Interesting occurence. A2 rifle, blue extractor buffer, 1/2 buffer spring. No stoppages.
Fired about 1,000 rounds without disassembling BCG. On dissasembly, discovered that one rifle had a broken spring.
Weapons were kept well lubed (CLP and Slip 2000), wiped down daily, M855, varying weather conditions.
Wear can be seen on bolt where broken spring wore against extractor slot.
Manufacturer?
That does give some confidence welll in the rifle gas system that if you had that happen it wouldnt bite the bullet. Any idea how many rounds that extractor spring has seen?
Sorry- FN M16A2.
Unknown previous round-count, very rough guesstimate by wear would put it around 2,000 rounds. This is a very rough estimate, bordering on WAG (wild ass guess).
Breakage cause unknown, personally inclined to assume improper assembly. Spring did not seem to be seated correctly on initial inspection (other than being broken), along with the wear seen on the bolt.
Those scratches make it look to me as if, while broken, it was still doing its job.
Hell of a fluke.
FWIW- this is the first time I have ever pulled a broken extractor spring out of an AR, functioning or not. I have seen springs bent by knuckle-dragging meat heads (myself included) improperly installing buffer/spring (hint: I recommend against hammer use), but not broken after install.
The extractor tension was very low after reassembly, so I assume that the broken spring piece worked it’s way slightly back (as seen by the wear on the bolt) and provided sufficient tension in it’s state to keep the gun running.
I doubt that a carbine length gas system would work in this condition. (Duh. I promise I don’t think that you readers are dumb, but the post seemed empty without noting that last line.)
F2S-
We recently discovered the same thing in a Colt M4 (select fire) that belongs to our SWAT element. The weapon had been fired, semi only & approx 100 rds, the day we found it. The spring was in two pieces and had been flattened. The insert was not found.
Naturally, I did not have my camera.
I had/have a Colt 6920 w/ Ken Elmores reliability package, after a few thousand rounds, I decided to clean it for an upcoming class, beside the sand, carbon and other assorted crud that needed the kitchen sink to make adent in, the extractor spring came out in 3 pieces. It had been running like a “sewing machine”, up to that point.
Bob
Do you run (or does Ken include in his reliability package) a Crane O-ring? I suspect this might mitigate the effects of a broken extractor spring.
On a similar note, I recently purchased a very low mileage Colt M16 Bolt Carrier Group. Upon disassembly, I noted that the extractor pin was broken in two. :eek:
Never saw that before either.
Sub,
Pretty sure its just a black insert and his extractor spring.
I’ve seen broken extractor pins also, can’t remember if it was apersonal gun or issued, but I do remember it not being a problem.
Bob
Bob-
Interesting, thanks for the info.
Has anybody tried shooting with just a buffer, no spring in the extractor?
Or did I just volunteer myself?