Last week, several of my viewers forwarded me two articles on mechanical problems with the MARS-L rifles that LMT had manufactured for the New Zealand Defense Force, and they wanted to know what my take on it was.
As many of you know, I am an avid supporter of the LMT products and feel the rifle that the Kiwi’s procured was perhaps one of the finest battle rifles in the world. One which I would be ecstatic to carry if forced into harm’s way. So, what went wrong? First, everything I am discussing here is my personal opinion of what caused these issues.
Although, I have worked for LMT in the past doing technical writing, training and intel work, I have not worked for them since 2015. I have had little to no communication since then and, in fact, have had great difficulty getting product to review since then. I receive no commissions, perks nor anything from LMT for promoting their equipment. I have promoted the MRP system since its introduction around 2003 when working on my book, Black Rifle II. Since then I had been a loyal champion for LMT as an author. At that time in 2003, LMT was a rather small organization and for the first time was just releasing their own full firearms. I worked directly with Karl Lewis on my media work. They were not well known by the commercial market, but well known by the manufacturing industry making OEM components for several high-end manufacturers.
Although, I have worked for LMT in the past doing technical writing, training and intel work, I have not worked for them since 2015. I have had little to no communication since then and, in fact, have had great difficulty getting product to review since then. I receive no commissions, perks nor anything from LMT for promoting their equipment. I have promoted the MRP system since its introduction around 2003 when working on my book, Black Rifle II. Since then I had been a loyal champion for LMT as an author. At that time in 2003, LMT was a rather small organization and for the first time was just releasing their own full firearms. I worked directly with Karl Lewis on my media work. They were not well known by the commercial market, but well known by the manufacturing industry making OEM components for several high-end manufacturers.
I was the first author, and only, if I recall, getting LMT articles in American Rifleman and Shooting Illustrated. I had numerous articles in Small Arms Review and Small Arms Defense Journal. Several of my first videos were on this excellent platform. Even as of today, I am the only channel who actively shows LMT gear. None of the larger channels have shown this excellent gear for some reason. The information I put in this review is mine alone. I have had no discussions nor contact with LMT on this matter. Unfortunately for me, since LMT has had exponential growth, I no longer get to deal with Karl anymore. The people I have dealt with under him are nowhere near as responsive as he was going back to 2003.
Just a little background on the LMT New Zealand contract. LMT was awarded a $59 million-dollar contract to deliver 8800 rifles, and then later increased to 9040 state-of-the-art combat rifles to the New Zealand Defense Force. This included rifles, sights, support and training equipment. These rifles were to replace the aging and antiquated Steyr AUG service rifles currently in inventory. The LMT rifles were procured due to its ability to deliver double the effective range of the Steyer from 300 to 600 meters.
The rifle chosen is a basic commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) LMT rifle based on their proven MRP CQB platform. The rifle utilized the standard MRP 16-inch chrome moly vanadium machine gun grade chrome lined barrel with a mid-length gas system. This has been the standard commercial barrel used by LMT since 2003. The modifications to the barrel are the attachment of a 3:00 bayonet lug and a Warcomp muzzle device. The bolt carrier group is LMT’s standard mil-spec BCG. The lower receiver is LMT’s fairly new MARS lower receiver. This was developed during the New Zealand trials but not available during initial testing. When rifle deliveries began, they were the ambidextrous MARS lower receivers. These featured ambidextrous selector, magazine release and bolt catch. There was also a new winter trigger guard and QD socket on the receiver extension end plate. The rifle used the very well-known and high quality SOPMOD stock. There was a second model for the Special Forces which had only three changes. First, the longer MRP upper was used. Second, the barrel was changed to a standard LMT 14.5-inch barrel with a closed end Warcomp muzzle devise. And lastly, the SF rifle used the enhanced bolt carrier group. All rifles were provided with Magpul Gen 3 windowed PMags. Duty ammunition selected was the Black Hills Ammunition Mk262 Mod 1 special forces ammunition loaded with a Sierra 77gr OTM projectile. In my opinion the finest ammunition in the world.
The first issue brought up was the failure of firing pins. Although the failure was a small number of firing pins that failed, LMT replaced all 9040 firing pins under warranty. LMT responded to The Firearms Blog stating it was due to the firing pins not being tempered correctly by their heat treater. That was the root cause. I can tell you from working at Colt, prior to any part being accepted by the factory for government use, it has to have a sample sent to Colt’s metrology laboratory. In the case of the firing pin, Colt metallurgists would cut the firing pin in half, test for hardness (Rockwell scale), measure the chrome application (High power microscope) to be sure that the firing pin is in compliance with their drawing. Once the lot is passed, then Colt would accept shipment of the firing pins. If not, the entire lot would be rejected. Then the vendors would sell them to commercial manufacturers. I am not aware of what LMT’s quality control program is for this project. I do not know if they do similar testing or not. But this was a failure in the quality control chain. From visiting numerous arms manufacturers, I have learned that the degree of quality control from US Govt contractors to commercial contractors is quite different. US Govt contractors have an inspector in-house whose job it is to make sure all these quality control measures are taken. Other manufacturers who do foreign military sales are not bound to this. They are bound by whatever terms are in the contract, which may be very different from US Mil standards. In the end, it is how the problem is dealt with when it comes up. LMT replaced all firing pins at their own expense and created a system to ensure this will not happen again.
The second issue brought up was 130 out of the 9040 rifles exhibited cracks in the bolt carriers. It was not specific to whether this was the standard bolt carrier or the enhanced bolt carriers. I have to say this one shocked the hell out of me. In my career, I have never seen the bolt carrier fail unless the rifle blew up. That means a bore obstruction or seriously over pressured round blew the gun up. Under this condition, the bolt carrier was designed to rupture at the bottom, so the blast would go down protecting the shooter as much as possible. The articles did not say particularly where the carriers cracked. But based on my experience I would say it would have to be on the face of the carrier. Researching online, there was an LMT customer who experienced this, as shown below:
Just a little background on the LMT New Zealand contract. LMT was awarded a $59 million-dollar contract to deliver 8800 rifles, and then later increased to 9040 state-of-the-art combat rifles to the New Zealand Defense Force. This included rifles, sights, support and training equipment. These rifles were to replace the aging and antiquated Steyr AUG service rifles currently in inventory. The LMT rifles were procured due to its ability to deliver double the effective range of the Steyer from 300 to 600 meters.
The rifle chosen is a basic commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) LMT rifle based on their proven MRP CQB platform. The rifle utilized the standard MRP 16-inch chrome moly vanadium machine gun grade chrome lined barrel with a mid-length gas system. This has been the standard commercial barrel used by LMT since 2003. The modifications to the barrel are the attachment of a 3:00 bayonet lug and a Warcomp muzzle device. The bolt carrier group is LMT’s standard mil-spec BCG. The lower receiver is LMT’s fairly new MARS lower receiver. This was developed during the New Zealand trials but not available during initial testing. When rifle deliveries began, they were the ambidextrous MARS lower receivers. These featured ambidextrous selector, magazine release and bolt catch. There was also a new winter trigger guard and QD socket on the receiver extension end plate. The rifle used the very well-known and high quality SOPMOD stock. There was a second model for the Special Forces which had only three changes. First, the longer MRP upper was used. Second, the barrel was changed to a standard LMT 14.5-inch barrel with a closed end Warcomp muzzle devise. And lastly, the SF rifle used the enhanced bolt carrier group. All rifles were provided with Magpul Gen 3 windowed PMags. Duty ammunition selected was the Black Hills Ammunition Mk262 Mod 1 special forces ammunition loaded with a Sierra 77gr OTM projectile. In my opinion the finest ammunition in the world.
The first issue brought up was the failure of firing pins. Although the failure was a small number of firing pins that failed, LMT replaced all 9040 firing pins under warranty. LMT responded to The Firearms Blog stating it was due to the firing pins not being tempered correctly by their heat treater. That was the root cause. I can tell you from working at Colt, prior to any part being accepted by the factory for government use, it has to have a sample sent to Colt’s metrology laboratory. In the case of the firing pin, Colt metallurgists would cut the firing pin in half, test for hardness (Rockwell scale), measure the chrome application (High power microscope) to be sure that the firing pin is in compliance with their drawing. Once the lot is passed, then Colt would accept shipment of the firing pins. If not, the entire lot would be rejected. Then the vendors would sell them to commercial manufacturers. I am not aware of what LMT’s quality control program is for this project. I do not know if they do similar testing or not. But this was a failure in the quality control chain. From visiting numerous arms manufacturers, I have learned that the degree of quality control from US Govt contractors to commercial contractors is quite different. US Govt contractors have an inspector in-house whose job it is to make sure all these quality control measures are taken. Other manufacturers who do foreign military sales are not bound to this. They are bound by whatever terms are in the contract, which may be very different from US Mil standards. In the end, it is how the problem is dealt with when it comes up. LMT replaced all firing pins at their own expense and created a system to ensure this will not happen again.
The second issue brought up was 130 out of the 9040 rifles exhibited cracks in the bolt carriers. It was not specific to whether this was the standard bolt carrier or the enhanced bolt carriers. I have to say this one shocked the hell out of me. In my career, I have never seen the bolt carrier fail unless the rifle blew up. That means a bore obstruction or seriously over pressured round blew the gun up. Under this condition, the bolt carrier was designed to rupture at the bottom, so the blast would go down protecting the shooter as much as possible. The articles did not say particularly where the carriers cracked. But based on my experience I would say it would have to be on the face of the carrier. Researching online, there was an LMT customer who experienced this, as shown below:
This particular carrier was one of their Enhanced carriers. Looking at it, the cause of this would have to be over heat treating. This would cause the steel to be brittle. There is one other possibility that comes to mind and that's the cam track was machined wrong, allowing the front to impact too much extent into the barrel extension causing impact to eventually crack. The carrier also goes through a chrome plating process which may or may not have added to the situation. Another thought on the heat-treating issue was the number 130, those probably came out of the same batch of carriers. I am not sure what number of carriers at LMT constitute a batch, but I would suspect that number is close. This for example is why Colt/FN under Government contract tests each batch to catch an anomaly such as this. Does it always work? Hell no. But it does minimize the risk as much as humanly possible. This is also a very expensive process. This is why US Govt contracts are not appealing to many manufacturers due to all these regulations. A high cost is added to a firearm that goes through such rigorous quality control.
The last problem that was mentioned in the articles was failure of fire control components, meaning: hammer, trigger, disconnector or auto sear. Also included would be the springs and hammer/trigger pins. The article was not specific to the failure. What can be assumed by this is what normally causes any of these components to fail is improper heat treat. If not done properly, on the one side of not enough heat treat, the metal will be too soft. So, when you have two parts that engage each other (hammer to trigger, hammer to disconnect or happen to auto sear) the engaging surface will wear away quickly causing lack of engagement. If there is too much heat treating, the components will become brittle, making surfaces crack causing failure. So, if the FCG failed there is a really good bet this is the root cause of such failures. I used to see a lot of this in parts guns. People would call and tell me their rifle is firing double taps. I would look at the disconnector claw and it would be worn. Looking at the back of the disconnector you could see where the tail was ground off (converting a selective fire disconnector to a semi-auto only). Whomever ground the tail off did not cool the metal during the grinding process, which killed the heat treat, causing the disconnector to soften.
Looking at all the issues that LMT dealt with concerning firing pin, bolt carrier and FGG, it appears it all comes down to heat treating. This is not an uncommon failure. It is an easy mistake to make. From LMT’s response to The Firearms Blog, it sounds like this heat-treating process is done by an outside vendor. So, they have two options going forward. The first is to bring it in-house where they can maintain 100% control. The second is to develop an aggressive internal quality control program that tests each batch to be sure their vendor is doing their job correctly. Personally, I would charge the cost of these replacement parts to the vendor for their screw up.
Like anytime in this industry when a manufacturer has a recall or has issue such as this, people are right off going to say that the company puts out crap. This is not true in most cases, but definitely not in this case. Every manufacturer at some time or another has recalls and quality control issues. Look at companies such as Sig, Colt and Remington, for example. I can recall being at Colt, they delivered an entire lot of M4 replacement barrels to the US Government and forgot to drill a gas port, so they were a single shot! Colt got them back, corrected the issue, and added a procedure to prevent the same from happening again by putting a yellow dot on the barrel indicating it was inspected for a gas port hole. What really matters is ensuring it does not happen again. This shows dedication to the quality your customers receive. And LMT handles this very well. They replaced the parts free of charge and developed a process to ensure it does not happen again.
This is the accompanying video made on the commercial version of this gun, and the issues that New Zealand is having.
The last problem that was mentioned in the articles was failure of fire control components, meaning: hammer, trigger, disconnector or auto sear. Also included would be the springs and hammer/trigger pins. The article was not specific to the failure. What can be assumed by this is what normally causes any of these components to fail is improper heat treat. If not done properly, on the one side of not enough heat treat, the metal will be too soft. So, when you have two parts that engage each other (hammer to trigger, hammer to disconnect or happen to auto sear) the engaging surface will wear away quickly causing lack of engagement. If there is too much heat treating, the components will become brittle, making surfaces crack causing failure. So, if the FCG failed there is a really good bet this is the root cause of such failures. I used to see a lot of this in parts guns. People would call and tell me their rifle is firing double taps. I would look at the disconnector claw and it would be worn. Looking at the back of the disconnector you could see where the tail was ground off (converting a selective fire disconnector to a semi-auto only). Whomever ground the tail off did not cool the metal during the grinding process, which killed the heat treat, causing the disconnector to soften.
Looking at all the issues that LMT dealt with concerning firing pin, bolt carrier and FGG, it appears it all comes down to heat treating. This is not an uncommon failure. It is an easy mistake to make. From LMT’s response to The Firearms Blog, it sounds like this heat-treating process is done by an outside vendor. So, they have two options going forward. The first is to bring it in-house where they can maintain 100% control. The second is to develop an aggressive internal quality control program that tests each batch to be sure their vendor is doing their job correctly. Personally, I would charge the cost of these replacement parts to the vendor for their screw up.
Like anytime in this industry when a manufacturer has a recall or has issue such as this, people are right off going to say that the company puts out crap. This is not true in most cases, but definitely not in this case. Every manufacturer at some time or another has recalls and quality control issues. Look at companies such as Sig, Colt and Remington, for example. I can recall being at Colt, they delivered an entire lot of M4 replacement barrels to the US Government and forgot to drill a gas port, so they were a single shot! Colt got them back, corrected the issue, and added a procedure to prevent the same from happening again by putting a yellow dot on the barrel indicating it was inspected for a gas port hole. What really matters is ensuring it does not happen again. This shows dedication to the quality your customers receive. And LMT handles this very well. They replaced the parts free of charge and developed a process to ensure it does not happen again.
This is the accompanying video made on the commercial version of this gun, and the issues that New Zealand is having.
Product Links from Video:
$699 Deal on LMT - AR-15 CQB UPPER RECEIVERS 5.56 PICATINNY http://bit.ly/2zPi499
LMT - NZ16 5.56 X 45 16" RIFLE http://bit.ly/2zOEbwC
LMT - AR-15 SOPMOD BUTTSTOCK MIL-SPEC BLACK http://bit.ly/2IPqdzD
LMT - AR-15 MARS-L LOWER RECEIVER COMPLETE http://bit.ly/2zPnaCl
LMT - M16 ENHANCED BOLT CARRIER GROUP 5.56 http://bit.ly/2kabUYt
LMT - AR-15 LOWER PARTS KIT TWO STAGE COMPLETE http://bit.ly/2zPDAe5
LMT - AR-15 BACK UP IRON SIGHT KIT BLACK http://bit.ly/2zORc9m
BLACK HILLS AMMO - 5.56X45MM NATO 77GR OTM AMMO http://bit.ly/2IP6Erq
BLACK HILLS AMMO - 223 REMINGTON 77GR MATCHKING HOLLOW POINT http://bit.ly/2QvjGKX
TRIJICON - ACOG 4X32MM DUAL ILLUM CROSSHAIR .223 RETICLE WITH RM04 RMR http://bit.ly/2QutHIh
MAGPUL - AR-15 30RD PMAG GEN M3 MAGAZINE 223/5.56 http://bit.ly/2rQ93sf
SUREFIRE - AR-15 WARCOMP FLASH HIDER 22 CAL http://bit.ly/2Qn9gN6
LMT - NZ16 5.56 X 45 16" RIFLE http://bit.ly/2zOEbwC
LMT - AR-15 SOPMOD BUTTSTOCK MIL-SPEC BLACK http://bit.ly/2IPqdzD
LMT - AR-15 MARS-L LOWER RECEIVER COMPLETE http://bit.ly/2zPnaCl
LMT - M16 ENHANCED BOLT CARRIER GROUP 5.56 http://bit.ly/2kabUYt
LMT - AR-15 LOWER PARTS KIT TWO STAGE COMPLETE http://bit.ly/2zPDAe5
LMT - AR-15 BACK UP IRON SIGHT KIT BLACK http://bit.ly/2zORc9m
BLACK HILLS AMMO - 5.56X45MM NATO 77GR OTM AMMO http://bit.ly/2IP6Erq
BLACK HILLS AMMO - 223 REMINGTON 77GR MATCHKING HOLLOW POINT http://bit.ly/2QvjGKX
TRIJICON - ACOG 4X32MM DUAL ILLUM CROSSHAIR .223 RETICLE WITH RM04 RMR http://bit.ly/2QutHIh
MAGPUL - AR-15 30RD PMAG GEN M3 MAGAZINE 223/5.56 http://bit.ly/2rQ93sf
SUREFIRE - AR-15 WARCOMP FLASH HIDER 22 CAL http://bit.ly/2Qn9gN6
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