My Bushmaster is screwed up! Help!

C

Correia

New member
Went shooting today. Last time I went shooting I put a few rounds through my Bushmaster Dissipator, and I had a few weird malfunctions. It appeared to be caused by the ejector, I cleaned it exactly like the marine core manual discribed, and thought that would take care of it.

WRONG!

Went out today, bang, bang, jam, over and over again.

The malfunction looked like this, the fired case would still be under the extractor, an unfired shell has been stripped from the magazine, both have been shoved against the chamber.

The only way to clear it was to drop the magazine, pull the bolt back, flick out the spent case, usually with my finger, and let the live one drop out through the mag well.

The gun is clean, and correctly lubed. It has a few thousand rounds through it. It has never had this problem before. It is not ammo related, three different brands where tried today, all sucked. It is not magazine related, I used the two mags I was using in my friends Bushmaster, and they worked just fine.

If I take the bolt out of the gun, and place a fired casing under the extractor, and pull it back into the ejector it will flick it cleanly.

I fired it from my hip so I could watch it eject, usually my gun kicks them out back and to the side very consistently about six feet. Today it would do that once in a while, and other times it would kick the spent casings out just to the side, about a foot or two.

So I'm confused. Is it my ejector, is it broken, and if so how do I fix it? Any other ideas (besides buy a FAL, I know that suggestion is coming).

By the way, this is for George Hill, he gave me the last of his .223 when he got rid of his Bushmaster that was possesed by evil spirits, I think that the choking AR curse was then passed onto my gun. :)

Man, I'm sad, I think bad thoughts about this gun and I feel guilty like I'm thinking bad thoughts about a close family member. Help!
 
It sounds like it's short stroking.

I haven't had any experience with this kind of failure, so I won't try and give you any troubleshooting advice. If you haven't already done so, try the Troubleshooting Forum at forums.ar15.com .

Sorry I couldn't be more help.
 
Could be something as simple as a gas system problem. Might be the gas rings. Have you checked to see that they're not lined up incorrectly??? Have you cleaned out the gas tube key?? Ammo is o.k.???

I went with a McFarland gas ring. Seems to work great. Never had any malfunctions prior to installing the McFarland, but the idea seems sound.
 
Tight chamber can be the cause. Have it headspaced.

Ejector spring weak? It's held in by a roll pin. Punch it out w/a roll pin punch, clean out the channel & insert a new spring. Also clean the ejector before you reinstall it.
 
Thats EXACTLY what mine was doing!
I solved that 2 ways.
1. I swapped bolts. Done.

2. I still had that tricky bolt... Soaked over night in Copper solvent and then Hoppes #9 and lubed it. I then "exercized" that little plunger to make sure I worked out any fouling that could be binding it. It seemed to work fine after that.

I still had other problems - mainly due to a pinch in the gas tube... but the ejector not ejecting is the cause of that perticular failure. See the trouble shooting page on Bushmaster's site... Thats what helped me cure that issue.

Of course - my FAL has yet to have any such problems... :D
 
Personally, my "favorite" AR-15 malfunction is when the round being stripped and chambered doesn't go "in" all the way, and the bolt lugs are stuck somewhere in between "locked" and "unlocked".

In this state, slamming the bolt-assist has no effect, and the charging handle won't budge backwards.

The rifle cannot be field-stripped now because the bolt is not completely forward, so it prevents rotation about the front take-down pin.

At this point, I start banging the buttstuck down (muzzle pointed in a relatively safe direction) on the shooting bench until things loosen up.

Grrr. This is starting to remind me of my other thread, "AR-15, what were they on?".

-z


[This message has been edited by smithz (edited April 28, 2000).]
 
You know - my FAL hasnt had that problem either.
:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

You know - Browning designed the action that was turned into the FAL... Maybe thats why its so soooo goooood!
 
This sure sounds like a gas pressure problem, have you disassembled the bolt and cleaned it? Also make sure the splits in the rings are staggered when you reassemble it.
 
lacquered russian Ammo can build up chamber crud that causes FTE

gas key could be loose too...

i would suspect ammo though

dZ
 
Correia, man I really don't want to rain on your parade but the Dissipator model is infamous for this exact problem. Its a gas system problem. Sometimes the gas rings can solve it. Sometimes cleaning the bolt carrier will solve it. Sometimes the gas tube has a bad fit and leaks. To make a long story short the Dissipator model is more sensitive to gas problems than the shorty or standard versions of the AR. Bushmaster is making the best AR's produced right now, but this particular model is not on top of the charts for reliability. Changing it to a shorty or 20" barrel is quick, easy, and fairly cheap.
 
Bore is clean, I don't shoot Russian ammo, gas tube seems ok, I always stagger the rings. I will check the BM trouble shooting page. This is the first that I've heard about the Dissipator being less reliable than a shorty, they are basically the same gas system. I will check the carrier key, and the gas tube. Then I will probably let it soak in solvent, and work the heck out of it. I will stop by the gunsmiths on Sat. and see if he can headspace it for me.

If that doesn't work, can I just buy another bolt assembly and put it into my gun? Like out of the BM catalog? Or will I need that headspaced also?

Dang it this makes me mad, this is my favorite gun! It kept me awake last night. :(
 
If the rings are ok, the gas tube ain't bent and ammo is okay, then I think that the carrier key is the problem. Have you removed the key at all? If so, you need to stake it or loctite it back in place. If you don't about 20 rounds of shooting will loosen it up to the point that your symptoms occur. The problem isn't obvious as only one of the two bolts on the key has to be even slightly loose before you start getting problems. Even if you haven't removed the key, they still could have not staked it right at the factory, so double-check them. Good luck. Oh, did you ever get any liquid in the gas tube when cleaning? That thing is supposed to be completely dry, as any solvents in there will gum up the works in short order.
 
Just got this off the Bushmaster page:

4. FAILURE TO EJECT: This looks much the same as failure to extract, except that the fired case is removed from the chamber. The bolt will either jam the fired case back into the locking lugs on the barrel extension (crushing it), or pick up a round from the magazine and try to stuff both of them into the chamber at the same time (looks like a double-feed, except one of the cases is fired). There are a few possibilities as to the cause of this problem, and one is the ejector. For whatever reason, the ejector is weak or sticking and just not clearing the round out of the receiver. A good cleaning might solve the problem, or it may require replacing parts. Try the cleaning first. The other is that the extractor is letting go prematurely. A new extractor spring will usually solve this right away. Lastly, the bolt carrier might not be traveling back far enough, but if it is in fact picking up a new round from the magazine, this isn't the problem. If it isn't picking up a new round, you probably have a gas leak somewhere. The best thing to do is to call us. We can go over it with you in detail, on a case by case basis. Our Customer Service number is 1-800-883-6229 or 207-892-3594 (Mon- Fri, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM EST).


That sounds exactly like my problem! If it is stripping off a new round then its probably not gas related. (I hope). I will try and fix it this weekend. Thanks for the help everybody. And yes I will eventually buy a FAL also. :)

If it is gas related, then I've got some work to do.
 
One kind of stupid question -- is the bolt oriented correctly? I seem to remember a thread on the AR15 board about some BM bolts being able to be installed 180 degrees out of orientation. This probably isn't your problem, as that would seem to lead to a failure to eject every casing, and in your description, the problem seemed more intermittent.

Failing that, I agree that it doesn't sound like short-stroking. Soaking overnight or maybe even disassembling and cleaning or replacing the ejector spring sounds like a good fix.
 
I had an Eagle CAR that was misbehaving similar to this. For what it is worth, I found that the barrel was slightly loose and when I stripped the upper I found that I could unscrew the barrel locking nut by hand. (Not a good thing). Fortunately, I fiddle with this rifles a bit and have the appropriate wrench and an upper receiver vise. I torqued the barrel down to 40 lb-ft and now everything is fine. Just one other thing that you might check. Good luck.
 
Presenting

"Correia's Adventures in Home Gun Smithing!"

I think I got it fixed. I checked everything that you guys pointed out. Gas system, carrier key, barrel, all seemed fine.

Soaked the bolt in solvent overnight, still didn't fix it. Punched out the ejector and extractor, bingo! Right where the ejector has that wedge cut out of it for the roll pin, there where several chunks of brass shavings (how those got in there I have not clue) Apparently that was what was causing the problem, the shavings where making the ejector stick. Fired a box of shells through it and it worked just fine, ejection was back to where it used to be.

I will take it out latter for more testing, but I think that it is ok now.

Just wanted to say thanks to everybody who helped out with their suggestions.
 
My Bushmaster XM15E2S (postban) Shorty is doing it too, and it has since about day one.
It fails to eject, and tries to strip the next round out of the magazine.
Tried different magazines, no dice.
Tried different ammo, no dice.
Stripped it down, cleaned everything, checked extractor and ejector for shavings, spring tension, etc. NO DICE.
Swapped bolts and bolt carriers out of guns that run perfectly. It still malfs.
I can not for the life of me get it to work properly. The best we have been able to do is for it to a whopping 90 rounds before it begins taking a dump, and this after a meticulous detail cleaning perfomed by myself and retired USMC COl. Robert Young of Gunsite.
I am realy begginning to hate this gun.
Trying to get someone from Bushmaster on the phone that knows which end the bullet comes out of is like pulling teeth.

The only thing I have not tried is total disassembly of the upper, and checking the gas ports in the barrel and the barrel torque and whatever else that can be checked and massaged while the damned thing is totally up on blocks.
What a pain in the butt to go through for a new "hi tech" weapon.
If the last ditch stuff fails, I will dump it ASAP. Perhaps someone else will have better luck than me with this lemon.

On the bright side, I can honestly tell whoever I sell it to that it has very low mileage...
 
I'm telling you guys...
I went through this every which way.

The final and happy solution? I got rid of the damn thing... My FAL is fat and happy, baby!

Do yourselves a HUGE favor and get the FAL.

If you just gotta have a .223 auto rifle, the ONLY one I would suggest is the M96 Expiditionary Rifle. Others like the Ruger Mini-14 are lack luster, or are way too much money. The M96 is a great rifle. I just wish they would hurry up and get out the .308 version.
 
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