M1A cycling problems, SA says its normal.

[MonkeyMadness]

Hello,

Let me start off by saying I am not really new to the world of firearms. I own a 40 cal HK USP, 9mm Sig 226, 45 ACP Sig 1911R, and 5.56 Sig M400 Enhanced AR-15.

I have been contemplating buying an M1A for a while and decided to pull the trigger in February and bought a 22" M1A loaded with the walnut stock. Before the coronavirus lockdown, I was able to take the M1A to the range in early March only to discover it had a lot of issues. At the time I thought it was extractions issues where the round would not be extracted properly from the firearm.

I contacted Springfield Armory about it and mailed the firearm to them for warranty repair. Two weeks later, they contact me back and let me know they polished the chamber and it was a chambering issue. I receive the firearm yesterday, 6 weeks after mailing it to them, only to discover that it still has the chambering issue, and now another issue.

I am hand cycling the action since the ranges are still shutdown and I can't test fire the firearm. Also, I have made the cycling tests with 3 M1A 10 round magazines, all purchased from Springfield Armory; as well as snap caps along with actual 308 rounds.

Issue #1:
When hand cycling the bolt, the round gets stuck in the chamber. Even while holding the gun upside down and shaking it slightly, the round won't come loose. Seems like the round is properly stuck in the chamber.


Issue #2:
When hand cycling the bolt, the extractor tries to occasionally extract the round, but the round from the the magazine blocks the round from the chamber to be extracted.




I contacted Springfield Armory about these issues and they say hand cycling might be an issue but the firearm should be fine when I actually fire it. This doesn't sound right to me. Hand cycling the bolt should work just like a live fire because the spring is responsible for actuating the action. What do you all think? Have you had similar problems? Am I misunderstanding something here?

[tmorse]

may not be the same issue, but I have a CZ452 .22 that the extractor doesn't have enough tension to pull an unfired cartridge from the chamber, but a fire round comes out fine.

[therealnickb]

Never tried it hand cycling except to unload. Don’t remember any problems.

But I’ve had one brand of 7.62 NATO get stuck in the chamber on my scout. The same ammo runs fine in my socom, .308 garand and mws.

[dozer wright]

Springfield M1as are known to have extractor issues. Change it out for a Gi unit and forget about it. In my personal experience with Springfield I would also keep a Eye on the Hammer also. The hammer grabs the trigger bar . Mine broke one "hook" and cause a extremely lite trigger when the second broke it fired a live round this happened with the first hammer , in 500 rds the second developed a crack it under a box of ammo.
Switched out the entire trigger group.

[highpower790]

In my opinion the throat is too short and the feed lips on the mag are not holding the rds deep enough to allow for extraction.
Where are you located?
The M1A platform requires grease!Your looking awfully dry.

[-hanko]

"America's Oldest Name in Firearms"...

...strikes again.

[MonkeyMadness]

I've tried this with the snap caps and actual 308 rounds, both get stuck.

Springfield M1as are known to have extractor issues. Change it out for a Gi unit and forget about it. In my personal experience with Springfield I would also keep a Eye on the Hammer also. The hammer grabs the trigger bar . Mine broke one "hook" and cause a extremely lite trigger when the second broke it fired a live round this happened with the first hammer , in 500 rds the second developed a crack it under a box of ammo.
Switched out the entire trigger group.

Switch out the entire firearm or just the trigger group? Issue still seems to relate to chambering.

In my opinion the throat is too short and the feed lips on the mag are not holding the rds deep enough to allow for extraction.
Where are you located?
The M1A platform requires grease!Your looking awfully dry.

I cleaned and lubed the firearm before sending it to SA, this is how they returned it. I am located in Campbell. Apparently only CMI makes the magazines for the M1A, for SA. I purchased 2 additional magazines directly from SA and 1 came with the firearm. All 3 have the same set of issues.

[jon94520]

When I first bought my M1A I had hand cycling issues as well. I panicked at first but than realized I was not letting the bolt slam home, this was causing the extractor to not grab the round.
Are you baby’ing the bolt home? You need to just pull back to unlock and let her fly home.

Also get some grease on that poor girl.

[Brush Guard]

Switch out the entire firearm or just the trigger group? Issue still seems to relate to chambering.

Just the extractor to see if it addresses the extraction issue.

The SA extractors are known to have problems. They are known to break in short order. Most folks replace with a GI extractor.


Not sure if I have heard of other extraction related issues due to the factory extractors.

[Brush Guard]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ this ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

[Alyzey]

My m1a is a few years old. I greased it up and took it out to the desert. I had a little problem with the extraction at first but as the time went by, the more i shot it went away. The first 2 outings i handled the rifle like it was going to break. Now i handle it more like im in war and it seems to love it more and it shoots incredibly well and accurate. I hope you get your rifle fixed because its very fun to shoot!

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[Alyzey]

I agree with jon you cant be gentle
Rough it up little bit

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[FeuerFrei]

Clean and lube properly and never ride the bolt closed.

Firing it makes all the difference when cycling.

Follow these tips from TonyB and all will be well. http://www.tonybenm14.com/videos.html

Proper lube will help you a ton on a new M1A break in. After you clean it of course.
I also recommend a chamber brush. Bore snake no worky for chamber.

[Sailormilan2]

Springfield has had notorious problems with their extractors. They often break, or launch into low earth orbit, within the first few hundred rounds. The stuck case may be an extractor issue. Easy fix. As was stated, replace with USGI extractor. An M1 Garand extractor works too, and may be a bit easier to find. Some Garand parts fit and work just fine in the M1A/M14 rifle.
It doesn't hurt to have a few spare bolt parts around either. So, if you have to order an extractor, you might want to consider an ejector and spring, and an extractor plunger and spring. If your Springfield extractor let's go and breaks/disappears, you will likely need the extra parts. Quicker to fix it yourself than ship it off to Springfield for repair.

[elk hunter]

USGI parts, nothing like them.