DPMS Oracle 5.56 gritty bolt.?

DPMS is a bit notorious for not putting much effort into quality control, and the fit and finish of their rifle. They are in the business of pumping out guns for the cheapest price possible, so tey cut corners wherever they can.

This means that sometimes parts (like the chamber) are slightly out of spec. They use a lower grade bolt carrier group. They leave their barrels unlined. The gas key may not be properly staked. There may be a poor upper to lower fit.

But don't worry! This doesn't mean you bought a "bad gun". It is an entry level AR after all.

Your gun is just going to need a little TLC and a bit of a break in period to smooth that bolt out.

One thing to remember, is that AR-15s run much better when well lubed. Some people still tell you to use as little lube as possible to avoid attracting small particles... but trust me, and "wet and dirty" gun will run better than a "dry and clean" gun. Your gun is going to get dirty no matter what you do, so you might as well lube well.

You may want to use a "metal conditioning" lube, rather than the cheap stuff if you really want to smooth it out. This would be products like FrogLube, Militec-1, Slip 2000 and FireClean. These products "soak" into the micro pours of the metal better.

While the fancy lubes work well, there is absolutely nothing wrong with good old fashioned CLP.

As Glacier Wolf pointed out, there actually is very minimal rubbing and contact on a BCG. After a few hundred rounds, you will begin to see the "high wear spots". Those are your main points of contact.

My preferred method of lubricating a BCG before switching to a conditioner (I use FireClean), is to use a VERY small smear of white lithium grease on the high wear spots, and then a coat of CLP over the rest.

WARNING. Do not use grease on the whole BCG. it won't hurt the gun, but it will start flying everywhere when you start shooting and make a mess of things.

I like to always have an extra BCG group for every AR I own, and it usually lives in the case I keep it in. It is a good investment to make, and good ones are not that expensive. I just find it handier than having the smaller, individual parts on hand. That way if I'm at the range and something is not right, I can just pop in a new BCG and be good to go.

I wouldn't worry about it. Those bolts are parkerized, and parkerizing rubbing against anodizing will feel rough until it polishes out a bit. So will the spring moving in the buffer tube. So will the gas tube sliding in and out of the gas key (if the flange was a bit oversized) and the cam pin if not oiled well, but that only affects the initial pull. So will the charging handle if it is a tight fit or scrubbing on the top of the inside of the upper receiver.

If you want to be a little proactive, oil stuff (Bolt carrier, charging handle, cam pin, buffer tube spring) and don't worry about it otherwise.

The 15-22 is a different design and not really comparable. And it will probably break in and become smoother over time.

This is my AR, assembled from parts, with a boron nitride coated bolt carrier. It is smooth compared to my father's Bushmaster (a decade old), but gritty compared to... say... the Geissele High Speed Match DMR trigger it has.

Dpms Oracle 5.56

I 'assume' you took the time to clean the whole thing with alcohol and then some light lube afterwards.

I build AR's. There are not allot of 'contact' surfaces on the AR bolt. The ones it has, are obvious, and any grit or grim would have stuck out. However - did you remove the bolt return spring? You push the plunger down and then out comes the recoil buffer and mainspring.... any gunk in there, yeah, it will have the symptoms you describe. This is a new rifle, right?

Something to keep in mind. On the AR/M16/M4 you pull the charging handle all the way back and then release it - it flies home and the bolt locks up all on it's own. If you are letting this close slowly by hand - especially with no magazine inserted - its not grit you are feeling, it's the bolt sliding across parts it normally would fly across. If this is what you are noticing - don't worry. The pull back on the charging handle, that should not feel gritty. So long as the bolt slams home and lock up - and you don't have to use the forward assist - it's 'all good'.

One last thing. Always make sure you have a mag inserted when dropping the bolt on a live round - even if you are single loading. The resistance of the bolt sliding across the magazine is part of the engineering for the spring power - no mag means it hits the live round harder than designed and you usually see indents where the firing pin hit the primer. If you are unlucky - it will actually fire 'out of battery' - this usually kills the barrel, the BCG, and frequently the lower receiver.

Hope this helps.

Clean it, lube it up, put 500 rounds through it. Try the bolt then. Bet it slicks right up.

When a buddy of mine had a similar problem, someone told him to lightly "anti-seize" it and work it back and forth. He had good results. Forgot to ask how long it took him....sorry.

Try cleaning and oiling it.