AR15 350 legend not feeding hunting ammo. Help

NDAR15MAN

Member
Folks I have had my share of AR15 and AR10 rifles. I always bought complete guns.
No upper and lowers then put together type of thing.
Always complete guns. Bushmaster , Rock River , DPMS , R15 , R25. For a guy that has owned all of these Different brands of AR guns I know very little on how they work and wants makes them work.
Last week I took the plunge and bought my first complete upper and choose the most difficult gun I think ever in the life the AR gun to get to work. Ha ha ha. Internet is full of problems on the 350 legend. Ha ha. That is the cal I bought , the 350 legend upper to put on one of my lower AR15 I bought super super cheap a few years ago. Was a 223 cal that shot 3 inch groups that I took a chance on for $381.00 out of the big mailing cTLog we all know. Some times you get a good accurate gun at this price some times you don’t. That’s the breaks. So I took the plunge and bought a upper that was not name brand I have heard of but very good reviews , made in America , they were at the shot show this year etc. I put my lower on this 350 legend complete upper and getting I am getting 80 % failure to feed on every hunting round that is on the market except the Winchester 145 FMJ which this upper was only tested with per the builder. Only reason this gun is sold is to hunters in slug states that want to Shoot less recoil Guns. Why a builder would test fire his gun with 145 gr FMJ and not the hunting ammo is beyond me.
The small dealer put these uppers together (12 ) of them and now deer season is here in Iowa and were all having same issue and the uppers. They will not shoot the 150 gr or any other brand of bullet or size of bullet except the 145 winchester FMJ flat nose round.
Very strange. The dealer and I worked together switching out every possible component to correct the issue. Even tired 3 different lowers from other AR guns , all the same Failure to feed / close bolt all the way.
Big time fail to feed the 150 gr pointed bullets. Then we noticed 150 gr pointed bullets were almost impossible to push out of the magazine with are finger ? Every bullet hung up on the front lip of the new 350 legend manufactured magazine sliding out of magazine but the 145 gr FMJ was a little easier to push through the front lip. Very strange. Now I want to give my definition of failure to feed on this upper/gun...load 5 shells in mag let charging handle go , 50% of time charging handle goes all the way forward and bolt closes completely and gun fires and kicks empty out at 3:00 pm position and carrier bolt picks next bullet brings into chamber and the bolt closes allmost all the way but stops about 1/4 inch from closing. Hard to see when your by your self until you pull trigger and you get a click. Bullets was seated in barrel it looks like but no bang after 1 bullet fired and brass kicked out on the grass. I want to apologize for this long thread and finally my question for help , and not knowing some of the correct terminology in explaining this issues in a much much shorter post. It is embarrassing for me owning all these brands of AR15 guns the last 30 years and not really understanding how they work and what things I need to look at in trying to to make them work. The dealer / assembler even tired to helped me in person for 5 hrs Sunday but could not make any headway and now no after sale support So not looking for comments on why he will not help or why I chose this dealer / builder. Its in the past. don’t want to mention the maker of the upper I don’t think they have any issues but could be wrong. My little knowledge I do have is I think it could be that bolt carrier needs polished , the feed ramps I guess is what you call them little groves inside of barrel we’re bullet makes the jump into the barrel might need polished but I think maybe a real good grinding ? We started with 3 magazine. We ground down the front lip of one magazine and that helped the bullet to release better from magazine to inside of barrel. But the bolt is not closing all The way. Every time bullet does not go bang is because the bolt stop 1/4 inch from completely closing and then no bang .... just click. And we were getting maybe 3 shots in a row going bang then click no bang. So looking for some ideas I can try. I feel that it is something I can fix or my local Gunsmith. Once again sorry for the long post and if some one would like to PM me that could be easier and not make the post so bad. Ha ha ha With some ideas that would be great. Thanks. MD
 
Your bolt lugs and body are lubed up good ( my friend turned me on to the Wilson ultimate lube in the little bottle, it is purple color ) I would guess that or a stronger buffer spring to close your bolt harder. I am no expert but is what I would look at. How many rounds do you have in your magazine exerting force on the round being chambered. Did you try just one in there then maybe 2 and so on.
Hope you get it working, let us know what you find.
I know with my 450 Bushmaster everybody said to only use the Dura mags.
Tarey
 
What weight is your buffer? Standard Mil-Spec?

Try a H3 heavy, check bolt catch to bolt face distance to verify you are getting plenty of clearance.

I am willing to bet its not a gas issue as much as it is a buffer weight/cyclic issue.

I chased this dog with a cheap PSA PA-10, I learned more from that rifle than ever cared to learn, but it has changed the way I build rifles now, there are things that I know longer take for granted.
 
Once it fails to put the bolt into battery on a live round if you back it up a little bit and then come back forward does it then chamber?
Could a sharp edge on the ejector be keeping the case head from squarely locating in the bolt face?
This can occur.
To remedy this disassemble the bolt and polish the edges if that ejector on a piece of sandpaper.
I'm not guaranteeing this to be your problem but it is a cheap things to try.
Seems to me that if around won't chamber either the ammo is out of spec the chamber is out of spec or it's not going in squarely.
 
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Will I let my maintenace man take my AR 350 legend home last night. He has built a lot of AR rifles and Has a FFL lic.
Said he will shoot it a few times take some pictures see how it reacts without any pre bias from me. Ha ha ha.
then take it all apart down to almost nothing. Said give him a few days. So will see. I talked to the manufacture of the upper today. Great folks. Customer service manager called me 3 times today. We finally was able to connect. He said sir our company And whole industry is having a lot of problems with the magazine working in 350 legend AR uppers and the whole guns. Bolt Guns working fine. There is only couple Magazine makers for this caliber right now. Said the design of the magazines is issue most of the time.
He said the bullet is front heavy and bullet setting in magazine rides way to low in magazine.
Bullet not clearing the magazine to make jump to barrel feed ramps. Guy text me a picture and they are really
Grinding The [beeep] out of the front lip of magazine. Way more then I have even. He said his company is working with another company on a whole new magazine for 350 legend. Said he has a lot of unhappy customers in 4 or 5 states. He said he thinks his product Is sound and no quality issues. Problem is a guy needs a $19.00 magazine that works to shoot his 375.00 upper or 1000.00 gun
He said they hope to have magazine issue solved in a few more weeks with a different type of magazine. So going to see if my self taught gunsmith / FFL freind Has some thoughts before I start grinding more metal off lip of magazine. Will report I hope in next couple days. Problem the deer hunting here in Iowa Starts 2nd season Saturday. So it might be a week before I get back to every one with a answer. But I know for know maker of upper says it is 100% sure it’s magazine after I check out the mechanics of gun. Wants me have gun smith document his findings for him. Will see. MD
 
Seems like the biggest issue with the legend is the lack of conformity in the bore size. The Winchester fmj load is running the SMALLEST in bullet diameter, when a round fails to go into battery(hammer falls without cartridge firing) is the bullet jacket marked or gouged? Who manufactured the barrel(not the upper)?
 
if its hanging up on the front lip of the magazine, a small crescent there like they do for the 450 bushmaster should fix that issue.

D_H-Tactical-450-Bushmaster-Magazine.jpg




however - pictures of what you're experiencing will be helpful for us diagnosing things.
 
also, what kind of feed ramps does your upper AND barrel extension have? are they just standard m4 ramps?

there can be problems with even a standard rifle if your upper/barrel extension mis-match the ramp pairings. i'd have to guess this is magnified in these newer straight walled cartridges


here's a pic that i'm talking about the mis-match causing feed issues on even a standard 223

feedramps2.jpg



just one more thing to look at.
 
I have a Ruger use Dura mags it runs the 5 or 10 round mags fine. I keep it clean and it works. Might need broke in more unless you have shot it a ton already. I've shot 145,150s,165s,170s and 180s.
Good luck hope you get it going.
MB
 
Originally Posted By: NDAR15MANWill I let my maintenace man take my AR 350 legend home last night. He has built a lot of AR rifles and Has a FFL lic.
Said he will shoot it a few times take some pictures see how it reacts without any pre bias from me. Ha ha ha.
then take it all apart down to almost nothing. Said give him a few days. So will see. I talked to the manufacture of the upper today. Great folks. Customer service manager called me 3 times today. We finally was able to connect. He said sir our company And whole industry is having a lot of problems with the magazine working in 350 legend AR uppers and the whole guns. Bolt Guns working fine. There is only couple Magazine makers for this caliber right now. Said the design of the magazines is issue most of the time.
He said the bullet is front heavy and bullet setting in magazine rides way to low in magazine.
Bullet not clearing the magazine to make jump to barrel feed ramps. Guy text me a picture and they are really
Grinding The [beeep] out of the front lip of magazine. Way more then I have even. He said his company is working with another company on a whole new magazine for 350 legend. Said he has a lot of unhappy customers in 4 or 5 states. He said he thinks his product Is sound and no quality issues. Problem is a guy needs a $19.00 magazine that works to shoot his 375.00 upper or 1000.00 gun
He said they hope to have magazine issue solved in a few more weeks with a different type of magazine. So going to see if my self taught gunsmith / FFL freind Has some thoughts before I start grinding more metal off lip of magazine. Will report I hope in next couple days. Problem the deer hunting here in Iowa Starts 2nd season Saturday. So it might be a week before I get back to every one with a answer. But I know for know maker of upper says it is 100% sure it’s magazine after I check out the mechanics of gun. Wants me have gun smith document his findings for him. Will see. MD


I think you're on track with the magazine. I built a .450 Bushmaster for my Uncle. He hunts with it in Ohio. When I built and tested the gun I found that one factory mag worked, while the other, a purpose built .450 Bushmaster magazine failed to run. In fact, the modified PMag that I made, worked more reliably than the specific, purpose built over advertised magazine.

Mags are a common problem with the AR's.

But I would not discount a gas problem. Does your upper have an adjustable gas block? If not, you might want one. I put one on the .450 and am glad I did.
 
My Freind took apart every thing on my 350 legend upper/ gun.
Found out there was no extractor spring in it ! Appears there was
Never one even installed ! He is positive that is problem with gun ,
why it will not feed shells etc. I guess this is a key Item ? .
He said he was surprised it would even fire 2 shells in a row
Once in a while. I think there is a lot more going on , like with these darn
Magazines. Bolt would not close after it brought another shell into barrel.
1/8 short of bolt closing. Just got the extractor spring in mail today.
My Freind has had a water pipe break in his house , didn’t know it and has
a lot of damage. Freind has to deal with that before he can gun Re-assembled ( maybe a few weeks ). I am not smart enough to put Everything back together so will let you know outcome when I do. It’s been very
Aggravating , wish I had bought the 350 legend in the bolt gun.
First time I ever just bought a AR15 upper and match up with a lower
Every one talks about you just snap your upper in with 2 pins on lower
Never have believed it was just that simple. Marty
Marty
 
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Originally Posted By: NDAR15MANMy Freind took apart every thing on my 350 legend upper/ gun.
Found out there was no extractor spring in it ! Appears there was
Never one even installed ! He is positive that is problem with gun ,
why it will not feed shells etc. I guess this is a key Item ? .
He said he was surprised it would even fire 2 shells in a row
Once in a while. I think there is a lot more going on , like with these darn
Magazines. Bolt would not close after it brought another shell into barrel.
1/8 short of bolt closing. Just got the extractor spring in mail today.
My Freind has had a water pipe break in his house , didn’t know it and has
a lot of damage. Freind has to deal with that before he can gun Re-assembled ( maybe a few weeks ). I am not smart enough to put Everything back together so will let you know outcome when I do. It’s been very
Aggravating , wish I had bought the 350 legend in the bolt gun.
First time I ever just bought a AR15 upper and match up with a lower
Every one talks about you just snap your upper in with 2 pins on lower
Never have believed it was just that simple. Marty
Marty

Sorry to hear about your troubles, but it really is as easy as snapping 2 pins. I do it all the time. I can swap upper and lower combos on every AR-15 I've got with no problems.

Sounds like you unfortunately ran into a lemon built by people who talk a good game but didn't deliver. No excuse for not installing an extractor spring. Just because anybody can build them doesn't mean they should.
 
Snowmanmo... I do blame myself. The dealer / maker I guess you would call him had made 12 of the see uppers sold them few months ago when it was very hard to find any stock uppers. Rock river Arms and other big name company’s had a few but wanted a arm and a leg for the few that dealers had around the country. The guy showed video of al the ones he built and test fired on each. I know of at least 2 of us have had issue with the uppers. I tried to save $300.00 and time by buying a home grown one that someone put together watching a NFL football game on a Sunday afternoon. I have spent $300 more dollars in ammo , different brand 350 legend magazines trying to get it to shoot. I should have just waited a few more weeks and bought the brand name upper and would have I think got some support if I had any issues.
I will see if now having a extractor spring is the reason gun would not feed nor bolt would close that extra 1/4 inch shut. Keeping my my fingers crossed. Marty
 
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The individual putting the uppers together may have not been the one who assembled the bolt assembly. Very possible the bolt was assembled when he received it.
 
Originally Posted By: varminter .223The individual putting the uppers together may have not been the one who assembled the bolt assembly. Very possible the bolt was assembled when he received it.

Lots of bolts are bought pre-assembled.

Every AR I buy gets cleaned and lubed before it is shot. I also tear the bolt down at the same time.

The 350’s are interesting, was thinking it would be a good combo as a youth season gun (adjustable stock) and to have a scoped rifle for use in a deer stand.
 
I thought the manufacturer of the bolt determined whether an extractor spring or small o-ring was used. Should take you about 10 minutes and utube video time to remove bolt and install spring and reassemble.
 
Will After many hours trying to figure out what was wrong with my 350 legend my Freind took everything apart and in fact found it was no extractor spring in bolt carrier. I Took it to range and so far it’s been shooting and feeding ammo like it is suppose to. I wanted to give every one a update and a big thanks for all their help. This gun has been the gun from heck. We had looked at and tried every thing and for some reason just did not think to open up bolt carrier. It was the very last item that was not looked at 100%. Some how it got by final inspection. I have no idea how the builder test fired it 10 times. I am sure Probably a sample check on bolt carriers , maybe 1 in a 1000 get assembled without the spring. I was just the lucky winner. MD
 
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