AR hitting primer when racking round

[TRIDENTMARINES]

So I got a new rifle, then I noticed that every time I rack a round the firing pin strikes the round primer. It hits it hard enough to leave a dent.

Any ideas as to whats causing this or ways to correct this?

[NSR500]

That's the nature of the AR. Don't worry about it.

[ChrisO]

Normal.

[Noobert]

Its because of the free floated firing pin, perfectly normal

[killshot44]

Completely normal. Firing pin is free-floating and doesn't hit with enough force to fire the primer unless the hammer gets involved.

Edit: damn, three posts in a minute!

[TRIDENTMARINES]

Thanks, I started to get nervous.

[THT]

Normal however do not rechamber rounds frequently as you may kill the primer.

A large SWAT team in this area had a failure to fire from an M4 with Hornady TAP ammo during an entry--fortunately no officers were hurt and the suspect immediately threw down his weapon when the carbine went click instead of bang. After the incident was concluded, the team went to the range and expended the rest of their carbine ammo and had one additional failure to fire. This same team had 3 Hornady TAP rounds fail to fire in training a couple of years ago. When Pat Rogers was teaching a class at a nearby agency, there were 5 failures to fire using Hornady TAP ammo. In all 10 cases, there appeared to be good primer strikes, but no rounds fired. On analysis, the ammunition had powder and checked out otherwise.

However, despite what appeared to be good primer strikes, two problems were discovered. First, when accurately measured, some of the primer strikes had insufficient firing pin indentations. The failed round from the potential OIS incident had a primer strike of only .013"—the minimum firing pin indent for ignition is .017". In addition, the primers on the other rounds were discovered to have been damaged from repeated chambering. When the same cartridge is repeatedly chambered in the AR15, the floating firing pin lightly taps the primer; with repeated taps, the primer compound gets crushed, resulting in inadequate ignition characteristics--despite what appears to be a normal firing pin impression. Once a round has been chambered, DO NOT RE-CHAMBER IT for duty use. Do NOT re-chamber it again, except for training. This is CRITICAL!!!

[!@#$]

it's fine but when you fire it if you hear a sprooooong sound you have problems.

come back here and post if you do. we'll get it cleared up.

[Merc1138]

it's fine but when you fire it if you hear a sprooooong sound you have problems.

come back here and post if you do. we'll get it cleared up.

Don't forget about the little brass marks on the chunk of metal sticking out of the receiver behind the ejection port :P

[!@#$]

if there's a small hole in the back of the stock you're screwed too.

[Noobert]

And if that metal flap on the right side opens up, you've got a serious problem

[SixPointEight]

And if you can't put it on safe without cocking the hammer you have HUGE problems

[Sky_DiveR]

And if you can't put it on safe without cocking the hammer you have HUGE problems

That is a HUGE problem. How am I supposed to walk around with the weapon on safe if I can't put it on safe???

[TRIDENTMARINES]

Sooooo i'm perty much screwed when the zombies attack

[metalliman545]

Normal however do not rechamber rounds frequently as you may kill the primer.

BS. straight out. i know from experience. weve rolled outside the wire HUNDREDS of times, using the same 3 mags(my 3 belly loaded mags)every time we go out the wire which was almost daily we go to the range at least once a month and fire off, never once, out of ANYONE in my platoon had a failure to fire. we chamber a round every time we go out. clear the weapon, put round back in mag. use it again the next time we go out. never not once had we had a failure to fire.
then again that was hornandy tap we are using LC m855. ours is for sure milspec. hell i dont think i have any rounds that DONT have a primer detent in them. the last time i saw brand "new" in the cardboard box(sealed with pink lettering) ammo was back in 2008 at fortstewart ga at one of our ranges.