CatFood

Thanks all, and thanks again for the help!

Holy smokes I needed to bump my old thread. And to give an update of this ar6.5 build. Well she is functioning flawlessly! The H3 buffer did the trick! Had to adjust the gas a bit again but got it dialed in. Shot irons for a bit, but decided to rob the 308 bolts scope. Went with a aero mount, won't make that mistake again. Kept coming loose even with properly cleaned, dried, and cured blue loctite, a few range trips. In a final ditch effort, red loctite went in. The verticle type of rings suck when tightening the mounts. Shot and functioned great with the 120's and 147g. Loved the 123g or I had the best groups with them. I have a bunch of ladders reloaded, just need some time to test them out. Ditched the whitt machine muzzle rise eliminator for a ultradyne brake. What a difference that made! Also cleans up the front end look too. Thanks everyone for the help. Didn't mean to disappear, life happened and a bunch of crap changed. Still in a crappy position, but working my way through it the best I can.

Great post Al!

Awesome that is good to hear about the twist rate. Yep I note everything down of importance.

I'll keep my eyes peeled for some 147's (when I have coin). I'm assuming they work good in a 1-8 twist barrel? I have some lighter weight ammo to test as well (prime 120, hornady 130 all factory I'm a bit fuzzy on the weights) bought a box each almost a year ago 20 rounds each. But when I tested the build I was using 140gn hornady eld American gunner, it shot extremely well. Got to find a note pad to write all this info down lol.

Sweet, yes been reading about the many different characteristics of the various projectiles in the 6.5 range. Same with the 9mm and 223/5.56. I hope it doesn't take to long to settle down, or at least the avaiabality of reloading stuff. It also gives me some time to save up some coin.

The H3 arrived late last week, and today I scored 2 boxes of 6.5cm. So I can go to the range to test a bit more. Also checked headspace on the jp hp bolt I have and it's all good. I just hope I can get it all dialed in with those 2 boxes of ammo. I don't have the cash to buy anymore ammo. It's insane how much they are charging for ammo.

I have not yet, depends if the barrel was built on a Monday or Friday lol. I'll locate some numeric wire drill bits to check. Though I don't think the gas port size is a issue as it does lock the bolt back on every last round. But my OCD is killing me so I'll check anyways lol. About middle of the days range trip I was dicking around with closing the gas port, 2.5 turns caused the bolt to not lock back or pick up a round. Thanks for always helping/commenting on my posts. Glade @Albroswift sent me over here for this build. Rad place for sure.

Gas port size is .073" according to ballistic advantage.

A H3 buffer. Some NAR stuff- tq holder, emergency trauma dressings and some gauze. G-code micro chest rig that will never show up. Been a damn month and it still hasn't even been shipped, they won't even reply to my emails. All I get are automated order reminders of it has been X weeks since you ordered.

Just craped myself! Found a somewhat local range (2 hours away) that has a 1000y range! Holy smokes, thought I was stuck with 200-300 yards. It's the same place I did my appleseeds at! Whoot. Cali tactical academy, never shot there besides the appleseed. Anyone in socal shoot there? I can't tell you how happy I am to find this out! On a good note, I sold some ski gear so I have the $ to get a true H3 buffer with some left over for ammo if I can find it. I needed the H buffer in my other rifle now. Phew. So it all works out for now. The range trip is postponed for a bit more as this wind is insane, then back it up with possible rain for a week. Good news in that part, reduced fire hazard.

Word! I'll remember to toss in the buffers / weights I have to adjust if needed. I'll also reset the gas block to full gas. Now that I think about it, I was getting a hard recoil impulse when shooting it. This challenging puzzle is quite fun if I say myself. 😀

Rock on @98Z5V yep had a H buffer sitting around so tossed in 2 tungstens, though they are heavy buffers so they are a hair heavier. 5.57oz is as close as I can get. I was a bit worried about those shavings (steel ones) as I was like oh snap....wait.... lordy. But I'll toss this buffer in and attempt to get out next week to test more. If this all works out then a h3 will be ordered. Not going to touch anything else on this except replace some horrid titanium take down pins. Thanks for the help, will post up with updates.

I don't have a h3 buffer, but I have a ton of weights I can play with to get around 5.4oz. I don't know when I'll be able to get out to shoot again, but I'll try to get out next week. Huge wind event here for the rest of the week. Slowing down the bcg to much I'm guessing? The shavings in the barrel extension were both brass and steel. Steel was from the bolt lugs. There was a ton more brass then any of my newly built ar15's but I expected that. Time to hunt for more 6.5cm ammo. Thanks again for that info @98Z5V

@98Z5V Thanks for the input! Recoil system is as follows: Heavy buffers XH carbine buffer 8.6oz, 3.25" length, vseven a5/308 receiver extension 7.75" depth, armalite 308 spring 13.5" length. Issue was from 1st shot to end of day (gas block fully open at 4.5 full turns) final turns 3.75 at end of day. Followed SA's instructions to a T. Mushed case happened every mag at least once or twice. Gas: Salient arms adjustable gas block .936", rifle length, 22" BA barrel, aero bcg. Edit to add I dont know the gas port size. I had to really yank off the cartridge from the bolt face. I'll add pics of the case face. There was a really sharp edge right under the extractor that was hanging the case up. Bolt locks back every time the mag is empty. My mistake was not getting a pic of the issue. Any idea on the bolt lug marring? There was tiny metal shavings in the barrel extension when I was cleaning it. First 2 pics are from munched case (ejector mark, and extractor mark) rest are from a normal ejection (ejector, extractor and deflector marks)

Long awaited update lol. Finally was able to make it to the range (finally). Got the bcg dripping wet, loaded 1 round and it went off without a hitch. Got it on paper (sitelite is awesome) then started the long process of break in. Zero feeding issues, now for ejection issues though sigh....it would extract perfectly but the cartridge would be stuck at an angle. Jammed up a few cases because of that. So I just figured it's break in issues. Sight it in at 200 yards, then the winds started howling so just kept putting rounds through the gun. End of the trip, I realised I probably over lubed it as the bcg was super draggy. Put around 150 rounds through it. Honestly dont know at this time if the ar-6.5 will ever get to the range again as finding ammo locally is really difficult now. Anywho, I found what was causing the case to not eject. Under the extraction claw the edge is super sharp, like cut my nail sharp. So a quick hit of a small file and buff it and now zero ejection issues. The munched cases were jammed into the front of the ejection port. There is one other issue I see. Some wear/gouging on the bolt lugs. That I can't figure what might be causing that. Maybe a jp enhanced bolt will fix it? I'll upload a few pics of everything.

I got the clymers from brownells, I ordered directly from ptg. I saw that brownells has the ptg (backordered I think) but they were very expensive. Some time last year I bought ar lapping tools from ptg, and they shipped quickly. But I know stuff is crazy now, I just would have liked to be informed they were that far backordered.

I should have mentioned in my post Pacific tool and gauge is over a month out on my order, so I had to go a different route, clymer gauges instead. That would have been nice to know BEFORE I ordered from pacific tool. But im excited, I can finally take her out to shoot.

Got the head space gauges in, checked and passed! We are a go for the range! Maybe next weekend I'll be able to take her out!

Was finally able to pick up some 6.5cm ammo. A case of hornady 140 grn, America eagle 120 grn and prime match 130 grn. I am worried a bit about them as I don't know how the primers will react in a semi auto. Only took 2.5 hours to get into the store ugh. But damn the shelves were empty and price gouging was severe. So far it dry functions good, bolt catches catch and bcg moves freely. Just waiting on Pacific tool head space gauges. The wait is killing me.

Hahahah that's funny! We had one walk into our shop and offer herself to us, she said she has the herps but isn't breaking out today. Disinfected the entire building after she left. And no we didnt partake is that mess.

The BCG showed up yesterday yay! So I had forgot to order the ea1095 spring with the xh buffer, oops. The green springco spring compressed bottoms out before the buffer does lol. So that's a no go lol, it's ok it will go into a dmr build with a rifle length buffer. I do have a strike industries ar308 flat wire spring that works. One thing I noticed is that the bolt is really tight in the carrier, probably just needs to be broken in. It's nitrited coating. Forgot to snap some pics, but it's just your basic aero BCG. When I'm ready to take it to the range I'll run her wetter then a lot lizard at a ta truck stop.

Quick use some dawn!

True that, give credit where credit is due, get crap when crap it due. Good times.

Yeah that is what I figured which is why I didn't contact him. It took me all of 30 mins to sand and polish and a few seconds to cut the rubber. All while I was watching my anime. So I'm not worried about it, it's how this build is going, with parts that I can find now during this time. Just as long as it's not a total eff up. It's now sitting happily with a green springco spring in It's buffer tube home. Come on bcg deliver yourself already! Any one have a set of 6.5cm head space gauges they want to lend me? Now I can write a essay regarding g-code holsters and agency arms. Man I ordered a low vis battle belt a month and a week ago, when I called today they were like oh snap we forgot and will ship tomorrow. I'm not holding my breath. Hell my g34 slide took 6 months last year before the cv/riot mess. For milling a rmr and a coating. That got a proper ass chewing (they also messed up the coating and would not send it out until another batch was sent for coatings, 2 months or so). Man that was a mess. I will never do business with agency arms again!