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| Author clearing a malfunction caused by cheap steel case ammo in a drum mag, using an FRT. |
There's nothing more frustrating than excitedly heading out to the range with your brand new gun/optic/suppressor/accessory and promptly having it fail. This experience is not only rage-inducing, but also can be pretty expensive if you keep throwing money at a problem that refuses to go away. So how do you prevent that? Today we're going to go through a checklist that can prevent or mitigate the majority of issues and save you guys time, effort, money, and frustration. I've given out a good amount of advice to people on the internet (and IRL) on taking these steps, so I thought an article would be helpful.
Note that this isn't designed to be a "how to" article for fixing every single issue you could possibly encounter (that would be impossible, obviously); but rather how to avoid them in the first place and narrow down what the issue(s) could be when they happen. For actual fix-it videos, Rumble and YouTube are obviously great resources. This checklist will focus on isolating variables and how to proceed from there.
First things first: having some basic experience can go a long ways here. You don't have to be a super Delta SEAL Recon Sniper or Ian Mccollum to troubleshoot most problems, but if you're a first time gun owner it may be helpful to tap a more experienced friend or family member for help if at all possible. As I just mentioned, you want to isolate variables, not your skills. All this to say, if your new rifle isn't shooting well but you've never shot a rifle before, it would be best to let someone else more skilled than you shoot it before you proceed. Even if you are experienced, though, letting another experienced buddy try out your setup can still be helpful. It's never bad to have a fresh set of eyes on a problem.
Secondly, buy quality stuff, guys. Note that I said "quality", not "expensive". For example, you can get into a quality red dot (like the Sig Romeo 5 Gen 2) for around $150. Don't buy a $40 red dot on Amazon and then spend $140 on ammo trying to figure out why you can't hit the broad side of a barn! That $40 red dot could work, and it also could be DOA. Pretty easy to figure out that your red dot is the issue if it won't even turn on, though.
In general, I think you can look at it this way: Experienced Shooter + Cheap Stuff = Workable (but not ideal). An Experienced Shooter can probably separate the chaff from the wheat fairly quickly and figure out if the cheap red dot is what's causing his issues. New Shooter + Quality Stuff = Workable. While even Quality Stuff can fail, the chances are reduced considerably--and having a known quantity should help a New Shooter figure out quickly if the problem is with him or the gear. And of course, Experience Shooter + Quality Stuff = Highest Chance of Success. If an Experienced Shooter is having issues with Quality Stuff, then he either has a weak link in the chain (perhaps the optic mount was cheap), forgot to double check all of his components, or he has an actual lemon that needs to be returned/exchanged.
Break-In can also be very important before trying to fully diagnose issues. Different guns will require different break-in periods (if any), but shooting a few hundred rounds of decent quality ammo can often make a difference. Reliability and accuracy will generally improve after a break-in period, which allows the various parts and components to wear down any high spots, burrs, excess coatings, etc from the repeated cycling. Of course, hand cycling a firearm (racking a slide, running the bolt, pulling the charging handle, dry firing, manipulating the safety, etc) is a free way to speed up the break in process at the cost of your time. If you can't complete the break-in because the firearm won't function much or at all, there's probably something seriously wrong and you should just send it back to the manufacturer if at all possible.
We'll also make the assumption that your firearm is cleaned, lubed, and well maintained. While there's different philosophies and theories on how often to clean (and where the sweet spot is for accuracy), there's no doubt that a gun's accuracy and reliability will eventually degrade if it isn't cleaned. Even if the gun is brand new, the chemicals used in manufacturing or oils used for storage can occasionally cause accuracy/reliability issues; they also aren't designed to be lube for actual shooting! Cleaning the rifle is an easy variable to knock off the checklist and should definitely be one of the first steps for accuracy or reliability issues.
Finally, I believe that keeping a round count and maintenance log on your guns is a good idea. Your gun will lose reliability as certain parts reach the end of their lifecycles or break, and your accuracy will degrade as your barrel eventually gets shot out. Look up the maintenance intervals and projected parts longevities for your particular firearm so you can plan ahead; don't be surprised if your super accurate AR loses accuracy after 20,000 rounds!
So, now that that's out of the way, we'll assume for the rest of the article that either you or an Experienced Shooter is going to be troubleshooting here, using a clean/lubed firearm that's been broken in. The vast majority of firearms related issues can be broken into two broad categories: Accuracy Issues, and Reliability Issues. Both can be extremely frustrating and occasionally they'll even join forces! We'll start with how to tackle Accuracy Issues. I'm going to be talking primarily about rifles here, but these concepts absolutely apply to pistols, PCCs, and shotguns, too.
RELIABILITY ISSUES
Shoot enough guns and you'll probably experience the frustration of hearing "click" instead of "bang". While any firearm can experience a malfunction for any number of reasons, repeated malfunctions likely indicate a problem. Let's start by isolating some variables and make sure that you (the shooter) aren't a factor by checking the setup.
If you're shooting a handgun, make sure you have a firm grip and aren't "limp-wristing" the pistol. For a rifle, make sure that you have solid contact between your shoulder and the stock and are applying some forward pressure with your shoulder. Also make sure that you're not putting pressure on the magazine, mag release, or slide release/charging handle/cocking handle when shooting. With our setup out of the way, let's move on.
Time to check the gun! First things first, clean that bad boy as mentioned in the beginning. While you're cleaning your gun, you may as well inspect it. We won't get into full maintenance and inspection procedures here for the sake of brevity, but checking over all of your components is a good idea. For pistols, check the barrel, recoil spring assembly, extractor, ejector, and firing mechanism. Also make sure that you reassemble it correctly! If you don't know what you're looking at (or what everything should look like), there's plenty of great videos out there online.
For ARs, focus on the bolt carrier, bolt, barrel, gas block, muzzle device, trigger/safety, and your rail mounting hardware (barrel nut and rail mounting bolts/screws). Unfortunately it's not uncommon for components to either work loose or even come from the factory loose. I had a PSA gas block which was misaligned (which can cover part of the gas port, undergassing the rifle), as well as a rail bolt or two on my Geissele Super Duty which walked loose very quickly after purchase. Everything should be torqued to spec and loctited if necessary. I like to use witness marks using a Sharpie or paint pen so I can see that all my bolts/screws are still snug.
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| Witness marks are especially helpful with heavier-recoiling firearms like shotguns and AR-10s. |
Just like in the accuracy department, quality (or at least decent) ammunition can play a large part in reliability. Thanks to different import bans, crappy steel case ammunition is less common today than it used to be, but there's still plenty of weak, inconsistent, or otherwise garbage ammo out there. One of the big culprits is "reman[ufactured]" ammo, like Freedom Munitions, 2A Warehouse, etc. Reman ammo is loaded with used/once fired brass and is typically cheaper than regular ammo. While I won't claim that all reman ammo is bad by any means, there's enough horror stories out there of people having everything from malfunctions caused by weak ammo up to and including blowing their guns up with squib rounds or a double charged round. I watched a buddy "blow up" his Glock at a shooting competition from what was likely a double charged round of reman ammo.
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| Oops From personal experience I also had an issue right when I bought that Geissele Super Duty where, shooting Wolf steel case in winter, I was having reliability issues; because the gas port was designed around hotter duty-style ammo, not the cheap/weak steal case. It should be noted that cold weather is going to be harsher on all firearms, reliability wise, so testing everything in warmer weather isn't a bad idea. All this to say that if you are using ammo that's known to be suspect or weak (and a simple Google search should bring up results pretty quickly if it is), switching ammo types should probably be your first step. Hand-in-hand with good ammo goes good magazines. While this isn't as much of an issue nowadays for ARs with the proliferation of cheap Magpul mags, it can definitely be an issue when using aftermarket mags for handguns. Pro-mag is pretty infamous for making crappy magazines, and I've also had issues with ETS mags. In the MP5 world, many of the "clone" magazines are known to be potential problems, so buying a quality (but expensive) HK mag is often suggested. In general, if you're not using a name-brand magazine, it's worth picking one up when having reliability issues. |
Even if you're using quality ammo, make sure that your firearm is designed for it! This applies mostly to pistols, but certain (especially older) handguns may not cycle different grain weights of bullets very well, and may also have issues with hollow points. Adding compensators/brakes/ports to pistols can also change how they operate and may require dropping the recoil spring weight for lighter loads like 115gr. Checking the owner's manual and looking around online is a good idea if you're having issues.
On the rifle side of things, .300blk and other subsonic cartridges are often a big culprit. Many rifles will not run subsonic ammo while unsuppressed, or with a very low backpressure suppressor. That's not a problem with the rifle or ammo, it's simply a case of what that specific setup was designed for. There's little to no point in running subsonic rifle calibers without a suppressor, so stick to supers if you're having issues unsuppressed.
Speaking of suppressors, that's another factor that can hamper reliability in both rifles and pistols. With pistols, make sure you're running a booster/Nielson device and be prepared to swap recoil spring weights. Be advised too that many pistols (again, especially older ones) were never designed with suppression in mind and simply may not want to run suppressed at all. Better to bite the bullet and get a pistol for dedicated suppressed use rather than spend a bunch of time and money trying to force a finicky pistol to run reliably suppressed.
Modern rifles are much more tolerant of suppressors, but that doesn't mean that they come ready to run reliably suppressed from the factory. Unless it's sold with an adjustable gas block or some other factory tuning option (like a reduced size gas port), pretty much every stock AR on the market will not function optimally with anything other than a very low backpressure suppressor. That doesn't mean that they won't be reliable, but they'll be overgassed for sure and will probably yeet your spent brass into the next county.
I've got a full video in the works on tuning the AR for optimal suppressed usage, but assuming you have a stock AR, simply bumping up the buffer weight is probably the simplest thing you can do. It isn't the ideal fix for a full backpressure traditional suppressor, but it will definitely help. Adding an adjustable gas block as noted (or an adjustable BCG) is going to help you dial your rifle in much better. A good idea if you're having reliability issues is to take some slow-mo closeup footage of your weapon firing. You may be able to spot the issue, or you can always post it on forums and see if anyone else with more knowledge/experience can help.
Suppressors will also cause your firearm to become dirty much, much quicker. When it comes to AR rifles, I found that if I was using a light oil like Hoppes #9 it would burn off within just a mag or two. Now the rifle is both dirty and dry (that's what she said), and I found myself having issues where the BCG would get so caked in carbon that bolt release wouldn't reliably drop the bolt. I'd have to slingshot the charging handle to get the rifle back up and running after a reload. Switching to a heavier oil like motor oil keeps the BCG wet much longer. That combined with a lower backpressure suppressor and/or an AGB will keep your rifle running for a long time, but it will need to be cleaned (or at least lubed) more often than an unsuppressed rifle.
FRT usage is becoming increasingly common and can definitely reduce reliability. Troubleshooting an FRT is beyond the scope of this article, but using a minimum H2 buffer should be one of the first things you try to reduce the chance of bolt bounce. The geometry of your lower (namely high shelf vs low shelf) can cause certain FRT designs to bind up and not run correctly, so checking that is also a good idea. You should be able to hand cycle the weapon and feel the trigger reset and hammer fall again after pulling the trigger and racking the charging handle. These systems can sometimes require some extra lube and break-in, too.
Finally, let's cover "upgrades" to your gun. With pistols, this unfortunately can include mounting an optic! Depending on what the optic cut looks like, it's not uncommon for an optic screw that's too long to bind on the extractor of a pistol, causing malfunctions. I had this exact problem with a P80 Glock clone that simply required me to use a shorter optic screw on the right side of the pistol. As we mentioned earlier, adding a suppressor/comp/port will likely necessitate a change in recoil springs. Certain triggers can also reduce reliability or even safety; there's a recent video floating around of a guy having an accidental discharge without pulling the aftermarket trigger of his Glock. The video shows that his finger is off the trigger and it appears that inserting a new magazine during a reload was enough to drop the striker and fire a round.
Regardless of whether we're talking pistol or rifle, if you have reliability issues after installing a new part(s), your first move should be to switch back to stock/milspec parts. If that fixes your problem, you now know that either your new part is faulty or that you installed it incorrectly. I'm about as impatient as they come, but if you're planning to install a bunch of upgrades, it's not a bad idea to do them one at a time and check function before adding another. I recently helped a buddy of mine reinstall his trigger when, after doing some dryfire, he found that his AR's trigger wasn't reseting. He had swapped triggers and didn't correctly reinstall the trigger and hammer springs, so it wasn't running right.
ACCURACY ISSUES
Ever take a shot with a brand new gun and/or optic setup and walk down range, only to find that you're not on paper, and have no idea where the round went? Pretty frustrating! When it comes to isolating accuracy variables, it's obviously best to use a known quantity if at all possible--either use a rifle that's known to be accurate to test an optic's accuracy, or an optic that you know to be quality and trouble free to test a rifle's accuracy. Testing an unknown optic and unknown rifle at the same time is definitely not ideal, as it may be very difficult to pin down which is causing issues.
A quick note on accuracy--be realistic with your expectations! Despite what people on the internet or that guy at the range claims, shooting "one hole groups" is pretty rare (and you need at least 5-10rds per group to have an idea of accuracy, not 3). A bolt action rifle that can shoot 5 or more rounds into 1" or less is accurate, and more than acceptable for the vast majority of shooters. A bolt gun that can shoot 5 or more rounds into 1/2" or less is very accurate, and will almost certainly command a significant cost. Can you get lucky with a Ruger American rifle or Savage Axis? Sure, but don't count on it.
ARs and other semi autos are almost always going to be less accurate than an equivalently priced bolt action (exactly why is a topic for another day). In my book, an AR that can put 5+ shots into 1.5" or less is accurate, and under 1" is very accurate. Legit 1/2" 5+ shot group ARs are rarer than hen's teeth! All this to say: manage your expectations when it comes to accuracy, and don't get mad if your basic $500 PSA AR isn't shooting dimes.
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| Various 5rd groups from my Geissele SD. 0.85" is excellent! |
Now to start, we gotta use quality ammo for good accuracy in almost every case, gentlemen. Maybe you'll get lucky and your rifle will shoot PMC Bronze into 1" groups, but that would be the exception, not the rule. If you're looking for the utmost accuracy you can get from your rifle, buy at least a few different loadings of quality ammo to try--each rifle will have loads and bullet weights that it "likes" more than others. For 5.56/.223, precision ammo will usually be in the 68-77gr range and will often be labeled as "match" ammo. Black Hills, Federal Gold Medal Match, and Hornady Match are usually solid options, to give a few examples.
If you don't care about absolute accuracy (say, using a red dot on an SBR), then trying a few brands of M193/generic plinking ammo is a good way to isolate this variable if you're having accuracy issues. M193 should be in the 1.5" (very good) to 4"ish (edge of acceptable) range. If multiple brands of M193 are shooting 5"+, then your ammo selection is probably not your problem. If Wolf or Tula steel case is shooting 6" but everything else is within the acceptable range, I wouldn't worry about it. If your setup won't shoot any precision ammo under 2", and any M193 or equivalent under 5", ammo is not your problem.
Next, let's make sure our shooting setup is good. This is probably the easiest variable to isolate. For shooting accurately you want to make sure that you're shooting from a stable position without any kind of interference. This means shooting from a front rest, bag, or bipod, and ideally using some kind of rear bag or rest as well. Don't let your exposed barrel touch anything--one of the big reasons that modern free float handguards are so handy! Also ensure that nothing is contacting your gas block or barrel--MLok screws are a big culprit for this and it can absolutely affect your accuracy. Be advised that if shooting from a bipod, loading it (ie putting significant forward pressure on it) can cause groups to shift and/or expand. If you're using a scope with exposed turrets, make sure you're at 0 and not dialed up from the last time you were shooting out to distance (ask me how I know)!
When shooting for absolute accuracy, such as when I'm reviewing a rifle, I like to use at least 8x magnification, and ideally higher. Some of this will depend on how good your eyesight is, but I've never met someone who can shoot a tighter group with iron sights than with a quality magnified optic. It goes without saying that more magnification allows you to have a finer point of aim, which obviously helps to shoot tighter groups. I know personally that I can shoot around 1" groups with an 8x optic at 100yds (I can shoot sub MOA with 15x+), but with irons or a red dot the best I can manage is maybe 1/2-1" at 50yds.
Once all those variables have been addressed, we'll isolate the optic setup, then the rifle. For the optic, we'll start by making sure that it's properly mounted in a quality mount. An optic that is loose and shifting/slipping in the rings, or a mount that isn't properly torqued to the rifle will display some pretty apparent accuracy issues and it will be almost impossible to shoot tight groups. A possible indicator of this is shooting groups where one or more rounds are in a group together, and then several more rounds are together further away--caused by the optic shifting and then resettling--almost as if you shot two groups.
Getting some kind of torque-limiting driver/bit (I use Fix-It Sticks, personally) is a good idea for any shooter. It takes all the guess work out of mounting optics. In your optic and/or mount manual you should see torque values for both the mount to the rifle, and the scope/dot to the mount--follow them! If you still have issues with the optic coming loose, consider using some loctite on your mount or rings' screws/bolts. Just be advised that "wet torque" with loctite requires less force than "dry torque" without, so check for manufacturer recommendations. Again, using witness marks here is a good idea.
For a scope that's in rings (either two separate rings or a single scope mount) you need to be sure that it's leveled as well. While anything besides extreme cant shouldn't be a huge deal at 100yds, it will begin to make a difference as you stretch the distances out. There are a number of different ways to level a scope, but my preferred way is to use the Arisaka Leveling Kit if at all possible--makes it super quick and easy.
Alright, you have good ammo, a good shooting setup, a quality optic and mount that is properly torqued, but you still can't hit anything. Again, clean and inspect your rifle. For accuracy-specific issues, focus on the BCG, barrel/barrel nut, muzzle device, and rail mounting bolts. Everything should be torqued to spec and loctited if necessary. If your rifle is clean and the components are in good shape, borrow or buy a bore scope to check your barrel for any burrs, excessive wear, lead/copper/carbon buildup, or fire cracking. If there's no issues there, it might be time to swap barrels if you're not happy with your accuracy--you can only expect so much from a budget barrel.
CONCLUSION
- Gun is cleaned/lubed, in good condition, and broken in.
- Perform a basic inspection to make sure everything is as it should be, ie gas block isn't loose.
- Ammo and mags are quality (and ideally proven).
- Optic and mount aren't cheap Chinese junk and are properly installed/torqued/witnessed marked.
- The shooting setup is solid, and accuracy expectations are realistic.
- Only one upgrade/aftermarket component is being added at a time.
- If an upgraded/accessorized gun doesn't run, will it after switching back to factory/milspec?
- Let another experienced shooter try your setup and see if they have the same problems.
- Contact manufacturer or talk to a gunsmith.
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