I’ve been around firearms all my life and shot and handle a wide variety of firearms, burned up a pile of ammo and humped rifles, pistols and shotguns over many a hill & dale while hunting. My military time was spent maintaining aircraft, I’ve never been a LEO or taken any carbine clases. Most of my experience with military rifles had been with Garands, M14s, M1 carbines and a variety of WWII bolt actions.
In my lifetime, I’ve heard nearly every myth and all the gunshop gossip and it was quite the task sometimes, to sort fact from fertilizer. I heard tales of tumbling M16 bullets that would enter the toe and exit from between the eyes while tearing off limbs, turning organs into mush while leaving it’s victims wounded so it took two soldiers and a medic to carry them off the battlefield. A gunsmith friend of the family told us of how the AR had to be completely dry lest the oil attract a fatal dust speck to jam the action because of the close tolerances inside. I didn’t buy an AR until they introduced the A2 flat top back in the 90s. Although my first was a Colt Competition HBar, I had a few reservations. It didn’t take long to realize it’s fragility was greatly exagerated.
I carried that rifle all over a couple of deserts in search of the Mighty Jackrabbit and for awhile, I was shooting 223 like it was 22 rimfire. Ammo was cheap enough back then. Sold it couple years ago to fund a precision AR. Later, I built an AR carbine. Built both rifles using what I’d learned here. Shot a lot of rounds through both and picked up a few things along the way.
LUBE- Much has been written about cleaning and lubing ARs. New lube threads kept popping up like mushrooms in a newly fertilized field. Epic battles like those of the First World War were fought over the good and ill of more lubricants than I even knew existed. Even the pros and cons of Vagisil were discussed! Soon, it became obvious the fights were over the same trenches. Now that the Great Lube War has passed into history, I can make a confession. In all the thousands of rounds I’ve fired out of my ARs, to my great shame, the only lube I’ve used is the oft maligned Rem-Oil. It has not proved to be any better than it’s detractors claim. It evaporates quickly, needs to be constantly applied and is very thin. Yet, it’s all my ARs have needed to run reliably in sub-zero weather, rain, snow, or in the hot dusty heat of the desert. I inspected my BCG this afternoon and for all the use it’s had, it shows surprisingly little wear. The lesson here isn’t that Rem-Oil is a good choice. The lesson is to keep the AR well oiled even if using Rem-Oil- not dry. The only cleaning I’ve done is to wipe down the BCG and run a snake through the bore. No malfunctions due to dirt.
TOLERANCES- All quality rifles have tight tolerances. If they didn’t, the parts would not fit together as designed. Tolerances determine the minimum and maximum dimensions the parts are allowed to have. When folks talk about the tolerances of an AR being too tight to allow for debris, they’re wrong. What they really mean is clearance. Even so, the AR only has one place where it has tight clearances and that is between the bolt and receiver extension. Getting crapola in there will cause problems. Clearances between the carrier and upper receiver are actually generous. The carrier simply floats in the upper as it cycles back & forth.
BARRELS- Ask most anyone here and there is only one type of barrel acceptable for your AR bullet hose- MilSpec 4150 CMV with a chrome lined chamber and bore- and with good reason. These barrels have a proven history of good life and durability. Some would have you believing any other barrel is plain unacceptable. However, the chrome lining can have a negative impact on accuracy. For awhile, I waffled between the long life between of the lined 4150 CMV and accuracy of the of the unlined stainless steel barrels. When I finally pulled the trigger on my PSA carbine kit, I finally settled on the stainless steel barrel for two reasons-
- I wanted to see if the durability of the stainless steel barrel would stand up to a heavy firing schedule and-
- more importantly, the PSA carbine kit with the stainless steel barrel became available before the FN 4150 CMV barrel did and was at a price I could afford.
What I’ve discovered since then, is regardless of which of the two barrels I selected, short of simple abuse, it will take a lot of rounds before a good barrel truly wears out. In the real world, for a guy like me, the CMV offers little advantage in barrel life over the stainless steel. The flip side is the unlined offers little advantage in accuracy over the lined barrel when using bulk ammo and maybe not even when using good ammo.
Shot with the precision AR from a bench at 300 yards using bulk ammo. 2.5 - 3 MOA
So what it comes down to, for everyone agonizing over which barrel to choose for your general purpose carbine, choose a quality barrel regardless of material type and get one that will get you started shooting the soonest.
LEGOS- There are a lot of folks out there that will tell you assembling an AR is as simple as Legos. Compared to building a FAL from a kit, assembling an AR is simpler.
But, if you don’t get the right parts, or don’t understand an assembly procedure and it goes sideways on you, it can get complicated quick. No matter how easy anyone may think assembling an AR is, if you don’t take time to pay attention to the details, the devil will be smiling over your shoulder.
SIGHTS- Let’s cut to the chase on this one. As soon as you learn to use your aperture sights, get a quality RDS.
While I’m not ready to advocate not installing BUIS, I’m beginning to think they’re not needed. Experience has shown that the Aimpoint is a rugged, reliable sight, requiring minimal maintenance. In real world applications, the usefulness of the BUIS might be limited. Sure, if the RDS battery goes flat, you can simply switch to the BUIS but what happens if the RDS fogs up or you splatter mud over the lens? If you can’t see through the RDS the BUIS are usless. Okay, if the optic has a quick release mount, you can remove it to clear LOS for the BUIS. Still, this is something I’d like to ponder further.
SLING- Using traditional sling methods simply don’t work with the AR- or any other pistol gripped rifle for that matter. It’s awkward and uncomfortable. I’m currently using a “modern” two point sling and the difference is night & day. I just wish I’d paid more attention to the photos of how the South Africans were doing it with the FAL, back in the day. It would have put me years ahead of the learning curve.
CONFIGURATION- Get a good quality 16" barrel and a free float tube. Heavy profile barrels aren’t needed for accuracy, chamber, bore and crown quality does. A 16 inch barrel gives good reach while being short enough to be truly handy. The only thing a shooter needs to do to change a carbine from CQB to a precision rig is change the sights. Sure, an SBR would be handier for house clearing and a 20" bull barrel musket will serve better picking off P-dogs way out yonder, but a shooter with a 16" carbine can choose to either. There is a reason why a 16" AR carbine is just about the single best selling rifle in America today.
THE MOST IMPORTANT LESSON OF ALL- It’s my rifle and it’s my money. It’s nice if others think what I got is cool but that’s not why I built it. That doesn’t mean I ignore the experience and knowledge of others. I pay attention to folks like Army Chief (RIP), IG, K.L. Davis, F2S and Grant, just to name a few. I owe these fellows a lot for what I’ve learned during this journey. But at the end of the day, my rifles have to satisfy me. If it’s important to me that my rifle meets the approval of others, it means I’ve learned nothing
