SOTAR Secret Shopper - Ruger AR556 - Part 2/4 - Bolt Carrier Groups

We did have audio issues, but we couldn't reshoot.
Issues Found:
-Misaligned Carrier Keys
-YFS Carrier Key Screws
-Rough Gas Ring Run in Carriers
-Slightly inefficient Gas Ring Runs in Carriers
-Rough Bolt Tail Run in Carriers
-Rough Bolt Support Run in Carriers
-Magnetized Bolts
-Damaged Bolt Tails
-Deep Set Ejectors
-Sticky Firing Pins
-Bolt Firing Pin Runs undersized
-Headspace issues
-Carrier binding on PMags (See Video 3)

[@UKgunmaintenance]

He's only gone and uploaded it all on the same day! Absolutely legend.

[@SchooloftheAmericanRifle]

Took 12 hours from start to "finish" and I still have a lot of work before they are fully done.

[@17Codiferus]

@@SchooloftheAmericanRifle did 4/4 get taken down?

[@jaycee30865]

Workaholism is a disease.

[@jaycee30865]

Why in the WORLD did my comment get deleted???

[@dadadadada4974]

@@SchooloftheAmericanRifle Could you do me a favor and see what the primer strikes look like on these rugers with the non-standard pins and bolts? I am seeing off center primer strikes. Just curious.

[@perlenbacher6788]

Swedish guy here who got extremely interested in the AR after our country allowed them for hunting. Thanks for all the content you put out FOR FREE, which is insane. If I am ever in the states, Im taking one of your classes.

[@TexasLonghornRanch]

If you take the class, you also get information that he doesn’t talk about in his videos.

[@17Codiferus]

These videos never fail to make me obsessively check and re-check my home builds. Always seem to find a new test, and/or a new method to test my work. Absolutely love this channel.

[@randomguy1371]

Its made me find mistakes on my various 3d printed uppers and lowers, always good videos

[@realjokerswild1776]

@@randomguy1371you scare and impress me Sir

[@petesheppard1709]

I've been doing the no-tool tests on my Sport II

[@DonJohn-h8l]

They made special undersized firing pins for their out of spec bolts. That is CRAZY!

[@dogevanzandt2889]

Wild

[@rob6850]

What possible reasons could they have for making up their own specs, instead of using what has worked for 60+ years?

[@dogevanzandt2889]

@@rob6850 none of it makes sense lol

[@khann844]

@@rob6850 money!

[@mtnbound2764]

@@rob6850 cutting costs.

[@PracticalAccuracy]

Holy schnikes. I thought Part 1 was bad. This is such a great series and a service to the public.

[@mac7977]

This is why many of us build our own rifles. SOTAR has been invaluable as a resource. As always appreciate your willingness to keep learning, evolving & passing on the knowledge. 🇺🇸👍🏽

[@wolfe1978nm]

Like a lot of people I went through buying my first complete, then getting a complete upper and lower, to then building the entire thing. Wish I had known in the beginning how easy it is. Cost went down and quality went up with each one.

[@jamiedhuskey6643]

i think ill steer clear of Ruger ar556 . best gunsmith channel on YT. thanks for the video.

[@kenibnanak5554]

Let's hold off and see how the other brands do. Ruger may turn out to be the best of the lot. LoL

[@Mark-uh4zd]

Not really a great look for their AR platform. I really expected way better QC from ruger. Their revolvers are legendary and built extremely tough though.

[@kenibnanak5554]

@@Mark-uh4zd Based on observations about a friend's S&W AR at my range I suspect you may soon be saying the same thing about S&W. In fairness any manufacturer trying to produce product cheaply enough to compete well against the other guys is probably going to simply not bother with many of the tests we see here. Pushing units out the door for successful sale will be/ is what the stockholders want to see. Back in the pre-Internet days the tactic was to hire writers to produce articles saying XYZ makes the best gun, then pay the gun magazines to put the article in the magazine as if it was based on serious impartial examination. LoL I remember articles telling readers (in multiple well known gun magazines) that the Squibman was the best .22LR rifle ever. Okay that tactic is harder now so they hire sponsored KZbinrs to make videos saying brand XUZ is a great pistol/shotgun/rifle (pick one). There used to be a publication that found 'Turkey of the month" guns. A great magazine. Actual impartial tests and evaluations. Problem was distributorship. Distributors were paid to not carry it to any store selling gun magazines. The readership base remained to small for the magazine to stay in business. It is something similar today. Honest evaluations like we see hear are too rare on KZbin. Again in fairness even Colt sometimes turned out M-4s that were out of one spec or another. When you make 50,000 of something it is a guarantee one or four of them should not have left the factory. I once saw a revolver (not a Ruger) that had somehow gotten out the factory door without any hole (or rifling) being put in the attached barrel. Stuff happens.

[@Mark-uh4zd]

@ haha, it is so true, the internet is just another medium for advertising that reaches FAR MORE people than a magazine. Maybe these units had problems because they were pumping them out prior to Christmas… get them on the sale floor ASAP. I would love to see SOTAR do this with manufacturers from budget tier rifles (PSA, BCA) all the way up to your premium lines like DD, LMT, LWRC, etc. I think another reason quality may be where it is now is that the market is so saturated that manufacturers cut corners to get products out at a price point that they can compete with one another. Back in the 2000s when the AWB sunset, you had a core group of manufacturers that held the market like bushmaster, Wyndham weaponry, colt, stag, and a few others. Now, I hear a new brand every other day that I don’t recognize. It’s just disappointing to see this quality come from a manufacturer that usually makes decent firearms. I have a mini14 from them that I like, had an SR9c that gave me no problems but ended up selling it. I had an extractor go on the mini and ruger sent another one out for free no questions asked. They even asked if I wanted to sent the whole rifle in, but it was simple enough. I’m curious to see how the RXM will hold up too. Striker fired pistols are another market that got saturated quick since the 2010s and onward.

[@joehardway]

Good news - Ruger has xcellent Customer Service! Bad news - yur gonna NEEDit...

[@realjokerswild1776]

One of those, sometimes that shit takes months to get right.

[@DerWaidmann_]

Not even so in my experience

[@thelastlatchkeykid8466]

Somewhere there’s a middle management Ruger employee who loves SOTAR smiling because he’s repeatedly emailed Ruger execs that bolts are unnecessarily out of spec. His emails were ignored.

[@beargillium2369]

they probably did the math on focusing on those tail bearing surface finishes vs how many customers would actually run them until failure, and the cost to warranty that, and the result is that it works so who cares, replacement of one bolt per thousand is a drop in the bucket compared to the cost and attention required to make all of them perfectly. Their products are affordable for a reason and it's because they know how to make good enough good enough. eg if they hammer forged mini 14s they would have cost 5x as much and never become popular.

[@thelastlatchkeykid8466]

@ nailed it 100%.

[@johndecker9983]

I have an ar556 in the 9,000 serial number range. Its bolt and carrier, accept mil spec parts. I've replaced the rings, upgraded the extactor and replaced the firing pin over the past 9 or 10 years. Mine has been just as reliable as my Colts have been. Why do companies feel like they can get away with shoddy practices? Good on you for calling out their clear contempt for the people who purchase their product.

[@Mark-uh4zd]

Yeah this is just shoddy workmanship and QC. Not just a couple one offs either. I’ve always liked ruger as a company due to their revolvers, but this type of workmanship would really question a purchase, especially a rifle. I was looking at the RXM for a nice addition into the carry rotation, but now I will wait a year or two to see how it holds up

[@johndecker9983]

I had similar thoughts about the RXM. Best course of action is to wait. Just my 2 cents though.

[@JacketedHollowCamel]

I think their QC has gone downhill. I have an MPR myself, and it doesn't have YFS-fasteners, gas key gap issue, buffer detent problems or undersized firing pin channel. It didn't have a staked castle nut though. Previously the MPR had 5R rifling and chromed bolt, but they seem to have stopped this, probably due to cost and demand. It's pretty saddening to see considering that Ruger has huge factories and make fantastic CHF barrels. QC shouldn't even be an issue. I even sent them an email regarding this video hoping it really comes up the management chain.

[@Mark-uh4zd]

@@JacketedHollowCamel hopefully it does make it up the chain, there’s quite a few problems. I wonder if posting this on the firearm subs on Reddit can get it traction. However, on some of those subreddits, if you aren’t running a knights armament with a $2000 optic and NODS, it’s worthless and you’re better off using a sharp stick. It’s important for companies like ruger, S&W, and even PSA to have some modicum of QC. Not everybody has $3000 to buy the best rifle. These companies serve to get decent firearms to people who may be new to marksmanship, self defense, budget, etc. The lower prices allow more people to practice their 2A, which needs to be protected at all costs. Those platforms serve as a great starting point for people to learn how to care for, disassemble, and improve marksmanship before purchasing something higher end.

[@JacketedHollowCamel]

@@Mark-uh4zd well written

[@dadadadada4974]

The flushness of the ejector vs ejection pattern info you provided is very informative! 👍

[@bhoward2310]

I was a ruger fanboy until I saw this. I had always believed they were the best bang for the buck, but it’s clear corners are being cut for the sack if the bottom line. Looks like my loyalty may be going elsewhere. VERY INTERESTED TO SEE HOW RUGER RESPONDS!

[@Isailuck]

I thought it was only one video.. and 💥all 3 about 3 hrs! Omg 😱 thank you! thank you! thank you! And never forget to thank your wife! She’s amazing! 🎥

[@MK3TJ]

Same, almost gets me through to lunch time.

[@projectsdonepoorly1383]

I bought a ruger SFAR and it was the biggest lemon ever. Glad to see ruger get some tough love, because they have the worst QC

[@yupyup4209]

Ruger is weird, their ARs are trash, but some of their other guns have a long history of good QC. Different facilities and managers maybe?

[@ratagris21]

The Ruger American rifles have the roughest receivers where you get a zip effect with the manipulation of the bolt. Looks just like what you see in the bore scope. You either have to manipulate the bolt 200-300 times to smooth out the action. The other option is to smooth it out with metal polish or sand paper.

[@Mark-uh4zd]

Their revolvers are supposed to be top notch and extremely durable, especially the big bore revolvers.

[@ratagris21]

@Mark-uh4zd agreed. The rest of the company needs to improve. Their 10/22s and PCCs are good to go as well.

[@mastrsk8]

I’ve been kicking around the idea of a Rugar SFAR. After even the first video I will pass.

[@TaylorReloading]

You are the best. Your knowledge base and workmanship are simply outstanding. My first AR was a Ruger 556.

[@hedonisticpunkvatos]

I bought Ruger based on rep and recommendation. It's a good rifle; however, I've found similar issues and part of being a responsible gun owner is being a safe gun owner. Thanks for this!

[@denyscpoyner]

Ruger always seemed to be synonymous with quality, their machining was always top notch. Seems like the ol' bean counters got their slimy little chicken hands in the gravy. 😢 What a shame. Bill Ruger would be furious. 😠

[@timg4857]

Thank you for making these and sharing your knowledge. You are single handedly making many home builds less sketchy.

[@raulmorales9967]

It’s like opening up a box of chocolate never know what you’re going to get. Thanks for the video.

[@bananawatch8158]

I can’t begin to tell you how happy I was to see this video

[@goinhot9133]

Thanks Chad for smartening up hundreds of thousands if not millions of us average Joe’s.

[@ashleystovalldaman]

After ~200 rounds on my ruger I just replaced the bcg. I was having extraction issue and ejection issues and based on the extraction issue, couple with the price of the gun I just replaced the whole bcg and things have been much better, so I’m not surprised by this part 2

[@jamesbullock3259]

Thank you, sir, for helping an old millwright be better working on his AR15s.

[@cameronh5442]

Thanks for checking these out, and uploading the videos all at once. The suspense was killing me.

[@rileycooper8478]

My Ruger AR556s are older, 10 years being the oldest, and so far have functioned well. I have changed triggers and gone to H2 buffers. Now I have more parts to check and possibly replace. My ejection patterns are fairly consistent but do vary as to different ammo. They have all had steel case through them at one time or another with no ill effects. I'll be interested to see the summary video as something of a check list to follow to make more upgrades. I have no complaints as to accuracy, they have exceeded my expectations.

[@StevenG222]

Everyone has their choice of part manufacturers, the only bcg's I ever use are AO Precision. I've purchased more than 20 and never had a complaint, even after inspecting them better since sub'ing to this channel.

[@robertd.5479]

AO.. is that Aero?

[@StevenG222]

@robertd.5479 no, Advanced Ordnance is their original name. Now they go by AO Precision. The military uses their bcg's and parts. Other top end companies like FN use them also.

[@cerebralfirearms]

First off, best channel on KZbin. The fact that you do this is incredible, especially for free man. Thank you!!!! This was my first rifle ever. Needless to say, I've come a long way due to channels and people like you. With that said, how do you measure the gas leaking between the carrier key and the bolt carrier? You've helped me become a "gunsmiff." Dangerous enough to build a decent gun at home, but not good enough to brag about it.

[@SchooloftheAmericanRifle]

I made a fixture that checks for gas leakage using air gauges.

[@alexmiller5796]

SOTAR for my rifle Johnny for my Glock

[@realjokerswild1776]

I don’t think there’s a way to gauge the gas leak between the carrier and key to check that efficiency other hooking something with high pressure to the key and forcing air to disturb some kind of light dust painted around it while blocking the bolts gas ring area. I think what I’d be concerned with is your BCG getting enough gas to ensure it slide back fully and has adequate power to chamber the next round. Just my thoughts.

[@mtnbound2764]

these videos are amazing! i learn soo much everytime! thank you

[@bobbymerideth8203]

Always good information! I think another big box would be S&W M&P 15.

[@odessaman6887]

I second this request!!

[@johnknouse8846]

I bought my Ruger AR556 back in “18 or ‘19. After watching this video I went and took my bolt out. Mine looks to have the M16 firing pin. I took the pin out of 2 of my other AR’s, and they all seemed to work fine. I also have thousands of rounds on mine, and the bolt tail didn’t look near as bad as those new ones. I know Rugers gone through some “things” but I had heard they had actually improved.

[@nicks2581]

@@johnknouse8846 both my Ruger ARs are "pre-demic" as well. The BCGs had non of the issues that these brand new ones he opened up have. I went through both Ruger ARs using this video as a guide. I have run them both hard and dirty over the past roughly 5 yrs with out issue. One thing to note is that the free float barrel 556 does have a heavy as sin trigger pull of 10lbs. The MPR, like my minis, has a crisp 5lb trigger.

[@abolishtheatfandrepealthenfa]

Loving this series

[@tsama]

Thanks for the series. Im gonna have to take a closer look at mine the next time i clean it.

[@musician445]

I inspected a new production mini 14 a while back and was surprised to find that it passed true 5.56 headspace. I was quite happy to see that being how often it seems to go the other way.

[@Cz9mmp10]

Love this series very educational

[@davidrush8283]

Thank you for your time.

[@harteverett]

Always learn something on this channel

[@adamrodgers2377]

Thanks again for sharing this. 🇺🇸🤙🏻

[@petesheppard1709]

Given a sample set of SEVEN and different models, Ruger really should sit up and take notice...

[@michamichaowski8375]

They sell everything on the spot so why bother? If people will stop buying junk, the quality will return

[@petesheppard1709]

@ Good point.

[@nattybumpo7156]

Bought one in late October. Mine must have been made on a Wednesday, because we are approaching 2000 rounds and so far so good. Too cold to shoot a lot right now in Vt, so we are really going to find out this summer. So far it runs like a clock, shoots about 2 moa, and i have yet to detect unusual wear patterns. Its not my primary AR. I just picked it up as a cheap rifle to beat on.

[@catfishsiegel30]

Once more great information Sir (and for free 🆓)😊😊😊😊😊 learning a lot 😊

[@Maine307]

this stuff, just always rocks!! we all know, that if the rifle had Silent Capture Springs Buffer , they would have passed automatically?..lmao j/k.. I am sending in my favorite PAMAx XSlick BCG as soon as it arrives here. i am looking fwd to a SOTAR inspection on it! I hope it passes! best BCG i have ran .. which means, in my luck, proably the worst BCG .. Cheers from the Woods of Maine and we thank you for all that you do! Ps thge SOTAR Lube has been kicking butt in the winter here so far, very happy with it!

[@gunsnwater2668]

Makes me wonder about the heat treating and hardness.

[@jackcooper4936]

Dude , you’re the best, these videos are awesome!

[@coltonowens2742]

I knew those bolts were going to be bad, but holy crap I didn't expect that. Those examples are really telling why the Ruger Sfar is such a unreliable piece of crap. If they can't source good AR-15 bolts, can we really expect their proprietary BS to be reliable? I think not.

[@nicks2581]

Based on this video, I spent today breaking down both my Ruger ARs and the issues he found with the BCGs were non-existent on my rifles. My rifles are older, both are at least 5yrs old by now. Makes you wonder what happened to the QC in the North Carolina facility over the past couple years. Both rifles have been reliable.

[@coltonowens2742]

@@nicks2581 Yeah, despite the massive issues those rifles had, they would probably run fairly reliably, for quite some time. That's the beauty of the AR-15 design (AK design seems to exhibit the same traits) The coof boom definitely had manufactures selling product at a higher price, with less QC.

[@nicks2581]

@coltonowens2742 there is a reason I try to avoid buying big ticket items from that time period.

[@bikeracerdude]

Thanks for educating us!

[@ballhead3294]

Very informative video. Fantastic job , I'm new to the channel but wished I had found you before I wasted a bunch of money. 😮

[@dennishines9996]

love this series I hope you get a billion views

[@GunRoastShorts]

My neighbor has an old ruger ar 15. It's pretty well put together, honestly. I haven't gotten into it like this.

[@realjokerswild1776]

And now you will with your neighbor with the video to reference. You both learn something.

[@GunRoastShorts]

@realjokerswild1776 right. One thing it seems to be a note of is ruger sort of has their own pattern of parts on the inside of their rifles. I'm not sure what his much older rifles quality inside is like really. Lot of cool stuff checking out how jacked up their product is.

[@michamichaowski8375]

That's the quality of weapons after C19. Every brand has QC issues now. Even such brands like DD and H&K. People bought every junk during the C19, so why bother with making quality products od it all sells out

[@musician445]

I've not had much experience with nitride firing pins except in a bear creek upper I've inspected, that one also stuck in the bolt...funny the bolt carrier profile on these Rugers looks extremely similar to the bear creek.🤔

[@tedisabum]

Thank you for another great post. It really made my Wednesday. I love the brand recommendation forshadowing at the end.🙃 I have several Toolcraft and a couple Microbest (under SOLGW and Expo Arms brand) and I've had much better luck with Microbest's gauging out. Ofcourse, there are brands on here like Knights and stuff so who knows.

[@khann844]

Thank you for these videos

[@qinfinity00]

Can you confirm the manufacturing date, year at least? Great series thus far, just finishing up part 2 as this question came to mind. I'm a fan of Ruger but your process doesn't lie. Thank you for the education.

[@damionchrist]

Fascinating again!! 💯

[@dadadadada4974]

I am not sure you saw all the videos and forum posts online about Ruger BCGs, but their are dozens of people who had issues with gas rings jumping and bending over inside the carrier. You should inspect the rings of these bolts.

[@jayman1338]

I’m shocked by all this, as the cost of the Ruger AR is like $900 and up. They really don’t have a budget rifle, but these are clearly budget AR’s.

[@brycebraxmeyer5539]

$900 is pretty budget In my opinion.

[@jayman1338]

@ well in this age $900 could be considered budget, but others might feel $500 and under is budget. One thing that seems to be true is AR’s that are built in the price range of $500 to $1200 are mostly budget built. I watched The school of American Rifle tear down an AR that has a starting price point of $1200.00 and it was completely budget built with all kinds of issues. Anymore it’s like it’s not about price with AR’s its more brand name. Like Sons Of Liberty, or Bravo Company, or maybe a manufacturer like Daniel Defense, names you can trust. Of course there are more, but what I’m asking the AR community is at what price point do these manufacturers start to giving us an actual higher end AR?

[@cjanquart]

"Donna's givin' me "The Squint" 😆

[@TacticalConsiderations]

My lord

[@tomsalter4156]

My AR556 is a very early production rifle. Its BCG is machined far superior than shown here. I run it beside my colt and Noveske...the Ruger has stood along side well. Im happy with my AR556 and suprised to see these issues. My BCG is very different than shown here ..

[@joelatkinson2080]

Great series!!! Thanks for doing this!!!

[@SGCXD]

Ruger has a sus history in my experience. My friend had a Ruger complete rifle a few years ago that wouldn’t run properly and he sent it back to them to be fixed and he got it back like 2 months later and it still wouldn’t work right. He brings it to me and immediately I could tell something was wrong with the bolt travel and separated the upper/lower and first noticed the hammer spring was installed with the legs pressing against the front wall with the feet pointing straight up 🤮 THEN looking at the upper the rear lug was totally cracked on one side. I just put it down and told him to get his money back and buy a BCM 😂

[@erukred7528]

I hope Ruger takes a look at these videos. The quality control or lack thereof is disappointing. I want a SFAR but I will wait until they get their act together.

[@seansmith1549]

I bought a Ruger AR 556 in 2017 and the BCG failed rather quickly (1O00 rounds). Extractor went first. Bought a SOLGW BCG and never had an issue for the next 7,000 rounds. Its a safe Queen now.

[@kevinhullinger8743]

Kinda reminds me of working for Chrysler transmission. Management would pull bad transmissions off the line and have a few technicians get them up and running with hopes of them making a 35,000 mile warranty. Needless to say, I never purchased a Chrysler and I worked for the company.

[@gomergomez1984]

I’ve noticed the couple of nitrided BCGs I’ve received (all other chrome lined normal) have been complete junk, rough internals so I just pulled the bolts and used good standard carriers with them.

[@sue_downing555]

very educational for me, archive this series for future reference. but at the dirty end of shooting my AR, I have a known prob when it gets to some kind of failure or stoppage, and then have to ( at some point) solve it. Before I get into a fire fight. I sometimes just use my gun as long as it runs, and I have no fuss or malfunction.

[@bradedwards3438]

"Something out of spec" in the bolt means there are new gauges coming! A handful of rods to test undersized bores in the bolts.

[@ballhead3294]

I hope someone at Rugar is watching this video. Those issues are not typical of the Rugar I have owned. Law enforcement buy a lot of these platforms. Sub par needless to say. Please do a update video after you get ahold of Rugar . Im curious to see how they respond to these problems you found.

[@sladeoriginal]

that aint oil on your workbench, its blood. because this was a bloodbath

[@ttip9411]

Don't know much about it's application in firearms but worked at a Suzuki motorcycle dealership for 10 years in around 2003 they started using some type of gold nitride on GSX-R inverted forks. it was absolutely junk would wear off in less than 5000 miles, they then went to a black nitride which lasted longer but still would visibility wear, but it looked cool and sold bikes.

[@ryanpeck3377]

Nitride will lose color However as the process actually changes the molecular structure deeper into the metal its still "nitrided" and protected even when "worn" its not like blueing or black oxide which is only a surface layer.

[@cjmolnar6145]

I also will look at Ruger 556 differently .

[@535tony]

Now I'm going to have to take the three AR's I built apart.

[@realjokerswild1776]

I know the feeling. At least it’s not an engine on your daily driver. Unless you take your daily driver with you everywhere. Perhaps this was a bad example 😂

[@MTCKIE68]

It would be Awesome if you did a video of everything important for the AR15 from excellent to bad. Put all brands where they fall and let the people decide on what they want 💯.

[@dudemanryan]

I think he has said before he wouldn’t do this because it would be impossible to get a good enough sample size from each and every manufacturer. Plus he won’t recommend any brand definitively because there can always be lemons or a lucky one.

[@ETHRON1]

I'm not feeling so bad about my PSAs right now...but who knows they might be right there with them 😏.

[@davekreitzer4358]

I used to think PSA had problems , but I think these are larger - No QC no go , or DEI unqualified personnel !?!? 🥴

[@nospam865]

For magnetism, I have been at ranges with enough iron oxide in the dirt to stick to anything magnetic.

[@howarddavis6802]

Expected "spotty" quality from Ruger. Okay for recreational shooters, which is what Ruger is made for. haven't bought a Ruger since my P90 discharged on it's own, and shot my truck...

[@seanmtactical6069]

Those bolts and BCGs are rough! I was out as soon as the firing pins were sticking in the holes, but to not take a mil spec pin? Dude....

[@arantisdavis1623]

Unfortunately it seems like Ruger is also taking the approach "AR-15s are like legos", its such a shame they're just throwing parts together

[@jimscott5705]

It's all about $$$. Some of these gun manufacturers claim to be so 2nd amendment but, don't think they hate the left. Ruger made record profits before 2020. Gun companies love panic shopper's.

[@aceup8819]

Which bore scope do you use? Love your vids bro. I always learn something new!

[@onna-day7047]

Teslong NTG 200H

[@ImNoBSING]

So, basically their gun is so out of spec that they are practically proprietary

[@musician445]

I checked for leakage on an FN carrier key the other day and was surprised to see it leak. It wasn't their "guardian" series which is cheap components OEM'd by a different company, it was an FN-15 SRP G2, with CL barrel and everything. Perhaps cost cutting for domestic market sales?

[@onpsxmember]

I have the same teslong borescope. Try a tiny tripod with a big smartphone clamp to hold the screen stable.

[@Mako-sz4qr]

To be honest I’m afraid to watch the Sport 3 Autopsy. Kinda afraid to buy a Ruger 556 now. Poor QA

[@biopop2587]

would love to see items inspected from the Unbranded AR company

[@ROBSPQR]

Excellent.

[@AnotherMike19]

it's almost like whoever oem'd the bolts purposely turned down the firing pins to fit the out of spec channel

[@tacticalrabbit308]

Having worked in a military arms room, I have never seen these tools you're using. When did they become commercially available?

[@Militant375]

Well, that's the rub. Many of them are not. Chad makes many of his own gauges because he cannot find anyone who makes - or would make them to such exacting specs. He sells the 3-bore carrier set to his students. Join SOTAR Society and there are groups where you can find many gauges to do this level of work.

[@ecleveland1]

It sure looks like Ruger needs to make some changes in their Quality Control department.

[@phoenixnfa]

nitride on the firing pin causing the problems with the stuck pins. i dont know what it is about nitriding but so many companies fail at the "polish" part of QPQ it seems. on non-tight-fitment (words escape me at 5AM) parts, its not a big deal. i kinda like the corrosion resistance. barrels, BCG, and even muzzle devices ill never buy nitrided.

[@wizkaqueefa9003]

"Non-tight-fitment parts" could be called "loose parts" or "parts with loose tolerances".

[@phoenixnfa]

@@wizkaqueefa9003 I meant more in the line of hammers and triggers. My bad

[@arantisdavis1623]

​@phoenixnfa dynamic vs static? Or interference vs non-interference?

[@ryanmartie1244]

If your milspec firing pins were getting stuck at the tip, yet the firing pin hole gauged correctly...what does that mean?

[@warrenharrison9490]

Long form! 🎉

[@SPIN1963_]

LOL They need that self leveling chrome for those bores.

[@greygunner]

Do you offer a service where FFL online or tansfered AR's can be shipped to you for inspection and recommendations prior to getting them in our hands?

[@realjokerswild1776]

Thank you for everything, you helped me build my AR10. Wanna guage it?

[@kenibnanak5554]

I am kind of shocked the bolts won't take a mil spec firing pin. Of course reaming them out so they will would mean a super sloppy fit on the original Ruger firing pins.

[@dadadadada4974]

I noticed my Ruger cam pin has slightly grooved marks like the first few in your video. Is that normal?

[@davedoyle161]

very disappointing QC from Ruger. Curious if you've possibly checked others as; PSA, ANDERSON, RADICAL? thank you. very informative Again

[@charlieghague]

Just as good? Anyone? Anyone... Beuhler....

[@Z7d3nR4]

Wow

[@AppleJack76]

For my own personal entertainment, I would like the "wife" to insert her own peanut gallery one liners, every once n' awhile.

[@jb7483]

Only things i buy from Ruger are the GP -SP series revolvers, 10-22, or MKIV. It is sad they are like this.