Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Do semi-auto black rifles wear out?

Got this NJ legal post-ban XM15-E2S used about 10 years ago
I installed the Ace fixed stock and the Hogue grip
Had a gunsmith install a JP trigger as the original was "crunchy"
I like the shell deflector as I shoot left hand

shoots good enough with a 1X red dot at 100 yards with ball ammo

Have put 1000's of rounds down the tube
Run an oily patch down the barrel after each trip to the range
Clean the action and bolt every so often
Do these things wear out?

Yes, they do wear out.

Barrels are typically first, somewhere around 8k-15k rounds. Good bolts will make it 60-100k rounds. Upper receivers wear out somewhere between 250k and 500k rounds.

That's good to know. I'll bet AR10's don't have the lifespan of an AR15 either... ????

I’ve seen some cheap stuff break, but actually just wearing out....?....I’ve seen an upper wear out where the charging handle locks in place.

And a lot of springs wear out. But that’s easily preventable from the get go. I just use aspirin I springs as soon as I build or buy.

I hate to disagree with you about the barrel round count, but I will.

I've personally had 2 barrels need replacement. One was an accurate but not too expensive nitride barrel with about 4500-5k rounds. It just opened up from sub-MOA to 1.5 MOA, so I replaced it.

The other was a pretty expensive Black Hole barrel. I replaced it at around 3500 rounds due to a bad chamber.

Of course everyone's mileage varies.

Yes they do. When in the AF I was in a our QC section for a while and was not assigned a rifle for that time. I used one that was used by everyone else who did not have an assigned weapon. I had to go qualify and after getting expert for years I barely qualified. A friend was assigned that very same rifle a few days late and had the same problem. He mentioned it to the CATM personnel, sure enough the barrel was shot out.

Depending on your demands, I hear the AMU tosses Douglas around 2500 or 3500 rounds IIRC. I"ve not had a barrel get iffy until about 4000 rounds or so maybe a bit less. I"ve also shot em up the almost 13K rounds.

Rifle wearing out. I'd assume it has to at a point. We probably don't have any single gun that has over 150K rounds on it, but so far so good.

Thus gun has a handful of purposes, not necessarily listed in order:

1. Newbies love it at the range
2. It will help me clear out the many boxes of 5.56 ammo taking up space around the house without complaining
3. Tastes like freedom
4. Just because
5. Because the anti’s don’t want me to.

Rock,

By your measure you are correct. The round counts I gave were barrels tested until the bullets started hitting the paper sideways.

Nice rifle. Is that a factory barrel??

It's an 18.5" factory HBAR with flutes, a 1:9 twist and a target crown. As I bought the gun used I have no way of knowing if the receiver left the factory with this barrel -- but the fit and finish is so good I believe that to be the case. The forearm is knurled aluminum that has a great feel. The Ace Skeleton stock is a well designed and engineered product that uses a foam sleeve over the buffer tube as the comb of the the stock. The gun runs very smooth with 10 round Bushmaster magazines. The Yankee Hill Machine Back Up Iron Sights are good but not great and they too came with the gun.

Looks like a factory Bushmaster Vmatch upper. I have one with the 16" Hbar chrome lined barrel. I have at least 5k rounds down the tube and it's still going strong.

The A2 I used at recruit training in 94 sounded like it had marbles in it when it moved. Finish was down to the anodize on all high points, a rattle trap.
I still shot 10 for 10 from the 500.

If I lived in a state that suppressed my second amendment rights I would move. Next the only thing I would worry about wearing out is the lower receiver.

Other than the 10 rd mag - what makes it NJ legal?? (What dumbazz things did the politicians come up with to keep us "safe")

Why would a lower wear out faster than an upper?

Good looking rifle. I really like that forearm.