AR-15 reliability improvement suggestions...???

[oneshotonekill]

Here's the deal fellas...I hunted this year with a factory RRA .458 Socom. I killed 2 deer with it with a well placed shot on each deer. However it would have problems sometimes with feeding and just tonight it had a FTE when I shot a deer. I was gonna put a second round in him but couldn't. Luckily the round did its job with the first one.

What can be done to improve the reliability of this rifle? It is an absolute hammer and I want to continue to hunt with it, but want it better.

 

[actaeon277]

How is the shape of your magazine?
I've had some problems with very old beat up mags.

 

[chuddly]

but that shouldnt cause a FTE. You really need to look at the cases that come out (or put pictures up here so we can look at them). They normally tell a story as to whats going on inside the gun. Also a little more detail about the gun and ammo and how often it does this would be good and anything you have done to try to trouble shoot it.

 

[U.S. Patriot]

Is your extractor damaged? What does the brass look like? Did you reload them, new factory, etc. Did the case stick in the chamber, stove pipe?

 

[Ljungman]

I added a "D" ring to my extractor....i can rip steel cases right out in the extraction process now. I love it. was 12 bucks for a tiny littlre piece and a bit of a pain in the arse to install under the extractor. But all in all well worth the price.

 

[ghuns]

Carbine or mid-length? Red spring? Green spring? Standard .223 spring? Is it hard to pull the charging handle back with a round chambered? What powder you using? What kind of buffer?

The .458, especially the middy, is said to be very sensitive to how it's gassed. Some powders preform better in the carbine and some work better in the mid-length. I do not use either spring that came from RRA, just a plain-Jain spring made for .223 and a standard weight buffer. I have been lucky, built 2 so far, one carbine, one middy, and both have worked well with the rounds I have purchased that use Accurate 1680 powder.

The one problem I have had with the last batch of 20 rounds that I bought, in one upper the rounds are very tight in the chamber, very hard to manually extract, in the other upper, they fit fine and are very easily to manually extract.

If your rounds extract easily by hand, I would start swapping buffer springs. If the spring is too stiff, it could be short stroking.

Have you been here? www.458socomforums.com - Index
More info on the .458 than most people will ever wanna know