Well, since everything has gone totally insane except surplus 50 BMG ammo -- I find myself shooting this thing a whole lot more.
Which also has me getting more and more annoyed with this bolt cycling/charging issue.
The core issue is you will load a new round and the striker will go home as you close the bolt. Even on safe -- it will send the striker home and you'll have to re-charge the bolt to get it to where you can even take it off of safe.
There seem to be two circumstances when this occurs. The first, and easiest to produce - is to simply cycle the bolt quickly and with force forward then down. Think slam it forward THEN crank it down -- so not a smooth cycling but slam forward, crank down. This will reliably cause the striker to go home as the bolt is turned down.
The second I'm not 100% on now. Previously, the only way I was able to produce this failure was by firing a round. After firing a round it would not fully charge the striker, or so I thought, so when you loaded the next round the striker would go home as you close the bolt. Now I'm not sure if that's the cause or if it's just a more force-able action of loading the follow up round that caused it.
Up until yesterday, the second method of firing and the second round failing was the only way this would occur -- but it was consistent. You could dry fire or fire on a snap cap and then load a round and no problem. Perhaps when I tried to reproduce it, though, I was just cycling the action slower... my previous thought was the striker was somehow being impaired by overly hard primers on cheap surplus M33 ammo -- but now I'm not confident, it could literally be that cycling the action prone tends to a more forward forcing action on the bolt -- which is the first method of producing this listed.
I placed a shim in the bolt-arm channel to prevent it from running 100% into the channel, which angles and forces the handle to turn -- then slammed it a few dozen times and that seems to resolve the problem. Which makes me think this is purely a physical tolerances issue and nothing spring or moving part related.
So I take out the bolt, looking at the striker face where it engages the trigger facing -- there's an odd angled portion where it appears to be receiving abnormal wear. I can't see how that would be related, but photos attached -- because why not....
Looking at how this trigger works, what I've observed prior -- I think the issue really comes down to tolerances -- if you force that bolt all the way forward it's going to push that trigger bar down. To test this, I held the trigger forward and slammed the bolt a few times. I can definitely feel it pushing that trigger back when you run the bolt hard. When I say running it hard -- I don't mean some obscene amount of force that one would think might damage parts -- especially on a 50BMG. You can run it with one finger and cause this failure.
Anyway, I'm curious if anyone with an AR-50A1 has seen this issue. I've tried contacting armalite a few times over the last year or so and never got a response. My first inclination is to tighten up the trigger -- but when I hold the trigger forward and run the bolt it takes a significant amount of force, proportional to the force applied to the bolt, which makes me think that's a bandaid on a bullet wound. Once the bolt is locked in place -- the trigger is a beautiful thing, single stage wonder that will leave you surprised every time it breaks. Might be the second best trigger experience I've had. I'm almost inclined to drill&tap the receiver to accept a shim to stop the bolt from over-traveling and be done with it....
Which also has me getting more and more annoyed with this bolt cycling/charging issue.
The core issue is you will load a new round and the striker will go home as you close the bolt. Even on safe -- it will send the striker home and you'll have to re-charge the bolt to get it to where you can even take it off of safe.
There seem to be two circumstances when this occurs. The first, and easiest to produce - is to simply cycle the bolt quickly and with force forward then down. Think slam it forward THEN crank it down -- so not a smooth cycling but slam forward, crank down. This will reliably cause the striker to go home as the bolt is turned down.
The second I'm not 100% on now. Previously, the only way I was able to produce this failure was by firing a round. After firing a round it would not fully charge the striker, or so I thought, so when you loaded the next round the striker would go home as you close the bolt. Now I'm not sure if that's the cause or if it's just a more force-able action of loading the follow up round that caused it.
Up until yesterday, the second method of firing and the second round failing was the only way this would occur -- but it was consistent. You could dry fire or fire on a snap cap and then load a round and no problem. Perhaps when I tried to reproduce it, though, I was just cycling the action slower... my previous thought was the striker was somehow being impaired by overly hard primers on cheap surplus M33 ammo -- but now I'm not confident, it could literally be that cycling the action prone tends to a more forward forcing action on the bolt -- which is the first method of producing this listed.
I placed a shim in the bolt-arm channel to prevent it from running 100% into the channel, which angles and forces the handle to turn -- then slammed it a few dozen times and that seems to resolve the problem. Which makes me think this is purely a physical tolerances issue and nothing spring or moving part related.
So I take out the bolt, looking at the striker face where it engages the trigger facing -- there's an odd angled portion where it appears to be receiving abnormal wear. I can't see how that would be related, but photos attached -- because why not....
Looking at how this trigger works, what I've observed prior -- I think the issue really comes down to tolerances -- if you force that bolt all the way forward it's going to push that trigger bar down. To test this, I held the trigger forward and slammed the bolt a few times. I can definitely feel it pushing that trigger back when you run the bolt hard. When I say running it hard -- I don't mean some obscene amount of force that one would think might damage parts -- especially on a 50BMG. You can run it with one finger and cause this failure.
Anyway, I'm curious if anyone with an AR-50A1 has seen this issue. I've tried contacting armalite a few times over the last year or so and never got a response. My first inclination is to tighten up the trigger -- but when I hold the trigger forward and run the bolt it takes a significant amount of force, proportional to the force applied to the bolt, which makes me think that's a bandaid on a bullet wound. Once the bolt is locked in place -- the trigger is a beautiful thing, single stage wonder that will leave you surprised every time it breaks. Might be the second best trigger experience I've had. I'm almost inclined to drill&tap the receiver to accept a shim to stop the bolt from over-traveling and be done with it....
