I have a friend who has presented me with a problem. It seems he has owned an Olympic Arms AR-15 carbine that will function perfectly with only one style "shape" of bullet ,the Remingtion 55gr fmj. I tested the gun and shure enuf even with other brands of mags the only rounds that feed are the more rounded shape of the Remington, the sharper point of the ss109 and 855s jam aginst one of the locking lugs on the reciever and will not fully strip from the mag. I just wanted to ask if anyone has run across this problem and if there were any remedies for this malady.
It is not just Oly; almost all manufacturer's have a don't do page. FYI: A lot of the off shore ammunition can and does open a MOA rifle to a 2.5 MOA rifle. lol
I'll add that my Oly has seen only Wolf polymer 55 grain fmj since I got it. Flawless function. I'll attribute the rather not too good groups to iron sights and cataracts, not the rifle. The steel cases are punished heavily on ejection; can't help thinking that if they were brass, reloading would be problematic. This does not address the OP's problem with FTFeed, but presents an alternative way to shoot for fun without stoppages.
Either M4 feedramps or, even cheaper, P-Mags will eliminate the issue. With the P-Mags, the round sits just a little higher in the receiver and should go over the lugs without issue.
If it's one of the new olympic arms they have been having alot of trouble out of them. A local gun shop owner told me that they had got some type of large contract and they are mass producing them. The quality is just not there any more but you guy's know how stories and rumors are around a shop. I owned one of the older ones and it worked fine with all the ammo I put through it. I sold it a few years ago I just wasn't happy with it and bought my Stag flat top. Some of the peices seemed cheap made. I do want to say Im not downing Olympic Arms It just wasn't for me and what I wanted.
IANAG (I am not a gunsmith), but thought I'd request more information so that certain causes could be eliminated: - are the feedramps M4 style? and do upper and lower receivers match well? - is everything lubed? (I know we all do a good job of this, right?) - how many rounds does mag hold and how many are in? Not much else I can remember to ask, but I've seen various FTF problems related to the above questions -- there are a lot of people that are more experienced than I am and could elaborate with more information. I like the suggestion to try the MagPul mag, but I've had FTF when they're too full (probably same as other mags, I just don't have any metal ones).
First thing I did was disassemble and check for crud, grit ,wear next was lube with Gun Slick it comes in a silver tube. There was a slight movement between the upper and lower and the owner was using some old colt 20 round metal mags and there was a burr on the feed ramp lug. I smoothed it and replaced the magizine with a mag-pul unit and hand cycled about 20 rounds without a misshap,I am not going to say it is fixed until I hit the range and run it a while.....I always load all my mags two shy dont know about this owner, the mag was empty when I started on this project. Thanks for the reply's, I will post this weekend after test firing.
That movement is "normal" and grows with use. There's a little plastic gizmach that tightens things up and removes all movement. Find it here - Accessories | AR-15 | Gun Parts by Gun Make & Model | Gunsmithing & Gun Parts | - orange thing at the top of the page, called an "accurizing wedge". Get one, easy as pie to install, and all the rattling goes away.
A trick from 45 years ago might help. find the one mag that works well and use it as a pattern to set the mag lips on the others.Also helped to load 19 rds. instead of 20.I have one Oly in A1 config. and it runs anything I chamber and most of that is SS109 or 855 with no hiccups.
My remedy would be to sell the Oly for anything you can get for it and buy an AR from a reputable manufacturer. Another option... research the various forums dedicated to the AR15, learn about the military TDP for these weapons, buy your own tools, and put together one from quality parts following all assembly instructions. ETA: Mags- use USGI or other decent mags. New ones are so cheap, I would leave the surplus mags for range practice only.
Update...I have taken the OLY out and the only failure to feed was when you use the charging handle, you can lock back the bolt and charge the first round by hitting the bolt release. When firing the gun ran perfectly, the accuracy was spot on, after adjusting the sights I was hitting 4" round skeet targets at approximately 250 yards so the gun does shoot straight.The FTF was bugging me so I went bact to my tool bench and this time completely took the gun apart.One person told me that if the recoil spring and buffer tube were dirty, rusty or even slightly bent this can cause some FTFs especially in the carbine models.Well guess what? there was dirt in the tube and rust on the recoil spring that fixed it!!, It did not feel bad but there was just enuf resistance to slow the bolt down and cause a jam... After a little more research I feel the OLymipic is not a battle worthy rifle it will make a great plinker but I would not trust this gun.The workmanship and quality is just not there. It works fine now but it is just to fragile to the effects of rough use. I do not see the Military using them so there must be a reason why.