Calling all AR experts - failure to feed

Basic AR specs: Daniel defense ddm4v5 complete upper with a newly installed midwest rail, seekins lower with CMC trigger.

I did a bunch of shooting with our ar this weekend. Performed very well overall. But at the end we decided to do some mag dumps and I did about 7 mags. There was one little failure to feed where the breach did not close fully and needed some assistance. I'm figuring it may have just been dirty since that a couple hundred rounds shot all day. But still, I assume at the price point of some of these parts that the expectation is zero failure.

Am I being too unreasonable or is there something I can do to ensure this does not happen in the future?

I kind of need more info. What's the set up on your AR? Are you shooting suppressed, or SBR? What ammo are you running?

If you get a failure to chamber, it could be a couple things. If you are shooting suppressed or SBR, it will dirty up much quicker. If you have a magazine that has some feeding issues, a round can hang up from the mag, it will slow the force during chambering, and cause it to hang up. I have 1 AR mag that does this with one of my AR's and I have it labeled/marked so I know that particular mag has had a few feeding issues when shooting with that certain AR. That same mag works fine in my other AR. If the rifle is new, it could need some break in rounds to really work in.

My guess is you were shooting lacquered or polymer steel case. I would try running steel without a lacquer coating. At the end of the day, I think all rifles should be able to handle lacquered or polymer steel case.

7 mag dumps of how many rounds in what amount of time? In other words... how hot was your rifle?

Not suppressed or anything. Just a standard 16" midlength AR. Shooting a variety of ammo during the mag dump fun time.
While we've had the AR for a while, i'd say I've only shot about 200-300 rounds prior to this weekend. I have no idea if that is sufficient break-in period. Did have some similar issues previously but the rate of occurrence has decreased from the very beginning.

They were all various brass cased ammo; remaned, cheap 55gr fmj, green tips, etc.

The 7 mag dump was after about 4 mags of normal firing rate at a 300yard target. The 7 were not literally fired as fast as possible, but we did them quickly. fast enough to where the smoke coming off the barrel was enough to make a target 10 yards ahead hard to see.

Honestly, I'd say there is no issue. All my time as a range coach in the Marines failure to feeds were common, especially when you've shot that many rounds in a day and had a high rate of fire. AR's are reliable weapons, but they are gas operated, so some failure can be expected, especially once carbon buildup starts. One failure drill after 200-300 rounds is nothing. Tap, rack, bang!

It is mechanical and will have the occasional stoppage, expensive guns are not immune to this fact. There is a pretty complex (bolt, buffer, springs, magazine, gas system/pressures being correct, bullet components being proper size, etc..) dance that has to occur for everything to function perfectly. If one component of one system is off then the entire process stops working. I don't think you will find a weapon that will function 100% of the time. (I even had FTFs from a revolver this weekend...ammo issues.)

If you did a "bunch of shooting over the weekend" followed by 7 mag dumps and you only experienced one stoppage, I'd say your rifle performed pretty good. You should take it apart, clean it, inspect it, lube it and go shoot it some more.


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You are fine. Clean it and keep shooting.

Yep.

Did you clean it between range sessions? Did you lube the bolt up? With a rifle with that few rounds through it, I tend to run them more on the wet side... I also see that you are using remanufactured ammo... with only one stoppage, I would suspect ammo, not the rifle.

Clean it, oil it, run it.

The forward assist is there for a reason. Just remember this simple rule fore immediate response to an issue.

S- Slap the mag
P- Pull the charging handle
O- Observe the chamber
R- Release the charging handle
T- Tap the forward assist
S- shoot

There are moving parts there will be issues from time to time. SPORTS will fix most issues if it doesn't. Place the weapon on safe, drop the mag, clear the weapon, insert mag, and shoot.