An Angel got its wings
Rich came by last night and we assembled his AR. Here’s his pretty funny list of Things You Need to Know Before Assembling an AR-15.
While I have put together several ARs, last night’s gave me trouble because 1) I hadn’t done it in a while and 2) the revised instructions at AR15.com suck. I usually get the instructions because, while I can probably assemble it from memory, there are some things that have to be done in order (for instance, putting on the stock before the selector switch would be bad). Any way, far superior instructions on the build are here. Any way, we got it done despite me launching the buffer retainer three times, eventually losing it. Fortunately, I had a replacement:
January 22nd, 2010 at 10:32 am
Yes. Searching the floor for the buffer retainer is not fun.
January 22nd, 2010 at 10:42 am
It’s always good to keep a few spares around, and the buffer retainer is one of them, I have found that I need to keep the manual around, as time does cloud the memory, the last one took several hours, till I broke down and got the book out
January 22nd, 2010 at 12:02 pm
This is one of the things that is keeping me from going the AR route (well, in addition to the $$). I’ve never owned a gun I could not intuitively take apart and put back together.
January 22nd, 2010 at 12:22 pm
Brownells has great directions (and videos) available online and free.
January 22nd, 2010 at 1:41 pm
If you’re doing any AR work at all, it isn’t a bad idea to have an entire LPK “in stock”, plus a little bag of detent pins and springs (or is that “sproings”?).
Btw, the trick of tapping the rear detent pin/spring hole and using a shortened spring and 4-40 set-screw will save you a LOT of frustration, particularly if you think you might want to change buffer tubes or plates.
January 22nd, 2010 at 2:51 pm
Heh, I can relate, Launched mine across the room yesterday while installing an ASAP plate and MS2 sling. Turned out great, but loosing a part(especially in the WAR ROOM, My basement) is bonified pain in the rear!