Hi guys, newb in the AR world here. About a month ago I bought a PSA lower and a PSA upper with a nickel boron BCG made by Toolcraft acordong to the description. I went to the range and shot 150 rounds no problem. When I went home I cleaned it and then proceeded to function check. I dry fire it like 20 times and no problem. Ive always read that is safe to dry fire with the upper on. Read that the military do it thousands of times no problem. The next day when I pick it up I noticed something rattling inside, that’s when I noticed the firing pin was broken. I Google broken firing pins and all I seen is the tip breaking but didn’t foumd any firing pin breaking like this. The cotter pin was intact and installed correctly through both holes. Do anyone has any idea why this happened? Was prob a MIM defect, or maybe the steel or alloy of wasn’t heat treated properly? Maybe bolt out of spec? Should I buy just the firing pin or I should buy a new bolt or bcg from a reputable company? Thank you
I believe Nickel Boron has lead to some serious issues, which have been discussed here. Consensus seems that the best coatings other than phosphate are Ion Bond (BCM), NP3 (tons of manufacturers), or whatever chrome KAC uses. That said, I‘m not sure if that BCG has everything coated in Nickel Boron or just the bolt and carrier. If you can swing the price, I’d swap the entire thing for a phosphate BCG. The PSA premium one would probably even be an improvement if you don’t want to pay the $150ish for a better one. If that’s too much, go to BCM’s site and buy as many of their BCG components as you’re willing to spend money on. Obviously firing pin first, but the SOPMOD rebuild kit is probably a good idea too, even a bolt if you’re up for the $70 tag. Your use should not have caused that to happen if all of the parts were in spec, dry fire or not.
Your problem appears at the start of your info, and is quoted above. PSA runs into more returns, defective, broken parts, and customer issues than every other manufacturer put together it seems.
ETA- Don’t worry, some apologist will come out and say its a normal occurrence, and the retailer has nothing to do with it because they don’t make the parts. It is correct, the parts are made to the specs of the retailer, and stated above, it comes up over and over with the same company having issues.
I’ve been reading alot since I bought it. I see bcg and barrel are the 2 things I should get good quality. I’ll prob order the BCM ion bond. Thank you.
For sure. It was my first rifle and the price was right. I thought I was getting a good value. I’ve sent PSA 2 emails four days ago with no reply yet.I Don’t think they will. Oh well, lesson learned.
I would ditch the NiB BCG in favor of a Milspec phosphate one, like a BCM or a Colt. NiB is nothing but trouble and really any fancy coating on a BCG is just not needed.
Unless this is a duty rifle then I wouldn’t ditch anything other than the broken firing pin. You can replace those for pretty cheap from a reputable manufacturer.
Is it possible that after shooting, prior to dry firing session you assembled the bolt incorrectly, with the firing pin not fully inserted in the bcg? Then the hammer would smack the firing pin at an angle and break it.
Honestly, unless you can get one of the good coatings I mentioned for less than a good phosphate one, its more about the looks than anything IMO. So you’re spending the difference on aesthetics. Yes, there may be some increased lubricity and easier to clean, but IME, good lube is cheaper, will be more usable, and works just as well. I love my IB BCG, but if its between just that vs a phosphate one and some spare parts, do the latter.
Sounds like you got a bad firing pin. I have thousands of rounds and dry firings through my NiB Toolcraft BCGs. Replace the firing pin and contact Toolcraft. They have a lifetime warranty for defective parts.
Also, that bolt looks incredibly dirty/stained if all you did was fire 150 rounds. Since you have a PSA upper I wouldn’t be surprised if the oversized gas port caused a lot of extra wear on the parts. Unlucky with the firing pin heat treat and the overgassed rifle could lead to a very early breakage.
Seriously, buy two quality (BCM, Colt, etc) firing pins, one to use and a spare. Dry fire to your hearts content, it did not cause your failure. Cheap parts fail more and differently than quality parts, it’s a fact of life.
Shoot your gun, enjoy it, repair by parts replacement as required. Read a lot of the posts on the board here and when you are ready for an upgrade, totally replace your gun. It’s not like your PSA is made from pot metal, and using it will tell you a lot more about what you really want when you spend the money for a nicer gun.
I would recommend you do not upgrade 1 part at a time unless you are replacing failed parts, I have been down that road and it was a mistake. My LMT “M4” is orders of magnitude superior to my PSA “M4” fixed with serviceable parts.
Sounds like a defective firing pin.
If PSA isn’t replying I’d just buy two, a replacement and a spare. Spare pin and spare bolt is a good idea.
Normally I’d recommend the spare bolt backup kit from AIM Surplus but last I looked a complete Toolcraft BCG was the same cost, but I think AIM does offer the back up kit in NiB.
Not sure what NiB has to do with the firing pin unless that was NiB coated as well. I have an NiB BCG and several nitrided BCGs and they all have standard firing pins. It may be possible something is out of spec in that BCG.
I still like PSA as a budget option, hope they put a pin in the mail, but a new pin is probably what it’d cost to mail a broken pin plus return postage.
Toolcraft makes the carrier and outsources everything else. Give them a call and they SHOULD make it right.
You can tell a Ti pin as it will be about half the weight and sounds completely different when dropped. It also costs about 3x more, so I doubt it got mixed in. I ran one in my open-class space gun about 20 years ago and never had a problem (still have it in a parts box).
