[Gloves]

I went to the range today with the wife...

We brought the AR with the
- Spikes Tactical .223/5.56 upper
~ and ~
- Rock River Arms .458 Socom upper.

After getting everything setup, (spotting scope, target, sand bags and
scope) I was finally ready to send my first .458 Socom down range to
the 25 yard target to get the 4x scope sighted in.

After very careful aiming i slowly squeezed the trigger... click... now if I
could just squeeze a little more the round is about to go off... wait! did I
already hear click!? Great... miss-fire... probably my fault, so I cycled in
another .458 and gave it another pull... CLICK AGAIN!!!

So it goes on like that for a while. I eventually had the range master come
over and explain how my bolt and firing pin needed to be cleaned before
coming to the range. How the parts were very sticky and gritty.

CLEAN WHAT! Why? this was new in box when I came to the range.
Why do I need to clean it? well... I did find it crazy as to how much black
grease was on the parts with it having never been fired before.

So I put the Spike's back atop the Spike's lower and we finished sighting in
the irons at 100 yards. It gets me that my NEW upper didn't work at all.

I got home and took out both bolts and firing pins... Can anyone spot any
differences??? Keep in mind not a single shot fired on the RRA, why so
dirty?





No big-bore holes to report, just little ones:
Started at 25 yds to get the sights together.


At 100 yards, had to adjust the sights down about 6"

[Gloves]

Didn't let me post 5 images.

[Car54]

Nice shooting. Now clean that bolt from the .458 and go back out to the range.

[jeeptrash]

.Curious to see if a good cleaning does the trick or if there is another issue

[JonM]

you really shoulda cleaned both guns well especially the bores before shooting. rra packs theirs in preservative heavy lube so it doesnt rust while waiting for a new owner most companies do the same.

trying to fire a new gun with out cleaning the bore first can damage your firearm.

[Gloves]

Alright...
I finished scrubbing the crap out of these uppers inside and out. Each part
down to the bone. Lubed them, then I ran out of daylight. So I moved to the garage. I wanted to see if the .458 it was seating the round correctly.
So I loaded one round into the magazine and released the bolt.

Round slid right in. Seemed to seat correctly but when i went to eject it.
the bolt wouldn't move at all!!! What! I got a live freakin' round chambered
and can't get it out. After lots of wiggling and tugging finally got it loose.
WHAT WAS THAT ABOUT?

Maybe I put it together wrong... but it doesn't look like there's a lot of
ways to mess up putting the bolt together.

So before I did that again, I removed the firing pin. Manually dropped the
round in and closed the bolt. AGAIN it stuck! and wouldn't go anywhere...
So i finally got it to eject and I then work the hell out of the bolt, now it no
longer feels like the rails are made out of sandpaper and the bolt puts the
round in and ejects it effortlessly.

I'm not sure what the problem was other than parts that weren't broken in
yet. I still don't get how the round wasn't hit by the firing pin when the
hammer went click.

SO FRUSTRATING.

Kimber 1911 - came pre-fired
Mossberg 500 - came pre-fired
Glock 17 - came with 3 shells proving it works

Spike's Tactical AR-15 - don't remember it saying it was pre-fired but it did work right out of the box no problems.

Rock River Arms .458 - !!! I'll let you know if it works next time I can
make it to the range.

[JonM]

Did you make the rounds yourself or buy off the shelf ?? Sounds to me like incorrect headspace. If your rolling your own its not an easy round to load. The redding dies are best but dont seat and crimp on the same stroke it will change the headspace or destroy the case leaving a nearly impossible to remove case in the die.

[Gloves]

Store bought... er from the internet.

it might be a headspace issue. It might be shallow primer (but i don't think so)

The guy who sold it to me is taking it back and is going to make sure it works on my lower. I'll have to drop it off later this week.

[JonM]

Ive got around 50 i screwed up witth incorrect headspacing that do exactly what you describe. Ive also got a rra 458 socom. Once i got the die set right no issues. Ive gor a headspace case gage for the socom now and those bad rounds are indeed out of spec.

[Gloves]

This is the place i bought the rounds from.
.458 SOCOM 405 Grain JSP CORBON Hunter - 20 Rounds - Surplus Ammo

Do you think i should contact the manufacture?