How do you know when you're AR is good to go?

[mvician]

You never know when Bubba is going to buy some nice receivers and put crapola parts into them.

WTS - Daniel Defense lower receiver with a brand-new Vulcan Arms LPK and a UTG collapsible stock...

It happens.........In a thread on GT the other day a guy was asking about Bushmasters.

Turns out it was a Bushmaster lower with who knows what parts....here is the quote from one of his posts....

I have discovered that the barrel was changed with an M1S chrome lined barrel. The gas block is obviously not original. The bolt is marked 5.45 X 39 but works fine with .223 ammo and it has M4 feed ramps.

I had two problems. The trigger pin kept walking out. I later discovered that the hammer spring was installed backwards and was not holding the pin in place. Easy fix.

The ammo I was shooting was Herter's steel case and it caused fail to extract after the gun got hot. The lacker or what ever they put on that case was melting and the case would not extract. So no more crappy ammo for it I guess.

Another issue I had was that after two magazines the hand guards got really hot. To a point where it was uncomfortable to hold the rifle. I also managed to burn my hand a bit on the gas block.

After he posted that I just had to ask.......

Quote:
Originally Posted by mvician
So what you got was someones scabbed together rifle? Was it represented as a Bushmaster rifle? I'd be pissed.

I bought the gun from a friend who bought from his friend. He didn't know much but it seems like a good quality gun that someone changed some parts on. The barrel is actually chrome lined.

This rifle is just FULL OF FAIL.

 

[thompal]

If you arent willing to buy the brands with the best reliability record, then you pretty much are stuck having to figure out when you are comfortable with how your gun has performed.

This is a pretty good "check your gun for being made properly" run down.

"Oh No! I bought a BM/RRA/Stag before I knew better!" - M4Carbine.net Forums

Whew. I just went and read that thread on m4carbine. That place doesn't have a very welcoming attitude, in my opinion. One poor guy actually asked a question. Since his post count was not acceptably high, they basically told him he was too stupid to even post there, and to go away. Someone else got told that if he didn't have a BCG that was "approved" by the denizens there, that he was showing a lack of respect, and he wouldn't be welcome at any training they attended. Yikes! I think I'll just stay here.

 

[sloughfoot]

Whew. I just went and read that thread on m4carbine. That place doesn't have a very welcoming attitude, in my opinion. One poor guy actually asked a question. Since his post count was not acceptably high, they basically told him he was too stupid to even post there, and to go away. Someone else got told that if he didn't have a BCG that was "approved" by the denizens there, that he was showing a lack of respect, and he wouldn't be welcome at any training they attended. Yikes! I think I'll just stay here.

You are welcome here. Some of those guys are pretty intense. Funny, I bought my first AR about 1985 and I can't remember ANY Malf's in any of the doxen or so rifles I have bought or built for SD and competition. I have never seen any difference in any of the parts. They all look mil-spec and I truly believe that all of them are made by the same company. There is not a nickel's worth of difference between all of them IMO.

I also have a couple of White Oak uppers and they look the same and operate the same and are just as accurate as my stock RRA uppers. And these are supposed to be Premium uppers.

What folks need to realize about the AR system is that the Barrel extension is screwed into the barrel and the bolt floats in the carrier and self aligns in the whole system. It cannot help but be accurate.

And reliable, outside of the rifle crapping inside of itself.

 

[thompal]

You are welcome here. Some of those guys are pretty intense. Funny, I bought my first AR about 1985 and I can't remember ANY Malf's in any of the doxen or so rifles I have bought or built for SD and competition. I have never seen any difference in any of the parts. They all look mil-spec and I truly believe that all of them are made by the same company. There is not a nickel's worth of difference between all of them IMO.

I also have a couple of White Oak uppers and they look the same and operate the same and are just as accurate as my stock RRA uppers. And these are supposed to be Premium uppers.

What folks need to realize about the AR system is that the Barrel extension is screwed into the barrel and the bolt floats in the carrier and self aligns in the whole system. It cannot help but be accurate.

And reliable, outside of the rifle crapping inside of itself.

I've had a variety of AR-15s over the years. 3 Colts, 2 Eagles, and 2 Olys. My most accurate was a Colt A2 HBAR, but it had the worst feeling trigger, and the most slop between the upper and lower. The nicest one to shoot that I've had was an Eagle CAR A2. Great feeling trigger, good fit, but it would occasionally not go into battery, and the freshly loaded round would be stuck mostly in the chamber, requiring you to beat on the handle to extract it. I never did figure out why it did that. It happened with any ammo I tried, about once every 500 rounds or so (but was totally random, and might happen as the 10th round fired of the day, or the 200th).

But, you are right. I could never detect any differences between the parts of the different brands, except the Colt logos where stamped more sharply than the others, perhaps. I never really considered that to be worth the extra few hundred dollars that they cost.

Interestingly, the Colt HBAR had a chrome-lined barrel, and apparently the wisdom of the time said that was a Bad Thing. I had dozens of people tell me that they were horrible because chrome-lined barrels were so much less accurate, etc, etc.

 

[sloughfoot]

I've had a variety of AR-15s over the years. 3 Colts, 2 Eagles, and 2 Olys. My most accurate was a Colt A2 HBAR, but it had the worst feeling trigger, and the most slop between the upper and lower. The nicest one to shoot that I've had was an Eagle CAR A2. Great feeling trigger, good fit, but it would occasionally not go into battery, and the freshly loaded round would be stuck mostly in the chamber, requiring you to beat on the handle to extract it. I never did figure out why it did that. It happened with any ammo I tried, about once every 500 rounds or so (but was totally random, and might happen as the 10th round fired of the day, or the 200th).

But, you are right. I could never detect any differences between the parts of the different brands, except the Colt logos where stamped more sharply than the others, perhaps. I never really considered that to be worth the extra few hundred dollars that they cost.

Interestingly, the Colt HBAR had a chrome-lined barrel, and apparently the wisdom of the time said that was a Bad Thing. I had dozens of people tell me that they were horrible because chrome-lined barrels were so much less accurate, etc, etc.

My experience mirrors yours. The slop between upper and lowers has no effect on accuracy, but folks think it just HAS to though. I guess it is disconcerting to feel things moving around?

I still use a 1X7 chrome lined barrel that has maybe 10,000 rounds through it for my Rattle Battle rifle. It is plenty accurate. I don't know what upper it is in, they are all the same...

When I discovered the RRA two stage trigger, it became my standard for all my rifles. I have a Geissele in one rifle, but it has no advantage over a RRA two stage. All of my Colt, Bushmaster, and JP single stage triggers went into the trigger box after my revelation of the RRA two stage triggers.

Things really are easy and don't take a lot of thought when you start distilling things down to the basics.

 

[mikerccie]

My advice would be to take a 3 to 5 day combat class. I did a 5-day 3-gun class that had us using carbines every day. Some rifles didn't make it through the first day without having to be beaten with a 2x4 - others didn't jam enough to practice transition drills while others had to have empty cases put in their mags in at attempt to force a jam.

So, much like others said - train with it and shoot it seriously and aggressively and it will tell you how ready it is and how long it will stay that way.

 

[Orsetto Lavatore]

When you get off your duff and shoot it in the field, in the dirt, for a few hundred rounds without a failure. Then you can be reasonably confident. If you never get off the square range you will never really be certain.

People hate on DPMS - but mine has been covered in testing sand, hunted with in the pouring rain, hunted with in the driving snow, and it still worked ever time. I'm confident that it is "ready to go".

 

[kawtech87]

I recently picked up a Windam Weaponry SRC.

I put about 100 rnds though it with a couple different mags. It ran fine, no problems.

I bought it to plink and practice with. I will, when I get the chance, take it through some training classes.

Im pretty sure it will go bang when some paper needs punished.

 

[Kirk Freeman]

How do you test your AR's?

You go to gun school.

Or, you let Kirk "Now I am become Death, destroyer of guns" Freeman shoot your b.s. "never fail" whiz bang rifle. Guarantee it won't last long.

I just need to rent myself out as a proof tester.

 

[Miles42]

At 70 years old I think my firearm would survive a firefight much longer than the old man. That said I still am going to get a reliable AR-15 some day.

 

[LarryC]

I keep reading a lot of talk on this website on "which is the best AR" and the usual "My pet brand is better, yours sucks" type of stuff and while I completely agree that different manufacturers make different quality of products and have their reputations because of that, I also sit and wonder why isn't there some kind of a standard test to see if your AR really is good to go and a gun that's not going to let you down.

How do you all know when your rifle is ready to be trusted with your life and the lives of your family members? It may seem like a silly question, but at what point do you know you've checked out your rifle enough to the point that it's ready to go.

Ideally, a rifle would never have a jam, but it can happen. Personally I always figured that when a rifle has put 500 rounds through it without any issues that I can probably trust it.

How do you test your AR's?

Don't have an AR (YET), just bought a DPMS LR-308 Lower at the gun show Sunday. But I do have a few guns I can use for defense including a nice AK, couple of SKS's, M1 Garand, M1 carbine, Tokarev SVT 40, Swiss K31, etc. etc. First I will probably be blasted for this but IMHO accuracy is way overrated. In Indiana I know of only a very few places that have a 300 yard range. In my locale the only way I could see 300 yards is if the target was standing in the road and I was on the same road or if we were both out in a pasture. In 99.9% of the shots that a person would take in Indiana the object to be shot at would be under 100 yards. 300 feet is just about twice the length of my city lot. If I have a 3 MOA (pretty inaccurate) rifle and I aim at a mans chest at 200 yards, I can hit it 100% of the time (a 6" circle) - Thats plenty accurate for me. (I do have several rifles that are less than 1 MOA). As far as testing a gun for reliability, I have 2 criteria... First is that it goes bang with the first trigger pull. If it jams in 50 rounds and is (2nd criteria) not a major teardown to clear, doubt it would have any effect on the length of my or my families lives. The only guns that NEVER fail to feed EVER are single shot weapons. Bolt actions are next along with wheel guns.. My main home protection gun (and my carry gun) however is a Colt Double Eagle 45 ACP. An issue just as important as far as FTF OR FTF is the ammunition you use and your attention to cleaning and oiling the weapon. NO weapon I own once fired, is ever put into one of the safes until it is cleaned and oiled. That said I have fired every gun I own and if I find any issue with feeding or failing to fire, I correct the problem and test fire it until I am satisfied the problem is fixed (usually just 50 or so rounds).

 

[atalon]

I have a 120 rounds through mine just to make sure all the parts are in working order since I built the lower myself and then rebuilt the upper to a piston.

I just got a load of ammo so now I am going to do some tests getting it hot by dumping at least 3 mags through it as fast as I can and see if I get any issues. After three of these on the same day, cooling in between, getting hot and dirty and if it still runs good then I will be happy.

 

[Cerberus]

Don't have an AR (YET), just bought a DPMS LR-308 Lower at the gun show Sunday. But I do have a few guns I can use for defense including a nice AK, couple of SKS's, M1 Garand, M1 carbine, Tokarev SVT 40, Swiss K31, etc. etc. First I will probably be blasted for this but IMHO accuracy is way overrated. In Indiana I know of only a very few places that have a 300 yard range. In my locale the only way I could see 300 yards is if the target was standing in the road and I was on the same road or if we were both out in a pasture. In 99.9% of the shots that a person would take in Indiana the object to be shot at would be under 100 yards. 300 feet is just about twice the length of my city lot. If I have a 3 MOA (pretty inaccurate) rifle and I aim at a mans chest at 200 yards, I can hit it 100% of the time (a 6" circle) - Thats plenty accurate for me. (I do have several rifles that are less than 1 MOA). As far as testing a gun for reliability, I have 2 criteria... First is that it goes bang with the first trigger pull. If it jams in 50 rounds and is (2nd criteria) not a major teardown to clear, doubt it would have any effect on the length of my or my families lives. The only guns that NEVER fail to feed EVER are single shot weapons. Bolt actions are next along with wheel guns.. My main home protection gun (and my carry gun) however is a Colt Double Eagle 45 ACP. An issue just as important as far as FTF OR FTF is the ammunition you use and your attention to cleaning and oiling the weapon. NO weapon I own once fired, is ever put into one of the safes until it is cleaned and oiled. That said I have fired every gun I own and if I find any issue with feeding or failing to fire, I correct the problem and test fire it until I am satisfied the problem is fixed (usually just 50 or so rounds).

Do you live in the same Indiana I live in? I can get 300 yards easily and I live in the hilly part. Go over to my buddy's farm and 800+ is realistic, and he has a small farm. Where my BIL grew up you can range for miles. I would be pissed if I had to rely upon a 3MOA rifle.

 

[warriorbob]

depneding on your situation just running mags out of it may not be enough for you intended prupose. My rifle is mostly a plinker but in a SHTF situation it will be my go too weapon. I have a delton sport. I take it out to the woods and i refresh myself on my military training. I low crawl with it thro the mood and creeks, i bang it on the ground when i do 3-5 second ruches, ect. Mine performs just about the same as any m4 or m16 ive been issued including the a4 i had at basic that was brand new outta the box.

 

[Tombs]

Throw it across a parking lot, run over it with a car, load up some magazines and start shooting.

If it still held zero and it still runs, it's ready to go. You'll likely never know the state of your gun until then.

 

[TAT7]

Like this....

http://youtu.be/YBgqwN9sUhc

http://youtu.be/DtwoXJ8P7f4

http://youtu.be/8TW8piHtDIM

 

[TAT7]

Oh BTW the bolt was left open in the second video...so expected malfunctions lol

 

[TAT7]

And this of course....

http://youtu.be/To5wwGepIv4