Quest for the Perfect AOM 130 - Part I

[CCHGN]

CCHGN, better late than never. Glad to have ya here.

Failures to feed in a few cases. Many, many cases of the bolt failing to go into battery - far enough to lock, just not far enough for the firing pin to hit the primer. Between the two, not a single shot without an issue.

OK, FTF, meaning the bolt recoils, but fails to pick up a round, or it picks up the round but doesn't shove it into the chamber? IF the bolt locks, isn't that in battery? Can't wait to see what it is, but imo, it doesn;t sound like just one thing, but several, like bad head space and/or bad mags and/or the feeding ramp is off and/or the recoil spring is too weak and/or the extractor is not right. Did you send your mags to them or are they using their own?

[fteter]

OK, FTF, meaning the bolt recoils, but fails to pick up a round, or it picks up the round but doesn't shove it into the chamber? IF the bolt locks, isn't that in battery? Can't wait to see what it is, but imo, it doesn;t sound like just one thing, but several, like bad head space and/or bad mags and/or the feeding ramp is off and/or the recoil spring is too weak and/or the extractor is not right. Did you send your mags to them or are they using their own?

Sent in my mag, the one that came with the rifle.

When it’s a FTF, it’s a matter of the round failing to get fully into position. That’s the less frequent of the two issues. With the failure to go into battery, the bolt engages just enough to lock, but the firing pin does not hit the primer. And it literally takes a whack with a rubber mallet to disengage the bolt. And the bolt does pass when checked with GO and NO-GO gauges. Weird.

[CCHGN]

Sent in my mag, the one that came with the rifle.

When it’s a FTF, it’s a matter of the round failing to get fully into position. That’s the less frequent of the two issues. With the failure to go into battery, the bolt engages just enough to lock, but the firing pin does not hit the primer. And it literally takes a whack with a rubber mallet to disengage the bolt. And the bolt does pass when checked with GO and NO-GO gauges. Weird.

Did you tell them that( about the mallet)? The go -no go tests the head space of the face of the bolt, to the chamber. The tabs on the bolt, fitting into the receiver is something else. Sounds like the bolt is not fitting into the receiver properly. Combine that with the FTF, I'd suspect a bolt/receiver mate up issue.

[gb6491]

Sent in my mag, the one that came with the rifle.

When it’s a FTF, it’s a matter of the round failing to get fully into position. That’s the less frequent of the two issues. With the failure to go into battery, the bolt engages just enough to lock, but the firing pin does not hit the primer. And it literally takes a whack with a rubber mallet to disengage the bolt. And the bolt does pass when checked with GO and NO-GO gauges. Weird.

Reading that you need to use a mallet to open the action on a unfired round, I wonder if you are having an issue with your rifle's free bore/leade and whatever ammo you are using or possibly just a problem with the ammo you are using. Is this problem occurring with a variety of ammo?
Regards,
Greg

[fteter]

Reading that you need to use a mallet to open the action on a unfired round, I wonder if you are having an issue with your rifle's free bore/leade and whatever ammo you are using or possibly just a problem with the ammo you are using. Is this problem occurring with a variety of ammo?
Regards,
Greg

Possibility Greg...good thought. I tried several different brands with no luck. But the Kahr people tested with Hornady Critical Defense and assert that it ran fine. So I’ll be trying some of the same when the rifle gets back to me. We’ll see how it goes,

[fteter]

Did you tell them that( about the mallet)? The go -no go tests the head space of the face of the bolt, to the chamber. The tabs on the bolt, fitting into the receiver is something else. Sounds like the bolt is not fitting into the receiver properly. Combine that with the FTF, I'd suspect a bolt/receiver mate up issue.

Yeah, told them about the mallet. They checked head space for me - passed both no and no-go, so they didn't bother to check field.

I'm really hoping that the issue turns out to be the rifle being persnickety about ammo during the break-in period. Stay tuned...I'll update after the rifle comes back and I take it to the range.

[fteter]

I know have the rifle back in my possession. I won't have time to get it to the range for another week or so. In the meantime, I'm cycling snap caps and have purchased some Hornady Critical Defense rounds.

In cycling the snap caps, I've noted that the I need to pull that bolt back hard and fast - any waffling results in a FTF. Leads me to think that maybe higher grain rounds might do better in this rifle. It's also leading me to think about a stronger recoil spring.

Anyway, I plan to keep cycling snap caps until I get to the range. Will update after the range trip.

[7shot]

Fedex will ship firearms, just make sure your take it to a hub and not a place that just picks up Fedex packages. That's how i shipped my Sig back for repairs after they sent me a shipping label.

[fteter]

Well, it's been quite a while and I've been through a lot with the AO-130. After lots of trial and error, fussing, and several range trips, I finally have the rifle running reliably. Rather than walk readers through the whole process, I'll just sum up what I've learned.

1. Sending the rifle back to AutoOrdnance/Kahr was an exercise in futility. Really not worth the time. The rile was just as bad after the factory trip as it was when I sent it.
2. In my case, the rifle ran much better after many, many dry-fire cycles. I bought some cheap snap-caps and ran through around 1,200 cycles. I started noticing a difference right around 1,000.
3. The rifle is very persnickety about the ammo it will eat. I've had the best results with Hornady Critical Home Defense FTX HP. Aguila ammo was far and away the worst. It's really takes trial and error to find ammo that works well.
4. The AO-130 runs much better when wet. A quick wipe down with RemOil just before heading to the range improved things quite a bit.
5. The supplied magazine is just this side of junk. I scored some KCI mags that run very, very well.
6. This was really the finishing touch - the mag well in the receiver is a bit too large for the mags. I broke down my rifle and squeezed the sides of the mag well in a padded vise grip - a little squeeze and a check, followed by a little more squeeze and another check. Now my mags fit tightly and I haven't had a FTF since the tweak, other than when using the OEM mag - over 500 rounds.

I'm pretty happy with the rifle now, although I do wish I could find some inexpensive ammo it would eat reliably. But it was definitely a long process to get here. Hope sharing my experience helps someone else out there.

[tpelle]

Aguila ammo is really bad -mLots of failures in my WWII Inland carbine as well. I figure if we ever go to war with Mexico we'll have to spot them the ammo just to make it a fair fight.

[fteter]

Aguila ammo is really bad -mLots of failures in my WWII Inland carbine as well. I figure if we ever go to war with Mexico we'll have to spot them the ammo just to make it a fair fight.

I've had good luck with the stuff in other calibers. Not so much in .30 carbine.

[fteter]

I wanted to update as I discovering things with this rifle. I've thrown another several hundred rounds downrange since my last post, trying out different ammo brands. My results:

1. Privi Partisan You'll find good stories about the AO-130 and Privi Partisan all over the internet. But that was not the case for me. Failure To Eject over 90% over 150 rounds. Just as bad as the Aguila stuff.
2. Hornady Critical Defense FTX As I mentioned earlier in this thread, I've gotten perfect performance with this stuff. Not a single failure anything over 250 rounds. Goes bang every time I pull the trigger. Just wish the stuff wasn't so darned expensive.
3. Tula Ammo Tried some of this stuff only because it was all my LGS had in stock when I went shopping for ammo. And I was ever surprised. I've run over 200 rounds of this stuff without a glitch. If not for my concern over running high volumes of steel case ammo through this rifle, this would definitely win as my go-to for plinking.

So I'm still on the hunt for a brass-cased round that runs well and doesn't cost $1 every time I pull the trigger. And I'd appreciate any suggestions.

I'll keep sharing as I get more results. Although I'm sharing in the hopes this will help others, keep in mind that your mileage may vary.