Sharps Rifle Company

[Keep The Change]

So I bought a Sharps NP3 Carrier. They claim have done some balancing to the bolts for smooth operation. Not sure if this is something that can be physically felt or if it will improve operation.

I've read good reviews of the NP3 coatings, but we will see. I will say that the craftsmanship, quality, and appearance of this carrier is fantastic. Now I haven't held a JP carrier which is another $100 more, but for $140 this thing seems to be a good piece of hardware.

I also like the philosophy behind their "Reliabolt" where all the bolt lugs are chamfered and sharp edges are rounded. I would imagine this would be great for 5.56 and dirty environments or if you just don't clean your gun for 1000 rounds.

I wonder if this would be something possible with a Grendel. I've heard of the lug shear issues with Grendels, but I'm wondering what is causing the lugs to shear. Is it the side load acting at the lugs during lockup? Or is it as the bolt comes in to meet the lugs of the extension?

[LRRPF52]

Those bolts have been breaking left and right, since they used S7 tool steel.

Properly-made AR15 bolts will hold up to excessive amounts of firing. If the metallurgy is wrong, then they will break, no matter the caliber.

Actual Grendel bolts hold up so well that you don't have to worry about it. Some other attempts to make them by shops just getting into it have had various issues, especially the ones using .125" bolt face depth, as the extractor is now very weak due to the thicker rim of the case compared to the 5.56.

There are many different threads about the Relia-bolts breaking, and replacements breaking, on several other AR15 and gun forums. Customers were told that the metallurgy problem was fixed, and that later models should be trouble-free.

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=broken+sharps+relia+bolt

NP3 is a very smooth coating that has been in the industry for decades, first seen with Robar Firearms.

[Keep The Change]

Good info LRRPF52. Thanks. I had not done any research on the Relia-bolts to see the outcome, but the idea behind the profile and de-horning of the lugs seems reasonable to me and makes sense to me.

But of course the metallurgy has to right and too brittle. I'm really not understanding why the .125" depth is even contemplated. It seems a little research and some consensus can be found that it is not suitable. But this forum steered me away from them when I started looking at building a Grendel.

The carrier by Sharps is very nice though, just wanted to share that and if you don't want to spend JP prices, it is a good alternative.

[LRRPF52]

There's an excellent thread on ARFCOM right now where a gun rental place in Vegas reports the long-term durability of various guns that they abuse on extreme full auto firing schedules.

They run 25 mags average per day through M4's of various types. Daniel Defense, J&T Distributing, Palmetto State Armory, HK, etc.

They recently added a bunch of Colt's to the mix, and they are seeing excellent bolt longevity with the Colt's.

They usually replace barrels/bolts after 20,000-28,000 rounds in the M4's, or when they start to see key-holing in the targets at 10 yards.

All the piston guns they tried broke, except the HK416, although the HK's barrel started key-holing at 10,000rds.

Headspace stretches over time in a firearm, so bolts and barrels are expendable items when you shoot in high volume. Colt has forgotten more about what makes the AR15/M16/Mr FOW work than most companies combined.

The only company that I know of that took a very close look at Colt's work on the 7.62x39 Sporter was Alexander Arms, when Bill was doing research for the bolt for the 50 Beowulf. What I've seen with the rest of the industry with 7.62x39 was the assumption that you can just use a .125" bolt face, but wider for the fatter case, and that has been a failure time and again.

On top of that, very few companies are QC'ing their bolts to find the weaknesses in each batch, and culling those bolts, so customers end up with failure-prone bolts. They can sell more volume that way because the price is so low, as they didn't take the time and resources to MPI or do any destructive test and analysis of grain structure.

The result is the customer gets to do the final QC, which results in a much higher failure rate and unacceptable bell curves on Total Quality Management. This is happening with 5.56 bolts as well, although MPI has become much more prevalent with people becoming more aware of what makes the reliable bolts work, compared to imitation bolts.

I think Sharps had a good strategy to differentiate themselves from the rest, but their choice of S7 tool steel and failure to QC their initial production lots really didn't help them, and word of failures spread quickly.