Broken Bolt Carrier survey

[Wild Rice]

With a 16" barrel I prefer a midlength gas system for the longer sight radius, better fore grip, and better visual proportions. Compared to short carbine gas systems, middies are also supposed to have lower peak pressures. Theoretically (at least) middies are gentler on bolts.

Are there any statistics on carbine vs. midlength broken bolts?

[mososodbob]

I own several ARs in 5.56/.223 for duty as a LEO and a High Power Rifle competitor. I experienced only two incidents of bolt and/or bolt-carrier parts failure (broken parts) over the past 16 plus years of shooting at least 1k of ammo thru each gun.

#1. Broken gas lug bolt. Colt AR-15 carbine. Failure at around the 5k point. Replaced and re-staked. No issues since. This is one of three duty "long guns" I use for work. About 1-2k rounds per year fired in this gun.

#2. Broken lug on bolt. M-16 A2 upper. FN parts? Brought from Shurlock as a complete upper while at CampPerry, circa 1999. Failure after about a case of M198, +/- 1600 rounds. Ordered a replacement from Brownell. No issue since. Roughly 1-2k of ammo per year in this gun as well.

No issues with my other ARs: Colt A3, Armalite AR15NM, Bushmaster DCM, and a Custom AR Service Rifle built by Derrick Martin (Accuracy Speaks).

[hardwarz]

Originally Posted by mososodbob

#2. Broken lug on bolt. M-16 A2 upper. FN parts? Brought from Shurlock as a complete upper while at CampPerry, circa 1999. Failure after about a case of M198, +/- 1600 rounds. Ordered a replacement from Brownell. No issue since. Roughly 1-2k of ammo per year in this gun as well.

I have a problem with Shurluk. They say that the are selling FN parts. FN doesn't sell to civilians, only military contracts. OK, so maybe they're selling FN seconds or used parts from DSC. Then they're not new parts you're paying for!

As far as the OP question, I've never had any bolt carrier break or bolt break on my M16A2 while in the Marines.

As far as my personal Armalite, I've had to replace the bolt. Turns out it had a bad extractor and the replacement extractor was bad too.

Hardwarz

[Bhil671]

Seen people bring all types of ARs up to our private range for about 9 years now - everything from no-name/low-name upper to Stag, Colt, or RRA and everything in between. Seen quite a few malfunctions (usually due to improper assembly or fitment), but I have never seen a bolt or bolt carrier actually crack or break.

[tomahawk84]

Im an e5 in the army, unit armorer and the only problems i have come across so far have been 2 brokern extractors. one had the extractor pin break and the other was snapped where the pin goes through. these must have been some really old or really week extractors. these were on FN m16 both serials were off by 5 and we were shooting m855, each rifle had approximatly 600 rounds fired that day. it was messed up like a 1 in a million that they would do this on the same training day.

[evan1293]

I broke a bolt 2 weeks ago on a stag model 2t. This gun has about 4k rounds through it. The break was a hair-line crack around the cam pin hole. I was firing wolf ammo and a spent case got caught in the chamber. I pulled the charging handle back to try to clear the case but it sheared off part of the case rim. Im thinking that when I pulled the charging handle, the stress from the stuck case cracked the bolt.

FYI...It was difficult to see the crack and if it had not been for the fact that I routinely check that area of the bolt each time I dissassembe the rifle, I would have missed it. Thats a failure prone area so make sure you inspect your bolts when you clean your rifles.

[Steve-TX]

I had my Stag Model 2 bolt break yesterday. I have put approximately 6,000 round thru it; 70% PMC & 30% Wolf.

I have always cleaned it it after each trip to the range, so it wasn't a matter of neglect on my part. It broke right @ the cam pin hole.


http://www.xdtalk.com/forums/picture...pictureid=2326

[jaco]

Originally Posted by Steve-TX

I had my Stag Model 2 bolt break yesterday. I have put approximately 6,000 round thru it; 70% PMC & 30% Wolf.

I have always cleaned it it after each trip to the range, so it wasn't a matter of neglect on my part. It broke right @ the cam pin hole.


http://www.xdtalk.com/forums/picture...pictureid=2326

Now that is a crack!!!, Steve do you have any more info? Those Colt guys tell us our Stag bolts are not as good. Did you see any small cracks before this major break happened? What was going on when the break occured?

[Steve-TX]

>>>>>>>
Now that is a crack!!!, Steve do you have any more info? Those Colt guys tell us our Stag bolts are not as good. Did you see any small cracks before this major break happened? What was going on when the break occured?
<<<<<<<

The break down happened yesterday, after only 2 shots on the second magazine of the day, shooting Brown Bear ammo. I did some double taps, but the majority of the shots fired with the 1st magazine were spaced around a second or two between each shot. A friend put in the next magazine, and only got off two shots before the failure.

A few days before this visit to a friend's camp/range we shot 6 magazines of Brown Bear. All shots were done with a second or two in between them. The last magazine I shot, I dumped 15 rounds as fast as I could, waited a few seconds and then dumped the last 15 in the magazine.

I have always been real thorough with my cleaning after a day at the range. I never really -closely- inspected the bolt when cleaning, so I can't say I ever saw any cracks before. If I did see any, I sure wouldn't have used the rifle.

I contacted Stag this AM, after posting here, and spoke with David in customer service. He said the part would be warrantied, and he only requested digital pix of the bolt to get a replacement out to me. I got back a reply from David an hour later stating that a replacement would be sent out ASAP. Stag has been a great to deal with. I noticed on their web site that the bolt is out of stock, so I called David back and asked him if there would be a delay in shipping, and he told me that warranty parts take precedent over sales, and that my warranty bolt would be shipping today!

I have nothing bad to say about Stag Arms at all. All I can say is: $hit happens!

I will be buying a spare bolt when they are back in stock though.

[jaco]

Steve, thanks for taking the time for the reply and sharing your experience. It's good to hear we have a responsible company to back up their product when things go wrong. After all with 6000 rounds you are not just shooting once in a while. I too picked up another BCG knowing as you doo doo can happen, and there is a lot of stress on that part in a AR.