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Broken charging handle - second #$&#%&@ time


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Well, the charging handle on my 8" gun broke off - for the second time. The first time it wasn't cycling properly, and broke off during firing - it broke into two pieces that time. That was a few years and more than a thousand rounds ago. The second time, when I took it home to clean it, the fucker broke off in my hand during disassembly, almost perfectly flush with the bolt carrier.

It's a welded Galil-style charging handle. It looked like it was welded properly, cosmetically it was very nicely done both times. I sent it back to the manufacturer the first time - not sure if I want to do that again, or send it to another reputable gunsmith to have it repaired.

I'm certain it's not overgassed - the recoil feels right, and I use an MD Arms gas plug that I always tune to the lowest setting that will reliably kick shells. Any suggestions?

It's more than a little frustrating when an expensive piece of hardware is rendered all but useless by a simple failure.

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Get some 4140 and make a new one. Different steels are hard to weld right. I imagine the bolt carrier is 4140 or its close. counter sink and weld. Use tig. Get someone that wells for a living to do it. By counter sink I mean have the rod go into the bolt carrier so you will need to drill a hole in the carrier for the handle. You say almost flush, my guess is the original handle was just cut off and the new one welded on the spot on the carrier.

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  • 1 month later...

I need a pic of the charging handle.  Top and bottom of the weld.  Looks like either the weld was sorta good and took some carrier with it or it was drilled and the weld sucked.  Again, hard to tell without seeing the weld left on the charging handle.

 

Monty is correct about dissimilar metals but this is not rocket science for a real TIG welder.

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I sent it back to the manufacturer the first time - not sure if I want to do that again, or send it to another reputable gunsmith to have it repaired.

forget about sending it off to a gunsmith for welding, send it to someone that knows what he is doing, like a professional welder.

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I sent it back to the manufacturer the first time - not sure if I want to do that again, or send it to another reputable gunsmith to have it repaired.

forget about sending it off to a gunsmith for welding, send it to someone that knows what he is doing, like a professional welder.

 

I concur!

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At this point, me personally, I would just order a new bolt and say to hell with "maybe the next weld will hold."  But thats just me.

 

if a weld is done correctly, from someone who knows what he is doing, that weld will be stronger then the steel it's attached to, so there will be no issues with it breaking. the whole key to having something like that done is what I stated earlier, take it to someone who is a professional welder that has been doing that for decades,  not some gunsmith.

 

do you know what a gunsmith is? it's a guy who passed the ATF background check, his check didn't bounce for the license. it doesn't mean he knows how to fix a firearm,  ATF does not administer test or certification for that  the person apply for that license.  

Edited by Matthew Hopkins
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