AR-15 Bolt Stuck on spent round

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orvpark

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A friend and I took out the AR's this afternoon and spent a couple a hundred rounds each downrange. We were emptying our last mag when his jammed. He tried to clear the jam but the bolt stuck just short of closed and we cannot get it to budge. We split the halves and we can't remove the bolt that way either.

What do we do now?:eek:
 
If you know it is a spent case, get a ONE-PIECE cleaning rod and back it down INSIDE of the brass case from the muzzle end. Give it a light tap or two with a hammer and it should free itself.

There's another technique that involves slamming the buttstock on the ground if you're in a pinch. :)
 
I'll second the question, is he *sure* it is an empty case in the chamber?

I got an AR jammed up like that once when I first started reloading, on a case that I later found was not sized correctly (i.e., out of spec ammo). The previous round ejected, and the new round went almost all the way into the chamber, but jammed slightly out of battery, and pulling the charging handle normally produced no result.

I got it home and eventually got it unstuck with an extra-hard tug on the charging handle. Got a gauge to make sure my sizing die was adjusted well enough, no problems since.
 
There's another technique that involves slamming the buttstock on the ground if you're in a pinch
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If there's ANY chance it's a live round, it'd be safer to slam the butt against the front edge of a bench with the muzzle under control and pointed downrange rather than straight up in the air.

I've had it happen once w a live round and it took quite a slam to free it up, but it did extract w no apparent damage to the gun ... use a wooden bench rather than concrete if you go this route.
/Bryan
 
While pulling back on the charging handle strike the buttpad on a solid surface. Making sure the muzzle is pointed in a safe direction. If it's a carbine stock collapse it all the way first.
 
+1 to what jerkface said. Works like a champ.

+1 top also knowing whether it's alive round in there or not.
 
Do what jerkface says, including collapsing the stock.

Are you certain its a spent round? I've locked my ar up with brass cased milsurp that wasn't to spec and got stuck in the chamber.
 
that is the 2 tech that i have used succesfully as well.

1) cleanning rod, and if needed a brass hammer, which is arerly needed.

2) the pulling on the charging handle and popint the buttstock on the groud will work too i have only had to do that once, and i was sure that it was not a live round in there.

disclamer, weather there is a live round in there or not be careful and use caution.

also a note to add, as of late i have been having 0 issues with wolf ammo, and all lmy problems have been comming with winchester Q3131 which is ridiculious as it is so expensive, as well there have been alot of issues with lakecity as of late also.
 
Please update us with the outcome and what method you used as well as what ammo you were using when you can.
 
that is the 2 tech that i have used succesfully as well.

1) cleanning rod, and if needed a brass hammer, which is arerly needed.

2) the pulling on the charging handle and popint the buttstock on the groud will work too i have only had to do that once, and i was sure that it was not a live round in there.

disclamer, weather there is a live round in there or not be careful and use caution.

also a note to add, as of late i have been having 0 issues with wolf ammo, and all lmy problems have been comming with winchester Q3131 which is ridiculious as it is so expensive, as well there have been alot of issues with lakecity as of late also.
Click to expand...
:scrutiny:
 
if you can, remove the upper from the lower, and try to bang the bolt carrier forward with a rubber mallet. It may free the action if you are able to close the bolt. (I had an identical situation once, and this is what I had to do.)
 
If you slam the butt onto a hard service to clear the jam, be sure not to hold on to a vertical fore grip if you have one. I did that and cleared the jam, and broke off the broom handle on the front. No lasting damage, just a few bucks for another one, grip the regular hand guard.
 
I've had to do the bang the butt on the ground trick two times with mine and yes.. each time Wolf military classic was involved and it was about 200 rds in. I've yet to have any soft of problem with any other ammo that has been put through the gun with the exception of one bad magazine.

After punching out the spent case a quick scrubbing with a chamber brush out of the buttstock cleaning kit and a shot of CLP made it work again happily with the wolf for another couple hundred rounds.
 
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+1 to popping the butstock against the ground/table/bench while pulling on the charging handle. I've got a buddy who was buring up some extra wolf ammo and it happened 3 or 4 times in one day. Works perfectly...
 
He was shooting the black boxed Wolf for the record. He got it out with a cleaning rod and some tapping.

He was having a few feeding problems (new gun), one of the case's that didn't feed properly got a little gouged and he inadvertantly put it back in a magazine. When it fed into the gun the gouge was just enough to keep it from coming back out. The ejector was on the case so the bolt wouldn't let go.

All is well. I wouldn't call it an ammo failure, just a operator error loading damaged ammo.
 
If its a brand new gun, he should probably break it in with some hot NATO spec for the first 200-300 rounds or so just to make sure everything is properly loosened up. I do that with all my new rifles and it seems to work well.
 
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