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Service life of a Model 50


farinacci556
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Happy Thanksgiving all. I have a 4 digit SN Model 50 that is in great shape. With the good info from you all, it functions perfectly. 500 rounds with zero malfunctions is now the norm. I use 200 grain or 230 grain round nose plated bullets with 3.9 Red Dot for the 230 and 3.7 of Clay Dot for the 200 grain. The repo magazines from SARCO which are 22 rounds ( Just load 20 only) work great and are only $65.00 each

 

The gun gets about 300 500 per month of the aforementioned loads which I think are about 20% below maximum.

If the gun is kept clean what would you expect the life of this weapon to be ? Thanks and regards.

 

PS The new bolt from Ohio Ordinance was a drop in- no fitting- and works 100%

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Ohio Ordnance does not list Reising bolts on their site. FWIW they have put all other manufacturing on hold to concentrate on M240 and M249 production.

Indianapolis Ordnance just started making repro bolts; I know because I was directly involved in the project.

If you look at your bolt on the underside you should see a mark "IDPLS ORDNANCE" inside a bullet shaped outline

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How long should it last?

How high is up?

 

The receiver itself is pretty robust and will outlive you.

The barrel is as good as that of any other SMG; abuse it and you'll trash it. Short bursts and letting it cool off when shooting will prolong its life.

  • Some of the small parts are more fragile. Known problem areas are:
  • The bolt, which can be replaced as you know.
  • Firing pins. There is a ton of discussion about these on this site. Seriously consider the Keystone titanium pin and read about the floating pin modification and make your own decision.
  • The one-piece bumper plugs on early guns. The later 2 piece ones are not a problem
  • Extractors, available from Keystone, Numrich and others
  • Compensators, improved versions available from Bull Creek
  • Action bars, which usually can be repaired
  • The connector, disconnector, selector etc. which can be deformed. ALWAYS safe the gun before cocking it to minimize wear and damage to these parts

HTH

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Thanks. Got the titanium pin and shortened it a bit. That has gone about 1000 rounds no trouble. Got a 2 piece bumper plug too. Also picked up a spare action bar Did not know about putting it on safe before cocking but I will.

 

What is interesting is the way she will shoot low power loads with no problems Was shooting 3 grains of clay dot with 200 grain bullet and she functions fine.

 

I stand corrected on the bolt. Very nice work and a reasonable price considering the machining involved

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The only firearms I've ever seen with service life limitations were artillery tubes and tank guns. The limits are established and logs were provided for each tube. Tubes are inspected from time to time. Every round fired and its type were logged. On the M68 105mm main tank gun, for instance, a particular round was designated as being EFC, or Equipment Full Charge. Other types of rounds had higher or lower ratings. There were limits for inspection, and limits for replacement. I've never seen such an arrangement with any small arm. Usage is generally not tracked, nor rounds fired logged. They are inspected from time to time.

 

One day in the US Cavalry long ago, Ordnance came and took all of the M16s in our arms room and replaced them with new rifles. I was the arms room officer during this time. Many of the M16s they took dated to the Vietnam war and were getting pretty tired. Don't know what happened to them eventually; I only know they were going to "depot". I never heard of an M16 rebuild program, only replacement. Others will know better. At the same time, Ordnance took about a third of our M1911 .45 pistols at a time for rebuild. They came back looking great, but they were total mixmasters. No effort had been made to keep original uppers with lowers that I could see. The guns in our arms room that got no attention at all while I was there were our M60, M2, M219, and M73 MGs. None were reliable except the M2s, which dated to WWII. They ran great, if you knew how to use the headspace and timing gauges.

 

I do notice reference made to "rounds count" in offers to buy and sell firearms, but I think this is just something that people see on the internet and pick up on. Small arms generally are assessed according to their condition, and this can be really subjective.

 

For rebuilds conduced at depot level by US Army Ordnance, wear allowances and limits for small arms components were established and observed. Parts not conforming were junked. Look at the M1 rifles offered by the DCM/CMP for so many years. These are prime examples of rifles that have been depot inspected and rebuilt. New owners will often notice that muzzles do not always measure out as new. This is normal, and was allowed.

Edited by TSMGguy
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  • 2 weeks later...

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