All posts tagged Gun Parts

I’m an LWRC Piston guy, but……….

I’ve been on bandwagon with LWRC long before we sold their upper receivers and I really have a hard time spending money on anything but.  We’ve been involved with gun builds at various places in the Country and it’s been loads of fun doing it and see people build or assemble their first AR15.   The AR15 is still the next best training rifle after a 22LR bolt action for new shooters.   You can teach range adjustments and get people to learn how to manipulate a firearm that is basically the same thing that most of our standing military uses.

If you are looking to get your first AR15, I would not hesitate to tell you that you really don’t need to spend more than about $600.   I see nothing wrong with people buying something like Spikes Tactical Uppers and slapping it on a used upper receiver or a less expensive gun.   Spikes Tactical Uppers give you a very good starting point with quality parts and a good price point.   If you don’t think you’ll be put on the front line and be shooting 10,000rds a year through your barrel, don’t worry about spending the $2000 on an LWRC.

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Remember when everyone and an AR15A2?

Remember how long ago it was when an AR15 meant the long 20inch barrel and it was virtually impossible to find an M4 style firearm.   AR15 firearms have come a long way, both the upper receivers and the lowers.   Trying to find a firearm now that does not have staked parts or is not chrome plated is getting harder and harder.   Even the machining on bolt carriers has improved to the point that Direct Impingement firearms are 10xs more reliable than before.  All you have to do is pop the bolt carriers out of the guns and you can feel the difference.

Even the average AR15 now is a minute of angle firearm and can still run like a military rifle.   Barrel technology on your average AR15 upper receivers has doubled and tripled.   I have an LWRC M6A1 rifle that supposedly has a barrel life of about 7500rds but the newer ones are close to 20,000rds.   The bolt carrier group is a  one piece unit and there has been absolutely zero broken parts on it.   Hopefully the only things that will eventually where out anytime soon are the extractor and springs.  It’s always wise to keep some of the basic spare parts around no matter what AR15 you own.

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Gun Parts and AR15 accessorizing

Those statements can give some people a stroke, but once you’ve been there and done that, you hopefully have arrived at a happy medium.   Put me down as someone that was not a big fan of the AR15 design because I never understood why a gun was designed without worrying about how much maintenance it needed.   Don’t tell me that Eugene Stoner knew the gun was designed to do what it is doing today.  There was basically a disaster in place when the guns were first fielded and not until recently have the vast majority of AR15 owners realized that the direct impingement gun needs to be generously lubricated at all times to be functional.

There have been many improvements over the internal workings of the firearm from barrels, chamber chroming, gun magazines, improvements on ammunition and even changes to barrel twist have all gun us to where the M4 carbine is today.   The next major improvement with the M4 Carbine and M16 family of firearms is a lighter carbine like replacing your AR15 upper receivers without the compromises in durability.  That is something that has still been unproven with some of the newer lightweight uppers because of the time they have been out, but only time and testing will tell.

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Fall Special on LWRC Upper Recievers

The news coming from LWRC this Fall is that the new Lightweight Stretch upper has replaced the older M6 LWRC rifle.   There is very little different about this upper than the M6.   The LWRC Lightweight upper comes standard with the Magpul MOE Handguard.   It took me awhile to figure out what the big deal was when all of the MOE stuff started showing up.   Sometimes it’s a royal pain to have to research all of the new products that come out around this time of the year because we know that people are going to call about them and we try to look as smart as we can.   If you haven’t know it by now, gun accessories, primarily for the AR15 fill the void for the guys that grew up and stopped playing with LEGOS.

Some of this stuff really does improve the fit and feel of a firearm and lightening your Carbine without weakening it a great thing.   As anyone in the military if they could change something on their M16 to take off 8 oz and they will tell you it’s a good thing.   We recently got in the new LWRC uppers for sale that is the lightweight stretch upper.  This gun comes with the New Magpul MOE stock which is all stock with rail attachments.   There is an aweful lot of un-used weight on many M4 Carbines and the Quad rail thing is great if you are using it, but most people don’t.

 

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Don’t sell your AR15, get a new upper

There are plenty of upgrades and things you can do to a less expensive AR15 to make it better.   As long as it’s a Mil-Spec gun, go ahead and replace the springs first off, make sure the proper areas are staked on and don’t get carried away.  Staking your gas key is probable one of the biggest things I’ve seen AR15 owners not pay attention too and if you shoot enough rounds, you’ll find out what  happens.   Gun magazines are an obvious area of importance, but many still think that they will get good reliability out of their guns.
I call bullshit on that one and the complacent gun owner is going to be the one that has the firearm go down at the wrong time.   It’s been a few years, but not that long that a guy who had put on a Spikes tactical upper receiver  on his gun stated that he runs his guns dry and doesn’t have problems, well that is another individual that is going to get a shock when his MOA AR15 goes down after rapidly firing off 30rd and that dry run firearms goes down.   Complacency is something that really catches up with a gun owner or Law Enforcement officer.   If you want a better gun, learn how to upgrade it or maintain it properly and just buy a better barrel or upper receiver.

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AR15 upgrades without the hassles

There are enormous numbers of things you can do to customize your AR15 style rifles but one thing to consider is every time you do a gunsmithing job to your firearm, that’s one more thing that may not be  installed correctly.   The more you add on, the more can fall off, that goes from changing magazine releases, trigger guards, triggers, hand guards, gun grips and and more.   Instead of taking everything off of your firearm, it’s really better to just get another upper receiver or another firearm.   Especially if you think there is a chance you won’t like the modifications.  Piston conversions are another thing to be careful about because the gun should be functioning reliable after the changes and not less reliable.   And remember don’t fix something that isn’t broken.

Going back and forth from a direct impingement firearm to a pistol driven gun and then back to DI is a bad idea.   There are some really cost effective versions of the piston uppers like the CMMG uppers for sale at Rogue Elite.   LWRC is still the king of the piston driver uppers especially after the new lightweight upper receivers have come out that are just slightly over $1000.    The M4 LEPII is a popular upper receiver and only change of your recoil spring should do the trick.   The key to maintaining a reliable firearm is to maintain it, not constantly mess around with it.   If  you want to do minor changes, go ahead, major changes to a firearm, get a new one.   The cost in time and money may be about the same.

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Changing gear and changing gear

I recently got a letter from Magpul Industries about some of the new products and colors that are available for their gun accessories.   There are many M4 manufacturers out there that are making gun accessories that easily attach to a firearm, but I have already found out personally that they are not something you will want to take into combat.   If people stop and think about it, most of these products are pretty easy to pick out because they are cheap.   Mostly things like fore grips and flashlight mounts.

The age old, “you get what you paid for” is the reality of firearms especially combat worthy.   I’ve read lots of posts on gun forums about guns being “hobby” firearms from gun instructors because people trick them out and think they will hold up.   Magpul pmags are the number one selling AR15 magazine because they are tough and reliable.  Recently we started carrying more of the stocks, stock accessories and magazine accessories.  Be very careful that you don’t compromise your tactical vests or magazine holders when you chang out your floor plates because some tactical vests will not work with the changes.

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Long range shooting with an AR platform rifle

I don’t know all of the facts and figures, but given just what I see every day on the New York and Ohio firing ranges around here, I would say that the AR15 is the most popular rifle in America.   Now that caliber changes are as easy as swapping out your AR15 upper receiver and possible only a minor change in your lower receiver like a hammer spring, you can go from a .223 varmint rifle to a 6.8 SPC rifle, or down to a CQB rifle at almost the pop of two pins.   I was never a big fan of upping the caliber on a AR15 rifle, but I am a big fan of the 75gr HPBT for close up fighting.   The 75gr bullet seems to yaw better and slower velocities and give more thump just from my experiences.

When it comes to taking your AR15 rifle to a longer range, there are records being broken every week with the AR15 platform.  People use to laugh when they would hear of some one shooting an AR15 at 1000yds,  but it is done and can give a .308 a run for it’s money.   The real thing to consider when it comes to caliber changes on AR15 upper receivers  is how powerful is the round vs just accuracy competitions.   I have a friend that came back from service over in the Middle East and he gave first hand accounts of how bad 9mm ammo was in combat and that at least 3rds of M855 was necessary to take down a threat with an M4.   Consider the ammunition you are using and not just how far out you can shoot, you may want to trade accuracy for energy.

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Has anyone made plans for a Mapgul pistol mag?

I’ve been getting good at sensing changes in the gun industry and I think we’re on the precipice right now.   Synthetic stocks are far superior to what was out a decade ago and machining has improvement so well on the AR15 design that even the direct impingement guns are superior to what was out a decade ago.   I think  if you have the money to spend, you can get a good DI gun that is as reliable as a piston gun.   On the discussion of rifle magazines, once you get to the point that you can drive your car over a magazine and then still reliable shoot it in your gun, you have arrived at the top of the mountain.

I think Glock magazines are pretty tough, but I’ve never seen somebody drive over one with a car and still have it run.  If anyone has seen a pistol magazine as tough as the Magpul Pmags let me know? Wilson combat magazines are the most reliable gun magazines, but I don’t think any 1911 magazine would hold up to a 200lb person standing on it let alone a 2 ton truck.   Maybe we don’t need gun magazines to be this tough, but I sure think that if we can improve the light bulb, we can improve the handgun or pistol magazines.

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Gun cleaning and field stripping

I’m by no means a gunsmith, but I have found that I know my firearms better than many and that’s because I took the time to learn how to deal with gun wear and gun maintenance.   All firearms will eventually have something break on them, or the springs in the trigger or recoil spring will wear out.   I have a few 1911 45acp guns that will get really picky about ammunition once they hit about 4000rds through them because the slides will get weak and some of my handloads that are not as clean as factory ammo fail to go into battery.

I think it’s a good idea to know and have replacement parts for your firearm at least in your home.  There have been plenty of range trips that have been spoiled when somebody has a malfunctioning firearm or breaks an extractor.   There are a few gun parts kits you can keep with your AR15 that will only take a few minutes to replace if you ever have a breakage.  Glock parts are easy to replace, probable more so than other firearms because all you need is a Glock tool to punch out a few pins and you can easily replace the firing pin, springs, trigger ect.

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