is it bad to put a bolt carrier from one AR into another?

[bushmaster]

thats the question.  I have a RRA AR in 6.8spc and want to purchase an upper reciever with a 24in. barrel.  would it hurt to change out my original bolt carrier between the two uppers?

[Bopeye]

It shouldn't hurt a thing Bushamster, but I'm no expert at AR's. In the military we could change out bolts no problem, but the tolerances diddn't seem to be as tight. I don't know. My meds are making problem solving a real pain.........

[cb223]

It depends on who you talk to, what answer you'll get.

Some will say no do not do it.

Personally I have done it. If you go to a gun show to buy parts most of the time they randomly grab them out of a huge bin.

You could possibly run into head space problems. I have not had any trouble. I did check them with a head space gauge.

[bigben]

just got done making 45 bolt carriers the other day.  what a pain in the butt.  I wanna know how they did this stuff back in the day before CNC machin centers

[bushmaster]

http://www.model1sales.com/item-detail.cfm?ID=UTA24CL&storeid=1&image=utact24u.gif&CFID=36454801&CFTOKEN=31513316

this is the upper that i'm talkin about.  My main concern is that the upper is of the same make... i think.  The specs are pretty thorough on the hardware but they don't mention the make of the upper base itself.

[Dan Carey]

 If you have a bolt that has been shot a few hundred rounds it has wear spots on it where it has mated to the barrel extension, when you put that bolt into another upper the wear spots are not going to match up with the new extension so it will wear a little different, after a few back and forth and you have a worn out bolt head.

[bushmaster]

I have fired exactly 100 rounds through my current upper.  When I make the change over, it will be permanent.  I can't see any wear on it yet, but would it be so suttle that i would not notice it?

[Dan Carey]

A 100 rounds probably won't show any wear.