Hello All,
My shooting buddy just bought a new Springfield M1A Match grade off Gunbroker. It has an odd (to me) cycling problem. The first few shots cycle correctly landing 6 feet or so at about a 45 degree angle forward. But as he continues to shoot the shells start landing closer and closer to the bench and the angle goes from forward at 45 degrees to 90 degrees to backwards at about 30 degrees and then stops cycling as the shells land on the bench. From here it short strokes and won't pick up the next round. I used to shoot High Power Matches with my M14SA so I am familiar with the cleaning and maintenance of these rifles. It's cleaned and lubed correctly. I've tried replacing the op-rod spring from the NM to a standard. That made things worse, it short stroked on the first round. I've checked the barrel gas hole for obstructions, found nothing out of the ordinary there. I've changed the op-rod spring guide from the NM to a standard. That had no effect. The piston is clean and dry and moves freely, but I replaced it with a standard piston anyway, which had no effect. Same problem. We have tried a number of ammo types including military white box match in 168 and 173 grain, my full length sized reloads I used when I competed, loaded with Sierra 168 grain HPBT Match Kings and IMR 3031 and 4895. All loads fail in the same way in this NM rifle but run perfectly in my M14SA. It almost acts as if the hammer is dragging on the bolt but I can see no excessive galling or ware on the bolt, the hammer or the receiver and if it was dragging, why would it get worse and worse as it's fired? I tried to lower the trigger group by shimming the trigger group between the group and the stock but it's so tight it only allows about .010 shim thickness. I haven't shot it like this but I expect that little bit won't help anyways.
Any thoughts as to where to go next? I'm at my wits end with this rifle and my buddy is about ready to bust it over a rock. I'm hoping someone out there has a fix.
HELP!!
Dave