Barrel Concern for fellow ICS M4/M16 Users/Armorers

[sherman]

Like all M4/M16 series, the inner barrel is supposed to float, and the small spring that sits above the hopup unit is supposed to keep a constant seal by pushing the barrel onto the nozzle, right?

Well anyway, here's what mine does, and I dont think it's supposed to be like this. The barrel slides in really well, up until it gets to the end where the front part of the barrel jams like a motherfucker. Essentially, it's jammed so tightly, the spring above the hopup unit does nothing because of how tight the barrel is wedged in there.

I've tried putting in the hopup unit only to the outer barrel, and nope, no problems there. But when I put the inner barrel only, that's where the problem is. I almost couldn't get the inner barrel back out.

It seems to get super stuck at this point:

------------------------------**---/|- (front)
========================== (inner barrel)
------------------------------**--

** (asterisks indicating zone where it seems tight/tapered)

I've read that there was some kinda washer or something, but from what it looks like, it's really smooth. Maybe it's tapered or something.

I tried sanding the inside circumference of the outer barrel, as well as sanding the outside of the inner barrel. No dice.

So wtf...

Kokanee tells me he can just pull out his ICS M4 inner barrel, meanwhile for me, it's like the fuckin sword in the stone.

[Death March]

I'm not sure at what point your getting stuck at but,I'm thinking it's were the middle of the outer barrel is there are some set screws and if there over tighten they press on the inner barrel.I had the same thing Happen on my ICS M4A1,and I had to letoff on the set-screws to let the Inner barrel go in.It cost me a Hop-up to find out what happend.Hope it helps!

[sherman]

Shoot, I didn't realize that the post formatter deletes all the spaces I made. I revised it.

[Death March]

The set-screws I'm talking about are in the middle of the outer barrel,so if there are overtighten they bend the inner barrel in the middel and bow it! What I did was roll my inner barrel on a flat surface and you can see if there is a slight bend on not.But all I did was back off the set-screws slide in the inner barrel and tighten the set-screws again.I'm not to sure if I know were your getting at but it sounds like the same thing I had happen,and thats all I had to do to fix it.

[sherman]

Hmm, nope, there are no set screws in the region where it gets tight.

[Death March]

From what I'm thinking your saying it gets tight right at the muzzel end?Thats were mine was getting alittle snug,but if the set-screws in the middel of the outer barrel were tighten to much they press on the inner barrel (in the middel of it!) and it pushes the muzzel end down.So when it goes through the bushing at the end of the barrel it does't line up right with the outer barrel.It's hard to exsplane,try and back off the set-screws in the middle of the outer barrel,slide in the inner barrel and re-tighten the outer barrel set-screws.If it's not working it's not what I'm thinking.My bad! But it does sound like the samething I had happen a few weeks back,hope it does you some good.

[sherman]

Dude, you were absolutely right about the screw thing. I put some solvent into the screw that was "painted in", loosened up, took the flashider off. And the barrel is free to move. I think manufacturer or whoever, just screwed it in hardcore too much.

RESOLVED Thanks

[Death March]

Hey no prob!It's funny cause I had the samething happen,I tryed to loosen my outer barrel to put my S.I.R system on and when I unscewed it the inner barrel came out with it.Needless to say it ripped up my hole Hop-up system.If you look at were the set screws push on you'll notice the metal is a little too thin in it.I was going to try and file it on the inside to give the inner barrel some more room,but I'm worried that after doing that,the set screws will go right into the inner barrel.So I just did't tight'n it as much and put some Loctite 242 (Blue one) on it and it's worked great.

[thorvald]

I had the same issue with my new ICS C-15 with Colt Trades.

The stock outer barrel is simply trash, those two set screws caused the barrel to warp ever so slightly.

I replaced mine with a G&P RAS CQB Front End Kit. I then lightly filed the "wings" on the stock ICS hop-up so it would fit inside the G&P barrel without binding. Now it's perfect.

Also you may have noticed that a stock ICS inner barrel is thicker than a TM one. I tried a TM inner barrel in the ICS stock outer barrel and even with the set screws cranked right down, there was no binding at all.

However, I wanted to use the ICS stock inner barrel due to the huge hop-up cut-out and the excellent stock hop-up that actually stays where you set it (those little clicks you hear do the trick).

Now if only someone would release a nice metal hop-up clone of the stock ICS one, I'd use it on all my M4's (I find the plastic stock unit a tad unforgiving, need to be gentle with it. Metal would be perfect).