The "My AR15 Feels like crap when running the charging handle" Howto Fix Thread

[The King]

We have all had em - that AR15 that just runs like butter. Pull the charging handle and BAM it's right there. Like pulling the charging handle out of a bucket of grease.

And we've had the AR15's that ran like there was extra sandpaper in there. Yeah, you can run 5000 rounds through it and it'll start smoothing out. AKA $2500 in ammo. Or you could try these tips:

1. The first thing I look at is the buffer tube. If the inside of the buffer tube is finished like a well bore it will end badly when you run the CH. This is culprit number one.
-Known offenders - DPMS is the big one. And they make a TON of other maker's buffer tubes I think.
-Known Good - Colt has been pretty good - LMT - VLTOR.
-Try before you buy if you can. Run your finger down in there. If it feels like a mirror as deep as you can reach, you are probably good.

2. Your spring. I have seen so many awful springs out there that had a crappy finish.
-Known bad - well, I don't know who makes these things, but they are awful. They are a copper color and have massive scratch marks all over them.
-Known good - Tubb flat wire, some of the mirror polished springs.
-Extra credit - JP Silent Buffer System. Wow.

3. Your buffer itself. What frequently happens is the pin that holds in the plastic bump stop comes out a little and starts rubbing on the spring. This is bad for everything.

4. Charging handle - if your CH finish is crap its crap.
-Known bad - Milspec
-Known good - never seen a bad high end CH.

5. Bolt Carrier. Milspec bolt carriers have finish on the pads that it rides on in the upper. You can help smooth this out by lightly polishing them.

6. Upper receiver - unlikely, but some have crap internal finishes. Low probability issue.

7. Upper/lower fit - if your bolt hits the bottom of the inside of the buffer tube it'll be bad. This is rare though and you can see it when you look at the finish on the buffer tube.

8. The rings on your bolt. The mcfarland ring is smoother for many bolt carriers. Don't put it on wrong or you will stress it leading to failure later.

Anyone have any other tips for smooth sailing?

 

[wareagle700]

I just lube and dont worry about it. Some charge smoother than others but it makes no difference in function.

 

[The King]

A honda gets you places too I guess.

When you have $3k in an AR15 that runs like a dump truck without the back wheels and having it run nice and smooth is a few more dollars away I'll spend em though.

For me having an AR that runs smooth is innately satisfying. I guess it's also why I don't own a Remington 700.

 

[wareagle700]

There's a difference between a rifle running smooth and having a smooth feeling charging handle. Which are you referring to?

 

[The King]

Both. If your buffer tube for example is rough inside your rifle is going to take longer to wear in and its running rough until it does. It may behave differently as it wears in as well, whereas if your stuff runs smooth day 1 it usually doesn't change much.

However, I do agree that having your rifle run smoothly is primarily a look/feel type issue and not as much a functional issue on most AR's. There are some exceptions to this though, like 300 blackout. I find that the smoother the rifle runs overall the more likely it is that subsonic 300blk ammo will function at all without the suppressor as needed as well as lock back with the can on.

We were running a custom 8" barrel 300 blk for a while that was gritty and wouldn't run right with subs. I took some high speed video of it with a nikon 1 v2 camera and compared it to a Noveske barrel we had on hand. Found that the bolt carrier velocity was lower on the rebound and that the jams were due to it having a difficulty stripping the round off of the magazine.

Close inspection showed that the gritty running was due to the roll pin in the buffer coming loose. It had gotten jammed back in by the spring several times so our inspection didn't show it until we saw the wear marks inside the spring. Changed that buffer out for a Spikes T2 and everything came back into function.

That's one of the few function kills I have ever seen though - mostly I just hate pushing the shopping cart with the jammed up wheel, and now that I know that an AR doesn't have to feel that way and know how to fix it I do.

 

[zyrtec9]

my RRA felt very gritty when I first got it but after installing the JP silent captured spring and a BCM mod3 charging handle it has smoothed out exponentially. The JP spring is a must buy. I'm waiting on my full jp bolt so that should reduce quite a bit more friction as well.

my 2 cents

 

[wareagle700]

Im not saying there isn't an advantage to having a smooth running rifle, there is. My original comment was toward the smooth feeling charging handle, haha.

 

[The King]

Understood. I use the CH feel as a diagnostic measure as well.

That being said, I still want the CH to run smooth from a strictly aesthetic point too. I'm not suggesting I'm not being at least a little shallow about it.

As for the jp silent spring, it helped one of my already smooth rifles reach that last 10%. If it weren't a suppressed 300 blk i wouldn't have spent that much money though. It is notably quiet on the 300.