Just purchased a Foxtrot Mike FM9 10” upper and a lower receiver from Brownells for a PCC pistol build. Picked them both up yesterday.
During disassembly, in order to clean, lube & remove the corrosion inhibitor on the internals, I noticed some odd wear marks and apparent damage on the bolt/key/bolt carrier.
This concerned me. Especially the nick in the metal along the bottom of the bolt near the (breach?).
The wear marks on the top/sides of the brand new bolt (Key?) are also concerning as the wear is on opposite sides of the bolt/carrier both in side to side orientation AND front to back.
It’s As tho maybe the bolt is traveling in a cocked or crooked fashion as it cycles. (Weapon has Not yet been fired. I have only worked the charging handle a few times to check the bolts action.)
I will include a quote of the response I received from FM Products at the end of this post. But first I wanted some other, more experienced opinions than my own as to whether or not this would be considered “NORMAL” markings to see on a new bolt.
(… i’m aware this is an $800 rifle and not some $3000 Daniel defense or SOL high end item, but still,… This doesn’t seem quite right to me!)
Here are some images of the damage/wear I am talking about
:
The bottom L arrow is pointing to rough looking tooling marks in bolts channel.
I have NO prior experience with this sort of thing and Im absolutely no sort of expert. So I’m very much hoping somebody here can inform me, educate me, advise me, etc…. Is this OK? Am I making a bigger deal out of this than his necessary? Or should I be absolutely insisting on getting a new replacement bolt/ bolt carrier group?
Here is the response I received from FM products this afternoon:
:quote:
“
Hi Craig, thanks for racing out!
The marks on the key are from the staking process where a machine will grip the key and make indentations on it. It is a tight fixture and will have some marks on the key.
As for the tooling marks yes this will happen from time to time however It should not affect the function of your firearm.
If you like I can see if I can find one with less tooling marks and key wear.
Have you test fired the firearm?
Please let us know how we can serve you best.” :end quote: