I looked into 9310, on the interwebz, and the conclusion I drew was that it's [9310] quality as a bolt depends on how it is made and tempered. So same as anything else in life...
Giessele is making bolts too and they say theirs uses a special formulation of c158 that's better than the others... Of course.
I have 3 BCG's 2 Colt and one BCM. I have yet to break any. I have one FN bolt as a spare. I just buy known quality.
The temperatures involved in QPQ nitriding will affect the heat treat condition of steel. Knowing that the end state of the product will be post QPQ is an essential part of the design and manufacturing plan. All that talk about careful and correct heat treatment to be sure everything is right "and then instead of phosphate, we nitride it" is certainly an avenue to screw things up. Doesn't mean it for sure will, or that the pre-nitride process wasn't designed with QPQ in mind, but that's not how they talk about it in that link. A metallurgist with the right tools will almost certainly be able to detect differences in the condition of the material inside the nitrided surface layer before and after the process, or between one that was phosphated and one that was nitrided with all other steps being the same.Originally Posted by ReverendMeat
To be clear, I don't have any issue with a 9310 bolt that's designed and manufactured well. I do have issues with incomplete and/or incorrect and/or misleading communication in the marketplace, and with incomplete and/or incorrect design and manufacturing engineering.
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Not another dime.
And that's the $64 (or $164) problem, isn't it? Hype and marketing muddy the waters to the point there's no real usable information (to me at least) in the product descriptions. I need a designer, metallurgist and machinist to read between the lines and tell me what's being left out or over stated.
I get that manufacturers don't want to give away what makes theunicorn jizzsecret sauce in their process special but what's wrong with saying "we follow industry standards for XYZ process and take that into account in our design"? Why can't they tell us "here's what makes a 9310 bolt equivalent to or superior than C158"? Why can't manufacturers using 158 tell us why it's superior to 9310 other than "original mil-spec"?
It's almost like everyone is more afraid of someone stealing their magic beans instead of helping the customer or end user make an informed decision. And that applies to more than just the firearms industry but that's a whole 'nuther rant...
Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits - Mark Twain
Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy / Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Same here. Set it and forget it.
You will more often be attacked for what others think you believe than what you actually believe. Expect misrepresentation, misunderstanding, and projection as the modern normal default setting. ~ Quintus Curtius
I wonder how much data is out there from tests specific to AR bolts. I’m guessing, outside of government testing, very little. Especially with current commercial alloys. I doubt most manufacturers have the magic beans to be stolen. I’m also not sure how much it matters in the SolidWorks age. From a rather unrelated field (Diesel fuel injection components), the way to make things last is “clean” steel. Clean steel with a good heat treat will allow injector bodies to pass fatigue testing at wall thicknesses (thin) they couldn’t imagine 20-30 years ago. Those material and heat treat advances will also improve AR bolts, if they are not held back by archaic mil specs. (I have a Metallurgy degree and I’ve dealt with mil standards at various jobs. I’m not completely out of my lane. )
This thread should be renamed "I'm buying into industry marketing instead of common sense"
Replace your BCG when you finally break a locking lug with a "mil-spec" C158 M16 BCG from one of the many companies that offer one.
Alternatively, you could just replace the bolt.
Looks like PSA really stepped up their BCG game with a new one sourced from Microbest!
We could isolate Russia totally from the world and maybe they could apply for membership after 2000 years.
Saturday evening, a friend from church called and said he was having problems earlier in the day with his new AR pistol. He asked if he could bring it to me to look at, so I asked him to describe what the problem was. As soon as he said the "spent shell and a new round out of the clip" (we're slowly working on proper terminology) "were getting jammed up inside", I figured it was a weak or broken extractor spring or bad extractor. It told him to bring the BCG to church the next day and I'd take it home and check it out.
After I disassembled it I found an extremely flimsy extractor spring, so I replaced it with a Colt M4 extractor spring for him, these are a handy add on to any Brownells order you make. Last night, we went up to my shooting spot and it ran like a scalded cat through 200 rounds of the finest overpriced steel case ammo he could find during this panic. I ran a couple mags of my M193 through it as well and it didn't skip a beat. I wish I'd taken a picture of that spring next to the new Colt spring so you could see the difference in the two. The BCG is a Toolcraft purchased from Armor Ally or Arm Or Ally or Arm Our Ally or something like that, it's an online retailer I'd never heard of, sometime during COVID.
No matter what BCG you're using, having a few spare Colt extractor springs on hand is a good idea.
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