Picked up a Daniel Defense M4V7 today at my lgs’s grand opening and was super excited to take it to the range. I took it home and cleaned out all the factory stuff as well as lubed it. I took it to the range; however, I had very little success in actually shooting it. The first problem that I ran into was that it would fail to feed every second or third bullet and sometimes consecutively. I would look into the chamber and the bolt would be caught on the back of a bullet that was jammed half way out of the mag. Granted I was using an aluminum mag that I got from the lsg (in my haste I had left my PMAG at home). Still though, no matter how many times I tried it kept jamming. I was only able to fire about 20 bullets before I got too fed up and just left. Since it might be relevant, the ammo was .223 PMC Bronze.
My second question is about the BCG of the daniel defense. When I got it and started to clean it, I found the bolt end of the BCG to have a lot of coppery looking dust on it. I cleaned it as best as possible but it still looks kinda bad (to me) for a new rifle. I have only had one other AR and the BCG looked much cleaner. Aslo it had what looked like wear on the bottom of the BCG. Ive included pictures, these are after the gun was fired (I was in too much of a hurry before to take them). Keep in mind that I only fired at most 20 shots before packing it up.
Am I paranoid or is my BCG fine and did I just use a crappy magazine?
What kind of aluminum magazine was it? I would get some good GI aluminum mags and PMags and go back to the range to try it out. I am guessing it is the magazine.
I dropped some of OTIS’s CLP on it and used a cotton rag to try and get it off but no real luck. It seemed a little better after I did that but as you can see still looks kinda “coppery.” I also tried to wipe off the bottom of the BCG where the wear seems to be with no luck.
Steel is harder then brass. I think he is trying to make a point that the brass has rubbed off on the steel carrier. Even that my bolts don’t look that way.
I probably didn’t make it very clear, but the bottom of the carrier looked like that before I went shooting as well (only one side had the slightly worn look if I remember correctly).
EDIT: Wow, I totally meant steel…was trying to type brass is softer (or something to that effect) and got ahead of myself…now I feel dumb.
The brassy streaks along the bottom of the bolt carrier is the result of the carrier rubbing the top round in your magazine as the bolt cycles when a shot is fired. The parkerized finish of the carrier is for lack of a better word, porous. Therefore minute particles of the brass is wiped into the pores of the finish. Same for the front of the bolt lugs and bolt face. The wear is on the brass casing of the round and not the steel of the bolt and carrier. You’ll also see the brass deposits on the face of the deflector. Nothing to be concerned about.
ETA, DD test fires their rifles prior to shipping.
That doesn’t sound too bad then, I was getting kinda disappointed after reading so much about how awesome DD is. As long as all is well and this is normal i’m fine with it being a bit brassy.
Yea I should have said that I wouldn’t be too worried about it IF you can get it to function properly. If you try multiple magazines and it continues to act up something is wrong.
So what kind of magazine were you using? I thought DD shipped with a Pmag?
Oil the hell out of the BCG. If you’re unsure of exactly where it needs oil then dump oil all over and in it. It’ll get rid of the excess pretty quick.
It was some $50 aluminum mag (orange follower) that my LGS “threw in.” It was in my OP but it was easily missed: I left my pmag at home in my rush to clean my DD and get to the range before dinner =p
Sorry OP but there is no point to your post until you use some known good mags in it. Ever hear the acronym MEAL? It stands for the common reasons to have issues
Magazines
Extractor
Ammo
Lube
Your gun is a great gun by the way. So that means Extractor and ammo (should eat anything) are most likely non-issues.
So the questions you should be asking are, is this a good magazine? and is the gun well (and properly lubed)? (IE lubed gas rings, bcg contact surfaces and charing handle)
That list isn’t sequential, it’s just a handy acronym.
Low-pressure PMC ammo + midlength gas system = not ideal.
PMC Bronze can run fine in midlength systems, but may not. The chamber-pressures it generates are generally pretty low, compared to 5.56 pressures (Example: https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=123377).
I’d disregard the magazine until you 1) lube the hell out of your BCG, 2) get some 5.56 ammo, try shooting it again, and see what happens. That said, doing THAT with a known-good mag surely wouldn’t hurt…
Also, dunno if you are new to AR’s (seems like you might be). You may notices that there is no C for cleaning in the acronym. It is much more important to lube the thing. Good to get the factory grease out no doubt but you dont need to clean it after 20 rounds…
[QUOTE=JSantoro;1541854]That list isn’t sequential, it’s just a handy acronym.
/QUOTE]
Yeah i should have said that. Its not that Magazines and extractors are the two most common reasons of failure followed by ammo and lube. In my experience the leading causes are lube and dicking around with your gas system when you dont know what your doing!!
