View Single Post
 
Old 02-10-2022, 04:56 PM
atlomogsar atlomogsar is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2022
Posts: 2
Likes: 0
Liked 1 Time in 1 Post
Default New M&P15 Sport 2 extractor or ejector problem

Hi, I am new to ARs, and new to gun ownership. Looking for advice on my Optic Ready M&P15 Sport 2. I picked it up a couple weeks ago. The very first round fired but didn't leave the upper, and got sandwiched between the new round and the top of the upper. It jams like this every 3-4 rounds. Twice the round stayed in the chamber and was not extracted at all, but usually when it jams the round is pulled all the way out of the chamber. It just doesn't get ejected. I am humbled to admit I didn't do any sort of cleaning/oiling to the rifle before taking it out. I didnt see anything in the manual about doing that before taking it out to the range, didn't see why It wouldn't come lubricated, but from what I read it seems like I should have cleaned and oiled it.

I cleaned the rifle after the first time out, and removed the O ring from around the extractor spring because I read it can cause problems. The extractor was so tight with the O-Ring in there that with all my strength pressing on the back of it, I could barely budge the extractor enough to push the pin out, and when I watched videos on this process it doesnt seem like it should be that difficult. I can't say Im good at cleaning the rifle, but I picked up a "universal" cleaning kit with multiple bore brushes and swabs and mops and a cleaning rod, and bore solvent and oil. I used the proper sized parts and to the best of my knowledge cleaned and oiled it using a video by Jerry Miculek for reference. Can't say I followed everything because I dont have the exact same supplies but I did my best.

Anyways, I went shooting again with no O-Ring and freshly cleaned and oiled, and it still has the same failure, although this time the rounds never got left behind inside the chamber. I also tried shooting with only one round in the magazine, and each time the gun fired, the bolt locked in the open position. I figured this would be a good test for if the problem was gas related, but looking back i dont know why i thought that. As for the spent cartridge in the "One-In-The-Magazine" test, about 75% of them ejected successfully, but 25% of the time the bolt locked open and the cartridge just sat in the upper, about halfway between the bolt face and the chamber.

So I wonder if you all could give me some advice on what to do here. I am tempted to send it in for warranty repair or replacement, but I dont even know what to say to S&W because I don't confidently know what part is causing the problem. I feel like the extractor is maybe losing its grip sometimes, leaving the casing behind in the upper before it can be ejected. But I don't know enough about AR's to say why it does that, and I don't know why my brand new gun would have this problem when the Sport 2 is seemingly renowned for its reliability.

I also would like to hang onto the gun and fix it myself, because I am a tinkerer and have access to lots of tools, and I'd like to know how to take care of and modify my firearm when needed. This video:
makes the claim that the extractor O-Ring is used as a band-aid to compensate for an extractor that doesn't have sufficient reach to close down on the rim of the cartridge and hold it well. He mentions filing down the bottom of the extractor frame where it contacts the bolt, making it able to close tighter on the round. This is what I'm planning to do next, but I want to wait till I hear back from you all, as I'm assuming that would void the warranty or something.

In the mean time, I have read more on cleaning so I bought a more expensive gun cleaning kit specifically for AR15s, and I'm going to buy some CLP and give it another clean. Hopefully I'll be able to take "dirty/unlubed gun" out of the equation and move forward with fixing this.

Please let me know what you think, I also have some of the empty casings I could take pictures of if that would be useful in identifying the problem.

Thank you
Reply With Quote