Question for the AR experts

[Pnut]

Can you post a picture of your PROBLEM PIN?!?!

[JimLob65]

HAHAHAHAHA!! Now THAT'S funny!!

[JimLob65]

I'm just at a loss to guess or postulate at what could be different with your BCG.

Because, trust me, Privates and 2LT's (plus a few Majors, aka 'field grade LTs') are astonishingly capable of screwing up the simplest of tasks at times. So if *you* are having these problems, there's something else going on like that pin is wildly out of spec, or the BCG is out of spec, etc... there's *Something*.

As an example - I'll never forget the E4 on a range I was running that kept having spectacularly bad failures to eject on every round fired. I looked at the BCG to find that he'd put the bolt into the BCG 180* backwards, and still managed to hammer the bolt cam pin into place and secure it with the firing pin. So it was 'ejecting' down and to the left of the magazine and causing a massive jam every shot. I pulled the BCG out and handed it to this E4, and asked him to find what was wrong and tell me. He held the damn thing and stared at it like a cave man trying to fix a Windows PC for about 30 seconds and handed it back to me, declaring 'This bolt is just fine, Sarn't, I bet it must be something wrong inside the weapon'.

Well, here's the problem. As I stated above I have had this problem with four different BCGs in my three ARs. I manage to get them in eventually, but it ends up being like 2 monkeys f&#king a football. I struggle and struggle and struggle with it but get it eventually. Just something small but important that I am missing.

[rob_s]

I’m no expert, but I’ve never had problems with the pin. Maybe the one you are dealing with is spread apart more than normal?!? I don’t know for sure, but maybe putting a few hundred rounds with your stock pin might wear it in. If not, then get the KNS or a pack of replacement pins and use one that isn’t too spread out too far.

I've never found it problematic. I'm kind of surprised to read this.

This was my first thought. If there’s difficulty putting the pin back in, something is wrong.

Came here to say this.

In thinking about it, I *do* think that I probably put a little sideways pressure towards the longer leg when inserting the pin.

[Wake27]

I'm just at a loss to guess or postulate at what could be different with your BCG.

Because, trust me, Privates and 2LT's (plus a few Majors, aka 'field grade LTs') are astonishingly capable of screwing up the simplest of tasks at times. So if *you* are having these problems, there's something else going on like that pin is wildly out of spec, or the BCG is out of spec, etc... there's *Something*.

As an example - I'll never forget the E4 on a range I was running that kept having spectacularly bad failures to eject on every round fired. I looked at the BCG to find that he'd put the bolt into the BCG 180* backwards, and still managed to hammer the bolt cam pin into place and secure it with the firing pin. So it was 'ejecting' down and to the left of the magazine and causing a massive jam every shot. I pulled the BCG out and handed it to this E4, and asked him to find what was wrong and tell me. He held the damn thing and stared at it like a cave man trying to fix a Windows PC for about 30 seconds and handed it back to me, declaring 'This bolt is just fine, Sarn't, I bet it must be something wrong inside the weapon'.

That’s honestly incredible.

OP, I’ve had one or two pins that were a pain in the ass. Usually a little twisting or pressure is one direction is enough to catch both of the legs and slide into the far side hole. There is a chance that you just have several pins that are far more spread than they need to be which, again, can be replaced for literal dollars.

[rawkguitarist]

Well, I don't clean my guns a lot... but the other day I cleaned my SBR because I was shooting prone and quite a bit of dust was flying around. For the first time, I had a short challenge getting that pin in. Seems like it was splayed out a bit so I pinched it together and it finally went in.

Regarding cleaning. I clean my guns probably about every 1500 rounds and use Lucas extreme gun oil (think thats what it's called). I know some types of guns need to be cleaned more. But I shoot high quality AR's and Glocks. They don't need a lot of attention. A few years ago Frank Proctor had a BCM he just kept lubed with Lucas and at that point he had about 40,000 rounds without cleaning it.

[WobblyPossum]

The video in Post 3 has a good technique for reinserting firing pin retaining pins that have their leg spread further apart than is typical. Pull out one of your BCGs and give it a try. If that still doesn’t work and all your pins are like that just buy new pins. BCM sells firing pin retaining pins for $1.35 each. Brownells has a bunch ranging from $1.19 to $3.99 each depending on brand. Buy a replacement pin for each of your four BCGs and you won’t have to deal with your wonky pins anymore.

[Rick R]

My suggestion the OP is to buy a spare BCG and a few extra pins.
Practice disassembling the spare BCG where there’s no stress to get your rifle back together and once you’ve gotten that bug out of your head you’ll have a spare BCG in case one of your others goes TU.
(Or to build a new rifle around as often happens with loose AR parts)

[RAM Engineer]

Are you sure the firing pin is in the proper position when reinserting the retaining pin? Like, is the firing pin flange blocking the hole?

[JimLob65]

Are you sure the firing pin is in the proper position when reinserting the retaining pin? Like, is the firing pin flange blocking the hole?

Yes, I am sure.

Thanks.