Just got back from a 4th of July weekend that was amazing in it’s insanity, and the amount of lead fed down range. Today was the big day for shooting before clean up. It was about 95 degrees out, we were in the sun.
Towards the end of the day I had three stuck cases. The third put the gun out of operation and required a cleaning rod to remove.
The gun is a stock M&P 15, no modifications on the BCG. Clean and oiled when it went up.
The Ammo was Wolf (I’ve heard of this exact thing happening but I still want to see if there are things I can do to avoid it). We shot 400 rounds through the gun in a little less then 2 hours.
The first extracted case had a twisted groove dug into it. The last one was covered in black tar.
The guys I was shooting with were mostly career military, and they told me not to be to worried about. The one with the most knowledge told me early on that he thought the gun was over oiled. We field stripped the weapon after the second failure, and the extractor was filthy, whipped it off and shot about 45 rounds through it before the last failure.
The overall opinion was that it was hot, I over oiled the gun, and it was the Wolf ammo.
Well, you will soon get the “Wolf is junk”, use something else.
Yesterday I shot six 30rd mags of Wolf MC (180rds) followed by five 20rd mags of brass cased ammo (100rds) in about an hour. Not one single problem. My rifle is a Bushmaster and the only thing I did was add the BCM upgrade kit to the bolt.
What type of Wolf were you shooting, the black box or military classic? I have no experience with the black box, but can’t remember having any problems or issues with the MC stuff.
The steel case used in Wolf ammo expands differently than brass. Some claim that it does not expand as much and that chamber gets dirty more quickly than with brass cased ammunition. When I shoot Wolf I scrub the chamber out every few mags. No stuck cases so far
A BCM upgrade is a good idea and will probably temporarily fix the problem, but it is most likely a Band-Aid. What is the total round count through the weapon?
I thought of that, but according to the chart, the manufacturer, and the barrel I am chambered for 5.56, which I have shot over 200 rounds through the gun with no problems with no problems at all. Does this failure mean that I shouldn’t be shooting 5.56? If that’s the case, I’m contacting S&W.
Well, it should be 5.56mm but I would not be surprised if the chamber on your M&P 15 is a little tight. And Wolf isn’t exactly spec’d out to exact 5.56x45mm dimensions, now is it? 200 rounds through the gun is not really a good test of anything.
So, I’m thinking your extractor spring and insert (did it come with an O-ring?) are wearing out already - the question is… why so early in the weapon’s life? How are your gas rings? Do you know how to check them?
First not 200 of Wolf, 200 Partizan 5.56. 1500 rounds through the gun all together.
I realize 200 isn’t much, but it’s a new gun, and I shoot any chance I can. But if 400 rounds in under two hours is a test, well this gun failed at it.
Yes the gas rings are not aligned like they should be, but someone pulled the bolt out yesterday, I am checking that right now. I’m not going to lie to you, I’m a bit upset about this. The gun is still under warranty.
I just removed the bolt, and the openings on the gas rings are all within a centimeter of one another. They use to be very spread out prior to this weekend. It is very possible that they guy that pulled the bolt aligned them and thy shook apart a little bit. They are close.
Also I do not know how to check for a d-ring but I was told it had one. I have never taken the extractor apart.
The little spaces in the gas rings don’t need to be staggered or aligned.
I think that you are just experiencing some of the common failures that can occur with really low quality ammunition. Give the chamber a good cleaning, lube the bolt and carrier generously with a quality liquid lubricant and try again. A BCM extractor upgrade is also a good idea - taking the extractor apart is very simple.
I would think it would be prudent to shoot quality ammo through your gun before jumping to conclusions. I am will to bet your problem is related to your wolf ammo rather than your gun. Shoot brass ammo through it and see if the problem goes away. If it does then you will know the answer to your problem without going crazy guessing what might or could be the problem. Sometimes amazingly it is the simplist solution. In then end if you find out your gun does not like wolf ammo then consider that knowledge gained and move on.
Any decent name brand lube is fine, and some guys even use motor oil/etc.
I’d buy some Slip 2000 and be done with it.
If you want to run Wolf without these issues, go buy an AK, and shoot the crap out of it.
Otherwise, you’ll probably have some issues from time to time in the AR platform.
Wolf is about the dirtiest ammo on planet Earth, as you have seen.
I’m sure the Wolf nazis will be along in a minute to tell you how their AR runs 100% on Wolf, but not everyone’s AR is always going to do that…