How big of a pain in the ass is it to remove a pinned flash hider? How much risk is involved? I want to eventually put a rail on my 14.5" so I want to know my options. I would have a professional do this. If its too much effort I will just add an omega.
Thanks
So, would you potentially be removing a pinned FH, installing a rail and then repinning a new FH? If so, I’d like to know the answer to this as well.
there’s a few ways to do it- if you have a REAL professional do it there’s basically no “risk.” i don’t know if guy’s like ADCO have the capability of re-using the same pinhole- i don’t, and i doubt it can be done with any degree of precision, so the only downside is you’ll most likely have two holes in your threads instead of one.
and you’ll need to get a new muzzle device, or buy one from whoever does the work.
might be a good time to consider SBRing, if you have any inclination… i used to be big on permed 14.5s till i damaged a handguard on one. i think i’ll still use that rout in the future, as i’m horribly opposed to playing NFA games, but it’s something to consider.
I did it on a 14.5 along with a cut, crown and rethread to 10.5. If I had a 14.5 and wanted to remain legal I would send it out to someone you knew was capable. Mine was blind pinned, tacked and ground smooth and parked. I had a hell of a time finding the pins (2).
I basically ground the old extended A2 style FH off at the base to find the pin and drilled it out. I couldn’t get it off so I continued to grind around the base till I found another pin. Once I located the last pin, I just gound it flush and removed the FH. The barrel was probably a 16" originally because it had a Lennox crown (hacksaw). I chucked it up in the lathe and made it alittle shorter. Shoots alot better too.
The barrel threads were pretty butchered since one of the pins just grazed the barrelthreads. If my original intent had not been to build and SBR upper I would have tacked the new FH on instead of trying to pin it to keep it legal length. I highly recommend some masking tape and a few layers of duct tape on the barrel to prevent a trip to the refinisher. I got alittle ahead of myself and forgot; then, got alittle aggressive trying to find the other pin and nicked the park on the barrel. It was no biggie since I had to repark the cut down FSB so it would fit under the FF rail. At least now the barrel is parked under the FSB
After this ordeal, I see the is no reason to own a 14.5" w/perm attached FH because anytime you want to take it apart you run into this problem. Just pony up and pay the man his two bills and do what you want.
I have a Stag Compliant gun the I switched forends on so the pinned flash hider had to come off. It had a single blind pin. The pin is HARD so you need a carbide bit. I have an excellent relationship at the local shop so we did the job there. The barrel was placed in a mill and drilled. The pin was drilled out easy enough but there was a little left so that when it was unscrewed the threads were damaged. We then put it in the lathe and recut the threads. It looks easy enough but as you can see there are risks.
When I’ve removed them I used a milling machine to mill through the weld down the the pin. Then turn the flash hider off a little and the pin should pop out. If it does then remove the flash hider as normal.
The flash hider is ruined in the process.
I wish I lived in a state where I could.
i have a Bushmaster carbine (pictured below) with that ugly AK47 style FH/muzzle brake is the process for removing the FH the same as that described by the folks who have done it in this thread.
thank you all in advance.
No it is much easier to remove the AK style Flash Hider. I too had the same one on one of my guns. You just drive out the pin and it slides off the front. You then have a plain barrel with a slot for the pin. It has to be threaded for the new flash hider or you can leave it plain.
I was real happy with the work ADCO did on my 14.5 ,I hate I had to have it pinned ,but I live in a state that does not allow SBR:(
I’m working on removing a pinned FH from a standard 14.5" M4 barrel that I bought. Should this barrel have left or right handed threads? I have cut it down to where the pin is and need to try and loosen it to remove the pin. My problem is that I’m working out of town in an apartment and don’t have a vice to hold everything in place at them moment. Guess I’m going to have to see if a local gunsmith can help me the rest of the way in removing it.
Are you a Jedi Master with a Dremel??
Look how close I came to Pappabear’s Noveske threads. 
The tines were cut off to get them out of the way.
Is the pin itself just tapped into place and then welded over? The shop that I bought the barrel from said that I should be able to grind down to a point and then use a magnet of some sort to extract it. From the depth I’ve gone so far, it looks like a fairly tight fit and the magnet trick isn’t going to work.
The problem with that hope is that once you start, you’re kinda commited to the project.
I tried that crap on a PWS perm and it didn’t work. Wasted a bunch of time too. Best to just cut the unit on both sides and break it in two with a big screw driver.
Look at some of the rails that will attach to the standard barrel nut, then you don’t need to cut of the flash hider.
Consider selling the 14.5" to buy a 16". If you feel the need to change the configuration now, you may again. The 16" will save you time and money if you want to change something later.
I’ve already got a weapon with a 16" barrel configuration as well as a 20" setup. This was just a venture to get as short and light of a weapon as I could on a fairly small budget and without going SBR. If grinding it down and splitting it is my only route at this point, then that’s what its going to take. I was never concerned with keeping the FH anyway. I have already found what I want to go back with as I knew it would get butchered in the removal process.
Thanks for the advice and the pics of your dremel handywork.
Just know where your threads are. Going slow and not wrecking a barrel is worth the effort. I took a long time on my first one.
PWS was a piece of cake because I could see the barrel threads. That stupid vortex was nerve racking because the muzzle end covers the barrel diameter and threads.
Yeah, the one that I have is similar to a Vortex. This will definitely be a SLOOOW process. But I have nothing but time in the evenings to slowly work on it. I don’t have the rest of the components to finish the gun rightnow anyway. Just bought a complete lower and the barrel yesterday as a starting point. I plan to duracoat the upper, lower and barrel and leave everything else black. I’m stuck in a boring town for the next 6-8 months so I figured I might as well build another AR…hahaha!!!
I’ve always sawed off enough of the muzzle device to get a center into the muzzle then turned the outside of the device on a lathe until the pin was exposed. Obviously, not the approach to use if you want to save the device.
I am Thinking of doing this Myself soon, Since Alabama Finally passed the law letting us common folk have SBR’s Now.
I got the name and number of a NFA trust lawyer .So I will contact him and see what the damage will be on filing a Trust for it and then I will pony up the 2 dead presidents and start the process