Jerry Miculek On An Odd Failure In The AR Platform
BY Herschel Smith
6 years, 6 months ago
I’ve actually seen this failure, but only once (not in my gun). I and the other shooters were all puzzled for a while, eventually got it cleared, and went on with the day. We did everything he said we would do, including trying to remove the upper (but the bolt was back in the buffer and we couldn’t). But I wish I had seen Jerry on this failure before that day.
Kewl!!
Thanks Jerry.
Had that happen to me once… really puzzled the hell out of me until I did just like Mr. Miculek did… came right out. One thing he didn’t mention tho was the jammed live round had the casing all dented to hell and gone… had to get rid of it as it wasn’t safe to fire after…
Wow. Thanks!
I’ve seen them – wish I had known that trick.
Excellent information to know. I have never seen that occur.
These malfunction videos are the best info. Thanks Jerry.
cracked feed lips will do that too – I had this failure MANY times in a row before realizing the root cause and tossed the mags (3) that had failed.
There’s been lots of “discussion” about keeping mags loaded for extended periods of time having an adverse affect on the springs. Would it also affect the feed lips of the mag? This could also be true of pistol mags?
Pat Rogers (RIP) called that the Class Ate malfunction. His method of clearing it was to use a stiff fixed blade knife (or a really strong finger) to retract the bolt while slamming the charging handle forward. Often the carry handle gets wedged into place by the stuck round, so it can take quite a whack to get the charging handle to come free.
I actually had one manifest at his class, once, I did it to myself on a double feed malfunction clearance drill. I used a Leatherman multitool to retract the bolt, and the round fell out.
Sorry, charging handle gets wedged.