I’ve got an issue with my AR15 that I am having a very difficult time solving.
Background story:
Last weekend I dropped a mag in the mud during a drill and did not notice a big wad of mud on the top of the magazine. I loaded the magazine and fired one round (the round was in the chamber from the previous mag before the reload). When I fired the new mag fell out because it was not seated (probably due to the mud).
I forget the details of the next part (this was all during the drill and I was trying not to let a “malfunction” stop me), but I think what I did was reload the mag and fired once. The next round loaded successfully, but I suddenly thought I should check the chamber in case some of the mud was working its way in there if it had not already made it there.
When I went to pull the charging handle I could not get the round out. After messing with it a while I finally just pulled as hard as I could and got the round out. At that time I stopped shooting. When I got home I gave the lugs and chamber a good cleaning (as well as the rest of the gun). I thought that would solve the issue since I thought it was just some debris in the lugs causing the issue.
To try and wrap of this long story… basically the gun seems to function fine when there is no ammo in the gun, but if I put a round in it then it is the same thing where I have to use all of my strength to pull the charging handle.
Something definitely seems wrong, but as far as I can tell the recoil lugs look fine.
Does anybody have any ideas of things I can check or theories as to what happened?
You sir are a life-saver. I was thinking something was tweaked, but you inspired me to see if I could break up some dirt and I just loaded and cycled a snap cap and sure enough there was a little “dust” on the round. I cycled it about 50 more times, cleaning the dust off the round between cycles, and its running like new again.
I thought I cleaned those lugs pretty good, but I guess getting on the backside of that face is no easy task.
Not to keep beating a dead horse, but the handiest damn thing Ive ever bought to clean an AR is my Dewey Chamber rod. That, a chamber brush and mop, and BAM!..done.
If you have a complete USGI cleaning rod there is no need to bend a rod section to make a chamber rod.The handle section of the USGI cleaning rod is what is used for the chamber brush.Simply lock the handle in place and run a rod section thru the hole in the handle to make a “T”.
Ive moved to using Otis kits like the MSR and 3-Gun kits which have a small sectional rod and bore obstruction/T handle combo for using the chamber brush as well.These kits are a weight savings and more compact than the USGI rod kits.