breaking in new rings without ammo

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Someone isn’t as familiar with the AR as he thinks. A new bolt staying put when supporting 2lbs isn’t so surprising.

He claims I’m on his ignore list, so maybe he’ll miss an opportunity for education here - I don’t eat canned stew, so I shared a few other common household items:

1D650434-3D29-4E1F-A852-824A4904D8D4.jpeg

Going from our left to right:

New, unfired, holding 2lbs of W296
New, unfired, holding 2lbs of W296
New, unfired, holding 2lbs of H110
~2,500 rounds 204R holding 2lb dumbbell
~4,000 rounds 6.8 SPC holding 2lb dumbbell

This next set would not hold 2lbs, but WILL hold net 20oz bottles of Gatorade:

New, unfired - 20oz+ Gatorade
New, unfired - 20oz+ Gatorade
~40,000rounds, 20oz+ Gatorade

The last two failed with the 20oz Gatorade, but held the net 16.9oz bottles of water:

~3,000rnds 16.9oz+ water bottle
~15,000rnds 16.9oz+ water bottle

Reminding here - the common test for gas ring condition is to extend the bolt from the carrier and stand the BCG on its nose. Pressing the opposite direction, naturally, this leaves about half a pound of carrier supported by the gas rings - as a MINIMUM standard. So why would it be surprising good condition rings and carrier will support 2lbs of stew?

Just silly...
 
hey man, I don't care what you say. you could tell me 1+1=2 and I'm not going to listen.

next!
 
God forbid some unwitting new AR owner sees this thread and considers the OP’s ominous proposition of soup cans indicating something wrong with their own AR - hopefully those folks won’t be mislead by this thread and read far enough to see my photo, and won’t be mislead to believe they benefit by stroking their charging handle over and over to “break in” their AR. Gas rings are DESIGNED to seal the bolt piston into the BCG bore, and as mentioned above, gas rings slipping with 1/2lb indicates excessive wear. Frankly, I’d never measured the force required to slip the rings in the carrier (nor had any reason to do so), but after this exercise, I can be sure to count ~2lbs as standard. Two of those new Assy’s would momentarily resist a 5lb dumbbell upon first attempt, but never blinked at holding the 2lb+ of the bottles or dumbbells, so I’d venture they would have yielded somewhere around 4.5lbs static friction if this were a more scientifically valid experiment, rather than a replication of a silly parlor trick.

So for any new AR owners viewing this thread, I’d urge you to consider your new or slightly “broken in” BCG SHOULD support between 1.5-3lbs suspended weight without the gas rings slipping, chunky soup or otherwise.
 
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Hjalkarsson said:
I have had 3 brand new BCG's to break in. 2 were Toolcraft and 1 was Del-ton. they all did the same thing. run very sluggish for 50 rounds (probably would not lock back on empty mag), loose after 100 rounds, normal after 150 rounds.

so today I called 4 gun shops and asked about this. all 4 confirmed that yes that's how it goes. 2 told me it takes 200 rounds to break in a BCG.

and here is a fourth BCG I have, which is brand new and has not yet been shot.

explain this.

View attachment 963512
Click to expand...
I can explain that, bone dry, never cycled. I bought an M&A upper years ago, and after unwrapping the bolt carrier, I put it in the upper, without the charging handle while checking the parts. Getting that thing out took a screwdriver, and way more prying than it should have. Two drops of oil, and it would shake out.
there is certainly truth that a breaking in occurs, but in the 7 or so new BCG's I have gotten, slight oiling was all I did. They all ran normal, they all locked back. As far as the actual work your doing, you don't have to cycle the rifle, just push the bolt in and out. Unless your trying to lap the lockup, your putting the same amount of wear in the system, minus some insignificant inertial force thats easily made up by the fact you can cycle the bolt in the carrier 5 times faster than the BCG in the rifle. I too have never met anyone with this need.
 
Varminterror said:
Someone isn’t as familiar with the AR as he thinks. A new bolt staying put when supporting 2lbs isn’t so surprising.

He claims I’m on his ignore list, so maybe he’ll miss an opportunity for education here - I don’t eat canned stew, so I shared a few other common household items:

View attachment 963707

Going from our left to right:

New, unfired, holding 2lbs of W296
New, unfired, holding 2lbs of W296
New, unfired, holding 2lbs of H110
~2,500 rounds 204R holding 2lb dumbbell
~4,000 rounds 6.8 SPC holding 2lb dumbbell

This next set would not hold 2lbs, but WILL hold net 20oz bottles of Gatorade:

New, unfired - 20oz+ Gatorade
New, unfired - 20oz+ Gatorade
~40,000rounds, 20oz+ Gatorade

The last two failed with the 20oz Gatorade, but held the net 16.9oz bottles of water:

~3,000rnds 16.9oz+ water bottle
~15,000rnds 16.9oz+ water bottle

Reminding here - the common test for gas ring condition is to extend the bolt from the carrier and stand the BCG on its nose. Pressing the opposite direction, naturally, this leaves about half a pound of carrier supported by the gas rings - as a MINIMUM standard. So why would it be surprising good condition rings and carrier will support 2lbs of stew?

Just silly...
Click to expand...
does this mean i need to trade in my navy seal sourced froglube and switch to tactical gatoraid lube? Gotta go, mall emergency
-Gecko45:rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
Just when this may gave gotten interesting...I ran out of popcorn. :(

OP, have you noticed anything in your BCG working better after the hand cycling, or is it pretty much the same as it was when you started?

Stay safe.
 
Bfh_auto said:
Tar.
Click to expand...

And bitterness...


Oh, no! I just took my Adams Arms bolt carrier group (~6,000rnds) out of my receiver and it wouldn’t hold the soup cans.
I tried going with Healthy Choice Light soup with 23% less sodium, sodium being a metal, they should be lighter.
No good. I tried a couple of beer cans, but they also were too much, so I emptied them. Still no good.
I tried standing the bolt on end.
It wouldn’t do it, it was wobbly.
From the beer. I don’t like to drink beer alone.
So I took it apart...

There are no gas rings at all! Could they have been eventually disintegrated completely by cycling?!
I noticed my bolt and carrier were extraordinarily clean as well...;)

:D
 
On second thought let’s not go to, The High Road, breaking in AR bolt carrier rings thread, ‘Tiz a silly place.

Seriously though I only own a meager 3 AR’s and hand never broken in anything about them. Shot one of the uppers a bunch with a friend’s binary trigger equipped lower with no issues. Just shoot and lube and occasionally clean. I was honestly tempted to go hang something on one of my bolt carriers to see what happened. Pulled one out of a rifle, looked around for something heavy and some string and upon seeing neither item within arm’s reach, gave up and stopped caring. Thanks for the amusing thread though guys.
 
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I'm hearing an echo of mediocre handgun makers, insisting their products will run just fine after a 500 round break-in...don't bother calling customer service before then.
None of my ARs have ever needed anything resembling a break-in. The brandy-new Colt the gummint gave me in 1970 ran right out of the box, as have personal ones since. And running them wet wasn't an issue in 1970.
I realize we are all sitting around our shops, unable to go shooting for a lack of ammo, and trying to think of (redacted) to worry about.
Moon
 
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