DVC with the Norc

I haven't been to the range in months, but I figured I better drop in to make sure I still remember how to operate a firearm.  I spent the night working on an art project for my Junior Rank's Mess:

Same pic with the flash....both pics are crap.  Anyway, did this with my Norc CQ-A and the .22lr CMMG drop-in, cheap red dot site, about 30 feet (sounds better than 10 meters, haha!) away.

Shooting results with the AR at DVC

I thought I posted these before, but I guess not.  These are pics of some shooting I did back in May with my Norc and the .22lr drop in. 

For those of you that know DVC, these are some of the huge target sheets that they provide.  This first pic is 5 rounds at 17 yards with my crappy red dot, no magnification, supported.  At that range, my red dot at it's smallest setting covers up most of the figure in the upper righthand corner.

All the circled stuff was just zeroing shots.  The cluster in the centre was 26 rounds of .22lr with my Fakepoint, supported with no magnification at 17 yards. 

This last pic is 26 rounds of .22lr at 17 yards with my crappy red dot, no magnification, unsupported rapid fire with a completel lack of marksmanship (I'll be the first to admit I'm a craptacular shot and probably can't hit the broadside of a barn without my glasses). I'd say that Norinco CQ-A with the CMMG .22lr are both winners.

Broke my CMMG

Well, I guess there won't be any cheap nights at the range for a while because after about 2,000 rounds through it, my Stainless Steel CMMG .22LR Conversion bolt crapped out on me.  I got the conversion kit through Justin at ctcsupplies.ca and he has sent it back to CMMG to warantee it.  Time will tell I guess.

As you can see, the weld where the rear plate was fastened broke and the the whole thing just crumbled apart when I took it out of the upper receiver of my AR.  I clean my AR religiously and everytime I come home after a night at the range, detail strip my AR, along with the CMMG .22lr bolt.  Keeping my fingers crossed and hope I get a new one back soon. 

Possible Gas Tube Issues With My AR

Well, my AR crapped out on me the other day.  I’ve had no issues shooting .22lr with the CMMG bolt conversion and probably put about 2000 rounds through it at the indoor range. No issues until I broke the CMMG bolt (It's still away on warrantee, see post here) The CMMG .22lr bolt was broken near the rear of the BCG, nowhere near the gas key.  So anyway, I haven’t shot any 5.56/.223 out of it for months, but I clean the gun pretty religiously (after every range night).  I even take the .22lr BCG out and store it in the container it came in, well oiled up.  What I neglected to do was to clean the gas tube by shooting 5.56/.223 out of it after shooting .22lr as recommended. 


Anyway, I've been itching to shoot my AR for a while since I broke the CMMG way back in early June so I took my Norc  up to PoCo outdoor range to shoot a little .223 Federal. It shot like a bolt action. The round would go out, however the bolt would stay in the forward position, spent casing not ejected. At first I thought maybe it was my extractor, but that wasn't the case because when I racked the charging handle, the spent casing came out no problems.  So I swapped bolts with my buddy and same thing, it just stayed forward. lug is dirty.

So I took it home detailed stripped the rifle, and gave all parts, including the stripped down BCG a good cleaning.  I’ll try cleaning the outside of the gas tube at the rear end a bit more, just to make sure there is a proper seal between that and the gas key.  


I even put some pipe cleaners that I got at Michaels through the gas tube.....there were no obstructions or anything, white colored pipe cleaner came out relatively clean. 

So my guess is there’s not enough gas coming out of the gas tube because I’ve gunked it up, or maybe I need to clean the gas key some more, or the bolt lugs need a more thurough, or there's a leak in the gas block, or maybe I just need to shoot some more .223 out of it.


I found a really good read here:

http://m14forum.com/m16-ar15/82977-cleaning-inside-m16-ar-15-gas-tubes.html

Cleaning inside M16/ AR 15 gas tubes
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Folks, I don't often post on this forum as I'm one of the Instructors who help teach the Armalite Police Armorer's Course. I don't work directly for Armalite, but I am a contract worker for them for this and working AR's, M1 Garands, M14's, M1 Carbines, M 1903's and O3's and other military rifles at Camp Perry. Just want to make that clear before I begin.


OK, quite frankly I'm sick and tired of the CRAP that is put out on the open market about the many gizmo's for cleaning out the insides of gas tubes on AR's and M16's. Those very long pipe cleaners are nothing but an expensive waste of time. Other cleaning devices are even more useless. You do need to keep the outside of the gas tube clean at the rear end so it will form a good seal to the bolt carrier, but cleaning out the inside of the gas tube is virtually hopeless.


First of all, there is between 9,000 and 12,000 Pounds per Square Inch of gas pressure going through the gas tube depending on what length it is. That is going to blow out almost anything stuck or blocking the gas tube on one shot. However, it won't blow out stuck pieces of those long pipe cleaners and I wish I had a dollar for every gas tube I've replaced long before it needed to be done because a piece of those pipe cleaners was stuck in a gas tube.


What usually causes a gas tube to become unserviceable is wear in the area where the gas tube enters the bolt carrier key. When that happens, replace the gas tube as you can't fix it. The other thing that calls for replacement of the gas tube is when the gas tube has had so many rounds fired in the rifle that the tube clogs with carbon residue.


I don't believe anyone has solid figures on how often you should change a gas tube to keep optimum performance in an M16/AR rifle. From my experience, I would GUESS they are good for around 6,000 to 8,000 rounds at optimum performance, depending on how dirty the ammo is that you are using. Some foreign surplus ammo is real dirty and clogs the gas tube faster than G.I. or commercial ammo.


On real M16A1's and M16A2's I've worked on over the years, the gas tubes are usually good for the life of the barrel as long as they don't get worn in the area that goes into the bolt carrier key. On active duty, we replaced them more often for that than for crud inside the gas tubes.


What I recommend is that you have the correct spare gas tube AND gas tube pin for every barreled AR upper receiver you own. Then when the rifle becomes a bit sluggish, you put in the new gas tube and pin. Also, when you put a new barrel in your upper receiver - use a new gas tube and pin for it. Doesn't make sense to use a used gas tube with a new barrel.


Gas tubes aren't very expensive. The normally run under $ 20.00 and are cheap insurance to keep a spare on hand. You will spend much, MUCH more than that on the useless gimmicks to clean out the insides of them.


Anyway, I'll keep you posted....if anyone's reading this, haha!

Cookies and Bullets

Some cookies, made my a DVC regular, to help me shoot better.  These cookies were glorious.

Righ target sheet: 26 rounds at 10 Meters.  Left target sheet: 26 rounds at 15 meters.

I don't even know why I posted this, it's so messy.  At 15 meters, the targets on this sheet were so tiny my red dot completely covered them up.  Upper left hand corner, optic still zeroed for 10 meters.  Upper right, bottom right, and lower left circles are re-zeroed for 15 meters.  Second row from the bottom, experimenting with different ammo.

At 15 meters, I could barely see the silhouette.  The markings around the perimeter were completely invisible to me at that range.

DVC Indoor Shooting Range

My buddy Jay took me to DVC, his shooting range and I tested out the CMMG .22lr and it worked like a charm in my Norc AR. Excellent facilities and great service by the staff. I've been there a few times now and I can't wait to go back.

I was goofing around a bit from 10 meters out.  Got a little sloppy after the first letter though.