I bought my CMMG back when people had a much higher opinion of them. I’ve been in the Army for about 4 years now, so I haven’t put near as many rounds down its throat as I’d like. But after I get back from “over there” in January I’m pretty much out of the Army & I’m looking into shooting a lot more often “for pleasure”.
Back when I bought it I broke it in with 180 rounds of XM193, then 500 rounds of Wolf Polymer for a total of 680 rounds. I never had a single malfunction of any type.
Since I’ve been deployed, I’ve become an avid lurker here on the site. And I was lucky enough to find “the Chart”, so I already upgraded to a BCM BCG & H Buffer. The upgraded stuff is waiting for me when I get home.
Long story short is this. CMMG is notorious for having 5.56 marked barrels but tight .223 ish chambers. Not only could this cause problems with my Wolf stockpile, I just plain don’t like having to worry about that kind of stuff!
Easy solution right? Send her on down to ADCO and get the chamber reamed for $30. But I haven’t had any problems with it eating my Wolf yet.
• Am I being overly paranoid?
• Should I wait till I have a problem, even though I believe in prevention?
• I know people say no, but “can reaming have any negative effects at all”?
• Should I just say screw it and buy a BCM or Daniel Defense barrel and call it a day?
Meh, I would keep it and do nothing unless there is a problem, but if this is a more serious use rifle and not a range gun then sure get a BCM barrel and be done with it.
I’m sure the SMEs will chime in soon. You may want to just save up some money and order a BCM upper or Daniel Defense upper since you already replaced the LPK with Grant’s goodie bag of lower parts. Then sell your CMMG upper at a gun show maybe. Or as already suggested sell the whole thing and get a whole new weapon from BCM, DD, Noveske, Colt, or LMT. I went through the same thing with my Franken AR and ended up selling and getting a DD M4V1. And thanks for your service, if you’re ever in the DFW area drinks are on me.
I think I’ve decided to have some fun. I havn’t had any problems yet, and who knows, maybe I never will.
I’ve decided “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.
But what I am gonna do, is put the rifle through its paces and see how it does in the face of adversity.
• I’m gonna clean‘er up real good
• I’m gonna take‘er out to the range
• I’m gonna keep’er well lubed
• I’m gonna shoot 500 rounds of Wolf without cleanin‘er
If I have issue with shells getting stuck in the chamber I’ll send it to ADCO to get reamed, then repeat the test when it gets back.
If she gets back reamed and still has problems………………
Hello new BCM 14.5” Middy!!!
Either way, I’ll have fun at the range! (either way, I’ll end up with a BCM 14.5” middy sooner or later)
I hear ya, and you know what… you’re absolutely right. However, I think I have it stuck in my head that it’s principle.
I shouldn’t have to replace a barrel that only has 680 rounds through it. I feel like I have to give this lettle fella a fightin’ chance. What if I got one of the 3 out of 10 good barrels that CMMG made?
I kinda feel bad raggin’ on CMMG as I havn’t even had a single malfunction yet, (I just didn’t know about their “tight” chamber reputation till 4 years after I bought the rifle)
Kindly bear in mind that I’m positioned toward the bottom of the “Expert Opinion Scale.” That said:
It sounds as if you measured the chamber 680 times and found it to be in-spec.
If the chamber were out-of-spec, would you not know it by now?
Could you put your mind at-ease with a micrometer, headspace gauge or phone call to ADCO?
If ADCO reams the chamber, you’ll lose whatever “Oh My God, Interplanetary Nitride Treatment” that CMMG was hawking as the greatest thing since the Champagne Room.
I’m with you regarding the idea of putting another 500 rounds (perhaps more) through it before doing anything else. And anybody who can quote the Saint Crispin’s Day speech in their signature is alright with me, by the way.
Now, you do realize what’s going to happen now, don’t you? Armed with your original logic, you’re going to buy another upper to put on that lower. You’re then going to stash the old upper in a closet. After a while, you’re going to think about that upper and how it’s probably cold, frightened, lonely… and wondering what it did to make you angry. Then you’re going to find a budget lower to put under your original upper so it can be part of the family again. Now they’ve multiplied. It’s just the natural pathology of the disease.
I have a CMMG that I bought earlier this year and have put over 600 rounds through mix of .223 and 5.56mm and have had no failures. Through this site I have learned a great deal and plan on getting a new rifle to supplement my CMMG. CMMG will either be sold or kept as a backup or for a friend that wants to shoot along with me. All in all can you ever have enough guns? If you have the itch to get another one then scratch away.
If this is just a range rifle. Keep the rifle and shoot it, don’t worry about malfunctions until they happen. Correct the issues as they arise. Don’t spend money on upgrades that bring little value to a range rifle
If this is going to be a fighting rifle, then you need to be concerned about minimizing potential future problems.
I don’t see the problem. It seems you are worried about the rifle’s reliability when shooting Wolf. Wolf is suitable for range duty where 100% reliability isn’t needed. For fighting purposes you won’t be using Wolf so there isn’t a problem. Then there is the fact that you haven’t had any problems shooting Wolf to date.
My rule on this issue with all guns: If it bothers you, it will continue to bother you until you fix it. Even if it is not a “real” issue in any measurable (so far) sense, the bother it causes you will get to you eventually and no matter how many times you try and tell yourself you are “fine with it”, change the offending part/gun. Better off doing it up front and stop worrying about it.
The one is that bird-in-hand>bird-in-bush. You have it. Shoot it. Abuse it. Find something actually wrong with it. I have been in classes using combination of guns/ammo that caused me no issues whatsoever up to that point and the 1k rounds/day in that particular class exposed a lot of issues. Current production Wolf sticking in my chambers is a perfect example of this.
The other is that we own these things for peace of mind. If you’ve begun to have doubts in your tools and do not have the time/means/ability to test it to reassure yourself those doubts can weigh heavy. Of course, just because something is made by a company with a better reputation does not guarantee that it’s going to work any better. More likely? yes. Guarantee? no way in hell.
So either way you need to get out and prove your tools to yourself. For me personally I have found that about a 500+ rounds/day firing schedule starts to expose issues that I may not see in less harsh settings. The gun starts to get heated up, it starts to get some dirt in it from going prone, lube starts to dry up, etc. and things just start going wrong that I may never have seen happen in the previous 5k rounds through that gun in applications where it might be 100 rounds in a day.
you’re absolutely right. the smartest thing to do is to have what you got checked out and brought up to spec if needed. from what I can see, CMMG tries to do most things right. I would put them solidly in the middle of the pack.
ok then, at that price, just buy that barrel and stash it for later…
What I would do if I were you, on return from deployment, is to treat youself to a 1000 round case of Tulas finest…then go and shoot the lot in a day…maybe with a quick field clean somewhere in the middle. If you have no problems after that…then worry no more.
I don’t see the problem. It seems you are worried about the rifle’s reliability when shooting Wolf. Wolf is suitable for range duty where 100% reliability isn’t needed. For fighting purposes you won’t be using Wolf so there isn’t a problem. Then there is the fact that you haven’t had any problems shooting Wolf to date.
Word. The issue is, there are people who think nothing of spending $2,000 on an AR-style rifle whose definition of “best” is that it will eat thousands of rounds of steel-cased, lacquer-coated decade-old ammunition – the worst possible available. They are some of the same people who will tell you your rifle is garbage because it won’t pass this test. They also trash products on web forums like this because they fail to meet their expectations when coupled with garbage ammunition. They’ll say their scope won’t hold zero because they’re getting 5 MOA groups or that the chamber is wrong or the extractor is bad because it won’t pull lacquered-up rounds glued into the chamber.
IMHO, these are people who have more money than sense. They should have bought themselves an SKS or spent the extra money hoarding surplus USGI ammo.
I want to be clear that I am not making assumptions that the OP falls into this category, and I have no beef with people who shoot cheapo Russian ammo. All-in-all, I say do what you want. I am quite curious to see the outcome of this test and I understand why it is being done (and that this reason has nothing to do with my rant).
Edited to add that according to the OP, the reason has everything to do with my rant
