Expensive AR's, Low round count failures

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Dr.Rob

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On the flip side of poverty if you bought or built a high end rifle from quality parts have you had parts breakage before you expected it?

Or failures in a match or class that could not be quickly rectified?

What was your round count and what broke?

Please only reply with FIRST HAND experience. Ala I was there, this was my rifle or my buddy's rifle and I know the dope on his/her gear.
 
I've got two "high end" ARs - an LMT MRP and MWS. I have multiple barrels for both. The only failure either has ever experienced is a failure to cycle after high round counts of suppressed shooting due to blowback in the action which could be temporarily remedied with CLP and permanently remedied with cleaning. In all cases the round counts exceeded a reasonable personal ammo loadout by several times, so I'm not concerned.
 
I have a Noveske Basic Reece, no parks breakage of any kind. 8,000 rds

Does a RRA A4 NM count as 'high end'? (None there either - 1200 rds)
 
No issues with my Larue stealth carbine or my Barnes Precision carbine. Both set up for 3 gun.
 
Only real hard-parts failure that I've ever had in an AR-15 was a BCM-sourced SP/MPI bolt that sheared a lug within 100 rounds. Dunno how that could be possible, but there it is.
 
i've had/built many high end AR15 carbines/rifles in the past 2 decades. i've worn out many parts, but i'm struggling to recall any parts that broke before i expected. i have some old threads documenting wear.

edit: i had a jewel trigger fail at camp perry that had to be replaced before i could shoot

i will say i've had my share of ammo and mag related malfunctions, but nothing that couldn't be resolved fast enough to finish a stage.

i've also shot a lot of short barrel, suppressed and with adjustable gas blocks, and experimenting with other parts like the folding stock adapters etc, which in some cases combined to make a less reliable gun. than a standard 16" carbine.

my biggest disappointment with $2-3k AR15s were two (one factory, one i made) that were 3moa on a good day. probably made on a friday afternoon.

things may have changed a lot in the years since i've built rifles, but as of say 5 years ago, my experience would lead me to always spend $$$ on the barrel, BCG, trigger and handguard, and cut corners as desired everywhere else
 
My 16 inch Model One varmint kit seems to wear out buffer springs faster than expected. That's 16 inch carbine gas and a rifle buffer/A2 stock.
 
I have had good luck with my Colt LE6920. Not a super high round count, but 1000 rounds and zero failures.

Not sure if those are considered expensive but they are to me.
 
I have a maybe 25 year old original Windham Bushmaster. I’ve run thousands upon thousands of rounds thru it target shooting and prairie dogging. I’ve cleaned it, but don’t remember when. Ultra accurate. Zero failure

It was considered higher end back when you bought one of the A,B,C’s (Armalite, Bushmaster, Colt), when you wanted a good AR
 
I have a precision AR that cost me a bit over $2k to build and it's never given me a lick of trouble. But I haven't run it hard.

The most common failure I've had with ARs has been extractor springs. When I started replacing non-Colt extractor springs with Colt extractor springs, the problems went away. Every non-Colt extractor spring I've had has failed by the time the round count reached 750.

I had two failures with an LMT Enhanced BCG. First was weak extraction. While the LMT Enhanced bolt has two extractor springs, they lacked spring tension right from the factory. The second was a leaky gas key. The gas key bolts were tight, but the key leaked anyway. The leak developed after roughly 1000 rounds of suppressed use..

On two separate occasions at the range, I've helped shooters trouble-shoot economy level builds that had weak hammer springs.

Another problem I encountered with one of my own mid-level builds was a mis-located gas port in a barrel. Had to modify the gas block to get it to align.
 
I built a high end 16" mid length five years ago. I don't quite have a thousand rounds through it yet, and it's been flawless. Some factory ammo, but mostly my reloads. Hopefully things stay good with it.
 
At one time I was called a snob for owning a Colt. Now the snobs sneer at it. (shrug)

No sneering here brother. I like BCM and Colt equally.

And no issues from the BCM’s or Colts at casa de md7. For the record.
 
WC Recon in 6.8; high round count (8k +/-) with no failures. It has had meticulous care, not sure if the care contributed to the parts longevity.
 
Nothing that wasn’t self induced. In my case I didn’t tighten the castle nut on my buffer tube enough, and the buffer retainer pin was just barely held down. When the tube turned the retainer popped up and ended up getting beat up and jammed the gun pretty hard. I absolutely don’t fault the parts, I fault the loose nut behind the gun who installed the loose nut on the gun.
 
How to reliably jam a 6920:

Don't seat the mag. Drop mag in dirt. Scoop up dirt/rocks in mag getting it back into rifle. Feed dirt/rocks into action.
 
At one time I was called a snob for owning a Colt. Now the snobs sneer at it. (shrug)
Out of four different Colt ARs, including one that's run 100% suppressed, I've had zero problems.

Let the snobs sneer.
 
Heck, I've got s $350 Homebuilt (other than optics) that other than a pretty decent BCG is put together with pretty cheap parts including a $89 1:8 16.25" Melonited Barrel and it not only has been the most accurate AR I've had, It will put five 75 grain Gold Dots imto one ragged hole at 100 yd, it's the most reliable. Don't really know that high end parts trump care in assembly. Most issues I've seen are fitrment issues that should have been rectified during initial assembly. Like a Ruger AR with to tight bolt. If you buy Premium AR part of what your paying for is the quality control to make sure it's right.
 
I don't know if what I have would be a high end, low end or just an antique.....it is a Colt from the 80's.

I can't begin to tell you how many rounds have been down it....and really how do those people that say yea I have this or that and it has 9000 rounds in it....really you keep track, how do you know that.....sorry calling bs. Even if you only have one rifle that shoots that specific flavor of ammo, you really keep track of how many you buy or how many you reload....nope, never gonna buy it. You can guess....lets see I have this 1911, I shot a game every week that used 50 rounds, that went on for 8 weeks, practice was around 100 per week....ok I gots an basic idea....but I would never say this is what I shot in the gun.

Sorry for the rant, now back to the AR, all kinds of ammo from good to "bad" steel core "junk", stuff that would not work in others rifles, this thing has eaten. Nothing broken yet.

It is not something I shoot very often anymore, I think the last time it was out was around 10 years or so ago when my son used it for a CMP game.....I bought it because they said they are going to take them away from us, now I have it because it always works, and is one of those New York freindly flavors that are worth something up there.....I still have the 5 round mags as well, wish I had the box still but the washer flooded the basement and I lost all my boxes.
 
Weirdest one I have ever seen was on that just quit firing during a stage. Acted like the safety was on, no matter the position.

Took it apart and there was a spent primer under the trigger. Some number of years later I came across something like this.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1...eceiver-rug-ar-15-mil-spec-trigger-rubber-red

So I couldn’t have been the first to have seen it happen.

Mags have to be the #1 issue I have seen though.
 
I can't begin to tell you how many rounds have been down it....and really how do those people that say yea I have this or that and it has 9000 rounds in it....really you keep track, how do you know that.....sorry calling bs. Even if you only have one rifle that shoots that specific flavor of ammo, you really keep track of how many you buy or how many you reload....nope, never gonna buy it. You can guess....lets see I have this 1911, I shot a game every week that used 50 rounds, that went on for 8 weeks, practice was around 100 per week....ok I gots an basic idea....but I would never say this is what I shot in the gun.
I don't know about anyone else, but for the Noveske I'm on the 9th case of ammo that I've bought for that rifle. So I know that it's at least that. I also use that rifle to hunt hogs, deer and coyotes. As a result other ammo has crept in as well, so that's more a round about number.

The RRA NM is more exact since I only shoot match in that rifle.

I find what my rifles like and just stick with that pretty much. I'm guessing others are employing similar methods to get rough rd counts.

With my pistols it's a different story. There's so many different brands and lots of ammo going every which way that it's impossible to tell now, but I used to keep better track of it.

Now I more keep track of what's coming in than going out.

Just depends on how autistic you are about such things.
 
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