[FONT=&]Good afternoon. I purchased what I believe is a Texas Brigade Armory ("TBA") M40A1 reproduction. I say "I believe" because the guy I bought it from was not the first owner and when he bought it he called them and although they couldn't confirm 100%, they said based on the markings that matched how they build them they thought it was on of theirs. I got this thing about 18 months ago and only last week got it to the range. [/FONT]
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[FONT=&]I purchased 200 rounds of Federal Gold Metal Match (FGMM) and the first group of 3 shots was 1/2" which I was happy with since I haven't shot a rifle in over a year. I only ended up firing a total of 10 rounds (third group of 4 was 3/8") because after the first shot the bolt became increasingly difficult to close and open with every shot as things heated up to the point that it was very difficult to operate the bolt. I had some other 7.62Nato rifles with me that day at the range and had brought some surplus ammo with me for them. I thought I would try some of the surplus and it closed and opened just fine.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&]I came home and did a bunch of googling and found that FGMM typically has a little longer brass length than surplus and that "precision" rifles have a tighter tolerance but I was still concerned about doing damage to the rifle or myself or those around me.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&]The first thing that most said was to clean the heck out the chamber and bolt and check again which I did. I found the longest brass on an FGMM round I still have and put it in and it provides "medium" resistance to close on a cold rifle. I have Go/No-go gauges from building FAL's and took out the ejector (I read multiple places that it was ok to leave the extractor on Remington 700's and just hook the gauge under the extractor) and although it closed on a Go gauge it wasn't as easy with nothing in at all which is what I'm reading it is supposed to do. It of course didn't close on a No-go gauge.
I color up a round of FGMM in black marker and after taking it out it had a faint ring around the shoulder.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&]One option I have is to send to TBA but I've read horror stories online about how slow they are - great work but slow. The other option is to find a very competent gunsmith around here that has ample experience on precision bolt rifles rather than a supposed gunsmith that puts AR's and AK's together along with cerakoating. [/FONT]
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[FONT=&]So, I'm reaching out to you for thoughts and recommendations.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&]Thanx[/FONT]
[FONT=&]Craig[/FONT]
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[FONT=&]I purchased 200 rounds of Federal Gold Metal Match (FGMM) and the first group of 3 shots was 1/2" which I was happy with since I haven't shot a rifle in over a year. I only ended up firing a total of 10 rounds (third group of 4 was 3/8") because after the first shot the bolt became increasingly difficult to close and open with every shot as things heated up to the point that it was very difficult to operate the bolt. I had some other 7.62Nato rifles with me that day at the range and had brought some surplus ammo with me for them. I thought I would try some of the surplus and it closed and opened just fine.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]
[/FONT]
[FONT=&]I came home and did a bunch of googling and found that FGMM typically has a little longer brass length than surplus and that "precision" rifles have a tighter tolerance but I was still concerned about doing damage to the rifle or myself or those around me.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]
[/FONT]
[FONT=&]The first thing that most said was to clean the heck out the chamber and bolt and check again which I did. I found the longest brass on an FGMM round I still have and put it in and it provides "medium" resistance to close on a cold rifle. I have Go/No-go gauges from building FAL's and took out the ejector (I read multiple places that it was ok to leave the extractor on Remington 700's and just hook the gauge under the extractor) and although it closed on a Go gauge it wasn't as easy with nothing in at all which is what I'm reading it is supposed to do. It of course didn't close on a No-go gauge.
I color up a round of FGMM in black marker and after taking it out it had a faint ring around the shoulder.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]
[/FONT]
[FONT=&]One option I have is to send to TBA but I've read horror stories online about how slow they are - great work but slow. The other option is to find a very competent gunsmith around here that has ample experience on precision bolt rifles rather than a supposed gunsmith that puts AR's and AK's together along with cerakoating. [/FONT]
[FONT=&]
[/FONT]
[FONT=&]So, I'm reaching out to you for thoughts and recommendations.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]
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[FONT=&]Thanx[/FONT]
[FONT=&]Craig[/FONT]
