cmshoot
Senior Member
The more carbine courses I teach, the more malfunctions I see with AR-type platforms. It used to be fairly uncommon, but now it's a regular thing. I'm not talking a once-in-a-while issue with a bad round or old magazine; I'm talking of repeated stoppages or guns that just quit running.
The more "advanced" the course I'm teaching is, the more issues I see. In "beginners" courses I don't tend to see as many issues.
A. From inspecting problematic AR's and talking to their owners, I've noticed a few trends. In general, the guns that I see that have serious issues are either:
1. Owner-assembled. That is, they bought a kit or parts and assembled it themselves.
2. A factory gun that has had numerous parts of the operating system replaced and/or modified.
I am not saying that you can't build an AR yourself and have it run perfectly. I have many students that do that and have no issues at all.......but obviously not everyone is up to the challenge, or some folks bought some inferior parts.
I'll see a student running a good gun, like a recent guy with a Daniel Defense. When it doesn't run, I start to ask him about it and find that he's swapped out parts like the buffer, buffer spring and BCG. When asked why, all he could say was he was talking to some 3-gunners and they recommended it. I asked if the gun was running fine before the "upgrades" and he said it was. Hmmmmm......then why "fix" it.
Caveat: I'm not knocking 3-gunners or any other competitive shooters. I'm a competitive shooters myself and highly recommend it to folks. It has improved numerous skill sets of mine.......but, know what belongs in the training arena and what belongs "on the street".
If you modify a firearm that you intend to use for "serious" work, test it out thoroughly before putting it back into service. If you are looking at performing a modification, have a dang good reason for doing so. Don't fix what ain't broke.
I see less problems in beginners' courses but the students haven't learned to mess with their guns yet! At least, that's my theory.
B. Steel case ammo: I've got no problem with it for training ammo. It's cheap, which means you can afford to practice more. It's not nearly as reliable as "good" brass-case ammo, which I also like in my training ammo as it forces you to practice malfunction clearance drills. That's good stuff as well.
Steel cases don't swell and fill the chamber like brass cases, so fouling tends to blow back around the casing and foul the chamber more. During high round count range sessions, or multi-day training courses, you will need to clean that chamber out or you will eventually have issues. When you break for lunch, run a Boresnake through her a few time. At the end of Day 1, if there will be a Day 2, give the chamber and bolt a quick cleaning.
I would not recommend using steel case ammo as your "serious load" for realsies.
3. Lube well. I don't care what lube you use, I've never seen a malfunction caused by the type of lube used (except 1, see below), but I have seen them caused by little to no lube used.
General rule of thumb: Grease parts that slide/rub and oil parts that rotate. With that said, you can use all grease or all oil and she'll still run.
The only malfunction I've seen caused by lube was a guy that was running graphite. Just don't. The guy using it didn't know better and was told to use it by a Navy Seal/Force Recon/Ranger/Spook who said that grease/oil will attract grit and gun up the action. Well, I'm here to tell you, graphite is very fine grit. Just do not.
Oil and grease can hold grit, but as long as it's held in suspension the gun will run. A wet AR is a happy AR.
I have never in all my 26 years as a gun toter and Instructor seen a firearm malfunction due to "too much" lube. Better too much than too little.
Anyways, thought I'd throw some of this out there. I'he got another AR course coming up that I'm teaching.......we'll see if the trend continues!
Semper Fi!
The more "advanced" the course I'm teaching is, the more issues I see. In "beginners" courses I don't tend to see as many issues.
A. From inspecting problematic AR's and talking to their owners, I've noticed a few trends. In general, the guns that I see that have serious issues are either:
1. Owner-assembled. That is, they bought a kit or parts and assembled it themselves.
2. A factory gun that has had numerous parts of the operating system replaced and/or modified.
I am not saying that you can't build an AR yourself and have it run perfectly. I have many students that do that and have no issues at all.......but obviously not everyone is up to the challenge, or some folks bought some inferior parts.
I'll see a student running a good gun, like a recent guy with a Daniel Defense. When it doesn't run, I start to ask him about it and find that he's swapped out parts like the buffer, buffer spring and BCG. When asked why, all he could say was he was talking to some 3-gunners and they recommended it. I asked if the gun was running fine before the "upgrades" and he said it was. Hmmmmm......then why "fix" it.
Caveat: I'm not knocking 3-gunners or any other competitive shooters. I'm a competitive shooters myself and highly recommend it to folks. It has improved numerous skill sets of mine.......but, know what belongs in the training arena and what belongs "on the street".
If you modify a firearm that you intend to use for "serious" work, test it out thoroughly before putting it back into service. If you are looking at performing a modification, have a dang good reason for doing so. Don't fix what ain't broke.
I see less problems in beginners' courses but the students haven't learned to mess with their guns yet! At least, that's my theory.
B. Steel case ammo: I've got no problem with it for training ammo. It's cheap, which means you can afford to practice more. It's not nearly as reliable as "good" brass-case ammo, which I also like in my training ammo as it forces you to practice malfunction clearance drills. That's good stuff as well.
Steel cases don't swell and fill the chamber like brass cases, so fouling tends to blow back around the casing and foul the chamber more. During high round count range sessions, or multi-day training courses, you will need to clean that chamber out or you will eventually have issues. When you break for lunch, run a Boresnake through her a few time. At the end of Day 1, if there will be a Day 2, give the chamber and bolt a quick cleaning.
I would not recommend using steel case ammo as your "serious load" for realsies.
3. Lube well. I don't care what lube you use, I've never seen a malfunction caused by the type of lube used (except 1, see below), but I have seen them caused by little to no lube used.
General rule of thumb: Grease parts that slide/rub and oil parts that rotate. With that said, you can use all grease or all oil and she'll still run.
The only malfunction I've seen caused by lube was a guy that was running graphite. Just don't. The guy using it didn't know better and was told to use it by a Navy Seal/Force Recon/Ranger/Spook who said that grease/oil will attract grit and gun up the action. Well, I'm here to tell you, graphite is very fine grit. Just do not.
Oil and grease can hold grit, but as long as it's held in suspension the gun will run. A wet AR is a happy AR.
I have never in all my 26 years as a gun toter and Instructor seen a firearm malfunction due to "too much" lube. Better too much than too little.
Anyways, thought I'd throw some of this out there. I'he got another AR course coming up that I'm teaching.......we'll see if the trend continues!
Semper Fi!
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