Malfunctions
Failure-to-Feed
Feeding failures often present as a cartridge half-stripped from the magazine or a closed bolt with no round in the chamber.
Failure-to-Fire
When your gun goes ‘click’ and doesn’t go ‘boom’, you’ve got a problem (especially when it happens repeatedly).
Failure-to-Extract
When a spent case is left in the chamber, you’ve got a problem. This malfunction usually appears as either the bolt being stuck in battery or the bolt trying to jam a fresh cartridge into the chamber that’s already occupied by a spent case.
Failure-to-Eject
Once the spent case is pulled from the chamber, it needs to get out of the gun. When it doesn’t, you usually get a ‘stovepipe’ malfunction.
Double Feed
A double feed looks like a frat party with a bad ratio. Jamming two live rounds into the chamber doesn’t work well.
Bolt Override
Bolt override is similar to the double feed, except that rather than two rounds being fed into the chamber, a second round becomes lodged above the bolt, either at a downward angle or parallel to the bolt.