What's the verdict on Ti and Al bolt carriers?

[MickB]

Not so long ago titanium and then aluminium AR bolt carriers were all the rage.

What's the verdict on long term longevity of these materials in bolt carrier applications?

How are they holding up?

Mick

[Amerflyer48]

My verdict is that there's alot more holding me back performance wise than what my bolt carrier is made of I'd tend to think Alu would not last as long and well Ti is cool but not in my budget

I have however hollowed out my buffer to lower total mass a bit and it works swell..

[nguySBR1]

My Boomfab carrier has gouged out the upper receiver badly (ruined it in a little over 9k rds fired), and the Geiselle hammer is digging a relief cut on the bottom of the carrier.

Accord to Boomfab, this is all normal wear.

I will be going back to steel carriers when I go back to the little guns sometime next year.

[larry weeks]

Years ago, Jerry Miculek told me the lightest recoiling gun he'd ever built had one of the old JP Aluminum carriers. But, that it didn't just seem to wear out, when the gun quit running, it just quit. Replaced the carrier and away it went. You have to think of those as RACE

[NervousEnergy]

Even JP states that their LMOS carriers should be considered consumables, especially the Ultra LMOS aluminum. Light recoiling and reliable (as long as it's kept clean and lubed), but according the part replacement schedule on my JP-15 it should be changed out at 10,000 rounds.

[kurtm]

I know several guys who got at least 10,000 rounds out of the aluminum carriers, but they are a consumable.

My experience with the titanium carriers mirrors Jerry's in the fact that they ran just fine for a while and then just all of a sudden it would quit. Now I have never played with the boomfab and I am told they got that figured out, but I'm plenty happy with aluminum so I didn't see a reason to try one.

[Stlhead]

I have one of the aluminum ones, but still seem to prefer my stainless JP LM carriers. Never tried the TI ones.

[T Bacus]

The JP LM Stainless carrier is light enough for me.

[Bullittmcqueen]

The JP LM Stainless carrier is light enough for me.

Same experience here

[Blaster]

Last year at Rockcastle ProAm a guy from JP was there saying they had 25000 rds on aluminum bolt carrier

[SubOrbital]

Even JP states that their LMOS carriers should be considered consumables, especially the Ultra LMOS aluminum. Light recoiling and reliable (as long as it's kept clean and lubed), but according the part replacement schedule on my JP-15 it should be changed out at 10,000 rounds.

I don't see why the LMOS would be consumable - it's steel, whereas the ULMOS I would believe to be consumable due to its aluminum construction.

The JP LM Stainless carrier is light enough for me.

Pretty much. Beyond the LMOS your $/oz goes up exponentially.