Ok this is interesting for anyone who likes ARs.

K

Kevinw

Moderator
I took my New (to me) Olympic arms Ar15 out to the range today. It is a 16 inch carbine with a Muzzel Brake.

Well I took it out with 20 fully loaded 30 round mags intending to see how it would hold up to a lot of sustained rounds.
What is the answer to that question you may ask?

Not near as well as I had hoped. LOL
THe procedure was this. One mag at about one round per second with a one minute cool down period in between each mag.

after about 15 mags the gun was getting very uncomfortable to handle, but not to bad yet. NOw on mag 19 I knew something was wrong. My hand suddenly started to feel burned.. I stoped and held the gun by just the Pistol grip (which was also quite warm by now). Well I proceeded to watch the fron handgrip slowly melt away from the barrel. The front drooped about an inch before it cooled enough to stop. You can also see where I was gripping the handguard where I left a handprint. The nylon sling also melted completly through and is now useless.

I was firing at a steady but slow rate of fire(Ok I ripped one mag off really fast). Yet this occured. How does a Carbine hold up to full auto use in the military if it can't handle this? I have done this test with my old colt 20 Inch Hbar and My Bushmaster Dissipator with no problems, so I can only assume the shorter handguard is the culprit by not allowing as much heat to dissipate.

As it stands I am going to have it rebarreled in a 20 Inch Configuration. But this was still an interesting and educational day at the range..

Oh and by the way I only had one round jam and it was a failure to extract about half way through mag number 17. I think the chanber had gotten to hot and expanded.
Test Ammo was russian Steel Cased Manufactured by Wolf.
 
A full combat load for an infantryman is far less than 600 rounds, I believe it's in the 350 range. As far as holding up to full auto use, most of the time they're shooting a couple of magazines at the most full auto for supression. I think you just did far more shooting that a solder in a real battle would do.

BTW, I like the description of the meltdown, must have been quite a shock. :)
 
Did your OLY handguards have heat shields?

I have an M4gery, which had stock BM handguards, and they only ever got warm to the touch. Got rid of heat pretty good.
Recently, I switched to Colt M4 double shielded handguards, and they get rid of so much heat that the barrel can be smoking hot and the handguards are just fine!

Tom


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KevinW, I can't speak to the question of 600 rounds through an AR, since I haven't abused mine like that ;) . But, when shooting my full-auto Thompson, after 400-600 rounds it was hot enough that you could get a second-degree burn by touching the barrel for an instant. It would have melted the foam in the case, so I always had to let it cool down for at least 45 minutes.

Melted grips. Wow!

Dick
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It's not the slow rate of fire that you are using but more the fact that you are only letting the gun sit and cool down 1 minute inbetween magazines. The barrel was getting progressively hotter. Three clips out of my Garand and then switch to another gun for a while. That's not to say that the gun cannot take it but sustained rapid-fire like that has very little place in any situation I can think of. After the first five shots, their heads are down. Why keep firing sporadically? Rapid fire should be about one calculated, if not aimed, shot about every three to five seconds. It takes about that time to ensure the round is hitting anywhere near the target area. That's about three to four times the rate you were using.

I'll second what others were saying also -- did you have heat shields in your handguards? These are sheet aluminum inserts that prevent radiant heat from the barrel from directly heating the handguards.
 
One of the good sides to AR15 over an AK is the rate of heating up. 60 rounds through an AK will make it hard to hold...twice that through an AR (20" BM) won't.

Likewise, one can fire three magazines (51 rounds) though a Glock 17 and still use it...the cylinder and forcing cone of a .38 will get warm enough after 50 rounds to make reloading unpleasant.
 
This is an Interesting thing. I've been curious about all the Synthetic stocks out there compared to wooden stocks. I had a Synthetic stock on one of my SKS's and standard Wooden stock on another one. The Synthetic stock smelled absolutely horrible after about 200rds. It didn't melt or warp but I think I was pretty close to setting the thing on fire. The wooden stock smells funny but not like synthetics. How much can you heat up synthetic stocks compared to wooden?
 
Sorry to hear about your Oly, but from the information you provided, I *believe* it has to do with the lack of the aluminum heat shields with your handguards. I might be wrong, but almost every Oly 16" AR I've seen were missing them. I've done some rapid fire (ten 30 round mags in about 15 minutes) with my Bushmaster without a problem.

[This message has been edited by Kenshi (edited August 12, 2000).]
 
Olympic Arms stock factory handguards do not have a heat shield in them.

I'm not shy about sending rounds down range when I'm in that sort of a mood and I've already gotten the stock guards ot enough that they were fused in place. After removing them with my special impact tool I replaced them with a lined set. That was the end of the problem.

Besides a hammer is the easiest way for one person to remove a set of AR handguards before they've been shortned just a bit.
 
I once saw a Ruger mini-14 in s/s (wood stock with sidefolder) start to SMOKE after only about 25 rounds rapidfire!
crankshaft
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Golly, it's wonderful to run into guys with enough money to buy a new barrel every range session. Is there any rifling left after you turn the barrel cherry red?

Jim
 
One things I did leave out. *smacks himself* Half way through (After Mag #10)
I let the gun rest a bit.. Maybe 5-10 minutes so that it could cool down. Like I said I have tested ARs Like this before with no problems whatsoever. This one just didn't like it. Oh well I was gonna have it re-barreled anyway.
 
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