She's tight!

[Smilin Danl]

I just began building my 1st AR10 from PSA gen 3 in 308. For some reason the round is so tight going in the bcg won't close completely. PSA sent the wrong barrel the first time & i waited 3 weeks to get this new one in hand. So i REEEEALLY don't want to send another back. I've ran bolt rifles for most of my life so this is a new animal to me. Im green to say the least. I tried multiple brands of ammo with the same end result. This is supposed to be going coyote hunting in 2 weeks,any idea whats causing the problem? Thx for any advice. 

[shooterrex]

Search out the waterboarding thread and read and answer those questions.

All you really told us is your rifle doesn't work.

How are we supposed to help you when we dont have the gun in front of us and we have no idea what components are present.

You might also drop by the introduction thread and introduce yourself.

[98Z5V]

14 hours ago, Smilin Danl said:

For some reason the round is so tight going in the bcg won't close completely.

There's alot of PSA information up here, and even a specific section for all of it.  The problems with their Large-Frame guns are prolific.  So are the fixes.  This seems like a short chamber - and the only fix for that is having a gunsmith ream the chamber deeper.

You check this gun with any headspace gauges - the Go and No-Go gauges from any of the gauge manufacturers?  What brand did you use?  Different barrel manufacturers specify which gauges they use when chambering barrels, so PSA should be able to tell you the brand of gauges THEY use when chambering barrels.  DC Machine is the barrel manufacturer that PSA bought several years ago, do DC Machine makes all the PSA barrels on their house-produced guns.  Call PSA, and call DC Machine, ask that question. 

If you didn't check the headspace, don't even bother with the call.  It won't help, and you'll get a run-around from both companies.

14 hours ago, Smilin Danl said:

PSA sent the wrong barrel the first time & i waited 3 weeks to get this new one in hand. So i REEEEALLY don't want to send another back.

This doesn't surprise me, at all, from them.

14 hours ago, Smilin Danl said:

I tried multiple brands of ammo with the same end result.

Yep, that's a short chamber.  That barrel wasn't made right.

14 hours ago, Smilin Danl said:

This is supposed to be going coyote hunting in 2 weeks,any idea whats causing the problem? Thx for any advice. 

That's probably not gonna happen, unless you buy a different gun that works, from the factory. Aside from the short chamber that you seem to have, there's other things you'll need to fix on that PSA gun.  It's all detailed out in the PSA Section on that.  We've solved everything that they've done, over time, and figured the gun out in order to make it run.  Short chamber is not on the list, though.

Edited January 18, 2023 by 98Z5V

[willbird]

The only other thing I could throw out there as a "maybe" is that some people have seen tighter headspace with Bolts that have some kind of plating on them. Honestly it should not be enough for a round to not chamber though.