AR Tip of the Fortnight Archive
Need to have your Upper and or Lower refinshed? Bushmaster has indicated P.C. of Titusville, 701 Columbia Boulevard, Bldg. 401, Titusville, FL 32780 phone 321-267-1161 can do the same Mil-Spec anodizing as they use and have a faster turn around time.
Looking for a Box to Ship your barrel or barreled upper? Visit your local US Post Office. They have triangular 'Express' boxes that come in two sizes. The shorter one can handle just about any barrel, or even a 16" barrel mounted on a lower. The longer one can handle any barreld upper. The best part is the boxes are free.
Trigger have a gritty feel? Try polishing the Trigger pin.
[Instructions]
Use the A1 instead of the A2 stock (keep the A2 buttplate). It makes the rifle balance better, and is easier to handle if you of average build and/or wearing a heavy coat.
If you have a carbine with an A1 rear sight, replace the aperture with an A2 aperture. This way you have a standard (small hole) and a quick CQB ghost ring.
Got a question? Check the FAQ first!
Don’t over clean your rifle. If you have a chrome bore you should only be using copper remover once every few thousand rounds or so (when accuracy starts going bad).
CLP is all you need for cleaning after the range. Grease is for Range-Only rifles, it is not recommended by the Military, and can keep abrasives in contact with your workings!
Ignoring Carbon Build-up - per Armalite
There are frequent posts asking about cleaning carbon from the AR. We've decided to post our answer as a separate topic for your reading amusement:
Hold off on removing the carbon. Leave it.
Now that we've got your attention, we'll explain.
Deep inside the AR-10 or AR-15/M-16 bolt carrier is a groove at the end of the chromed cylinder that the gas rings slide in. That groove is GRIND RELIEF. It's a production artifact. It prevents a ledge from being left where the grinding for that cylinder ends.
Carbon can build up in the groove and the rear surface of the carrier. It is harmless. The high pressure/temperature operating gas keeps it from building up too much. About the time it gets too bulky, it gets blown out.
Don't confuse instincts for cleanliness that you learned in the military with common sense. It's easy for an inspector to know when there isn't a speck of dirt. It's harder to know what's important.
Any scraper that'll get to it can damage the ground surface inside the carrier. Bad deal.
Clean out what you can with patches or Q-tips, but white-glove cleaning damages more guns than all the shooting we do.
If you reload for the AR then purchase primed brass. Primed brass isn't considered HAZMAT (like primers alone are) so you avoid that expense. Since its virgin brass, you won't spend time depriming, priming, resizing, and trimming the case. You will spend more time shooting and less time reloading. Sell that 'once -fired' brass to someone who would rather reload than shoot. Courtesty of LTC. Santose
Avoid reloads if possible (and remanufactured ammo). The cause of most (if not all) catastrophic AR-15 failures were traced to improperly loaded reloads.
In the field carry a spare bolt. If you have an extractor problem its quicker and easier to just swap bolts in the field, fix the extractor back at home/garrison.
Be sure to gauge your spare bolt when you do your annual field gauge test on the bolt in your rifle.
Forgot to bring a cleaning kit in the field? Use a bootlace to pull patches through your bore. Courtesy US Army SMART Book (1984 edition)
If you use Steel Cased ammo be sure you spray some CLP into the chamber and scrub the chamber a bit with a M16 chamber brush when you have finished firing (and before heading home from the range).
Put a disposable foam earplug in the crevace where the pistol grip meets the trigger guard to prevent blisters from chafing (Better yet get a Gapper).
To clean a chrome lined barrel you should only need 6 to 12 patches (anything more is wasted time & effort).
Zeroing at 25 yards? Scale the 25M zeroing target to 91% so the grid squares still match your sight adjustments.
Zeroing at 50 yards? (Good for you!) Scale the 25M zeroing target to 183% so the grid will match your sight adjustments.
Number your magazines, that way you can track mag related failues in a notebook and see which mags are getting bad (or use MagTracker for your PDA - see Documents:PDA Software).
Before using NEW Thermold magazines for the first time, cycle the bolt a few times to smoothen out the feed lips and get the bolt to cycle smoothly.
Looking for a low-profile carry case that can handle up to a 16" barrel, .22 conversion kit, cleaning kit, magazines & ammo? Try a Craftsman 26" plastic toolbox (about $20 at Sears). The rifle will fit once its been brokend down in upper & lower receiver sections. Other popular options include hard golf club cases and soft Guitar Cases (guitar case idea & pictures courtesy of Jason P. of Chicago)
Got a new rifle? Be sure you clean it before taking it to the range for the first time.
Be sure to stop by the Photo Album and check out the PM Monthly pages for more tip & tricks from the US Army.
Carrying a rifle in the field? You should reverse the rear sling swivel to prevent it from snagging on brush.
Courtesty of LTC Santose
Got one of those M4 stocks (telescoping or faux telescoping)? Since you can't carry a cleaning kit, you should think of replacing the pistol grip with one of the trap door varients so you can keep a bottle of CLP with the rifle. An AR-15 can go a long time without cleaning if a little CLP is shot on the bolt every now and then.
Drop a 0.25" ball bearing (1/4" steel slingshot projectiles work great) into each of your bottles of CLP. It helps mix the components when you shake the bottle.
Store CLP containers on their sides. Shaking the container will mix the solids back into solution more easily when they settle on the side than when they settle on the bottom. Courtesy of Dennis Appleman
Never use 'Simple Green' to clean your AR-15 (or any other Aluminum firearm). The US Army forbids it since they found Simple Green will remove the protective Andodized coating. Courtesy of Jeff White.
...Replace the allen bolt with a standard head bolt (slotted or philips). Makes removal of the pistol grip much easier as the allen keys tend to not be there when you need them. Courtesy of CAL from AR15-L
If you have a Tactical Light on your AR-15 DON'T use velcro to hold the reed switch, when the handguards get hot it will move. Cut 1/4" to 3/8" sections from a bicycle inner tube (used ones are free from most bike shops) and use these 'rubber bands' to hold the switch to the handguards. These will hold the switch better and allow you to alter the switches position when needed. Courtesy of CAL from AR15-L
If you use a military chamber brush, as I do, to clean your chamber it is quite obvious that the area from the chamber face to the back of the locking lugs has the unwanted material moved around and not removed by the stainless bristles on the brush. If you take a pair of hemostats with the angled nose on them and the cotton tip portion of a Q-Tip (cut from the shaft of course) you can remove the loosened material after using the chamber brush. Since the hemos lock shut you can achieve any angle needed to completely clean behind the locking lugs. Works as well as a dedicated lug cleaning tool for a whole lot less $$. Courtesy of David Shasteen
Mark your sights settings and screw/bolt positions with silver Sharpie "witness marks" for a quick visual check that they are secure. Courtesy of Doc Gunn
