This is one I have to share. I'm not too sure about the quality of the extractor spring, but everything else sounds good, and it's going to be really hard to beat this, comparing apples to apples. Just be forewarned that PSA is not the fastest to ship, so it might take more than a week before you get your order.
I have a bunch of these, both 15 and 17 round 9mm magazines. Initially, there were some that were not dropping free when empty, but they have "broken in" and now do drop free from multiple pistols. I've been in the habit of always taking a Korean mag along when I take a Glock out for some practice, which is pretty often.
Loading the 15-round magazines, along with a couple of Glock factory magazines, I noticed that Korean magazines were noticeably easier to load. Although I haven't used the Korean magazines all that much, the springs had compressed a bit, and were just a little bit longer than the mag tube. To the credit of the Koreans, the mags actually never failed. Regardless, I replaced the Korean springs with Wolff extra power springs, and the Korean magazines soldier on.
All the magazine springs have some use on them.
The KCI spring wire diameter is 0.045". The Glock magazine spring wire diameter is 0.051". The Wolff magazine spring wire diameter is 0.048", but is obviously a much longer spring. It doesn't seem like a lot, but I think you can see that the Korean spring is smaller.
The 17-round magazines don't seem to have this problem, or at least it hasn't manifested yet.
The Korean magazines are significantly cheaper than Glock factory magazines, but consider the added expense of the replacement spring before you buy. Centerfire Systems sells the Korean mags for $8 and $13 each, and I wouldn't pay very much more than that. Brownells sells 3-packs of Wolff magazine springs for $18, IIRC.
And yes, I'm sure that that is the right Wolff spring for that magazine, and yes, I can still get 15 rounds into that magazine.
Lancer AWM AR-15 Magazine
I've been trying out one of the opaque black 30-round Advanced Warfare Magazines for a little while. I was just about to add it to my SHTF stash. This weekend I was shooting one my carbines, and when I inserted the AWM magazine into the rifle, I noticed that a round popped loose into the action. Although it struck me as odd, I cleared it, and continued on. I came home, loaded the magazine back up, and tried that a few more times. I tried downloading the magazine 1, 2, and 3 rounds. When inserting the magazine "with vigor," but not abusively hard, I was able to duplicate the failure over and over again. Dropping the magazine from two and a half to three feet onto a carpeted floor will also release a round about half the time.
I think I bought 3 of these. I don't think I'll buy any more.
Oh, one of my older Lancer L5 magazines does it too. D'oh!
Although I cannot recommend Lancers either, I loved the translucency, but found that they tend to "waterfountain" a round or three when slapped in authoritatively on a bolt-locked-back condition. I experienced this with 30rd Lancer L5's and the later 20rd AWM's. I roll only Colt or OKay USGI 20rd & 30rd aluminum mags now. I'm still hoping one day for a translucent mag that doesn't do this. Someone indicated on another thread they have tested the new HK translucent mags for this and they are GTG in that respect, but I haven't tried them yet. I understand AUG mags do this too in a bolt-locked-back condition. Must be something about the polymer to make a translucent mag, even with metal reinforced lips like the Lancers.
CAA MAG17 AR-15 Magazine
The last couple of times I took this magazine out, I had bolt-over-base malfunctions. This is with two different brands of ammunition. Never had this happen before with this rifle.
I had it happen twice within about 12 rounds with Wolf Gold .223 Remington, 55 grain FMJ. I unloaded the magazine, and loaded the remaining rounds into another magazine, and continued shooting without issue. Went through 4 other different magazines (that day), without issue. It's hard to draw any conclusion, other than that the CAA magazine is the problem.
The CAA MAG17 also will not firmly lock into the ACR. The notch for the magazine catch is a little small, and I guess the ACR mag catch is a little larger than that of an AR-15 or M-16/M4.
Fortunately, I only bought one of these. I like the features of the MAG17, but I'd rather have magazines that don't induce malfunctions.
A while back, I bought a Pigsticker compensator from Palmetto State Armory, and put it on a 10.5" barrel. Although it seemed to work fine, the muzzle flash was ridiculous. (Original Post)
Yesterday, I swapped the comp over to my 16" Spike's Tactical 5.45x39mm upper, and today I took it out to do some shooting. Unfortunately, all is still not well. The comp shoved the muzzle down hard and to the left. I also couldn't get the tip of my pull-through cleaning rod out through the end of the comp. No flash that I noticed, though.
The Rainer XTC did fare much better. While I had the barrel vice blocks out, I put the XTC on my LMT 16" M4gery Although there is a bit of concussion, there was no tuning fork "ting," and not too much muzzle lift. Unfortunately, I had another Tula steel shell case get stuck hard in the chamber, cutting short that shooting session. Even if I had a cleaning rod, it took a half dozen hard hits with a dead-blow hammer to remove it.
No, I didn't type the title for the post with a stutter. Southern Gun Company of Cornwall, England developed an AR-15 style 9mm rifle that locks the bolt back with every shot. The shooter can then release the bolt with a lever put in place where the safety lever would normally be. It probably sounds more awkward than it is in practice. Check out the video of the SGC Unicorn rifle in action.
There shouldn't be a need for these shenanigans, but there are, regardless. I find this solution to an unnecessary problem to be brilliant. If I were stuck living behind enemy lines in a ban state, I would be
trying to do something like this over a "featureless" build, or a
bullet-button, or a fixed magazine, or any of that other nonsense.
Beats having to manually operate the bolt like a bolt-action rifle, which is what U.K. shooters have been doing with AR rifles.
Rainier Arms sent me a notification that they got in the barrel that I wanted. Surfing through their site, while I was there, I found the XTC compensator in the sale pages. The sale price is $56-something, but when you use coupon code "2014" it becomes $39.99, which I found hard to resist. The shipping isn't bad either, I only paid like $8 for the barrel, handguard, gas tube and compensator.
They're kind of expensive rifles, but good rifles aren't cheap, and these are good rifles. When you add in the free EoTech sight, it's a pretty darn good deal.
DSG is pretty good for aluminum AR magazines and other gear, if you're like me and don't really need another AR, take advantage of the free shipping offer. Coupon code "NOFREIGHT4YOU"
Here is the video I put up on YouTube. It's a little less than two and a half minutes. I spent way too much time on it, struggling with Windows Live Movie Maker, restarting my computer about a dozen times before I got it all together and working properly.
Since I was rebuilding one of my AR-15 uppers anyway, I decided that I should try a compensator. I would have preferred a BattleComp, but was not willing to pay the price for one. There are a few options for similar comps, and the one that I chose was the Pigsticker from Palmetto State Armory. Things did not go exactly to plan. Although muzzle flip is minimal. . .
That upper will get it's A2 flash-suppressor back, and I'll probably put the Pigsticker on a 16" barrel at some point in the future, to see how that goes. When that happens, I'll put up another video.
I've been pretty mad, for the last month or so. Can't turn on the news for long without hearing talk of gun control (civilian disarmament). Except for maybe Fox News Channel* or talk radio, it's always some dope who has no idea what they are talking about. "Assault weapon" this, "assault rifle" that, still confusing semi-automatic and full-automatic, magazines called clips, and rounds of ammunition are called bullets. Really quite aggravating, when the fools are running the show and setting the agenda. Obama's executive orders, and trotting out elementary school students who don't know any better, really only twists the knife.
And then, finally, the slushbox transmission in my brain changed gears. The thought occurred to me that an AR-15 lower is not inherently semi-automatic. Hell, there's even a crossbow upper. The Brits have been shooting manually-operated ARs. CMMG is working on a black powder muzzle-loader upper. Should the day come, when a confiscation law passes, we may not necessarily have to completely give up our $2000 ARs. A barrel without a gas port should do.
Magazines are not serialized. Uppers are not serialized. There's no paper trails. It's completely legal to sell these things to anyone without a bill-of-sale or involving a dealer. I never had very many anyway, and sold most of what I had for a tidy profit anyway. . . What? It's true! Prove that I'm lying!
AKs are a trickier nut to crack. Maybe someone's already got a solution to that one, that doesn't require a hydraulic press, and a few hours of gunsmithing. I know that "bullet buttons" are nixed by the 2013 feinstein ban, and we probably won't get away with "freatureless builds" either.
There's a mid-term election in 2014. The NRA and SAF, if they're smart, are already working on a lawsuit. The world will likely not come to an end, and the country will most likely not crumble into chaos. All is not lost, at least not yet. We'll have to see what comes of this "ruling by decree" B.S..
So hang in there folks. Keep calm. Continue to call and write to your congressmen, and go to one of the upcoming capital building marches, if at all possible. But maybe start to think more about short-term work-arounds, than going out in a blaze of glory fighting off the SWAT team or National Guard and starting a new civil war. Maybe you're smarter than me, and you've already figured that out.
* - That asshat o'reilley can suck one, though. He's almost as bad as piers morgan.
That's my M4 there with UBR. Compartment doors removed.
Use coupon code "UBRSALE" at checkout to get $50 off the regular price of $249.95. All the Magpul stuff from AIM comes with free shipping. I'm not entirely sure if the sale applies to colors other than black. The link in the newsletter took me to the product page for the black stock.
I think I bought mine 50% off, years ago. I think the AIM sale price is the cheapest that I've seen them since. If you can get past the extra weight and the price, they are very nice.
I bought 5 boxes of 20 rounds of Tula "White Box" .223 Remington at a gun show a few months ago and shot them through my 16" LMT M4, tax stamp LMT 10.5", and Bushmaster ACR. Those, I had no problems with. So, I purchased a 500 round spam can of TulAmmo "Black Box" .223 Remington sealed up in a "spam can." Working the coupons and deals for The Sportsmans's Guide, I got a pretty good price on the can.
Today I took a bagful of loaded mags, and the 10.5" LMT and the ACR, out to the indoor range. I put a few mags through the ACR, including a couple mags of Tula, with no issues before switching over to the LMT shorty. I loaded up the LMT with a Troy Battlemag full of Tula, dropped the bolt, and flipped off the safety. BANG! Dead trigger. After the first round, the bolt came back and ejected the steel case, pushed the next round maybe a half inch, and stopped. I thought that was weird, because I had no problem with the "White Box" ammo. I haven't run the Troy mags much, so I grabbed a PMag full of Tula. The exact same thing happened. I pulled back the bolt, and let it fly, chambering a round. BANG! Dead trigger. Short-stroking.
Fortunately, I had brought a couple mags full of PMC Bronze .223 to try, and I had a few mags of my almost 5.56mm NATO spec ammo to shoot through the LMT, and the ACR chewed through the mags full of Tula. Although I keep a few different recoil buffers in the rifle bag, the one in the LMT 10.5" carbine was already a standard carbine buffer, and I don't have anything lighter, if there even is anything lighter.
I know the problem isn't the steel-cases. They are Boxer-primed, and I've reloaded hundreds of Wolf and Tula steel-cases and run the reloads through the same LMT without issue. My loads were approaching 5.56mm NATO pressures though.
So, the ACR is proving to be capable of digesting anything I can fit into the magazines. But what does it say about the Tula ammo? Did I get a "vodka special" batch? The "White Box" ammo, and the "Black Box" ammo should be the same, but obviously what I got wasn't the same. I suppose this would explain the mixed reviews on Tula ammo. Luck of the draw? You get what you pay for, perhaps?
White Box Manufactured: 07/09 (I'm not sure if that's European for September, 2007, or if it's July, 2009)
Lot: 7Q5 4
I think this is the lot for the Black Box ammo, but I don't know how to read it.
If you thought the origional PMag test videos were a little crazy, you haven't seen nothin' yet. Green and tan follower G.I. mags, PMags, Tapco mags, Troy Blattlemags, Tango Down ARC mags, and Lancer AWM. The magazines get soaked in various cleaners overnight, run in the dishwasher, heated with MRE warmers (I dunno either), dropped multiple times. . .
There were some mag body cracks, rounds popping loose, one mag rusted, one badly rusted spring, some discoloration, one floorplate melted some, a floorplate came loose, a couple dented magazine bodies, an explosive disassembly, and even a cracked follower.
5.45x39mm caliber stamping, SS is for stainless steel
The only dedicated 5.45mm AR-15 magazines that I know of are the C-Products/ASC/Stoner 5.45mm mags. Except for cosmetic batch-to-batch changes, they all seem to be more or less the same. Finishes vary from a sort of matte grey, like the Fusil AR mags that I have, to a glossy black. The followers, springs, and stainless magazine bodies all seem to be essentially identical in form.
The finish on the magazines, by the way, kind of sucks. After a few uses, you’ll notice that the finish is wearing off, maybe flaking off, around the edges, especially where the mag fits into the rifle.
Although, I’ve heard that some shooters are having better luck with the new ASC (Ammuntion Storage Components) magazines, the three that I bought from AIM Surplus all gave me the same problems that I had with the C-Products magazines. C-Products closed down shop, but rumor has it that ASC is the same people, making the same parts, off the same tooling and machinery. The product line is essentially identical.
The Stoner magazines from Midway are rebranded C-Products/ASC magazines. There may be some 5.45mm AR-15 magazines with Smith & Wesson stamped on the floorplates, for the M&P15R rifles and uppers – same deal as with the Stoner mags, rebranded C-Products/ASC.
Followers
The C-Products 5.45mm followers are similar to a no-tilt follower, but with no anti-tilt leg at the front.
5.45mm followers are missing the front leg
There may be some magazines out on the used market with skeletonized white plastic followers. There was a guy selling these followers on a few gun-related message board classifieds as improved. 5.45mm AR-15 followers. Last I heard, Spike’s Tactical had the tooling to produce these “improved” followers. At least one batch of Spike’s 5.45mm uppers came with a magazine with the white follower already installed. They had stopped this by the time I bought my Spike’s upper.
I’ve read that the “improved” followers only work with the earlier C-Products magazines. I can’t confirm this because I can’t get hold of one of the followers, and besides that, all my magazines seem to be structurally identical.
"Improved follower" video I found on YouTube
Magpul followers can be modified to fit the 5.45mm magazine bodies. When you try to put one in, you’ll see that ribs on side of the Magpul follower interfere with the floorplate tabs on the bottom of the magazine body. If you cut away the ribs on the follower that get in the way, they seem to work fine. One of the magazines that’s been working really well for me has a Gen.III yellow Magpul follower. Unfortunately, the Magpul follower is not a cure-all, and will probably not fix a finicky magazine all on it’s own. The anti-tilt legs of the Magpul follower may cost you a few rounds of magazine capacity over the standard black 5.45mm follower.
Magpul No-Tilt-Follower modified to fit 5.45mm mag body
The ASC magazines that I fixed the feedlips of are working well with the black 5.45mm followers that came with them. I had originally tried the Magpul follower because I didn't know why the magazines were giving me trouble. I tried it again when I found one magazine that just refused to work, and I was getting desperate. Not a necessity, but if you want a high-visibility follower, or if it's something you think might help, then maybe it's worth a try.
Compatibility
Springs for standard AR-15 magazines will not fit the 5.45mm bodies. The 5.56mm AR-15 magazine springs are too wide to fit the 5.45mm bodies. AK-74 magazine springs will fit, but nobody sells just the springs. You’d have to scrap an AK-74 magazine to get the spring, and they aren’t that cheap at $13+ each for surplus magazine. AK-47 magazine springs will not fit either. (EDIT, no longer true, scroll down for note on Wolff magazine springs)
Magpul PMag spring top, C-Products 5.45mm spring bottom
The C-Products 5.45mm magazines are, unfortunately, a little bit on the short side, and don't have enough power to trip my extended bolt catch consistently. You may even have trouble getting them to feed reliably without spraying some dry lube into the magazine tube, because the spring has a hard time pushing up the ammo fast enough before the bolt carrier returns forward.
Width and length of the 5.45mm AR-15 magazines are standard G.I. size, so they’ll fit most any mag pouch that will work for a 5.56mm AR/M-16 mag.
The LULA AR-15 magazine loaders don't work with the 5.45mm magazines. The Pro-Mag loader that crams 5 rounds at a time into the magazine at once, and works well with 5.45mm magazine, as well as with 5.56mm mags. I got my Pro-Mag loader from Bravo Company USA (they call it "AR15 Personal Magazine Loader 5.56mm"), but they are available from other places too.
Magpul Ranger plates will fit the 5.45mm magazines, but again will require modifications. Just for kicks, I spent maybe 10 minutes cutting the lockplate with a hacksaw and round file. I don't have any of the Magpul L-Plates, but I would imagine they would work with the same modification.
C-Products 5.45mm magazine with Magpul Ranger plate
Ranger lockplate modified for 5.45mm magazine
Oh, I guess I wasn't the first to try.
PMags with 5.45mm ammo
With the front leg of a new Magpul PMag Maglevel follower cut off, 5.45mm rounds will feed well, and the magazine holds 29 rounds of 5.45mm. The mag, modified like this will not trip my extended bolt catch when it runs empty though. The LULA 5.56mm AR-15 loader sort of works with the modified Maglevel, but not as well as with 5.56mm ammo.
The older Maglevel magazines without the dust cover that clips onto the bottom, or round count markings, will jam up when you try to load them with 5.45mm ammo, even with a modified follower.
PMag Maglevel follower chopped for use with 5.45mm
Modified follower will stick out through the feedlips
Other Magazines with 5.45mm ammo
I'll spare you going through all the different kinds of magazines I have individually. D&H aluminum with Magpul follower, standard 30-round PMags with no window, PMag 20s, and 30-round Troy Battle mags will generally work okay if you don’t load more than 12 or 15 rounds. If you try to cram in more than 15 rounds, the ammo or the followers will jam in the tube, and the magazine won’t feed properly.
I tried a 30-round Lancer L5 magazine, but it jammed up when loaded with 12-15 rounds. The magazine body bowed out, making it difficult to insert into the rifle, and it definitely didn’t drop free when the mag catch button was pressed. I believe that there are multiple generations of the L5 magazines. There are reports of some working better than others.
EDIT: 9/28/2014 - Extra Power Magazine Springs
Wolff Gun Springs has started selling AK-74 magazine springs. They are longer than you need, but I think they have fixed my problem child magazines. At $5.60 each (when you buy 10) they are a little expensive though.
I cut off 5 coils, and bent the end of the spring to hook onto the 5.45mm AR follower. Not really a big deal. You could probably cut off more, but I figure that it's easier to cut off more later, than to try and add coils back on. I intend to buy more and replace the springs in all of my 5.45mm AR magazines.
This article is an attempt to compile all the knowledge of the 57 pages of the M4Carbine.net thread, other sources, and my own personal experiences. Thanks to Neckbreaker for finding the PMag modification thread on XDTalk. Thanks to thisguy41487 for having the balls to hack up PMags. Thanks to whoever figured out the Magpul follower mod - I can't find the thread, or your username, sorry.
I haven’t used my Troy magazines too much yet to talk about reliability, but I can show you some pictures, and tell you a little bit about them.
Battlemags with and without pull-tab
The Troy Battlemags come with two different lock-plates. They come assembled with a pull-tab lockplate, which you can use to pull the magazine out of a mag pouch. You also get a flat lock-plate if you don’t want or need the pull-tab. It’s a nice touch, to be sure. It beats paying three-something dollars for a standard Magpul or a couple dollars more for a Ranger plate. I guess it might be a problem when you go to Tap-Pull-Roll-Rack with a partially loaded magazine.
The Troy magazine base-plate is held on with tabs, much like a Lancer L5 magazine. The Lancer disassembly tool actually works really well on the Troy magazine. The Lancer tool is piece of plastic that usually sells for around $3, but you might find them cheaper on closeout since the new Lancer magazines don’t require a tool to disassemble. You don’t really need the tool, you could use the tip of a bullet to push in the tabs, but it can be difficult to get one, and then get the other, without the first tab popping back into place. The Lancer tool pushes in both tabs at the same time.
The Troy base-plate is slim; it’s actually the same width as the rest of the magazine. If you want a polymer mag, but the wide bases on PMags are pissing you off, or they just don’t work with your vest or pouches, then the Troy’s may be for you.
The Troy follower is an anti-tilt unit, in high-visibility green. The spring it bent, such that the follower is pushed straight up, rather than rear-first, as is the usual with most AR/M-16 magazines, including the PMags.
The magazine body has a fish-scale checkering pattern on the sides and down the front and back. All the texturing is oriented to give maximum traction when pulling on the magazine. When seating a Troy magazine, you had better get your palm at least part-way under the base-plate. If I were texturing a magazine body, I would probably use multi-directional pineapple grenade checking, like Glock used on their 2nd and 3rd generation frames, or maybe stippling - like between 36 and 60 grit.
If you need some kind of a pull tab to get mags out of your vest or pouches, these may be a good deal. If you like 6-pack SAW magazine pouches or something, and the fat base-plates of PMags won’t fit, the Troy mags may work out for you. I do like the high-visibility followers, and the bend on the top coil of the spring is something that should get done all the time, but usually doesn’t get done. I guess they aren’t my favorite magazines, but there’s really not anything wrong with them, and under certain conditions I can see them being very desireable.
EDIT, 10/21/12: I've run 3 full loads through one of the Troy mags, without any issues. I've loaded it with M193, and put it in with my SHTF stash. The other one will make it into the rotation for further testing.
So far, every C Products and ASC 5.45mm magazine that I've tried has caused jams, straight out of the packaging. Every one. Things are okay if I don’t load more than about a dozen rounds, but when I load 20 or 25, I’ll get plenty of stoppages. Whenever I remember to check, the stoppages have all come when feeding from the right side of the magazine.
This is the typical 5.45mm feed jam. Looks like bolt-over-base.
If you load 5 or 6 rounds (look at both feed lips), you’ll see that the feed lips are holding the case along the full length. When you get to around 20 rounds in the magazine, you’ll start to see that the lips of the magazine are really only holding the case near the rim. The left-side feed lips are usually pretty good, but the right-side feed lips have all left the front end of the cases of the rounds without much support. There seemed to be a logical connection.
You need to be prepared to finish manufacturing the magazine tubes. In a somewhat rare fashion, I decided that this particular job was better to handle with some finesse, rather than brute force. Another Spike’s 5.45mm upper owner said he fixed the magazines with a hammer. I decided to make another magazine lip tool, and I bend the feedlips. . . carefully. At first, I was just bending the lips to hold the cases of the rounds better when loaded to capacity. This resulted in about a 50% success rate. Some of the newly tuned magazines ran fine. Some still jammed as if I hadn’t done anything. Some of the magazines would feed up until the 2nd to last round, and then jam.
The problem seems to be related to the angle that the bullets were presented. With the magazines that worked, the tips of the bullets were only a few millimeters above the front edge of the magazine. The ones that continued to jam, as if I hadn’t done anything, had the bullets sitting higher. The ones that didn’t jam until the 2nd to last round, I had bent the feed lips too far, and the tip of the bullet was almost even with the front edge of the magazine.
The modified magazines hold the 5.45mm ammo at the same angle as my D&H aluminum U.S.G.I.-type 5.56mm magazines. Yeah, I guess maybe I should have checked this earlier.
See how the tip of the bullet in the unmodified mag points skyward. "There's your problem!"
New strategy. Take one of the magazines that works, and fix the others to match it. This seems to be working well. I think maybe I got this figured out.
I wanted a 5.45x39mm AR upper, to shoot some of that
inexpensive Russian surplus ammo. Scored
a Spike's mid-length 5.45mm upper from AIM Surplus when they had some in stock. I've come to find out though, that many of
the C Products 5.45mm AR mags are crap.
Most of them work all right, if you load them half way. However, if I load them with more than 20
rounds, and I got lots of feed failures.
Without getting too deep into the issues with the 5.45mm
mags, I'll tell you that the feed lips were part of the problem. I've been down this road before.
I guess it was back when the only pistol I had was a
Ruger Mk.II, that a bullseye shooter told me how to make a mag lip tool from a
carriage bolt to keep the Mk.II from jamming bullets into the bottom of the
feedramp.
Brownell's sells a tool to adjust AR magazine feedlips
for about $13, but a carriage bolt only costs about 60 cents. It's just a matter of shaping the bolt into a
tool.
I'm 90% certain that I made the tool for the Ruger Mk.II
tool from a 1/4" bolt. For the AR
magazine tool, I bought a 5/16" bolt.
I could have gone a couple sizes larger, but it gets the job done. I you have access to key stock, use that, and
save yourself a few steps, but the carriage bolts you can pick up at most
hardware stores for less than a buck.
5/16" Carriage Bolt, with the head annealed
You've got to cut the flange off the bolt, leaving you with the square. . . lug, at the head of the bolt. Then you cut a notch in the "lug" to slip over the offending magazine lip and bend into the right shape. That's about it, really. If you've got a torch available, annealing and case hardening are optional extra steps. The annealing helps keep you from chewing up your cutting tools. Case hardening will help make the tool last longer.
Carriage bolt with the flange hacked off, and the "lug" filed square(ish)
Been a while, eh? I've been busy moving, and then doing taxes.
Anyway, I've come upon this thread on the weaponevolution.com forum with some handy graphics showing the points to lubricate the parts of AR-15/M-16 pattern rifles. The information is available in the M-16 field manuals, which are available for free download from several websites, but the information is displayed very simply in the graphics in the thread, and you don't have to read several pages of dry field manual text to get the same information.
A Tapco rep on AR15.com is saying they may be interested in making 5.45mm Russian magazines for the AR-15 platform if there's enough interest. Drop an e-mail to customerservice@tapco.com to show your support, if you're interested.
Link To Thread on AR15.com CProducts is the only company currently making 5.45x39mm AR mags, and there's a rumor that they are in trouble. There's been a lot of complaints about the CProducts magazines not always working so well anyway. Magpul apparently not too interested in 5.45mm mags, and Lancer has said no.
ACR Basic, Photo Borrowed From Bushmaster ACR Manual
I’ve been fiddling with, and doing a little shooting of a Bushmaster Basic ACR. Here are some of the things that I haven’t seen mentioned in other reviews:
The Bushmaster is a modern rifle of unique design, borrowing some aspects of designs that proceeded it.
The bolt is much like an AR-15 bolt, and the trigger group is mostly AR-15 compatible, but other than that, there’s not that much in common with an AR-15. The upper and lower receivers are held together with AR-15 type captive pins; okay that’s one more thing in common.
The ACR bolt carrier rides on rails, sort of like the bolt carrier of a Kalashnikov variant rifle. The gas piston system is more like a FAL.
The ACR’s stock and handguards can be removed by pushing their own take-down pins. Unlike a HK G3 or MP5-type firearm, the pins are captive.
Even the plastic handguard of the ACR basic model leaves the barrel free-floating. Unlike an AK or FAL, there’s really no contact at all between the barrel and upper receivers, except where the two parts are coupled at the trunnion. The gas piston of the ACR is shrouded by the upper receiver, but they don’t seem to touch. The gas piston is not otherwise housed in a tube or anything.
ACR Barrel/Gas Piston Assembly (Borrowed From Bushmaster ACR Manual
Front End Details
The barrel is pretty tightly fitted to the trunnion. The barrel nut is pretty easy to remove with the attached lever, but actually getting the barrel out of the upper takes a little bit of wiggling. The manual says to depress the barrel plunger, but doesn't show or tell you what that is. See picture above.
The gas piston is a little hard to remove. When you remove the gas plug, it doesn’t pop out, and there’s nothing to grab hold of. Removing the handguard doesn’t help. The piston has to be pushed out of the upper with a cleaning rod from the breech end. That, or you could remove the whole barrel assembly from the upper.
The ACR’s charging handle is an odd duck. To be honest, I haven’t figured out how it works yet. When the charging handle is locked forward, it is disconnected from the bolt carrier, and that’s what makes it non-reciprocating. If you pull back on that charging handle, it connects with the bolt carrier. If you pull back that charging handle, when trying to field strip the rifle, you won’t be able to remove the bolt carrier. The two parts are connected, and you’ll have to lock the handle forward, and hook the carrier with your finger from the bottom of the upper, and then pull it out.
ACR Bolt Group
The new-production ACR that I’ve been fondling has a solid steel pin retaining the firing pin and firing pin return spring. The ACR’s firing pin retainer is held in place with an o-ring.
The bolt cam pin is an ACR specific part that is fitted into the left side of the bolt carrier. The cam only goes into the bolt one way, so you can’t install the bolt into the carrier the wrong way accidentally. The cam pin does not quite pass all the way through the bolt.
Bolt Comparison
The head of the ACR bolt is almost identical to an AR-15 bolt. I didn’t leave the AR-15 bolt to make any kind of point, I just haven’t gotten around to cleaning it yet.
Currently, ACRs are only available with a rifling twist of 1 turn in 9 inches. “Common knowledge” says that a 1:9” twist will not stabilize 75 and 77 grain bullets, however I’ve heard from several ACR owners that these heavier bullets print decent groups. Jeff Quinn got a sub-MOA group from Buffalo Bore 77 grain Sniper HP ammo with the ACR he tested for GunBlast. I intend to find out myself, but haven’t gotten that far yet.
There have been some complaints that ACRs won’t lock back after the last round with certain types of magazines. I’ve tried a D&H aluminum GI mag, a Lancer L5 30-round magazine, one of those Israeli countdown mags, and a 20-round PMag. I even tried a new-revision PMag with windows that won’t reliably lock back the bolt carrier of either of my AR-15s. I tried the stubborn PMag two or three times. I’ve not yet had any problems at all, although the round count is still pretty low.
The safety (selector) easily snicks on and off. The bolt catch however, gives no leverage assist, and is still stiff on the new rifle I’ve been working with.
There have been complaints that the support-side safety (selector) lever hits the trigger finger of some users when switching the safety off. It really doesn’t bother me that much. I trimmed the support-side lever of the ambi safety on my AR (not shown in picture linked below), but the ACR safety I would leave alone. The ACR safety levers are pretty small, and made of plastic, and I’m not sure how much you can do with them anyway. I’ve seen military ACRs with no safety lever on the right-side. I expect there to be a cap or smaller lever available to replace the right-side lever available from Bushmaster or Magpul at some time in the future.
There’s been some comments on the relative recoil of the ACR. I went from shooting my LMT/Stag AR-15 to the Basic ACR. My AR has a 16” M4 barrel with carbine length gas system, standard M-16 bolt carrier, an A2 flash hider, and an H buffer. I can’t say that I noticed any significant difference in recoil. I do know that a 7.62x39mm AK has more recoil that my AR, and a 5.45x39mm AK has less recoil, but there’s just not that much difference between my AR and the ACR. I expected the piston-op ACR to have a little more recoil, but that doesn’t seem to be.
I realized that I had a collection of reviews, and just maybe some wisdom to share. I hope to keep the information as unbiased as humanly possible.
Why do I bother writing all this stuff? When I buy something, I want it to work the way I want it to. I hope that what goes around, comes around, and that I'll find the reviews or advice that I need when I go looking for information.
The items reviewed on the blog are, almost without exception, purchased or rented by myself, with real money.
I am also kind of hoping that maybe someone in the right position may see some glimmer of genious in my ramblings, and help get me a paying gig at a gun magazine or website.
I hope that some of this nonsense in the blog is helpful to someone.
Don't be afraid to post comments!
About Me
Some of you may wonder what the deal with the nickname is.It’s short for Suburban Commando, a nick I picked up in high school.A few companions that were a little left of center though it was quite funny, I accepted it out of spite.
In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a bit of a Glocker.I really can’t have nice things, so the basic black pistols work just fine for me.
I’ve also shot rimfire benchrest.I even managed to win a local match.My best score to date was shot with a completely rebuilt Ruger 10/22 with a KID trigger and barrel, although my Remington 40XRBR is more consistant.
I started shooting rimfire benchrest in 2004, I think.I got into action pistol competitions in 2006.
