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Folks,



I apologize that I haven't been able to do much updating on the current topics or start the optic thread but I will get to it... just need a little time away from work.



That being said, I posted in this thread awhile back about using the TD-415 (HK 416 clone) upper on the range. It has been working like a champ up until a few days ago. The recoil spring appears to have failed. It didn't break but you can tell by looking at it that something happened to it. We had a customer that wanted to shoot THAT gun so we pulled the recoil rod and spring assembly from our broken HK MR556 unit and got it up and running.



The one thing that we did with the TD-415 upper different from the factory MR556 is that the TD unit has had a suppressor on it since day one. That's a LOT more gas and pressure and it's been on the line every day since my original post. I can't give you an accurate or even ballpark round count as I haven't had time to check the maintenance logs. I thought I would just give you an update on that specific unit since quite a few people asked me my opinion about it. That being said, I really like the upper. It cleans up easy and other than every single round being shot through it is suppressed and 90% of that being full-auto, just a spring failing seems like a minor issue.



I just received another TD upper after waiting for about 6 weeks after I paid for it. This one is the 10" model and we don't plan on suppressing this one so let's see how much longer we get out of the recoil spring.



Where is everyone getting a Titan Defense 416





From what I can gather, they are the same maker as Cohaire Arms, Special Weapons, etc.



We paid for the 10" upper six weeks (honestly, it may have been longer) and after waiting and waiting and waiting, one of my managers filed a claim with Gunbroker (not that it would help) to make sure we had a record of it. I can't remember if it was the email or the address of the location, but something in one of the email responses clued me into who the maker is.



Ever have any auto sears break/fail?



No, we have yet to lose an auto sear.



Were you able to determine the manufacturer of those Korean quad rails you mentioned earlier in the thread?





I just tried to look up the company that imported them and they used to go by Mik Mak Inc. They did a name change and started expanding but looks like they were indicted back in OCT 2014.



https://www.fbi.gov/losangeles/press-releases/2014/owner-of-la-habra-manufacturing-firm-charged-with-illegally-manufacturing-and-selling-key-component-for-ar-15-type-rifles



Any update on those full auto Colts?

The Colt's continue to run flawlessly. 9/8/15



but how are you acquiring your range's MG's?



We were the subcontractors for a large FWT contract out at Ft Polk that required an extensive collection of weapon systems. The contract has expired.



ETA: We continue to offer FWT and other classes to local and Federal agencies as well as individual military units.



Question: With the near constant attrition of machine gun parts and pieces, do you go to local machinist to have work done or is everything maintained in house?



Also, another poster asked and I'll reask:

How are the AR-18/180s holding up?



We've been using a local machinist to start making parts for us that hard to acquire. At this point, we are expanding our own mfg to not only make receivers but other parts as well. Our own gunsmith/machinist has made the entire M60 receiver onsite. He started with M60 trunion castings but milled them to 100% and had them hardened locally as well as the sheet metal, rails and bridges. We've done the same thing with plenty of other receivers but parts availability for some weapons is almost non-existent.



As for the Armalite, we don't have any of the "new" B models but we do have some original AR-180's. The haven't had any problems but one continues to have the pins walk out.





What problems do you see with PMAGs?



The backend's of the magazine where the bolt picks up the round have cracked. It's not like they crack that often to be an issue where we won't use them. Also, their warranty policy is one of the best. We've packed up a box of broken mags, sent it to Magpul and they send back a box of new replacement mags, no questions asked.



Someone asked about an update on the PSA



The PSA uppers are running like champs and the RSO's like grabbing them first because of the short barrel. It creates a bigger flash, louder bang and bigger smile



We have lost one bolt due to a cracked lug but the round count and use is on par with others considering that some have been lost in longer/shorter periods than others. One cracked lug is nothing out of the ordinary for any of the LMT or DD bolts at this point in the length time and amount of use.



Do you have a COLT 6940P (PISTON ) ON THE RANGE



That is one piston system that we have ever used or purchased for the range. Just because of our past experience with piston guns, we won't put any other new piston systems on the range.



do you notice suppressors on the longer barrels lasting longer or has this even been an issue?



Off the top of my head.. I know we have YHM and AAC 5.56 cans that we've used since day one and they both continue to function properly and no noticeable erosion. I know that we also have Surefire cans as well but IIRC, the YHM is the oldest can (about 7-8 years old) with NO issues and it's still used weekly



argument about hk barrels, HK USA should have sent them a replacement barrel for a defective barrel



As for the replacement, I know HK will not replace the barrel on a weapon like that because it was converted to a Post Sample and I have ZERO problems with that. To be honest, I thought that the MR556 was just supposed to be a "civilian version" of the HK 416. I've been out of the retail loop for so long I didn't know all the differences until I started this thread. I did have a friend who works at a LARGE military weapons manufacturing company tell me that the MR556 had a "crap" barrel. So, that being said, if I knew the barrel wasn't meant to be used just like the 416 then I probably would have used it more for the "sniper" packages.







How are the 10" TD415 uppers doing? interested in seeing how the enhanced LMT bolts and/or the relia-bolt hold up



Here's some info about two different M4 bolts that broke yesterday.



I talked to the armorers about the two Sharp's relia-bolts that we have. I don't know how we received them because I didn't purchase them. I am not sure if they were sent to us for testing or if a distributor/dealer rep dropped them off. What I can tell you that is one broke a lug off yesterday and it had only been on the line for approximately seven days. Apparently the other bolt lasted approximately 4 months before cracking.



As for people have asked about the Palmetto State Armory uppers, another one of the PSA bolts broke yesterday as well. It was in a 11.5" upper and the bolt cracked in half at the cam pin section. This particular complete upper assembly went into service on 14 MAR 15. I checked the maintenance log and less than one month after the rifle going on the line, it had to have a cam pin replaced (cracked) and the extractor replaced on 02 APR 15. The weapon was taken out of service on 25 MAY 15 for "short stroking" by the RSO's. After an armorer had a chance to examine the rifle, it was actually a broken gas key in addition to two of the gas key eroding away. A new gas key and gas rings were installed and it went back into service. The staff didn't make any additional notes (other than headspace which was still good to go) during the days of maintenance until the bolt broke yesterday.



The PSA rifle is more of a "favorite" of the guys because they are fairly new, still look clean (though looking clean has ZERO to do with function and ALL about the customer's perception of a good or bad gun) and give a big flash and bang for the customer experience. It has seen almost daily service since going into service in March. We started doing the numbers on this rifle and here's a quick breakdown on a fair to conservative break down on round count.



It's fair to say that every M4 on the line sees a minimum of 250 rounds per day (and that's being VERY conservative). Take that number and average that to six days a week because they take it out of service one day each week for cleaning and maintenance (even then, once cleaned it goes directly back on the line). That would give us 26 days per month of use and it almost made it 6 complete months until the bolt completely broke. That averages out to 39,000 rounds of use for that upper assembly until the bolt broke and suffered a complete catastrophic failure. Because the bolt did break, the armorers checked the throat erosion (no issues) because they wanted to see for themselves how well it's handled.



We talked about the quality of the upper as a whole after all the notes were written down in the maintenance log. They asked me my opinion about the quality and if I would purchase more. I told them for what I paid for the complete upper (it's the "premium" model with the CHF barrel), the amount of use we got out of it AND that we will still get use out of it with the addition of another bolt, I would definitely purchase more. I also told them I would like to purchase a DD, LMT and use another one of the PSA uppers (have plenty in reserves) and put them all on the line at the same time. I would want to make sure that each came off the line exactly at the same time for maintenance during the "evaluation" see which unit outlasts the other. It won't be "scientific" by any stretch because all three mfgs can't control every process involved. None of the mfr's can be 100% certain that a lot of steel is without defect, that the company handling heat-treat did everything 100% by the book and so on.



I will have an update this week or tomorrow on a brand new 9mm Colt that we put on the line 09 SEP 15 and how long it didn't last



The week long Reliabolt isn't impressive but we don't know if it was a recalled bolt or not.



This is exactly why I wanted to let you folks know that I don't know where we got them from. Quite a few of the bigger mfr's use outside sales companies to promote and sell their products. When they stop by, they will at times leave products for us to test or sample. I still haven't had time to find out exactly who received them but I will find out. Also, I don't allow my staff to solicit any mfr's for their products under the guise of "testing". If somebody gives me something for free then I feel compelled to return the favor of being nice to them. We've had several companies reach out to us recently and I didn't want to take any product for free because again, I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings if their product didn't perform.



There is one company that did approach me regarding the issues with the broken hammer pins on our shorty 8.5" PDW and the PAINFUL trigger slap. He offered to send me one free of charge but I asked that I pay for it. It's a front gas block with a restrictor that reduces the amount of gas coming into the gun. When it arrived, I right away installed it myself and tested it. Not only did the rate of fire drop somewhere between a full-size M16 and 10.5" M4, but it also had ZERO trigger slap. It's held up so far, no signs of gas escaping around the gas block, screws aren't backing out and it actually made the little PDW enjoyable. The owner's name is Robert and his company is called MicroMOA.com and I want to thank him for reaching out to us. Customer experience is key and I honestly HATED shooting the PDW because of the trigger slap. My RSO's all use thick gloves and it still didn't help much. The gas block is restricted top .0625" and I wasn't expecting much from it to be honest. I ordered four more so we can build some more PDW's because customers like it because of how cool it looks.



I'll get some more pics of it and the PDW posted later today if I get some time.



What is your general policy regarding security threat response, specifically your RSO's



Most of the staff (drivers, mag loaders, RSO's, armorers and managers) open carry to deter any potential criminals by showing a force of no less than 30 armed personnel. Some staff choose to conceal carry but the Operations Manager has to sign off on it with and verify they have a CCW. The staff are also allowed to get ammo and trigger time at the end of the shift to stay proficient.



We've had several LE agencies that have stopped by make comments about our security. They've all said that we shouldn't worry about a thing because if criminals are going to hit one of the nearby gun ranges, they will hit one of the several ranges where a majority of the RSO's are in tight Daisy Dukes and not carrying a sidearm.



I would also echo the suggestion to use LMT's enhanced BCG for the PDW's.



Iv'e never noticed how the two lugs on the LMT enhanced bolt nearest the extractor are different. Here's some a bolt that failed this week and it just happens to be the two lugs that are part of the features of a LMT bolt. It looks like LMT did their homework because they definitely know more that any of my armorers or myself with know. Also, LRRPF52, thank you bring that valuable information to the discussion!!!!



general comment



I wanted to get more information from our armorers before I posted our issues with a brand new Colt 9mm carbine.



We received a new Colt semi-auto carbine from a distributor approximately 3 weeks ago. We have a demo scheduled with an LE agency scheduled for December and one weapon in particular they asked about was a 9mm carbine in select-fire. We finally go around to adding it to the NFA Registry and doing a conversion on the lower receiver as a proper Post Sample MG.



The owner of New Frontier Armory (my best friend and co-founder of Batltefield Vegas) wanted to test-fire a new unfired Colt compared to his new 9mm AR's that he has been developing. We put less than sixty rounds down range because I personally grabbed the three magazines and we didn't finish all of the ammo (shooting all the time tends to get old believe it or not).



Later that night, we had an event for 180 guests who rented out Battlefield Vegas. The event included the customers shooting four different weapons and the 9mm AR was on the list. I told the armorers to include the Colt in the weapons that will go on the line to "break it in" so there won't be any issues with the LE demonstration. After being used approximately 9-10 times the barrel fell completely off! It happened as one of my RSO's was grabbing it by the handguard and the rest of the weapon just fell to the ground. He said it was extremely awkward looking at the customer who was a first time shooter.



I asked the armorer if it had ANY issues prior to the barrel just falling off and he said absolutely not. The only thing we could come up with is that the barrel nut wasn't properly torqued down and the full-auto fire just let the barrel not slowly rotate itself off. If the barrel extension has a tight fit inside the upper receiver then it would continue to fire as long as the bullet seated and the bolt struck the round. One of my armorers who isn't up to speed on the functions of the 9mm said that it was impossible because the gas tube would have kept the barrel nut from rotating off. I explained to him that 9mm doesn't use a gas tube like his issued-M4 did when deployed.



Since then (approximately 10 days ago), both the hammer and trigger pins have snapped. It does have the proper 9mm factory bolt and the proper 9mm insert/spacer attached to the back of the recoil spring.



Just thought that this was crazy for Colt because all of the 5.56 carbines that we are using have had zero issues to date.



ave your scars eaten many optics?





We have Aimpoint PRO's on both -L's and -H's with no issues. I can't remember which scopes we have mounted on the other -H's but I will find out for you.

The reason many are going to ask about the SCAR is because there was a technical memo put out within SOCOM about the SCAR's breaking certain optics and electro-optical aiming devices that are SOPMOD accessories.

We have yet to lose a scope on one of the -H models but our accuracy is only gauged 10-15 yards. I will find out who made the scopes but all the cross hairs have remained in place and intact. As for the -L's, they all have PRO's on them and other than the abuse described in the optics thread, nothing out of the ordinary has been discovered. Until I can verify, I believe we are using Trijiocon and Bushnell scopes the -H models but I will confirm.



had problems with anyone getting seriously hurt with these failures



Most of the kabooms are only things we notice. Customers don't know what to expect when they are shooting so to them, they think the magazine just ran out of ammo. By putting certain measure in place, I think we will only reduce the chances of a kaboom or catastrophic accident. If you guys think you've learned something from this thread, just imagine how much WE HAVE learned from doing it every single day. The loose barrel on the Colt 9mm is just one more page in the PMCS' of putting a new weapon on the line. When we think we've seen it all, another gun or another part will break that everybody says "it can't happen" or "they don't break".



As for injuries, the worst thing we've experienced is a OOB with an M4 Uzi on a left-hand shooter. A piece of brass scratched his cheek on the way out of the chamber. It didn't scar him or even really shake him up. His friends were all laughing and blamed him for breaking our gun. I felt so bad that I let the shooter crush a car with a tank and I sent him and his friends (all Canadian guys in Vegas on a mancation) to dinner at Del Frisco's. I told them that the entire tab was on me and to order as much as they want and don't hold back. I was expecting like a $1,500-$2,000 bill but they only spent a little over $500. He actually emailed us and said we went above and beyond and thanked us for the experience. I know what I was like back in college and if I had three of my friends with me... that bill wouldn't have been that low



Any experience with mid-length gas system ARs?



I don't believe we have any mid-length systems on the line. We haven't really had any issues with carbine-length reliability as long as the weapon is maintained properly. The gas tubes in the carbine-length systems with 10.5"-12.5" barrels do erode away faster but we tens of thousands of rounds of use before they even begins to happen.



Out of curiosity any sig556's in inventory? If so how are they holding up?



We've lost approximately two recoil/op rod springs per SIG in the last THREE years (as of 01 OCT 12). It's a great weapon in my opinion.



Have you had any "non wear" parts break?



Actually, we have not. They continue to hold up to the abuse but we are surprised to be honest. They are either so tucked away inside or hard to "bang" against that we haven't had any issues to date.



What bolt rings do you have best luck with?



To be honest, I didn't know there were other options for gas rings. When a bolt brakes, we recover the extractor, ejector and gas rings. In fact, I was in the shop with the armorers yesterday and they were showing me a bunch of gas ring "residue" they have collected. I will pass the information about McFarland rings to my operations manager and have him order them. If they work any better than the standard units, I won't have a problem upgrading all of our AR's with them.





Curios if you guys have tried chrome silicone action / buffer springs?



We use standard buffer springs and IIRC, we bought the last huge lot from DS Arms. We haven't experienced any issues with springs, regardless if purchased as bench stock or originally equipment for the weapon. They do get checked every month for length with comparison to a new one.



I'm curious if your range operates 16in carbine length gas system ARs



It's fair to say that 90% of our AR's have a carbine length gas system. We haven't experienced what I would describe as accelerated wear. The only issue we had with short gas systems.. the pistol length, was constantly breaking hammer pins and trigger slap. Since we installed the regulated gas block from MicroMOA.com, we haven't experienced either of those issues to date.



Any update on how the PSA uppers are doing?



I talked to the armorers about the uppers and we have lost a second bolt to a lug cracking. We still think they are par with all the other uppers at this point considering they were all the shorty barrels.





Have you ever tried nickel boron coated BCGs?



I don't have any clue as to who's it was but we did have a nickle boron BCG at one point. I don't remember any details of the carrier group other than it didn't last as long as the other ones or we would have kept using them.



general comment



This is a just a bit off topic but it relates to why we prefer not to use American Eagle ammo. The .50BMG round on the left was just pulled right out of the black-boxed American Eagle packaging. It has a LC-13 date stamp on it and it looks as if it was a fail-to-feed M2HB round at one point (not that it was.. just making an observation) because of the bend. We see this on rounds that fail to feed in our M249's, M60's and M240's. We just lost our Advanced Armament suppressor that's mounted to one of our Barrett's due the front of the can not liking that small hole



The armorers are trying to determine the cause of the failure of the can and the first thing they did was go to the ammo and this round was in the first box they opened.





UPDATE: Palmetto State Armory



I've had quite a few PM's asking about the status of the Palmetto State Armory uppers. We have been running 5.56mm uppers with CHF and nitride 10.5", 11.5" and 12" barrel lengths as well as the 10.5" melonite 9mm uppers.



I never purchased melonite or nitrided uppers prior to these units (that I know of) and was actually more concerned about physical appearance to be honest. I know that even the cheapest barrels have lasted 10's of thousands of rounds with no issue but I wasn't sure how well the finish would hold up with all the cleaning and handling. As I've stated before, physical appearance is almost as important and functionality because customers who've never handled firearms before don't have much confidence in an ugly but reliable weapon. All three of the different types of uppers have held up with no issues or reliability of finish. These uppers in particular are getting used more than the others at this point because we put so many on the line.



With the 5.56 uppers, we've lost a total of 5 bolts since we put them on the line. I've paid particular attention to these uppers because I have to make sure that we are getting our money's worth (I know, they are cheap to begin with) and also reliable enough to give the customers a great experience. I've seen these guns with the PSA uppers on the line every day of the week and they just run. Of course we swap them out every few days for a cleaning but there isn't a day when there's at least 8 of their uppers on the line. The last three months have been a little busier than last year at the same time so the round count is higher than we expected for this time of the year. Depending when they went on the line, it's a fair estimate to say the lowest estimate for some is 30,000 rounds and up to 50,000 rounds on others. The uppers with the higher round counts have suffered from sheared/cracked bolt lugs but that is on par with bolts from other manufacturers.



The 9mm uppers we purchased have the 10.5" barrel and 7" quad rail. We've retired our Colt factory 9mm SMG's for complete rebuilds and the new PSA's have been on the line for the last 6-8 weeks now. The 9mm's are part of several "specials" so they get a good work out everyday. The PSA 9mm bolts are a bit different from the Colt models and I don't know if it was to cut costs, increase production or what the reason is but they shortened the key on top and eliminated one of the cap screws. We have Colt bolt carriers with 200,000+ rounds that continue to run but the PSA bolts (four out of five) have suffered from a lost key. The one cap screw shears (also held in by a roll pin) and the weapon can no longer be charged back because the charging handle has nothing to grab. Again, I don't know why the didn't use the Colt design of two cap screws (just like a standard 5.56 gas key uses) instead of one but we have yet to lose a key on a Colt bolt carrier. Since the key is only used for charging the weapon, the armorers decided to just weld the key in place and that has fixed the problem so far.



On a side note about 9mm's, we purchased five of the Quarter Circle 10 lowers to help with quicker recognition for the RSO's since the Colt's are going through a rebuild program. We used the lowers that accept the Colt 9mm magazines so we wouldn't have to purchase new magazines. Some of the staff asked about purchasing the lowers that use Glock magazines and even though Glock magazines are much easier to load than the Colt model, customers recognize the long, 32-round magazine that they see in movies and video games.



Lastly, an update about the 16" barreled Colt 6920's that we put on the line. They are getting used daily as well with no issues to date. It's fair to say they are in the 20,000+ round count range.



I am also very interested in anything you can say about .308/7.62x51 systems (Especially the DPMS G2 platform.)







Posted: 11/17/2015 12:47:58 PM EST

[Jump To Reply]Originally Posted By AKJun:

I am also very interested in anything you can say about .308/7.62x51 systems (Especially the DPMS G2 platform.) I know Adams Arms recently posted a video of a full auto version of their SF308: Adams Arms 12.5" 308 fully Automatic





We have a full-auto SIG 716 that hasn't had any issues to date but it doesn't get used very often. I think the staff use it more often that customers to be honest. I have a "Battle Rifle" package (includes F/A M14, FAL, G3 and SIG 716) that should put some heavy use on the SIG. Currently, the FAL's (original FN and Imbel), G3 (PTR post samples) and M14's (M1A post samples) hold up very well and have almost ZERO issues. Hopefully the SIG will hold up but if not, I have a DPMS .308 that can take it's place.



Other than buffer springs, have you used anything else from DS Arms?



We've only used buffer springs, buffer tubes, F/A assemblies and dust cover assemblies.







has there ever been problems getting ammo?





We purchase mainly from the mfg but there are times where distributors will have a really good price and we purchase as much as we can. As for getting ammo, we don't have problems ever since purchasing from Magtech.







general comment



Here are some of the bolts that we've gone through this year in addition to other parts. No weapon weapon system is immune to the hazards of being on our firing line. In this pile of bolts are M1928A1 Thompson bolts, M60 bolts, M134 minigun bolts, plenty of AR15 bolts, HK G36 bolts, HK MP5 bolts, AK bolts and even a Kriss Vector bolt. One thing that is pretty interesting is how the M249 gas tubes just slowly erode away.





I PM'd Ron about monetizing this information, but I didn't hear back,



I don't have the time to collect the information other than what I have passed on here the forum. I've got quite a few suggestions on how I should collect information and hiring people to do it but it's just one more thing to do a list that's already too long



if you have any more updates on the Colt rifle functionality,



I apologize for the lack or responses gentleman. We should have entered our slow down at the beginning of November but it's been full steam and hasn't let off. It only slowed down just a bit but all the upgrading and work we planned on doing kept getting pushed back. We want to make sure the range and property looks good for SHOT Show as we have special guests arriving here on the property for the entirety of SHOT. It's 0400 here in Vegas and I'm suffering from a little insomnia so I figured I would knock this out.



That being said, we have our Colt rifles on the line daily and have yet to suffer from a broke bolt, disconnector, firing pin or anything. They have been functioning flawlessly since coming on the line. They've all been dressed in Magpul furniture with the SL hand guards but we had to add the Vertical Fore Grip soon after because the hand guards get hot QUICK and customers are not able to handle the weapons safely without them. Standard Colt M4 double-line hand guards do stand up better to the heat but I like the fact that the Magpul sets extend further down the barrel to prevent further chance of burning a hand from handling the weapon.



We also started using (can't remember if I mentioned it previously) the Quarter Circle 10 lowers with PSA 7.5 railed uppers in 9mm and they too run great. We are using the YHM 9mm buffers in them and along with a little modification to the disconnector, we are getting no trigger slap.



I promise I will get a shotgun thread going but I will give you a bit of a spoiler..... Benelli M4



Everyone thinks it's so easy to run a biz and do extra stuff that doesn't add to the bottom line



Just as stated above and I am NOT trying to be a jerk to anybody but this is SO true. Our day from beginning to end is never ending.



A perfect example would have been yesterday. Right now we should be in our slow season but the customers never stopped from the moment we opened until a little after 7:00pm. My managers didn't even get a chance to get lunch, the armorers were dealing with a new issue that we've never seen before on a AR15/M4 upper receiver (will update post with pics), mag loaders didn't finish loading mags until after I left at 7:45 and on and on. To put one (or two) more person in the mix of daily operations is much easier said than done.



So you guys caused that ammo shortage



No, not us. Our ammo orders are placed six months in advance so the factory already knows to allocate production for us. We have added to the orders each time but it's always six months out to protect us from some sort of ammo shortage.





I'm very interested to know if you have seen any noticeable difference with regard to wear (throat, rifling, etc.) between the PSA Nitride and CHF barrels?



So far, they are both have been problem free and accuracy (I know it's close distance) but neither types of barrels have been shot to the point of key-holing to this point. There have been a few bolts lost but nothing out of the ordinary.



As for the Colt's, still zero problems and yet to lose a bolt.



We have added some PSA 7.5" uppers with the Battle Arms Development PDW stocks and it's great runner. I'll be honest (and full disclosure) and thought there would be a problem with George's PDW stock and the short barrel. I've known George before B.A.D. became what it currently is. They were making tools for the M14/M1A and George would tell me about his AR15 products in development and I would swear to secrecy while the patent was in process. I purchased several of them for the range and have installed them on the shorties. I don't know why I didn't have much faith in the combo but it runs like a champ and plan on purchasing quite a few more.



but do you guys have any ACRs on the line?



We do have two select-fire ACR's on the line that have been running for well over a year now. The only thing that I can think of off the top of my head is a gas piston assembly that went flying down range and couldn't be recovered. It's an AR180-based design (G36, SA80, SAR80) that is simple and reliable. I don't know what type of issues others have had but it's been on par with all other weapons as far as function and reliability.



on your suppressed ar's are you seeing any high failure rate for specific parts over un-suppressed? Are your suppressed ar's using any kind of adjustable gas block or any other parts specific to the suppressed ar's?





If parts are breaking on a higher rate on suppressed rifles, my staff hasn't brought it up to me and I haven't noticed any trending parts when ordering replacement parts.



That being said, we are going to switch over to gas blocks made by MicroMOA that have been made specifically for suppressed rifles. We purchased some of their "Baby Govnah" for the 7" and 10" automatic AR's and they REALLY made a huge difference as for recoil, trigger slap and breaking full-auto disconnectors. We tried different things to slow it down and stop the trigger slap to include almost every heavy buffer out there (and some were EXPENSIVE and now sitting in a spare parts bin) and modifying the disconnector. Nothing worked so we purchased some of the Baby Govnah's and it was like a light switch went on. The staff couldn't believe how well it worked and it made shooting the PDW's fun again.



We are using suppressors more often and some suppressors are more "gassy" that others. One of those suppressors is the Brevis II by Delta P but it's a fair tried for the compact size. It fits on the 7" PDW and only adds about 3" total length so the customer still gets a small little package that's suppressed. It does kick a lot of gas back at the shooter so I am hoping that this gas block from MicroMOA works just as well as the other one did for slowing the gun down and helping with reducing gas coming back into the shooter's face.



Here's a terrible cell phone pic but you can see the size of the can on the 7.5" PDW and overall length with the Brevis II attached. I will say that our cans from AAC, YHM and Surefire don't kick as much gas back to the point but those cans are at least twice the length. We provide an experience so it's not the level of noise reduction but the point that it's "silenced" and reducing gas blown back in the face is part of the experience.



general comment

A quick update as it's been hectic here BFV getting ready for SHOT Show and everything that OSS Suppressors have going on. That being said I will provide some updates with wear patterns on upper receivers that I have never seen. The wear pattern in the in channel were the gas key rides is something we've never seen before and the failure that came along with it.



Here's a little gem from yesterday while on the range. We've had instances where several bolt lugs have sheared off but the weapon to function properly but this bad boy is stopped dead in it's tracks when it breaks like this. My RSO was walking from the range to the armory when I noticed that something looked wrong. I took a quick picture of it before the armorers could even take it part







What's the up keep like on your vintage firearms?



I will get the round count and manufacture of the bolt but it was definitely put on the line within the last 7-10 months. I remember that particular weapon going back on the line after we did a reset on several M4's. This particular M4 had a new barrel installed, new fire control group, buffer, spring, etc and for the most part, was the just the upper and lower that was recycled into service.



There must be a response or post I used with the word "reset" because I had a member message me about what that meant. I've been working in the garage with the mechanics on our HMMWV's and when they reset a vehicle (in the Army), they go through the whole vehicle to "reset" it back to new. We have been doing that with HMMWV's so to anybody else that wondered what I meant.. now you know.



As for vintage firearms, we are constantly looking for either parts guns or very good/excellent condition guns to keep the line filled. We have 5 or 6 (I can't remember) G43's which we pull parts from to keep at least two running at any time. It does get expensive when some of the guns are like the Japanese Type 96. The magazines alone are around $1,500 when you find them and parts kits are not easily found so I usually buy whatever I find.



If there's one thing to take away from this thread it's that we have worried entirely too much about breaking parts, barrel wear, ect. It also shows you don't have to spend a fortune to get quality parts (PSA).



That is the exact reason I started these topics. I hope that more people will realize that it doesn't take a $1,500 upper to go out and have fun with their AR15. I've given our experiences here on the range and nobody has paid me to promote their product or keep my mouth quiet. I've tried my hardest to not bad mouth any one company (not my objective) and let the guys that live check to check and hide a few dollars here and there to buy themselves a new "toy" that it's OK to make that purchase. You don't have to skip rent, credit card bills or enjoying a dinner out with the family to have a fun and reliable AR15.



I am now in a position that I can afford pretty much any weapon I want (I own a transferable M134 "minigun") and have no desire to purchase any high-dollar rifles that do that same thing (my opinion from my experiences) that lower-cost parts kits and rifles. My wife is on the fence about purchasing the Boba Fett gun from Battle Arms Development not because it's the most tactical or high-precision (it may be, I haven't kept up because so much new stuff is constantly being released) but because of the cool factor. Purchase what makes you happy and what you can afford but don't go into bankruptcy because the newest celebrity says it his/her go-to gun.





I would love to know how Clamp-on, and unpinned but loctited set screw gas blocks are holding up.



We have several of these in use by manufactures to include MicroMOA, YHM and Daniel Defense. All of the low profile gas blacks are completely mounted under the quad rails and not one of them has a dimpled barrel to ensure a positive lock. I was very surprised to find out that they don't loosen up after time. You can see carbon from gas blowing out all round the gas block (after thousands and thousands of rounds) that in my opinion, has caused the set screws to "freeze up" and stay in place. Carbon plays havoc on our suppressed weapons because it gets into all the threads and baffles so that's what leads me to believe it actually is helping us with keeping the gas block stay put.



Also, we do have one M4 with a YHM clamp-on folding front sight and gas block combo. We only used it for looks because all the metal portions were finished in FDE molyresin and the rest of the furniture was FDE. We wanted to use MOE handguards on it but it initially had a low profile gas and Korean quad rail mounted. Because I couldn't find our jig to properly drill the holes for a standard front sight base, we used a YHM clamp-on unit that had been sitting a parts box for at least 4-5 years. To my surprise, even the YHM clamp-on unit has not budged. This one really blew my mind because it's not dimpled and I thought for sure that forward pressure customers use when holding the weapon, it would surely slip forward slowly lose gas. Again, this weapon has plenty of carbon blowing out around the gas area and I will again assume it's carbon getting into the screws and around the clamping assembly and "freezing" up from all the carbon.



All of the low profile gas blocks have held up equally but I prefer the MicroMOA units that have the gas restriction plug that allows us to slow down (and not over gas) the short barrel M4's. I would like to compare two 10" M4's by putting both on the line at the same time and use a standard gas block and a MicroMOA gas block and see if the bolt lasts longer. You can definitely feel the difference when using the MicroMOA unit (Baby Govnah) but if it can extend the life of the bolt from shearing in addition to providing a "softer" customer experience, it's a win-win situation.



general commen t

Quite a few of you have asked about how the Colt M4's are holding up since being put on the line (according to our records, this particular rifle went on the line 02 OCT 15). They have handled very well with no broken bolts, no broken hammer/trigger pins, no eroded gas tubes or any other failures up until this week. I do want to put it out there that the RSO's really like these weapons. They were all outfitted with the exact same Magpul furniture in two different colors to help in swapping out weekly. They all have MOE handguards with a forward pistol grip to help control heat issues. These weapons get hot after several magazines and when you have parties of anywhere from 2-20 people shooting, the weapons are intolerable for the person who's never handled a firearm to enjoy the experience.



That being said, the RSO's have used these weapons every day of the week and migrate towards the Colt's. They have been on the line since the first week of October and as stated above, they haven't suffered from any issues up until this point. The only reason that I am bringing this up is because I was in the armory yesterday morning and I noticed on of the Colt's disassembled on the bench. It was a FDE model and I knew that those models were on the line and shouldn't be down for cleaning. I asked my armorer Danny Boy what the issue was and he said that the ejector spring was in about 7-8 pieces and that it actually happened to be the second one of the morning. I thought that was pretty odd for two ejector springs to go out in the same day. My other armorer Sean stated that he had already replaced two others early this week for a total of four Colt M4's to suffer ejector spring failure in one week. Also, the ejector pin spring sheared upon failure and had to be punched out.



For this rifle to have four HARD months of use and only suffer from a ejector spring failure is really good in my opinion but the fact that four went down with the exact same issue is what's strange. Also, we never saw the usual slow down during the November through February season and these weapons have continued to see high round counts. Without looking at numbers of rounds consumed for the time period it's fair to see these rifles have no less than 25,000-30,000 rounds through them.



Today is my day off but I will send a message to the armorers to go ahead replace all the ejector springs in the Colt M4's as preventive maintenance and to avoid malfunctions with customers on the range.



25-30K on the original bolts?



Yes sir. Not one bolt failure on the Colt's to date.



general comment



I've previously stated that we've never lost a AR15 receiver due to wear like we have with AK's. Well, with over three years of constant use that is no longer the truth. It's very clear how deep the bolt carrier key has worn into the upper receiver over the years. The armorers made notes in their records about the wear pattern but didn't see a need to replace the receiver as it continued to function and barrels had been swapped (making sure the headspace was kept in spec) with no issue of reliability.



The weapon came off the line because the RSO stated that the bolt wouldn't go into battery. Initially they assumed there must have been a sheared key or case inside the barrel extension area that wouldn't allow the bolt to close. After further inspection, they noticed that the bolt was hitting the face of the barrel extension. They stripped the weapon down and that's when they discovered that there had been so much wear that the bolt carrier was being pushed upward and causing the misalignment. To go back and do the math on the round count would take a VERY long time and even then it would only be good estimate. What I do know is that this particular rifle was one of mine before we opened Battlefield Vegas and has been on the line since day one. It's had two barrel swaps, several bolt's and numerous springs, extractors, etc but it was a great running gun and that's why they kept it on the line. I don't remember who I purchased this receiver from but it's fair to say that it wasn't a high-dollar upper by any means. This was a personal weapon that we used for demo's and I couldn't afford a nice rifle to let LE use and abuse so more than likely it was from JT Distributing or DS Arms.



We had distributor accounts set up with both of them prior to opening Battlefield and used quite a bit of their products. Either way, it's a standard forged upper receiver that has lasted untold thousands of rounds before failing. I don't want people to come out and say that I am stretching the truth but I will throw some numbers out there and let you do the math. Each M4 on the line will get a minimum of 20 magazines run through it each day and each magazine has 25 rounds. Just for fun, let's just say that it was on the line only 3 out of the 7 days of week for 3 years and 3 months. Now, that is a very conservative number because there are SO many times that we go through 10,000+ rounds of .223 on a Saturday in the last three years.





pages 18-33Folks,I apologize that I haven't been able to do much updating on the current topics or start the optic thread but I will get to it... just need a little time away from work.That being said, I posted in this thread awhile back about using the TD-415 (HK 416 clone) upper on the range. It has been working like a champ up until a few days ago. The recoil spring appears to have failed. It didn't break but you can tell by looking at it that something happened to it. We had a customer that wanted to shoot THAT gun so we pulled the recoil rod and spring assembly from our broken HK MR556 unit and got it up and running.The one thing that we did with the TD-415 upper different from the factory MR556 is that the TD unit has had a suppressor on it since day one. That's a LOT more gas and pressure and it's been on the line every day since my original post. I can't give you an accurate or even ballpark round count as I haven't had time to check the maintenance logs. I thought I would just give you an update on that specific unit since quite a few people asked me my opinion about it. That being said, I really like the upper. It cleans up easy and other than every single round being shot through it is suppressed and 90% of that being full-auto, just a spring failing seems like a minor issue.I just received another TD upper after waiting for about 6 weeks after I paid for it. This one is the 10" model and we don't plan on suppressing this one so let's see how much longer we get out of the recoil spring.From what I can gather, they are the same maker as Cohaire Arms, Special Weapons, etc.We paid for the 10" upper six weeks (honestly, it may have been longer) and after waiting and waiting and waiting, one of my managers filed a claim with Gunbroker (not that it would help) to make sure we had a record of it. I can't remember if it was the email or the address of the location, but something in one of the email responses clued me into who the maker is.No, we have yet to lose an auto sear.I just tried to look up the company that imported them and they used to go by Mik Mak Inc. They did a name change and started expanding but looks like they were indicted back in OCT 2014.https://www.fbi.gov/losangeles/press-releases/2014/owner-of-la-habra-manufacturing-firm-charged-with-illegally-manufacturing-and-selling-key-component-for-ar-15-type-riflesThe Colt's continue to run flawlessly. 9/8/15We were the subcontractors for a large FWT contract out at Ft Polk that required an extensive collection of weapon systems. The contract has expired.ETA: We continue to offer FWT and other classes to local and Federal agencies as well as individual military units.We've been using a local machinist to start making parts for us that hard to acquire. At this point, we are expanding our own mfg to not only make receivers but other parts as well. Our own gunsmith/machinist has made the entire M60 receiver onsite. He started with M60 trunion castings but milled them to 100% and had them hardened locally as well as the sheet metal, rails and bridges. We've done the same thing with plenty of other receivers but parts availability for some weapons is almost non-existent.As for the Armalite, we don't have any of the "new" B models but we do have some original AR-180's. The haven't had any problems but one continues to have the pins walk out.The backend's of the magazine where the bolt picks up the round have cracked. It's not like they crack that often to be an issue where we won't use them. Also, their warranty policy is one of the best. We've packed up a box of broken mags, sent it to Magpul and they send back a box of new replacement mags, no questions asked.The PSA uppers are running like champs and the RSO's like grabbing them first because of the short barrel. It creates a bigger flash, louder bang and bigger smileWe have lost one bolt due to a cracked lug but the round count and use is on par with others considering that some have been lost in longer/shorter periods than others. One cracked lug is nothing out of the ordinary for any of the LMT or DD bolts at this point in the length time and amount of use.That is one piston system that we have ever used or purchased for the range. Just because of our past experience with piston guns, we won't put any other new piston systems on the range.Off the top of my head.. I know we have YHM and AAC 5.56 cans that we've used since day one and they both continue to function properly and no noticeable erosion. I know that we also have Surefire cans as well but IIRC, the YHM is the oldest can (about 7-8 years old) with NO issues and it's still used weeklyAs for the replacement, I know HK will not replace the barrel on a weapon like that because it was converted to a Post Sample and I have ZERO problems with that. To be honest, I thought that the MR556 was just supposed to be a "civilian version" of the HK 416. I've been out of the retail loop for so long I didn't know all the differences until I started this thread. I did have a friend who works at a LARGE military weapons manufacturing company tell me that the MR556 had a "crap" barrel. So, that being said, if I knew the barrel wasn't meant to be used just like the 416 then I probably would have used it more for the "sniper" packages.Here's some info about two different M4 bolts that broke yesterday.I talked to the armorers about the two Sharp's relia-bolts that we have. I don't know how we received them because I didn't purchase them. I am not sure if they were sent to us for testing or if a distributor/dealer rep dropped them off. What I can tell you that is one broke a lug off yesterday and it had only been on the line for approximately seven days. Apparently the other bolt lasted approximately 4 months before cracking.As for people have asked about the Palmetto State Armory uppers, another one of the PSA bolts broke yesterday as well. It was in a 11.5" upper and the bolt cracked in half at the cam pin section. This particular complete upper assembly went into service on 14 MAR 15. I checked the maintenance log and less than one month after the rifle going on the line, it had to have a cam pin replaced (cracked) and the extractor replaced on 02 APR 15. The weapon was taken out of service on 25 MAY 15 for "short stroking" by the RSO's. After an armorer had a chance to examine the rifle, it was actually a broken gas key in addition to two of the gas key eroding away. A new gas key and gas rings were installed and it went back into service. The staff didn't make any additional notes (other than headspace which was still good to go) during the days of maintenance until the bolt broke yesterday.The PSA rifle is more of a "favorite" of the guys because they are fairly new, still look clean (though looking clean has ZERO to do with function and ALL about the customer's perception of a good or bad gun) and give a big flash and bang for the customer experience. It has seen almost daily service since going into service in March. We started doing the numbers on this rifle and here's a quick breakdown on a fair to conservative break down on round count.It's fair to say that every M4 on the line sees a minimum of 250 rounds per day (and that's being VERY conservative). Take that number and average that to six days a week because they take it out of service one day each week for cleaning and maintenance (even then, once cleaned it goes directly back on the line). That would give us 26 days per month of use and it almost made it 6 complete months until the bolt completely broke. That averages out to 39,000 rounds of use for that upper assembly until the bolt broke and suffered a complete catastrophic failure. Because the bolt did break, the armorers checked the throat erosion (no issues) because they wanted to see for themselves how well it's handled.We talked about the quality of the upper as a whole after all the notes were written down in the maintenance log. They asked me my opinion about the quality and if I would purchase more. I told them for what I paid for the complete upper (it's the "premium" model with the CHF barrel), the amount of use we got out of it AND that we will still get use out of it with the addition of another bolt, I would definitely purchase more. I also told them I would like to purchase a DD, LMT and use another one of the PSA uppers (have plenty in reserves) and put them all on the line at the same time. I would want to make sure that each came off the line exactly at the same time for maintenance during the "evaluation" see which unit outlasts the other. It won't be "scientific" by any stretch because all three mfgs can't control every process involved. None of the mfr's can be 100% certain that a lot of steel is without defect, that the company handling heat-treat did everything 100% by the book and so on.I will have an update this week or tomorrow on a brand new 9mm Colt that we put on the line 09 SEP 15 and how long it didn't lastThis is exactly why I wanted to let you folks know that I don't know where we got them from. Quite a few of the bigger mfr's use outside sales companies to promote and sell their products. When they stop by, they will at times leave products for us to test or sample. I still haven't had time to find out exactly who received them but I will find out. Also, I don't allow my staff to solicit any mfr's for their products under the guise of "testing". If somebody gives me something for free then I feel compelled to return the favor of being nice to them. We've had several companies reach out to us recently and I didn't want to take any product for free because again, I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings if their product didn't perform.There is one company that did approach me regarding the issues with the broken hammer pins on our shorty 8.5" PDW and the PAINFUL trigger slap. He offered to send me one free of charge but I asked that I pay for it. It's a front gas block with a restrictor that reduces the amount of gas coming into the gun. When it arrived, I right away installed it myself and tested it. Not only did the rate of fire drop somewhere between a full-size M16 and 10.5" M4, but it also had ZERO trigger slap. It's held up so far, no signs of gas escaping around the gas block, screws aren't backing out and it actually made the little PDW enjoyable. The owner's name is Robert and his company is called MicroMOA.com and I want to thank him for reaching out to us. Customer experience is key and I honestly HATED shooting the PDW because of the trigger slap. My RSO's all use thick gloves and it still didn't help much. The gas block is restricted top .0625" and I wasn't expecting much from it to be honest. I ordered four more so we can build some more PDW's because customers like it because of how cool it looks.I'll get some more pics of it and the PDW posted later today if I get some time.Most of the staff (drivers, mag loaders, RSO's, armorers and managers) open carry to deter any potential criminals by showing a force of no less than 30 armed personnel. Some staff choose to conceal carry but the Operations Manager has to sign off on it with and verify they have a CCW. The staff are also allowed to get ammo and trigger time at the end of the shift to stay proficient.We've had several LE agencies that have stopped by make comments about our security. They've all said that we shouldn't worry about a thing because if criminals are going to hit one of the nearby gun ranges, they will hit one of the several ranges where a majority of the RSO's are in tight Daisy Dukes and not carrying a sidearm.Iv'e never noticed how the two lugs on the LMT enhanced bolt nearest the extractor are different. Here's some a bolt that failed this week and it just happens to be the two lugs that are part of the features of a LMT bolt. It looks like LMT did their homework because they definitely know more that any of my armorers or myself with know. Also, LRRPF52, thank you bring that valuable information to the discussion!!!!I wanted to get more information from our armorers before I posted our issues with a brand new Colt 9mm carbine.We received a new Colt semi-auto carbine from a distributor approximately 3 weeks ago. We have a demo scheduled with an LE agency scheduled for December and one weapon in particular they asked about was a 9mm carbine in select-fire. We finally go around to adding it to the NFA Registry and doing a conversion on the lower receiver as a proper Post Sample MG.The owner of New Frontier Armory (my best friend and co-founder of Batltefield Vegas) wanted to test-fire a new unfired Colt compared to his new 9mm AR's that he has been developing. We put less than sixty rounds down range because I personally grabbed the three magazines and we didn't finish all of the ammo (shooting all the time tends to get old believe it or not).Later that night, we had an event for 180 guests who rented out Battlefield Vegas. The event included the customers shooting four different weapons and the 9mm AR was on the list. I told the armorers to include the Colt in the weapons that will go on the line to "break it in" so there won't be any issues with the LE demonstration. After being used approximately 9-10 times the barrel fell completely off! It happened as one of my RSO's was grabbing it by the handguard and the rest of the weapon just fell to the ground. He said it was extremely awkward looking at the customer who was a first time shooter.I asked the armorer if it had ANY issues prior to the barrel just falling off and he said absolutely not. The only thing we could come up with is that the barrel nut wasn't properly torqued down and the full-auto fire just let the barrel not slowly rotate itself off. If the barrel extension has a tight fit inside the upper receiver then it would continue to fire as long as the bullet seated and the bolt struck the round. One of my armorers who isn't up to speed on the functions of the 9mm said that it was impossible because the gas tube would have kept the barrel nut from rotating off. I explained to him that 9mm doesn't use a gas tube like his issued-M4 did when deployed.Since then (approximately 10 days ago), both the hammer and trigger pins have snapped. It does have the proper 9mm factory bolt and the proper 9mm insert/spacer attached to the back of the recoil spring.Just thought that this was crazy for Colt because all of the 5.56 carbines that we are using have had zero issues to date.We have Aimpoint PRO's on both -L's and -H's with no issues. I can't remember which scopes we have mounted on the other -H's but I will find out for you.We have yet to lose a scope on one of the -H models but our accuracy is only gauged 10-15 yards. I will find out who made the scopes but all the cross hairs have remained in place and intact. As for the -L's, they all have PRO's on them and other than the abuse described in the optics thread, nothing out of the ordinary has been discovered. Until I can verify, I believe we are using Trijiocon and Bushnell scopes the -H models but I will confirm.Most of the kabooms are only things we notice. Customers don't know what to expect when they are shooting so to them, they think the magazine just ran out of ammo. By putting certain measure in place, I think we will only reduce the chances of a kaboom or catastrophic accident. If you guys think you've learned something from this thread, just imagine how much WE HAVE learned from doing it every single day. The loose barrel on the Colt 9mm is just one more page in the PMCS' of putting a new weapon on the line. When we think we've seen it all, another gun or another part will break that everybody says "it can't happen" or "they don't break".As for injuries, the worst thing we've experienced is a OOB with an M4 Uzi on a left-hand shooter. A piece of brass scratched his cheek on the way out of the chamber. It didn't scar him or even really shake him up. His friends were all laughing and blamed him for breaking our gun. I felt so bad that I let the shooter crush a car with a tank and I sent him and his friends (all Canadian guys in Vegas on a mancation) to dinner at Del Frisco's. I told them that the entire tab was on me and to order as much as they want and don't hold back. I was expecting like a $1,500-$2,000 bill but they only spent a little over $500. He actually emailed us and said we went above and beyond and thanked us for the experience. I know what I was like back in college and if I had three of my friends with me... that bill wouldn't have been that lowI don't believe we have any mid-length systems on the line. We haven't really had any issues with carbine-length reliability as long as the weapon is maintained properly. The gas tubes in the carbine-length systems with 10.5"-12.5" barrels do erode away faster but we tens of thousands of rounds of use before they even begins to happen.We've lost approximately two recoil/op rod springs per SIG in the last THREE years (as of 01 OCT 12). It's a great weapon in my opinion.Actually, we have not. They continue to hold up to the abuse but we are surprised to be honest. They are either so tucked away inside or hard to "bang" against that we haven't had any issues to date.To be honest, I didn't know there were other options for gas rings. When a bolt brakes, we recover the extractor, ejector and gas rings. In fact, I was in the shop with the armorers yesterday and they were showing me a bunch of gas ring "residue" they have collected. I will pass the information about McFarland rings to my operations manager and have him order them. If they work any better than the standard units, I won't have a problem upgrading all of our AR's with them.We use standard buffer springs and IIRC, we bought the last huge lot from DS Arms. We haven't experienced any issues with springs, regardless if purchased as bench stock or originally equipment for the weapon. They do get checked every month for length with comparison to a new one.It's fair to say that 90% of our AR's have a carbine length gas system. We haven't experienced what I would describe as accelerated wear. The only issue we had with short gas systems.. the pistol length, was constantly breaking hammer pins and trigger slap. Since we installed the regulated gas block from MicroMOA.com, we haven't experienced either of those issues to date.I talked to the armorers about the uppers and we have lost a second bolt to a lug cracking. We still think they are par with all the other uppers at this point considering they were all the shorty barrels.I don't have any clue as to who's it was but we did have a nickle boron BCG at one point. I don't remember any details of the carrier group other than it didn't last as long as the other ones or we would have kept using them.This is a just a bit off topic but it relates to why we prefer not to use American Eagle ammo. The .50BMG round on the left was just pulled right out of the black-boxed American Eagle packaging. It has a LC-13 date stamp on it and it looks as if it was a fail-to-feed M2HB round at one point (not that it was.. just making an observation) because of the bend. We see this on rounds that fail to feed in our M249's, M60's and M240's. We just lost our Advanced Armament suppressor that's mounted to one of our Barrett's due the front of the can not liking that small holeThe armorers are trying to determine the cause of the failure of the can and the first thing they did was go to the ammo and this round was in the first box they opened.I've had quite a few PM's asking about the status of the Palmetto State Armory uppers. We have been running 5.56mm uppers with CHF and nitride 10.5", 11.5" and 12" barrel lengths as well as the 10.5" melonite 9mm uppers.I never purchased melonite or nitrided uppers prior to these units (that I know of) and was actually more concerned about physical appearance to be honest. I know that even the cheapest barrels have lasted 10's of thousands of rounds with no issue but I wasn't sure how well the finish would hold up with all the cleaning and handling. As I've stated before, physical appearance is almost as important and functionality because customers who've never handled firearms before don't have much confidence in an ugly but reliable weapon. All three of the different types of uppers have held up with no issues or reliability of finish. These uppers in particular are getting used more than the others at this point because we put so many on the line.With the 5.56 uppers, we've lost a total of 5 bolts since we put them on the line. I've paid particular attention to these uppers because I have to make sure that we are getting our money's worth (I know, they are cheap to begin with) and also reliable enough to give the customers a great experience. I've seen these guns with the PSA uppers on the line every day of the week and they just run. Of course we swap them out every few days for a cleaning but there isn't a day when there's at least 8 of their uppers on the line. The last three months have been a little busier than last year at the same time so the round count is higher than we expected for this time of the year. Depending when they went on the line, it's a fair estimate to say the lowest estimate for some is 30,000 rounds and up to 50,000 rounds on others. The uppers with the higher round counts have suffered from sheared/cracked bolt lugs but that is on par with bolts from other manufacturers.The 9mm uppers we purchased have the 10.5" barrel and 7" quad rail. We've retired our Colt factory 9mm SMG's for complete rebuilds and the new PSA's have been on the line for the last 6-8 weeks now. The 9mm's are part of several "specials" so they get a good work out everyday. The PSA 9mm bolts are a bit different from the Colt models and I don't know if it was to cut costs, increase production or what the reason is but they shortened the key on top and eliminated one of the cap screws. We have Colt bolt carriers with 200,000+ rounds that continue to run but the PSA bolts (four out of five) have suffered from a lost key. The one cap screw shears (also held in by a roll pin) and the weapon can no longer be charged back because the charging handle has nothing to grab. Again, I don't know why the didn't use the Colt design of two cap screws (just like a standard 5.56 gas key uses) instead of one but we have yet to lose a key on a Colt bolt carrier. Since the key is only used for charging the weapon, the armorers decided to just weld the key in place and that has fixed the problem so far.On a side note about 9mm's, we purchased five of the Quarter Circle 10 lowers to help with quicker recognition for the RSO's since the Colt's are going through a rebuild program. We used the lowers that accept the Colt 9mm magazines so we wouldn't have to purchase new magazines. Some of the staff asked about purchasing the lowers that use Glock magazines and even though Glock magazines are much easier to load than the Colt model, customers recognize the long, 32-round magazine that they see in movies and video games.Lastly, an update about the 16" barreled Colt 6920's that we put on the line. They are getting used daily as well with no issues to date. It's fair to say they are in the 20,000+ round count range.Posted: 11/17/2015 12:47:58 PM EST[Jump To Reply]Originally Posted By AKJun:I am also very interested in anything you can say about .308/7.62x51 systems (Especially the DPMS G2 platform.) I know Adams Arms recently posted a video of a full auto version of their SF308: Adams Arms 12.5" 308 fully AutomaticWe have a full-auto SIG 716 that hasn't had any issues to date but it doesn't get used very often. I think the staff use it more often that customers to be honest. I have a "Battle Rifle" package (includes F/A M14, FAL, G3 and SIG 716) that should put some heavy use on the SIG. Currently, the FAL's (original FN and Imbel), G3 (PTR post samples) and M14's (M1A post samples) hold up very well and have almost ZERO issues. Hopefully the SIG will hold up but if not, I have a DPMS .308 that can take it's place.We've only used buffer springs, buffer tubes, F/A assemblies and dust cover assemblies.We purchase mainly from the mfg but there are times where distributors will have a really good price and we purchase as much as we can. As for getting ammo, we don't have problems ever since purchasing from Magtech.Here are some of the bolts that we've gone through this year in addition to other parts. No weapon weapon system is immune to the hazards of being on our firing line. In this pile of bolts are M1928A1 Thompson bolts, M60 bolts, M134 minigun bolts, plenty of AR15 bolts, HK G36 bolts, HK MP5 bolts, AK bolts and even a Kriss Vector bolt. One thing that is pretty interesting is how the M249 gas tubes just slowly erode away.I don't have the time to collect the information other than what I have passed on here the forum. I've got quite a few suggestions on how I should collect information and hiring people to do it but it's just one more thing to do a list that's already too longI apologize for the lack or responses gentleman. We should have entered our slow down at the beginning of November but it's been full steam and hasn't let off. It only slowed down just a bit but all the upgrading and work we planned on doing kept getting pushed back. We want to make sure the range and property looks good for SHOT Show as we have special guests arriving here on the property for the entirety of SHOT. It's 0400 here in Vegas and I'm suffering from a little insomnia so I figured I would knock this out.That being said, we have our Colt rifles on the line daily and have yet to suffer from a broke bolt, disconnector, firing pin or anything. They have been functioning flawlessly since coming on the line. They've all been dressed in Magpul furniture with the SL hand guards but we had to add the Vertical Fore Grip soon after because the hand guards get hot QUICK and customers are not able to handle the weapons safely without them. Standard Colt M4 double-line hand guards do stand up better to the heat but I like the fact that the Magpul sets extend further down the barrel to prevent further chance of burning a hand from handling the weapon.We also started using (can't remember if I mentioned it previously) the Quarter Circle 10 lowers with PSA 7.5 railed uppers in 9mm and they too run great. We are using the YHM 9mm buffers in them and along with a little modification to the disconnector, we are getting no trigger slap.I promise I will get a shotgun thread going but I will give you a bit of a spoiler..... Benelli M4Just as stated above and I am NOT trying to be a jerk to anybody but this is SO true. Our day from beginning to end is never ending.A perfect example would have been yesterday. Right now we should be in our slow season but the customers never stopped from the moment we opened until a little after 7:00pm. My managers didn't even get a chance to get lunch, the armorers were dealing with a new issue that we've never seen before on a AR15/M4 upper receiver (will update post with pics), mag loaders didn't finish loading mags until after I left at 7:45 and on and on. To put one (or two) more person in the mix of daily operations is much easier said than done.No, not us. Our ammo orders are placed six months in advance so the factory already knows to allocate production for us. We have added to the orders each time but it's always six months out to protect us from some sort of ammo shortage.So far, they are both have been problem free and accuracy (I know it's close distance) but neither types of barrels have been shot to the point of key-holing to this point. There have been a few bolts lost but nothing out of the ordinary.As for the Colt's, still zero problems and yet to lose a bolt.We have added some PSA 7.5" uppers with the Battle Arms Development PDW stocks and it's great runner. I'll be honest (and full disclosure) and thought there would be a problem with George's PDW stock and the short barrel. I've known George before B.A.D. became what it currently is. They were making tools for the M14/M1A and George would tell me about his AR15 products in development and I would swear to secrecy while the patent was in process. I purchased several of them for the range and have installed them on the shorties. I don't know why I didn't have much faith in the combo but it runs like a champ and plan on purchasing quite a few more.We do have two select-fire ACR's on the line that have been running for well over a year now. The only thing that I can think of off the top of my head is a gas piston assembly that went flying down range and couldn't be recovered. It's an AR180-based design (G36, SA80, SAR80) that is simple and reliable. I don't know what type of issues others have had but it's been on par with all other weapons as far as function and reliability.If parts are breaking on a higher rate on suppressed rifles, my staff hasn't brought it up to me and I haven't noticed any trending parts when ordering replacement parts.That being said, we are going to switch over to gas blocks made by MicroMOA that have been made specifically for suppressed rifles. We purchased some of their "Baby Govnah" for the 7" and 10" automatic AR's and they REALLY made a huge difference as for recoil, trigger slap and breaking full-auto disconnectors. We tried different things to slow it down and stop the trigger slap to include almost every heavy buffer out there (and some were EXPENSIVE and now sitting in a spare parts bin) and modifying the disconnector. Nothing worked so we purchased some of the Baby Govnah's and it was like a light switch went on. The staff couldn't believe how well it worked and it made shooting the PDW's fun again.We are using suppressors more often and some suppressors are more "gassy" that others. One of those suppressors is the Brevis II by Delta P but it's a fair tried for the compact size. It fits on the 7" PDW and only adds about 3" total length so the customer still gets a small little package that's suppressed. It does kick a lot of gas back at the shooter so I am hoping that this gas block from MicroMOA works just as well as the other one did for slowing the gun down and helping with reducing gas coming back into the shooter's face.Here's a terrible cell phone pic but you can see the size of the can on the 7.5" PDW and overall length with the Brevis II attached. I will say that our cans from AAC, YHM and Surefire don't kick as much gas back to the point but those cans are at least twice the length. We provide an experience so it's not the level of noise reduction but the point that it's "silenced" and reducing gas blown back in the face is part of the experience.A quick update as it's been hectic here BFV getting ready for SHOT Show and everything that OSS Suppressors have going on. That being said I will provide some updates with wear patterns on upper receivers that I have never seen. The wear pattern in the in channel were the gas key rides is something we've never seen before and the failure that came along with it.Here's a little gem from yesterday while on the range. We've had instances where several bolt lugs have sheared off but the weapon to function properly but this bad boy is stopped dead in it's tracks when it breaks like this. My RSO was walking from the range to the armory when I noticed that something looked wrong. I took a quick picture of it before the armorers could even take it partI will get the round count and manufacture of the bolt but it was definitely put on the line within the last 7-10 months. I remember that particular weapon going back on the line after we did a reset on several M4's. This particular M4 had a new barrel installed, new fire control group, buffer, spring, etc and for the most part, was the just the upper and lower that was recycled into service.There must be a response or post I used with the word "reset" because I had a member message me about what that meant. I've been working in the garage with the mechanics on our HMMWV's and when they reset a vehicle (in the Army), they go through the whole vehicle to "reset" it back to new. We have been doing that with HMMWV's so to anybody else that wondered what I meant.. now you know.As for vintage firearms, we are constantly looking for either parts guns or very good/excellent condition guns to keep the line filled. We have 5 or 6 (I can't remember) G43's which we pull parts from to keep at least two running at any time. It does get expensive when some of the guns are like the Japanese Type 96. The magazines alone are around $1,500 when you find them and parts kits are not easily found so I usually buy whatever I find.That is the exact reason I started these topics. I hope that more people will realize that it doesn't take a $1,500 upper to go out and have fun with their AR15. I've given our experiences here on the range and nobody has paid me to promote their product or keep my mouth quiet. I've tried my hardest to not bad mouth any one company (not my objective) and let the guys that live check to check and hide a few dollars here and there to buy themselves a new "toy" that it's OK to make that purchase. You don't have to skip rent, credit card bills or enjoying a dinner out with the family to have a fun and reliable AR15.I am now in a position that I can afford pretty much any weapon I want (I own a transferable M134 "minigun") and have no desire to purchase any high-dollar rifles that do that same thing (my opinion from my experiences) that lower-cost parts kits and rifles. My wife is on the fence about purchasing the Boba Fett gun from Battle Arms Development not because it's the most tactical or high-precision (it may be, I haven't kept up because so much new stuff is constantly being released) but because of the cool factor. Purchase what makes you happy and what you can afford but don't go into bankruptcy because the newest celebrity says it his/her go-to gun.We have several of these in use by manufactures to include MicroMOA, YHM and Daniel Defense. All of the low profile gas blacks are completely mounted under the quad rails and not one of them has a dimpled barrel to ensure a positive lock. I was very surprised to find out that they don't loosen up after time. You can see carbon from gas blowing out all round the gas block (after thousands and thousands of rounds) that in my opinion, has caused the set screws to "freeze up" and stay in place. Carbon plays havoc on our suppressed weapons because it gets into all the threads and baffles so that's what leads me to believe it actually is helping us with keeping the gas block stay put.Also, we do have one M4 with a YHM clamp-on folding front sight and gas block combo. We only used it for looks because all the metal portions were finished in FDE molyresin and the rest of the furniture was FDE. We wanted to use MOE handguards on it but it initially had a low profile gas and Korean quad rail mounted. Because I couldn't find our jig to properly drill the holes for a standard front sight base, we used a YHM clamp-on unit that had been sitting a parts box for at least 4-5 years. To my surprise, even the YHM clamp-on unit has not budged. This one really blew my mind because it's not dimpled and I thought for sure that forward pressure customers use when holding the weapon, it would surely slip forward slowly lose gas. Again, this weapon has plenty of carbon blowing out around the gas area and I will again assume it's carbon getting into the screws and around the clamping assembly and "freezing" up from all the carbon.All of the low profile gas blocks have held up equally but I prefer the MicroMOA units that have the gas restriction plug that allows us to slow down (and not over gas) the short barrel M4's. I would like to compare two 10" M4's by putting both on the line at the same time and use a standard gas block and a MicroMOA gas block and see if the bolt lasts longer. You can definitely feel the difference when using the MicroMOA unit (Baby Govnah) but if it can extend the life of the bolt from shearing in addition to providing a "softer" customer experience, it's a win-win situation.Quite a few of you have asked about how the Colt M4's are holding up since being put on the line (according to our records, this particular rifle went on the line 02 OCT 15). They have handled very well with no broken bolts, no broken hammer/trigger pins, no eroded gas tubes or any other failures up until this week. I do want to put it out there that the RSO's really like these weapons. They were all outfitted with the exact same Magpul furniture in two different colors to help in swapping out weekly. They all have MOE handguards with a forward pistol grip to help control heat issues. These weapons get hot after several magazines and when you have parties of anywhere from 2-20 people shooting, the weapons are intolerable for the person who's never handled a firearm to enjoy the experience.That being said, the RSO's have used these weapons every day of the week and migrate towards the Colt's. They have been on the line since the first week of October and as stated above, they haven't suffered from any issues up until this point. The only reason that I am bringing this up is because I was in the armory yesterday morning and I noticed on of the Colt's disassembled on the bench. It was a FDE model and I knew that those models were on the line and shouldn't be down for cleaning. I asked my armorer Danny Boy what the issue was and he said that the ejector spring was in about 7-8 pieces and that it actually happened to be the second one of the morning. I thought that was pretty odd for two ejector springs to go out in the same day. My other armorer Sean stated that he had already replaced two others early this week for a total of four Colt M4's to suffer ejector spring failure in one week. Also, the ejector pin spring sheared upon failure and had to be punched out.For this rifle to have four HARD months of use and only suffer from a ejector spring failure is really good in my opinion but the fact that four went down with the exact same issue is what's strange. Also, we never saw the usual slow down during the November through February season and these weapons have continued to see high round counts. Without looking at numbers of rounds consumed for the time period it's fair to see these rifles have no less than 25,000-30,000 rounds through them.Today is my day off but I will send a message to the armorers to go ahead replace all the ejector springs in the Colt M4's as preventive maintenance and to avoid malfunctions with customers on the range.Yes sir. Not one bolt failure on the Colt's to date.I've previously stated that we've never lost a AR15 receiver due to wear like we have with AK's. Well, with over three years of constant use that is no longer the truth. It's very clear how deep the bolt carrier key has worn into the upper receiver over the years. The armorers made notes in their records about the wear pattern but didn't see a need to replace the receiver as it continued to function and barrels had been swapped (making sure the headspace was kept in spec) with no issue of reliability.The weapon came off the line because the RSO stated that the bolt wouldn't go into battery. Initially they assumed there must have been a sheared key or case inside the barrel extension area that wouldn't allow the bolt to close. After further inspection, they noticed that the bolt was hitting the face of the barrel extension. They stripped the weapon down and that's when they discovered that there had been so much wear that the bolt carrier was being pushed upward and causing the misalignment. To go back and do the math on the round count would take a VERY long time and even then it would only be good estimate. What I do know is that this particular rifle was one of mine before we opened Battlefield Vegas and has been on the line since day one. It's had two barrel swaps, several bolt's and numerous springs, extractors, etc but it was a great running gun and that's why they kept it on the line. I don't remember who I purchased this receiver from but it's fair to say that it wasn't a high-dollar upper by any means. This was a personal weapon that we used for demo's and I couldn't afford a nice rifle to let LE use and abuse so more than likely it was from JT Distributing or DS Arms.We had distributor accounts set up with both of them prior to opening Battlefield and used quite a bit of their products. Either way, it's a standard forged upper receiver that has lasted untold thousands of rounds before failing. I don't want people to come out and say that I am stretching the truth but I will throw some numbers out there and let you do the math. Each M4 on the line will get a minimum of 20 magazines run through it each day and each magazine has 25 rounds. Just for fun, let's just say that it was on the line only 3 out of the 7 days of week for 3 years and 3 months. Now, that is a very conservative number because there are SO many times that we go through 10,000+ rounds of .223 on a Saturday in the last three years.