Strange damage on neck 223

A

arpcentralone

New member
I have noticed these small marks on each cartridge that my AR fires, and haven't noticed it before. Is this something to worry about? Will it affect reloading my brass? It happens to factory as well as reloads.

marked.jpg
 
Bolt locking lugs. When extracted as soon as the brass clears the chamber the extractor flips the brass toward the ejection port side and it hits a sharp edge of one of the bolt locking lugs. This is usually worse in carbine length rifles. You can polish the sharp edge of the locking lugs. I don't and after many rounds fired it gets better on it's own. As far as brass, if it raises a burr I touch it up with a smooth file. Most of the time you can just size and reload. It will cause no safety issues that I'm aware of.
 
How would one go about polishing the locking lug? Is it one of the teeth that is gouging the brass neck? I will try resizing and see if it clears the case, but I really would like the rifle to be a little more gentle to my brass, ya know.
 
Im fixing to look into that. I am also looking into the ejector spring, it's kind of hard. Might be too long or too strong. I have had this rifle about a year and just now learning the finer details. I should have learned this stuff long ago, but time only recently permitted for me to get into this like I need to. I'm the guy who loves to tear something down to the last roll pin and reassemble it, polishing any contact surface for smoothness as I go. I know my rifle isn't a mega build, with the nicest barrel, bolt, parts but, "This is my rifle, there are many like it, but this one is mine!"
 
The barrel extension needs removed from the barrel to polish correctly. This changes head space. Your is not as bad as some.

I would live with it, brass is cheap.
 
Sure, brass is cheap, however that would negate the whole reasoning for reloading my own ammo. As long as I could get a handful of uses from the brass, I would retire it.
 
Alright, it doesn't appear to be too difficult to modify the locking lugs, removing the sharp edges and polishing down some. I will attempt that sometime next week. Also going to shorten the ejector spring slightly, those carts exit the rifle at almost the same velocity as the projectile! Not really, but resting the rifle on the hood of my truck, I though I might chip my windshield. I hung a ball cap from my scope over my ejector port to "catch" the carts as they exited, and it helped pile them right under my mag.
 
All those marks are normal for an AR. As the lugs and barrel extension wear, the problem will lessen. If the AR is ejecting in the right place no need to make changes. But, if you get dents half way down the case, add the soft side of a velcro strip on the brass deflector. If your getting cuts in the case rims, stone or smooth the extractor edges that grab the brass.
 
arpcentralone wrote:
...I really would like the rifle to be a little more gentle to my brass, ya know.
Click to expand...

Yes, I think we all would. But, as others noted, the shorter the gas action, the harder it is on the brass. If you are currently using a carbine length gas action, you might find you get less violent treatment of your brass from a mid-length or rifle length arrangement.
 
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