Here are a few pics of my SR-556 after a few thousand rounds over the last eight months. It have sent it back to Ruger for inspection and repair but I have doubts that if this is happening in 556, how is the 6.8 SPC going to do???
I’ve seen tilt get so bad that it’ll have intermittent problems. Sometimes you’ll get through a whole mag without stoppages but sometimes you can’t get past a couple of rounds. The carrier wasn’t designed by Eugene Stoner to move in the fashion that it does in a piston gun. When you get your carrier back I’d suggest replacing the receiver extension with a new one (if Ruger doesn’t) and getting an anti-tilt buffer from FRS, get the H2 weight.
I’ve seen a few HK upper receivers that were shot hard and suppressed which cracked the upper receivers.
That’s so strange that the Ruger SR-556 does this. I have ARs from Daniel Defense, Bravo Company, Colt, LMT and even Bushmaster and I have never seen this problem.
Cameron
DI guns don’t have this issue… it’s strictly piston driven system that produce the problem. It’s the way the impulse hits the BCG that cause the issue… a DI system doesn’t exhabit it. The anti-tilt is probably the best way to resolve the issue.
As far as I understand it… it’s different for every gun. Some has a lot and some has very little. Some will wear a lot at the beginning then stop and functions just fine. Me, I’ll stick to the DI gun since that’s what the system was designed for in the first place.
~dpc
Wouldn’t the easiest way to resolve the issue simply be to not get a piston in the first place?
Exactly my point. The OP should have Ruger refund his cash or repair and sell it.
Cameron
Because they are awesome. They stop jams.:sarcastic:
Yup this was quite the bummer for me. I’ll wait to see what Ruger does. But like I said, if it is happening in 556, what is the 6.8 going to do? I do have plans to add a different buffer after I get it back and see if that helps. I would think that Ruger has tried this already though so I’m not expecting it to help much. I’m also curious to see if anyone else has had this happen. Not that much info out there about rates of this happening. No recall’s that I have heard of but that doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen.
What is FRS Robb??
Seth Harness’ business is FRS, he makes the anti tilt buffer, Ruger refunded my money.
Here is who youre looking for https://www.m4carbine.net/member.php?u=2419
Bolt carrier tilt is what happens when you use a desgin not made for that operating system.
It’s all about the axis of force from the piston. Take a look at every piston design that was designed from scratch as a piston gun. The return spring and pistion are inline, i.e. the same axis, not parallel, but the exact same axis. The FAL has the return spring attatched to the rear point of the bolt carrier opposite of where the piston strikes it. The M1’s spring actually goes in the oprod opposite of the piston. The AK’s spring is housed in the bolt carrier opposite of the piston. Even a DI gun techincally has a piston. The bolt carrier acts as a stationary piston, and the bolt carrier around it acts as a gas cylinder. Where’s the spring on the AR-15? It’s directly behind the “piston” on the opposite end of the bolt carrier. On the Daewoo K1A1 (the only other DI gun I have expereince with), they used two springs ala M3 Grease gun, but still they are in line with the “Piston” or bolt. AR-180 used twin springs again inline with the gas psiton.
Any design that uses a spring in a postion that it will not be directly acting on the force opening the bolt, is simply bad engineering. No one in their right mind would design a piston gun from scratch to have a spring acting on the bolt carrier in a different axis than the force of the piston. Yet somehow these designs are considered “improvements”.
Any signs of wear inside your upper receiver?
Ten four on what Rob says it seems every rifle will wear different.You cant go wrong with getting a buffer from fire arm ready solutions, Seth is a great guy to talk to,get one for the 5.56 and one for the 6.8 if you have two rifles, and dont look back.
Jason
How long will it take the world to figure out that a piston AR is a fucking retarded idea? 
As are 90% of the guns designed by Ruger…
the world may never know.
Took me 1000 rounds and joining M4.
I’m with you on this one now. I’m honestly sorry for not listening to you before.
However, the Daewoo K2 is a pretty good design, IMO.
And if the SCAR could have been a drop in upper receiver with a replaceable stock kit… oooooooh.
However, the Daewoo K2 is a pretty good design, IMO.
That’s because it has a long stroke piston which rides in a gas tube to keep the carrier traveling straight. So does the XCR.
All three rifles, the ar15, daewoo k2, and xcr have a bolt carrier that has four contact points the carrier travels on. There are no rails. As such, if a piston is to be used, like on the xcr and daewoo k2, it must be connected directly to the carrier, with the op rod guided by a gas tube, in order to prevent carrier tilt.
short stroke designs are a no-go unless the carrier rides on a pair of rails.
In my understanding… that’s why PWS went with a long-stroke system (ie AK-piston) in their revamp design.
One thing to keep in mind, reading on blogs of people that’s actually keeping track of their wear on piston uppers… most rubbing stops after a set amount. While the set amount varies, I have yet to read of any rubbing past the tube and into the lower receiver’s tube threads. So at worst, you’re looking at a buffer tube with some wear marks on it and not causing function issues. It may look ugly, but that’s about it.
That being say… it’s not something that one should expect on a $1200 rifle. I’m sure Ruger knew about the issue… it probably comes down to a numbers game, would it cost more to add the anti-tile buffer for every rifle they sell or just replace the tube for people that return it for repairs? My guess is, not everyone shoots their rifle enough to cause the wear… thus it’s cheaper to deal with the repairs.
Side note: Not every Ruger design is junk, I have a Security-6 that my daddy gave me… after 20 years, it’s still a rock solid 6 shooter 
Cant we all just get along.
It seems every time a new person comes along and wants to ask questions and become part of the family, it turns into a mine is better than yours and that rifle is crap and yada,yada,yada.We are all part of a group who want to use the Ar platform,it takes a real man behind a computer to talk trash about other peoples property!!:mad:
Jason