After tinkering with my first AR the last couple of months, I managed to run into a friend selling one at what I thought was an absolutely great price. He and my father are very close friends, and he purchased the rifle from him in the mid 80's when my father held his FFL. I actually remember this and another coming into the house. I was 15-16 at the time, so there's a bit of cool factor to me in this also.

SGW CAR-AR, 16" barrel, hard chromed BCG, A-1 upper (rifle stock added, which the tech question will explain) :









Now, initially, at the price purchased, I considered it somewhat "investment" and had thought to simply hold on to it for a bit and sell it. However, that's changed. There's something to the simplicity of it that I really like, and after tearing it down, the fit and finish for a 25 year old rifle is ridiculously tight. There is no 'creep' in the trigger, and it's very crisp, much better than my current 'new' rifle. I'm considering a full Magpul MOE kit for this, and simply leave it at that.

Here's my question in this. Talking with him, he added the rifle stock because occasionally the bolt will not lock back on an empty magazine with the collapsible stock/buffer (there are no FTE, FTFs). He did try an extra power buffer spring but it did not alleviate the issue. While not having a specific round count on the barrel, there's most likely 3k + through it. Acts the same on different BCGs also. I'm thinking the rifle weight buffer is a fix for the problem, and that a H-3 buffer in the carbine stock will also correct this. I would like to find what the problem exactly is. We both discussed the possibility of gas port erosion, and the system is being 'over-gassed'. There are no issues with accuracy with this rifle whatsoever. I guess what I'm asking is aside from trying different buffer weights is there a solution to the problem aside from changing the barrel, and if I decide to keep this barrel (which I really would like to do as it's still damn accurate) is the gas port erosion an issue?

Thanks-
Steve