At the range today I popped a clip in my AR15 Sport, closed the bolt, clicked off the safe, and pulled the trigger - it didn't fire. I ejected the round and tried again - same thing. I looked at the rounds and no firing pin mark on the primer. Opened up the gun and the buffer retainer was lying beside the hammer - the buffer assembly was no longer contained within the buffer tube. The buffer retainer spring was nowhere to be found. I tried to replace the spring with one from a ballpoint pen, but the retainer wouldn't stay in place. First problem I've had in 2 years. Any idea what the problem is, and how do I fix it?
buffer retainer problem
- Thread starter banjosam
- Start date
Register to hide this ad
CATI1835
US Veteran
An easy fix, but it will require you unscrewing the buffer tube a bit to get the new spring and retainer in. That will require loosening of the castle nut, a special wrench for this is recommended, though you might be able to wing it with some slip joint pliers. YouTube has some excellent videos showing the process. It really is easy.
My guess is the buffer tube was probably never seated deep enough to hold the retainer in place.
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpsQqZIKHPs"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpsQqZIKHPs[/ame]
My guess is the buffer tube was probably never seated deep enough to hold the retainer in place.
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpsQqZIKHPs"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpsQqZIKHPs[/ame]
sgtsandman
US Veteran
CATI1835 covered it. If the buffer tube isn't "seated" properly, the retaining pin can pop out. Sometimes it just takes a while for it to happen. The buffer tube needs to be just barely not touching the center post of the retaining pin so it will not drag on the tube and still depress properly when you want it too.
mscampbell2734
Member
- Joined
- Jan 29, 2012
- Messages
- 775
- Reaction score
- 854
Is your gun older? By that I mean 8-10 years? If so on the first few production runs Smith did instead of staking the castle nut they tried to speed up production and used loctite. Needless to say over time they learned the hard way to not reinvent the wheel and switched back to staking, the mil-spec standard.
Similar threads
