I received my Colt SP6920 as per the general consensus of the board on some of my previous posts. I ordered from Grabagun and received the rifle (shipped) for around $990.
The rifle came in the standard colt cardboard box with the accessories pack (two 20 round mags, a sling, instructions, and cleaning tools).
I noticed several things upon inspection…please tell me if these are normal…or if I have a problem.
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When I insert a 30-round Lancer L-5 magazine into the magazine well with a CLOSED BOLT and forcefully send it home with a good underhand slap, the magazine will not catch and falls right out. When I leave the BOLT OPENED, the magazine slides right in and catches without incident. Is this normal of the Colt SP6920? Or is there something wrong here? These same Lancer L5 mags loaded with 30 rounds fit smooth as butter into my Bushmaster without ANY problems (open or closed bolt).
edit: I also tried with 29/28 rounds in the mag and the same issue persists. This makes a tactical reload impossible. I am thinking this rifle must be defective?
The stock is NOT a colt factory stock - instead it is a “rogers super stoc” It’s a skeleton style stock. Is this a factory addition to the rifle? Or is there a chance that grabagun sold me a used rifle?
The two 20 round mags the rifle came with were sealed in a plastic bag along with the manual and cleaning rods + sling. However the mags are very badly tarnished and scratched up. Is this normal for brand new for OEM Colt equipment?
Is there any way for me to check if the gun is used? Everything appears to be clean and well oiled as if from the factory, however I would like to be able to check more thoroughly.
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Thanks a lot gentlemen, look forward to hearing back from all of you.
Most rifles will have this “problem” of the magazine seating quite hard or not at all on a full magazine.
Solution: Download your magazines by ten percent (i.e. only load 27 rounds in a 30 round magazine.)
Also, it very well may be the magazines. If you have any GI mags, or even PMags, try loading them with 27 rounds and see how that works.
The rifle is new and I assume from your post that you haven’t fired it yet. I would suggest that you go shoot the thing, and see how it performs once it has had a few rounds through it…
New Colt rifles are shipping with this new stock.
I haven’t seen a Colt rifle yet that came with a “new” looking magazine. They are scratched, etc, but they work fine…
Contact Colt with the serial number. They can tell you when the rifle was manufactured, but the fact that it has the new style stock tells me that the rifle is quite new.
From what you have posted, I see no reason whatsoever to be concerned. You got a new Colt, go shoot it…
This is a problem that a lot of people have seen with the Lancer mags. I have the same problem with the ones that were given to me as a result of the problem you are describing.
Download em’ or offload em’… or push a little harder.
However, I have tried 2 windowed pmags and they also are having the same issue.
I downloaded to 27 rounds and STILL it is not catching without a tremendous amount of force.
Like I previously said, the bushmaster that I own loads flawlessly with all mags on a closed bolt.
Why is the Colt so temperamental? Is there a modification I can make to the rifle in order for it to properly seat 30 round mags with the bolt closed (this includes 27/28/29 loaded mags)
The gun should work out of the box. The only thing that should be done with a new gun is to fire several hundred rounds through it to make sure things work. You don’t have to wear the thing in and expect malfunctions right off the bat that will ‘solve themselves’ with use.
I have used the push-pull method. It takes an unbelievable amount of force to get the mag to seat properly. I am a fairly strong guy, so I’m sure it’s not that I’m lacking in that department
But anyway, it takes so much force to get a mag with 30 rounds to seat properly its absolutely incredible. I own several AR15s. This is the FIRST one that I’ve owned that is having problems with this.
I opened up the safe today and tried multiple fully loaded 30 round mags on all of my rifles (including another colt). All the mags fit fine when I give a good shove into the mag well even with the BOLT CLOSED.
This is the FIRST rifle I’ve ever used that a 30 round mag will NOT fit without brute and excessive force.
Is there no way that I can modify the rifle in order to make magazine seating easier? Even with 27 round mags it still is generating a LOT of difficulty (way more so than the other rifles).
Also, the 20 round factory mags work fine filled with 20 rounds, they go right in, no problem. Maybe that’s a sign of what’s the problem?
Do you know how to install / remove the magazine catch from the lower? I’d try swapping that part with the one in your other Colt. See if you still have the problem or if the problem followed the magazine catch to the other receiver. If so its possible that part is out of spec.
Since you have another Colt AR that works well you could swap a number of parts one by one checking to see if any of them can be identified as the problem. Sounds like you’ve already tried several different mags, so do the magazine catch next & after that the bcg, & then the entire upper.
I found that the magazine catch from the other Colt rifle I had worked perfectly fine.
Looks like I got a bad mag catch from the factory - what are the odds of that? I compared the two mag catches and found that the new one sticks out further and has a weird angle to it…almost like an imperfection.
The stock mag catch from the other colt was smooth and less intrusive on the mag well.
Thanks for the help guys, I will be calling Colt on Monday.
I guess I got lucky with my SP6920. I was able to seat fully loaded 30 round mags into mine without using too much force. I hope Colt helps you resolve this issue and like others have said, get out and shoot that thing!
I’ve got an LE6920, a 6550, a BM/OLY mutt and a BCM/SAA mutt. PMags with 30 rounds fit in to each one with the bolts closed, no problem. USGI mags and USGI mags + Magpul followers loaded to 30 don’t seat in any of them with the bolt closed. That was just using what I would consider ‘normal’ force, in trying to insert them. Taking them down to 28 rounds, all inserted just fine. Just my small sample test, YMMV.
