing so I called PSA up and asked to speak with the customer service manager and he told me that PSA clearly states in their warranty that "modification" of the gun is cause for voiding the warranty. Since this seems to apply to 100% reversible modifications (like different gas blocks), I would guess that this is a "gotcha!" in PSA's warranty that allows them to use literally anything as an excuse to wash their hands of any of their products that have been sold and don't work. I should have put the old gas block back on the PA10 before sending it back to the warranty department, but it never occurred to me that that would be used as a reason to void my warranty. Lesson learned, I guess. There were very large burrs in my PA10's chamber. Rounds that I would attempt to chamber would have to be mortared out HARD and when they did come out, they looked like they'd been dropped on gravel and then stepped on. They were very badly gouged/dented all over the body of the case. On some rounds that could go into the chamber a little farther than others (the bolt still wouldn't fully close), there were rifling striations on the bullet ogive, which seemed odd to me too. The extractor spring might have been at fault too, but those chamber burrs were certainly creating feeding issues.

So PSA has figured out how to make a .308 that actually chambers ammo? I wish that had been the case when I bought mine...

I have the fluted 20" Faxon barrel in 416R Stainless. I thought that with a barrel that long that my rifle would end up being a pig. Instead, it weighs in at 11lbs, 4oz with a 3-15x50mm scope mounted and an empty magazine. I've only put about 200 rounds through the build so far but I've been getting 1 MOA groups with 175gr FGMM. I can't think of anything to complain about with my Faxon barrel.

Wow, that would be great! Thank you.

I seem to recall that my neighbor's extractor had a spring setup like that: small spring inside of a big one. And yes, you are correct that this is the "normal" DPMS .308, not the G2. I can't think of anyone else that I know who has a DPMS .308 bolt besides my KAK bolt with dual ejectors. Should we test-fire with that one?

Actually both were one-piece designs. Does he have the incorrect parts? I took measurements of the ejector and they are as follows: Length: 0.574" Large/Main Diameter: 0.151" Small Diameter: 0.080" Spring OAL (extended): 0.880" No measurement was taken of the compressed spring.

I did not remove the ejector. I did test the ejector by taking the bolt and clipping a live cartridge under the extractor and then pressing it down onto the bolt face, compressing the ejector. When I removed thumb pressure from the cartridge, the ejector flung the round away. I don't know if that really tells us anything, but there is at least a little happening with the ejector. If I strip the ejector from the bolt will it be obvious what I'm looking for? Is there a certain length that the spring should be?

I am reasonably sure that I had him try both magazines, as I am a "blame ammo and mags for malfunctions first and everything else second" kind of guy. I also remember him switching magazines while I watched and he still got the same malf. There was no rubber donut gasket on his extractor spring so I gave him one tonight and helped him install it. My KAK .308 BCG takes two of these gaskets but the DPMS didn't seem to want to go back together with two. The extractor spring isn't tapered like most that I've seen and it would just fall out if the extractor was turned upside down. Is that just how the DPMS .308 extractor springs are?

First, thanks for everyone who replied! Very helpful. Secondly, I saw my neighbor this evening and he did NOT clean the rifle. I walked him through that and got him to lube it too. Next time we go shooting, I'll make sure that he shoots more than one brand of ammo. Also, I'll bring some Magpul magazines to try, in case the metal magazines are part of the problem.

He said he cleaned it; maybe I should see what his definition of that is! He bought it just a few weeks back and he shot it for the first time with me. All ammo was that German "MEN"-stamped FMJ. He shot about 300 rounds of that stuff through it, max. The bolt was locking back on the last round in the mag. The only malf that he encountered was that stovepipe-cum-double feed. I'll ask him to let me take a look at it as I have more experience with the AR (albeit in its 5.56mm guise) and I could probably spot something amiss more readily than he.

My neighbor just bought a DPMS SASS LR-308 and he and I went shooting the last two days. His gun ran fine yesterday until the end of the shooting session when it started having stovepipes (failures to fully eject the case; the bolt is cycling far enough to strip the next round from the magazine though). I suggested that he clean it thoroughly and then lube it generously and then we'd take it out again to see if the problem went away. Fast forward to today and we went shooting again and the problem persisted. The malfunctions were all the same; he never had failures of any other kind. Ammo was German FMJ ("MEN" headstamp) and the magazines were the two metal 20-rounders that come with the gun from DPMS. His rifle has the stubby buffer that is shorter than an M4 (5.56mm) buffer and my first thought was that maybe this buffer didn't provide enough mass for reliable cycling? That's just a guess though. Any suggestions that I could relay to my neighbor? He's really thrilled with the accuracy of the rifle and he really wants to get it cycling reliably.

Measurements I can certainly do: The length of the slot for the catch is 1.508" The thickness of the mag well wall is 0.099" except for a channel that runs the entire height of the well. This channel is about 0.385" from the back of the mag well, is 0.531" wide at it's widest part and it radiuses (is that a verb?) down to about 0.425" at its deepest portion. This channel reduces the receiver wall thickness to 0.042". The mag catch slot is 0.660" from the top of the receiver. The outside thickness of the receiver at the mag well is 1.292". I thank you all for helping me out with this. For what it's worth, I shot my build for the first time yesterday and it worked great, including the mag catch assembly. I plan on shooting this rifle in competitions where I'll be on the clock and I don't want to mash the mag release too hard under stress and have it swivel out of position; that's the only reason that I'm making a big deal out of this. Also, as you mentioned, this is an interesting issue for builders and if someone else can learn from my mistakes/issues then so much the better!