The other week I was looking around for someone to do some light gunsmithing on my AR-15. I asked at my local range and they said there was a gunsmith right down the road. So I called him up to ask if he could do what I wanted. He said, “Oh, we don’t really carry too many AR-15 parts.” I thanked him for his time and hung up.
I got what I needed elsewhere, but a gunsmith (who works on rifles plenty, according to the guys at the range) who apparently doesn’t do a whole lot of work with AR’s really surprised me. It seems to me that they’re one of the most common rifles out there (and pretty easy to work with). It’d be one thing if he specialized in 1911s or pistols in general or foreign guns or WWI/II era guns or something, but it struck me as very odd.**
Is it perhaps most common than I think for dedicated gunsmiths (as in that’s what they do for a living, not just the guy at the back of the gun shop who can put night sights on your glock)? Or is it a clue that perhaps he’s not all that qualified to be doing what he’s doing or not especially competent?
**Up whereabouts I live, pistols seem more common than rifles, but I’ve seen more than enough AR-15s at the range (mostly POS’s) that they HAVE to break down and have to get fixed SOMEWHERE around here.
Yes, the 3 important questions:
What do you need done? (Already covered, but this way we know, when we claim its easy enough a cave man can do it, what we are talking about.)
Where do you live? (Perhaps a forum member may come to your rescue with a suggestion of a good gunsmith, or an open garage and the tools and experience you lack)
Who are the people in your tag line? (I have been laughing about that for 2 or 3 days)
I wouldn’t be so quick to judge the gunsmith. He is probably old school. I know a lot of the old timers who don’t care for these new fangled plastic guns. Anything semi auto is blaspheme to those guys…except the Garand of course.
Let’s be honest too. It’s not like working on AR’s is rocket surgery. A great riflesmith here doesn’t touch AR’s because it’s not his type of work and stocking parts is more trouble than it’s worth.
I needed a buffer retainer replaced (easy enough, but I wanted my castle nut tightened and staked properly afterwards).
I live up in Cleveland which means Glocks are considered incredibly expensive guns and Bushmaster/DPMS is what you buy when you’re rolling in the money.
Grant (C4IGrant) and Sgt. Watson of the Tuscarawas county Sheriff’s Dept. At the latest Defensive Carbine 101 Ben said, “You guys wanna see something gay?” ready to share some of the queer-ass range commands/call-outs he was forced to do at training session the other week (and holy shit it was gayer than a unicorn wearing spandex on roller skates). Immediately after he said that Grant chimes in from behind me: “Oh, I love gay things!” He had been giving me a hard time earlier (in jest) so I told him I was making it my new sig. And I did.
[OldMan] Legos these days have too many custom parts. I remember back in the day when we had only 3 bricks and 2 colors and we liked it, dammit. [/OldMan]
I know a really good smith locally who almost never works on ARs. He has some parts and will do work if it comes across his bench, but it is very rare. He doesn’t have any special AR knowledge (compared to 1911s for example), but working on an AR-15 is exceptionally easy.
I’m getting to the point where I trust myself more than many gunsmiths for most AR/Glock related things.
Certainly there are guys out there with knowledge and skill that make me look grossly incompetent. But I’m not restoring guns, doing revolver action jobs, or barrel crowns…things I have no clue about. I know what torque I want, I know how I want things staked, and beyond that there isn’t a whole lot of voodoo to anything AR related.
Hey, if he passed on it, be thankful. Sounds like he’s just being honest. To me, thats somebody who may be a decent gunsmith in their own area. I’ve seen 2 gunsmiths that would take any job even when they knew they had no idea what they were doing, but they weren’t going to pass on the job. I had a guy jack-up a 1911 one time, when I brought it back and politely/modestly said WTF? the guy said “oh, well these aren’t really my thing, I build custom bolt rifles”. Ok, but that would have been nice to hear up front.
I’ll have to somewhat disagree with some of the posts here. Yes, many people can assemble an AR. Especially when it’s dropping a lower onto a receiver (complete or stripped).
However, we have also seen enough posts of those who have had issues getting the barrel nut on correctly.
We have seen those who have chopped barrels and thrown on ridiculously long flash hiders to obtain some “look” only to find out it won’t run because of gas port issues.
Endplates on backwards or not staked.
Incorrect assembly of the fire control parts.
I am sure I could go on. And let’s not forget that the selection of parts is probably one of the most critical things. If you start with crap you will end up with crap.
Think about how many posts we have had where someone built an SBR and they experienced failure of the bolt to lock back after the last round, or other issues. Some of which could be solved by using a different buffer.
So is it really that easy to build one or work on one? Is it really that easy to make it run correctly? Sometimes.
I would agree with that. I have no idea how to make a non-standard configuration work. A buddy of mine has built all sorts of weird AR stuff, such as a 220 Swift AR10, a .510" wildcat on an AR10, .300 Whisper on an AR15, etc. The guns go bang. They absolutely do NOT feed correctly. He will not admit that a different magazine design is necessary when the case geometry changes. Nor does he have any idea how to modify the feed ramps to work with different cartridges. Gas issues? Forget it. Now that I have seen a bunch of his projects I have concluded that he is in the business of ruining barrels and receivers.
In my experience, many traditional “smiths” are “fudds” who, while pretty decent with a Remchester, look down their noses at ARs (or any EBR - FALs, HKs, AKs, etc.). I’ve run into some that, if it wasn’t designed by John Browning or carry his name, they don’t deem it worthy of their attention.
For someone with basic mechanical skills, it isn’t all that difficult to assemble an AR if you do some research, stick with properly spec’d parts and don’t go trying to “improve” the operating system. Stepping outside the common AR calibers takes a bit more skill.
I think the key for folks is to be able to recognize when they are dipping their toes into the deep end. There’s plenty I won’t attempt…but I feel comfortable torquing and staking the castle nut like the OP was talking about.
Well, it sounds like a trip to Grant’s shop may in order… Just a thought…Top Gun Supply…www.topgunsupply.com is not far from the Cleveland area, While I don’t think he works on AR’s, he DOES sell them and may know of someone who can work on them that may be closer, other than that, I’d just drive to Grant’s shop…There’s no guess work there, Grant knows what he’s doing…
I’ve been a Remington 700/1100/870 armorer, Ruger armorer and now a Glock armorer. I’ve put together an AR lower from parts and done work on two other AR’s in my safe. There are times that someone has asked me to work on a weapon and I will either do so or if I don’t feel like it then I will pass. Maybe the gunsmith is not into the AR thing and has enough business already. The good thing is that someone out there has a passion for the AR, has the tools and ability to help you out. Just keep looking.
Putting together ARs is not like putting together legos. If you think otherwise, look at the troubleshooting forums and posts from time to time. It isn’t rocket science, but it’s easy to screw up too if you don’t know what you don’t know.
