AR-15: Cartridge stuck in chamber

[Charles L. Cotton]

These are posts made in response to a member who had a live round stuck in the chamber of his AR-15.

Remove the lower and see if you can get a flathead screwdriver between a gap in the upper receiver and the carrier and try to pull it back. I had a similar thing happen a few months back and we could not make it budge with the charging handle or the forward assist. When we removed the lower and did this the BCG came out smoothly practically no effort and I did not have any more problems. It is amazing what a little bit of leverage can do.

Try putting a liberal amount of penetrating oil down the barrel and letting it soak for awhile. Then bang the buttstock on a hard surface while pulling on the charging handle. Do it somewhere safe.

P.S. In the Marines had a stuck brass...it was a "training exercise" with blanks

a. Remove mag
b. Smack rifle butt on ground vertically very hard (if the extractor isn't broken it will snatch any bad round out and eject it

I was in simulated "combat" so I didn't have the luxury of getting a screwdriver out...we used to use/abuse our M-16A2 and they kept on trucking!

In that situation it was, "click" no bang, attempt tap, rack,bang, rifle went tap, no rack, no bang. so I smacked it, ejected stuck round, chambered new round, put rifle in shoulder. bang bang bang.

Only time I had problems with my M-16A2 was when I fired blanks...live ammo it ate everything and kept on firing! In the 5 years I had it, it never gave me a problem unless it was shooting blanks

Do this in a safe manner!

[bdickens]

This is where I'll give my lecture:

Keep your AR scrupulously clean. You can not get it too clean. Pay particular attention to the chamber and the bolt face. Scrape accumulated carbon out of every little nook and cranny with a dental pick. Thoroughly clean the gas tube as well. There are extra long pipe cleaners available for this purpose. Baring that, liberal use of Carb cleaner will flush the junk out. Unless the inside of it looks brand new, it is not clean enough.

As a Sergeant, I was often tasked to be a range safety during qualification. Every malfunction of an M-16 I ever saw was caused by a dirty weapon. Every one. Some soldiers, whose NCOs had obviously failed them by not training them properly, would have malfunction after malfunction (usually failures to feed) and I would kick them off the range and tell them to clean their weapons because they were out there wasting everyone's time.

[Liberty]

This is where I'll give my lecture:

Keep your AR scrupulously clean. You can not get it too clean. Pay particular attention to the chamber and the bolt face. Scrape accumulated carbon out of every little nook and cranny with a dental pick. Thoroughly clean the gas tube as well. There are extra long pipe cleaners available for this purpose. Baring that, liberal use of Carb cleaner will flush the junk out. Unless the inside of it looks brand new, it is not clean enough.

As a Sergeant, I was often tasked to be a range safety during qualification. Every malfunction of an M-16 I ever saw was caused by a dirty weapon. Every one. Some soldiers, whose NCOs had obviously failed them by not training them properly, would have malfunction after malfunction (usually failures to feed) and I would kick them off the range and tell them to clean their weapons because they were out there wasting everyone's time.

and this is a millitary combat gun???

[WarHawk-AVG]

Yes unfortunately...the Army got the new of the new...when they used up the weapons and they were rattle boxes..the Marines went dumpster diving and got them..

The tolerances in our M-16A2 were always very loose..and we did keep them clean..but a brand new rifle needs about 3-5k rounds put thru it before its broken in!

Usually FTF are bad mags!

[Kythas]

I just picked up an M4 this past weekend. I've seen a huge difference between it and the M16A2 I had when I was in the Army ('87-'93).

For example, I remember how much my M16 would rattle when I shook it back then. My M4 doesn't rattle at all, except for the telescoping stock, which is expected.

I've had to re-familiarize myself with field stripping the thing, as I haven't done it in 15 years.

[WarHawk-AVG]

I just picked up an M4 this past weekend. I've seen a huge difference between it and the M16A2 I had when I was in the Army ('87-'93).

For example, I remember how much my M16 would rattle when I shook it back then. My M4 doesn't rattle at all, except for the telescoping stock, which is expected.

I've had to re-familiarize myself with field stripping the thing, as I haven't done it in 15 years.

It will come back to you pretty quick..just like falling off a bike!

[MoJo]

Another thing, an AR/M16 needs to be lubed generously. Don't dunk it into a barrel of oil but the "drop of oil here and there" isn't enough to keep one running under heavy use. If you shoot one round clean the rifle if you shoot a thousand rounds clean the rifle. When I was in Vietnam we cleaned our rifles every night if it had been fired that day or not. I never had a problem with my rifle and none of my squad had problems with theirs.

[CHL/LEO]

There are extra long pipe cleaners available for this purpose.

Our armorers taught us that gas tubes are like "rear ends" (clean version of what they really said) nothing should EVER be stuck up them. He said that carb cleaner would work great and that is all it should take if the gun was cleaned on a regular basis.

[macktruckturner]

On the cleanliness bit, I never once subscribed to the white-glove nonsense (and never once saw a rifle that was spotless). Nor did I ever have a malfunction caused by anything but a magazine (and I forced that to happen to illustrate why the magazine is not a grip). This was true for my rifle, or those of anyone on my ranges. Most stoppages were the result of soldiers using the magazine as a forward grip and pulling down and back on it - causing a failure to feed. I did see an extractor get lost once... that was interesting. My rear sight fell off on a particularly ancient A2 (as did the dust cover). Didn't keep it from cycling though.

In sort, solid chunks of garbage are bad - they don't belong in your weapon (regardless of what it is). So is a ton of oil.

Never actually managed to get a round stuck in the pipe, but I imagine the advice here would work.

[stroo]

I got a steel cased round stuck in my clone. I fixed it by going to a gun smith. Didn't cost that much.

[chabouk]

On the cleanliness bit, I never once subscribed to the white-glove nonsense (and never once saw a rifle that was spotless).

More service rifles are ruined (accuracy-wise) by cleaning, than are left unfunctional by insufficient cleaning. Cleaning rods, especially USGI sectional rods in dirty dusty field conditions, do nasty things to rifle bores, especially at the crown and chamber lede.

I wasn't a direct witness to this act, but the story spread through my training battalion when I was in the Army: an instructor berated a trainee about his M16 bolt being dirty, and told him to make it shine. Being a rather simple and literal sort of fellow, he did exactly that. The story said it looked like it had been chromed, although I doubt that. At any rate, it was shiny bare metal when he took it back up for inspection.

If you didn't already know, military M16 bolts are Parkerized. I have no idea how he got that finish off, but it took a lot of scrubbing!

[macktruckturner]

Really wouldn't surprise me. I've seen soldiers grind their bolt-face on concrete to break up the carbon. "Cleans faster this way, Sarge!"

[dsim]

I subscribed to one theory when in the military (98-02) and convey it to all my friends that own AR-15's..... there is no such thing as too much CLP. Had 1 malfunction (basic training) on the range, started pouring the CLP on and never had a problem after that. This was on Ft Knox as well... no assigned personal rifles, you qualified with a different one every year.

[stroo]

My son-in-law who served two tours in Iraq with the Marine infantry and is going to Afganistan sometime this year subscribes to the same theory. He claims he never had any problem with his M4 in Iraq.

[koolaid]

I subscribed to one theory when in the military (98-02) and convey it to all my friends that own AR-15's..... there is no such thing as too much CLP. Had 1 malfunction (basic training) on the range, started pouring the CLP on and never had a problem after that. This was on Ft Knox as well... no assigned personal rifles, you qualified with a different one every year.

Yes. Keeping it lubed is more important than keeping it pristine.