Went out to the range Sunday and tokk my new RRA AR15. Fired the first shot, cartridge did not eject. Disassembled rifle and pushed out the spent cartridge. Checked the chamber (clear), BCG etc. All seemed ok. Loaded the mag back up charged and fired the second shot. Same thing. Decided not to push the issue and packed up and drove home. I disassembled the rifle again and on closer inspection I found that the bolt was in with the ejector on the wrong side. The ejector was in the five oclock position not the eleven oclock position. This was new right from the factory. I also found a piece of the cartridge land stuck between the ejector and bolt. Closer inspection of both cartridges (PMC) show a piece of the lands missing from each. Could this be my ejection issue? RRA states that all their guns are test fired at the factory. I find that hard to believe that they would not have noticed the bolt was 180 degrees out. I am new to the AR platform so any thoughts woukd be appreciated. I hope to get to the range tomorrow and see if my problem is corrected.

 

I am a little confused. By your title, you had an unfired round (cartridge) stuck in the chamber, but by your description of the malfunction you had a case (spent brass from a fired round) in your action.

 

Did you have a failure to extract - meaning the spent brass case (cartridge being an entire un-fired round, case being just the fired brass) was stuck in the chamber (the most common meaning behind stuck or sticking) or did you have a failure to eject, where the case was pulled from chamber but was not ejected from the action.

 

Assuming we are using the same words for the same parts, If the ejector was on the wrong side, that means the extractor was opposite the ejection port and the bolt was attempting to "throw" the spent case against the sidewall of the action after unlocking and extracting the case. If assembled in that way your bolt will most definitely not eject rounds properly.

 

You should not be able to install a mils-spec bolt into a mil-spec carrier backwards like that. The cam pin hole in the bolt should be tapered to preclude that from happening. If you can install the bolt 180 rotated, I would contact the maker and find out why.

 

In the meantime, assuming we are on the same page and you had good extraction and a weird attempt at ejection, installing the bolt the correct way in the carrier should alleviate the issue. If you are not sure, look at the bolt throught the ejection port. The extractor should be on the same side as the dust cover.

My bad. Yes it was a spent case that was stuck in the chamber. The ejector was facing away from the ejector port. I will post some more pics tomorrow evening of the bolt carrier group. I have heard that there are many components in the RRA's that are not mil spec. Worse comes to worse I will eventually swap it out with a Mil Spec bolt carrier. This forum is awesome and I really appreciate your input.

My bad. Yes it was a spent case that was stuck in the chamber. The ejector was facing away from the ejector port. I will post some more pics tomorrow evening of the bolt carrier group. I have heard that there are many components in the RRA's that are not mil spec. Worse comes to worse I will eventually swap it out with a Mil Spec bolt carrier. This forum is awesome and I really appreciate your input.

 

 

It seems like you have already diagnosed the problem. Pull your firing pin retainer, firing pin, cam pin, and turn the bolt 180 and you should be back in business. It looks like the round tried to extract but instead of the ejector kicking it out, it kicked it into the closed side of the upper. The weakest part (case rim) failed. 

 

The most obvious way to see if your bolt is "mil spec" is to see if its stamped MPI. If it is you have half a shot at it being mil spec. I used the quotes because their are ALOT of parts on the market right not being marketed as MIL SPEC that dont even come close. YMMV

 

Also: thrown in a headspace gauge, that primer looks a little flat.

Edited June 26, 201313 yr by henrym

The most likely explanation for the factory screw-up is that someone mixed left-handed AR BCG parts with the much more common right-handed parts.

 

Bring it down to SJSC on Sunday afternoon

I'll be there after we finish the high power match at Hutton Hill with my left-handed match AR and I always have a standard right-handed AR in the car.

We'll get it straightened out.

Thanks guys. I appreciate your help and experience.