Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Bolt closing reeaal slow.

Hey guys, I've been shooting my AR lately and the Bolt seems to cycle at a normal speed so to speak but upon closing it sometimes closes slowly causing it to either not grab up the next round or not going into full battery...
Does it require more lube?
It is clean inside too so we can eliminate that thought.

Does not happen all the time just about 30%

Tom, I'm far from an AR expert but if I were faced with the same situation the first thing I'd do would be to give the innards (tech term) a good scrubbing to include the chamber. Just to eliminate the possibility of some crud ('nother tech term) Then give it a good dose of lube. I read on the net about guys using Mobile 1 and tranmission fluid in some sort of concoction, I think that's because it holds up to heat well and they must do a lot of rapid fire. I've been using Break Free and it's been working for me, but I don't do a lot of rapid fire. All of this assumes that the brass your using is properly sized and you don't need to be using small base dies. You didn't mention if your using handloads or not. Well that's where I'd start if that was happening to me and if that didn't work I'd post back and look for someone who knows more about this than me.

It is infact handloads.

I'd clean the inside of the UPPER, really well with a solvent. clean the carrier with a solvent. THen lube both the inside and the carrier with a good liquid oil type lubricant...

If that doesn't solve it, time to look other places, but for us when you can hear the bolt slowing down it was always gunk on the inside of the part of the upper that the bolt ran in plus the bolt.

No chance the key came loose a bit and is binding? Pull the charging handle out and see that nothing is broken, bent or askew on it also.

Its all good.
I'm thinking its a lubrication issue as my bolt and all running surfaces are quite dry.

That would cause your problem. AR's are like the little woman...they run much better when wet.

If you don't have any conventional lube, try some KY Warming Gel. It works wonders.

I"d thought KY would evaporate on the carrier?


But yep, lube the AR up... dry is NOT how they run, thats asking for issues. Wetter the better, think along the lines of tie a 2x4 to your azz wet.....

try some KY Warming Gel. No friggin way that chit is goin on my AR.

Slow bolt closure=friction, somewhere in the system.
I'd give it another thorough cleaning, then lube up with Break Free.

Well it seems to work for the carrier lube in the reciever......

Ok jeff, next big match your at, I want to see the pictures of ya draggin out the KY and explainin this to your shootin buddy's.

No way No how..... I'll go get some oil off the dipstick in my tundra before ya see me packin any KY.

OK that was the problem.....it needed some lube.
THX

Jimmy-- the above was another play on words... not serious at all... and as I mentioned, its a water soluble type lube... KY... ain't nothing thats gonna last and such, now I could go some oil based lube, but thats what I use on the guns, and I don't want that in the bedroom either.....

Now that you've said this though, I should grab an empty bottle and fill it with a good lube.. boy would that get some talk and I know a few folks, if they still shoot(haven't shot a match since about 2003 or 2004.....) that I could really pull the wool on hard at my home range in an instant....

Jeff

Jeff, I'm not chittin ya, just the thought of you rollin up to the range and pullin out a bottle of KY brought tears to my eyes.

I have always used Tetra products and have been well served by their products so far.

Tom, glad the problem is solved.

damn sure can see how hilarious this could get......

Yep, Tom, glad its better, remember its gotta be wet and you'll be better off. There are dry slick lubes out there, that will work for amounts of time, but wet is best.

You MIGHT also want to check the buffer retainer...Make sure it's being retained by the tube.

Tom,
Take a good look at the powder that you're using, because the direct impingement system is very dependent upon the use of extremely efficient and clean burning powders. This is precisely the problem the US Army had in Vietnam and it sounds like it could be the problem you're having. If the rifle is clean and then after several rounds the bolt is beginning to slow, that's either not enough lube, or the action is fouling; or both.

Hodgdon's H335 is actually WC-846, which is the powder used by the military in 5.56 ammunition. This ball powder was specifically designed by Olin to solve the problems associated with ball powder while maintain all the benefits of ball powder; it's really a great powder to use and it's nice to work with.

BL-C2 is the other commercially available powder that is a re-badged military powder; it's actually WC-846 which is THE 7.62 NATO powder, but it's also used in the 5.56.

There are some other really great powders out there that may work even better, but for best function, take advantage of all that scientific work that the US Army and Olin Corporation did and use what the military uses; I think you'll see your rifle begin to function better.

Thanks Kevin, I have been using IMR 3031.

Thats assuming you are using the same bullet weights the army does.... IE 846 for 55s and 844 for 62s IIRC. Beyond that it changes again a bit...

Was never a fan of 3031 but it does work in every gun we've tested it in. Much more so a fan of Varget and Benchmark and TAC... TAC is a super powder too... I ran other powders but am/was a specialist bullet wise.....not many shoot 90s in the AR