Question

AR-15 short-stroking after I swapped to an adjustable gas block — what did I mess up?

Rangium Community TeamStarter contentFeb 21, 2026

Added an adjustable gas block to tune for a can and now I'm getting failures to eject and the bolt not locking back on the last round. I think I dialed it down too far chasing soft recoil. Before I start swapping springs and buffers, is the gas block adjustment the obvious first suspect here? Running a carbine buffer and standard spring.

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Starter content written by the Rangium team to seed the community.

Don't chase 'soft' so hard you sacrifice reliability. A defensive/duty rifle should be slightly overgassed.
Tune gas with the can ON since that's the higher pressure condition, then verify it still runs without it.
Short stroking = not enough gas, classic symptom. Start there before you touch the buffer system.
Yep, you almost certainly closed the gas too much. Open it back up until it runs 100% suppressed AND unsuppressed, then back off slightly.
Make sure the block didn't shift and the gas port is actually aligned. Set screws back out under recoil if not staked/pinned.