mtrmn

I check the ammo section every time I go there, many times that's the only reason I go. They get regular truck runs throughout the week, but you never know when they'll get around to stocking the ammo shelves. Could be 2 or 3 days after they get it.

Local Walmart ammo shelves have been empty for quite a while, with occasional odd arrivals Winchester or Federal rifle ammo like 270 or something. Yesterday I did my normal walk-by and there was Remington 30-06, 30-30, and Remington Thunderbolt 22's. There were like 20 boxes of the Thunderbolts, 500 rds each. Walmart has a limit of 3 boxes per customer a day. These 500 Rd boxes were "clearance priced" at $9.00 each!!!! That's the kind of prices I was paying for 22s in like 1979 when I was a sr in high school! Yes I got my limit.

😆

Too dam much! Bushmaster BAR10 20" HBAR A2 configuration-non-removable carry handle with Bushnell 5-15X Legend scope. 13.5 lbs Don't remember the PSA 16" with Faxon bbl with Vortex 1-8 Strike Eagle scope. Seems like 11 something lbs but don't remember rt now.

I turned down about half a dozen of those buffers although I only needed 2. Just in case of future problems. Measured 4 of them and the depth of the step is only 0.035". The width of the cut into the diameter is 7/64" or 0.10938" . Just enough to clear the tip of the retainer and still have enough contact surface for the bolt carrier to push against. Remember, this is for an AR-15, not a .308 if it makes any difference.

According to the date on those pics it's been almost 9 years. I know it wasn't much at all. Looking at the first picture very closely it looks to be maybe 20 to 25% of the diameter of the buffer retainer tip. I still have and use the guns, I can measure tomorrow.

OK I read and posted too hastily and got hung up on you releasing it slowly. I totally missed/ignored you saying it was hard to pull back to begin with. I've had one AR15 build that was hard/almost impossible to charge. Turned out to be a defective upper receiver. The bore for the BCG was out of axial alignment with the barrel and the buffer tube. The further you pulled the BCG back, the harder it was to pull. The BCG was binding against the inside of the buffer tube because it was out of alignment. Once I figured out what the problem was, I noticed the sidewalls of the upper receiver were very different thicknesses at the rear. The left sidewall was much thinner than the right sidewall and the BCG was travelling diagonally in relation to the rest of the gun. YOUR upper sidewalls appear to be correct in the pictures, but if you can pull the rear pin and the gun's function improves, perhaps your buffer tube may be out of alignment vertically. This could cause the rear of the BCG to bind against the bottom of the buffer tube's interior. Pull the buffer and spring out and inspect the inside of the buffer tube for any marks or polished spots. Maybe reassemble the gun without the spring/buffer and just pull the charging handle back slowly. The only resistance you should feel would be the hammer spring pushing the hammer against the bottom side. If it binds up don't pull it any further or you may have a problem getting the BCG back forward again so you can tear it back down. Like Matt said above OIL it.

"...and release slowly" Here's your main problem. Pull that charging handle back til it stops and let it slip through your fingers. Act like you're trying to tear it up. You'll never cycle it by hand as violently as it cycles when you shoot it. It was made to slam/ bang around. You can't baby this thing.

Glad you got it sorted out, at least mentally😉

+1 on the scotch🙂

Thanks for the Galloway link. Didn't have time to browse much, but looks like they got a LOT of interesting stuff like Ruger LCP short stroke triggers etc. Def bookmarked that site. When I had my buffer problems was back during the Obama years and AR lowers were hard to find. I got a few Superior Arms lowers through my LGS and 2 of them had this problem. Only info I could find on the net was people saying the lower was worthless and would have to be thrown away and replaced with whatever the flavor of the week was. I started experimenting and figuring out how to save these trash lowers and make them run 100%. Went through a lot of trial and error and finally realized the buffer needed to be further forward in order to be further back when the gun was assembled. I had access to a lathe at work and turned a buffer down just to see. Since then both of the problem guns have run 100%. As for the design specs, I didn't know the specs at the time. I just knew the specs weren't right. All I cared about was fixing the problem so as to NOT have to trash the serial-numbered part of an otherwise perfectly good gun. "Po' folks got po' ways" is how the older generations around here put it.

Didn't know an offset retainer even existed. Back when I was dealing with this problem everybody told me my lower was trash and I needed to go with a BCM or whatever their favorite brand is.

Just skimmed over the thread titled "Buffer made of brass" and saw a few posts arguing over the proper placement of the buffer retainer. I'm not getting into that argument but I do have a cheap fix for the problem that has worked for me in both of my past builds that chewed up the buffer face due to contact with the buffer retainer while firing. This is an AR15, but there's no reason it won't work with any AR variation. You don't have to scrap your lower or upper, nor do you have to buy a whole bunch of added expensive parts to change the geometry of your effed up gun. All you need is access to a lathe or get a machinist to make one simple cut on the easiest-to-replace part involved. The pictures tell the tale much better than I can word it. I see no reason whatsoever that this won't fix the problem 100% of the time.

If I may add something: shake the buffer to make sure the internal weights move freely. This is supposed to give the BCG a sort of "double tap" when it slams home. Sorry if this has already been stated I haven't had time to go through the whole thread.

Also, about the OTHER BCG you said you haven't opened yet, the firing pin may be stuck due to some kind of corrosion protection like cosmoline or something. I'd be pulling THAT firing pin out to see if it's damaged as well. If you have 2 damaged firing pins then I'd call that grounds to begin the return process on BOTH BCGs. And if the dealer doesn't cooperate you still have Lantac to fall back on.

I figure Lantac will stand behind their BCG if you have trouble. I'd try it out if you get one of the guns together enough to do so. Maybe if you reach out to Lantac and at least inform them of the issue you'll have more "believability" when you DO get to try it. Meanwhile order another DPMS pattern firing pin somewhere just for a spare anyway. Like somebody else said I can't see that kinda damage happening during shipping or even while the firing pin was in the BCG. From doing a little looking around, you may not find another BCG anytime soon.....

OK just looked at your other thread about the firing pin and saw that you already HAVE a Lantac. Sorry about that...

I bought a Lantac enhanced bolt (no carrier) from AR15discounts.com and was very impressed with the quality and finish. However I just checked their site and all their 308 BCGs are out of stock.

This has nothing to do with the OPs question but it's just a fun fact that reveals my age and how long I've been dabbling in this reloading thing. I'm so old that almost ALL of my "Alliant" powders have "Hercules" on the canister.

I'll try to find one... OK 1st pic as it was when I bought it secondhand. 2nd pic it has an Armson OEG mounted on the "carry handle". 3rd pic is a target shot at 100 yds with the OEG and Russian Brown Bear 145 gr FMJ. The dot in the OEG covers probably at least half a sheet of paper at 100 yds. 4th pic was a target shot using a scope on a carry handle mount. I had just gotten my suppressor and installed the QD adapter. This group was shot to check for POI shift and group size after the adapter install.

I have found the "metric" FAL mags are much more cooperative than the "inch" version. The RRA-branded plastic mags made by Thermold work a lot smoother in mine than the steel mags, but they also require careful removal of some material to make them "drop-free". I recently ran across a Thermold-branded FAL mag and bought it just to make sure the RRA mags were really identical, and they are. All that said, MY gun is an original Bushmaster BAR10 which is the predecessor to the RRA. Therefore the "fitting" required for the Thermolds to work properly may not be required in the newer RRA versions of the gun-IDK.

I ran across these at DSG yesterday. https://dsgarms.com/upper-receiver-parts-arm10007005

Welcome from Louisiana

Welcome from Louisiana

Welcome from Louisiana