Chamber polishing

[rgitzlaff]

I have an AR-15 that I believe has a chamber that is somewhat rough. Every so often I get a round stuck in the chamber, even when it is factory new ammo. What would you recommend to polish this? I have some 500 grit lapping compound that I think might work. I plan on wrapping some cloth around a dowel to fit the chamber and spin it with a drill. Would this method be too aggressive to work well and maybe open up the chamber dimension too much? Thanks.

[JesseL]

What kind of ammo are you shooting?
Are you seeing any shiny spots on your fired brass?

[line1]

Take a little chrome cleaner or jewelry polish on a couple patches and brush and do a little back and forth and around a few time . Rough chambers if not too bad should be left alone and can produce good accuracy. Change ammo and if using Russian ammo clean with lighter fluid. I would go to Fulton Armory and buy a new extractor , spring and D-fender ring. If you can slide a round in and out easily on a clean chamber by hand then its an extractor problem. The extractor spring can be an a problem off and on if when it gets hot it looses its ability to work, and then it is ok once again as it cools. Change those parts unless it a gross chamber problem in which case a gunsmith needs to look .

[rgitzlaff]

Alright I guess I didn't explain the problem enough. By "stuck in the chamber" I mean when the bolt comes forward and drives the round into the chamber, sometimes the bolt doesn't fully lock. Then when I pull the trigger I get a nice click of the hammer falling and nothing happening. When I try to pull the charging handle out, it is stuck. Most of the time I can get it out by pounding the buttstock into the ground while pulling on the charging handle, but sometimes even this doesn't work. The extractor is fine. This is also not russian ammo. It's some kind of no-name brand I got real cheap but uses winchester brass. I shoot that for plinking and practice and save the brass for reloading. I used to have this problem with my reloads until I learned how to adjust the dies properly.

[line1]

http://www.jprifles.com/1.5.1.3.php Sounds like ammo case problem if it only does it now and then .

[dirty habit]

Grab an empty case, 'tap' the base and put it threaded rod ( about 8 inches of ) put a litlle compound on case and rotate in the chamber...I may not have explained it too well but you get me drift!

[joshua]

First off buy a case gauge for match ammo. If any of your live rounds doesn't drop in and drop out freely with gravity then your ammo is out of spec. Go buy some brandnew Black Hills or any of the top name brand ammo manufacturer. Cheap ammo is either surplus, old, a bit out of spec, corrosive, or any combination of what I mentioned. Don't judge the performance of your rifle with cheap ammo, get some quality ammo or if you reload get some new quality components and gauge the ammo. My ARs have been very reliable and the only failure that I can remember are reloaded ammo that were not gauged. Let us know if that solves your problem. josh

[Abndoc]

I think that before I messed with the the chamber, I would take one of the rounds that I had a problem with, remove the bullet and powder and then run it through my sizing die.

If it then fits the chamber, it's out of spec ammo, not an out of spec chamber.

[atblis]

Sounds like gun show reloads. Go get some decent commercial (or quality surplus), and try that first.

[30Cal]

It may be the case, it may be the bullet isn't seated deep enough.

[an82cj7]

I had the same problem with my AR-15 it turned out to be my dies and a new set of small base dies did the trick over 1000 good rounds since changing this only will work if you are using your own reloades. good luck