Ar15 rant & range report, r u thinkin about buying one? READ

[drjoker]

Got my first ar recently. As a longtime ak aficionado, I have to ask if Eugene stoner was stoned? Who the heck makes a battle rifle with THREE tiny pins you can lose when field stripping it? It also requires a screwdriver for the buffer tube tab and a small Allen wrench to punch out the pins! It took me forever to line up the extractor so I could insert the holding pin. That was A very stubborn pin. I finally soaked that pin in a crazy amount of oil to get it to slip in. Also, there are some nooks and crannies I could not get my brush into. At least the owner manual was legible in English. Lol.

The gun is lightweight and has zero recoil. It is much handier and accurate than the ak but it is a pain to clean. I have a friend that keeps buying new ar15s, shooting them, then selling them before he has to clean them, just to avoid the cleaning. I used to laugh at him, but I understand him,now. Lol.

[gigag04]

I use firing pin to push the pins.

[anygunanywhere]

Field stripping any weapon poses risks to losing parts.

I use an AR vice block when cleaning after a day at the range. Holds the rifle nicely so you can access the bore, BCG and the rest that needs a scrubbing.

Anygunanywhere

[esxmarkc]

I have a Colt pre-ban HBAR Sporter AR15 I bought brand new back in the day. I have fired enough rounds through it to bury you in brass all from the cheapest sources that I can find to supply ammo.

I have glooped it in oil on ocassion and It has never been cleaned ..... not once.

It is four times as accurate as the resolution of my aging eyesight (dosen't say alot for my eyesight I know ). I would stake any amount of wager that I could slam a full mag into it and run it completely empty without issue right now.

The ONLY issue I have ever seen with this weapon is cheap magazine springs growing weak after remaining packed full for long lengths of time and going through temperature extremes being kept that way in my vehicle. On my newer PMAGS I have learned to just leave out one round for good measure: so far, so good.

AR15's are way more fun if you just don't care as much.

I keep thinking about building up a super-duper-hot-rod AR with all the finest components but then I'm afraid I'd have to clean it and be nice to it

[Abraham]

drjoker,

The 3 tiny pins you referenced are the pins for the trigger and hammer?

If so and you're removing them for cleaning purposes, that's (my opinion) not really necessary except once in a great while after shooting many, many rounds.

My buffer tube will easily come out without tools, but this is another item that needs to be cleaned, but rarely.

When I clean my AR, I separate it into two pieces, as this makes it less cumbersome for me to clean: The BCG and nooks and crannies inside where the BCG fits, the Charging Handle, barrel. And, that's as much as I clean.

It probably takes me an hour as I like to be very thorough. However, I don't clean my AR's after every range trip. I probably (haven't counted) clean after them every fourth or fifth range trip. I know of some guys who don't clean their AR's until a couple of thousand rounds have been fired.

[AlaskanInTexas]

Wait, you are supposed to clean guns?

[drjoker]

firing pin retaining pin, extractor pin, bolt cam pin.

drjoker,

The 3 tiny pins you referenced are the pins for the trigger and hammer?

If so and you're removing them for cleaning purposes, that's (my opinion) not really necessary except once in a great while after shooting many, many rounds.

My buffer tube will easily come out without tools, but this is another item that needs to be cleaned, but rarely.

When I clean my AR, I separate it into two pieces, as this makes it less cumbersome for me to clean: The BCG and nooks and crannies inside where the BCG fits, the Charging Handle, barrel. And, that's as much as I clean.

It probably takes me an hour as I like to be very thorough. However, I don't clean my AR's after every range trip. I probably (haven't counted) clean after them every fourth or fifth range trip. I know of some guys who don't clean their AR's until a couple of thousand rounds have been fired.

[bayouhazard]

Got my first ar recently. As a longtime ak aficionado, I have to ask if Eugene stoner was stoned? Who the heck makes a battle rifle with THREE tiny pins you can lose when field stripping it?

I don't know what kind of AR you got but mine only has two pins holding the upper and lower together. They aren't that small (similar to a 1911 slide stop) and mine are designed not to fall out.

[drjoker]

Got my first ar recently. As a longtime ak aficionado, I have to ask if Eugene stoner was stoned? Who the heck makes a battle rifle with THREE tiny pins you can lose when field stripping it?

I don't know what kind of AR you got but mine only has two pins holding the upper and lower together. They aren't that small (similar to a 1911 slide stop) and mine are designed not to fall out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdBiZfv ... ata_player

[Abraham]

drjoker,

Oh, O.K.

Because I have 2 left thumbs, I do my BCG disassembly on a mat that allows me to see all the wee tiny parts.

I think if I had trouble with my AR that necessitated such a disassembly, I'd call it a day and wait until I got home.

A man's gotta know his limitations.

I know mine and they're quite plentiful...

[The Annoyed Man]

Remove what pins? You don't have to remove pins....unless you want to really detail strip parts. But that is not field-stripping; that is detail-stripping........and AKs can be field-stripped or detail-stripped too.

You push out (but do NOT remove) TWO large pins to separate the upper from the lower, but you don't need to separate them to clean the rifle if you don't want to.

Slide out the BCG, pull the firing pin retainer (looks like a cross-wise mounted little kotter-pin) to drop out the firing pin. Rotate and remove the camming pin. Pull the bolt out of the bolt carrier. I probably fired 2000-3000 rounds before I ever removed the extractor for the first time. And when I finally got around to it, guess what? Not really dirty under there. Bottom line is, you shouldn't even have to remove the extractor at all except to repair/replace it.

There simply isn't any reason to remove the trigger or hammer pins ever, unless you are replacing the trigger with an aftermarket unit, or you're going to modify the EOM unit. Just spray a little de-gunker of some kind on the parts to blast off the worst oily buildup, and drop a couple of drops of new lubricant on a couple of critical places. For the most part, the trigger and hammer system should run fairly dry. The oily buildup you're cleaning off mostly got there by dripping onto them from the upper receiver.

All those other little detentes, springs, and pins are designed to stay in the gun and never be removed! The ONLY time you would remove them is if you are installing a new upper or lower receiver half, and want to reuse your original small parts in the new receiver.

It sounds to me like you went in with the assumption that cleaning an AR was like taking apart a watch. It's not. It's like cleaning an AK.

Edited to add.....

Truthfully, the one area that an AK has an advantage over an AR is that it runs cleaner because of the gas piston instead of "pooping where it eats". But keeping an AR bolt clean just isn't that hard or big of a deal.

[glbedd53]

I like my ARs, but I love my AK. AK has another advantage over an AR. It don't care if it's clean or dirty, wet or dry.

[carlson1]

drjoker,

The 3 tiny pins you referenced are the pins for the trigger and hammer?

If so and you're removing them for cleaning purposes, that's (my opinion) not really necessary except once in a great while after shooting many, many rounds.

My buffer tube will easily come out without tools, but this is another item that needs to be cleaned, but rarely.

When I clean my AR, I separate it into two pieces, as this makes it less cumbersome for me to clean: The BCG and nooks and crannies inside where the BCG fits, the Charging Handle, barrel. And, that's as much as I clean.

It probably takes me an hour as I like to be very thorough. However, I don't clean my AR's after every range trip. I probably (haven't counted) clean after them every fourth or fifth range trip. I know of some guys who don't clean their AR's until a couple of thousand rounds have been fired.

No need to remove those pins. There is not much to clean on the lower to begin with.

[JSThane]

I like my ARs, but I love my AK. AK has another advantage over an AR. It don't care if it's clean or dirty, wet or dry.

The only issue I've ever had with "dirt" in an AR was caused by steel-cased ammunition leaving lacquer in the chamber (won't ever shoot Wolf in an AR again!), and that wasn't so much of a "dirt" problem as it was a "casing failed to extract and the extractor ripped a chunk out of the case" problem. From time to time, I will take apart the BCG and clean the carbon buildup off the bolt and from the inside of the bolt carrier, and I'll scrub the locking lugs with a wire brush, but that's more of an "I was told buildup here can cause problems" thing than an "It has caused problems" thing.

Unless you're carrying and using the rifle on a daily basis, I expect it'd be pretty difficult to gunk up an AR to the point of failure with simple carbon fouling. I know I've never managed it.

[Excaliber]

drjoker,

The 3 tiny pins you referenced are the pins for the trigger and hammer?

If so and you're removing them for cleaning purposes, that's (my opinion) not really necessary except once in a great while after shooting many, many rounds.

My buffer tube will easily come out without tools, but this is another item that needs to be cleaned, but rarely.

When I clean my AR, I separate it into two pieces, as this makes it less cumbersome for me to clean: The BCG and nooks and crannies inside where the BCG fits, the Charging Handle, barrel. And, that's as much as I clean.

It probably takes me an hour as I like to be very thorough. However, I don't clean my AR's after every range trip. I probably (haven't counted) clean after them every fourth or fifth range trip. I know of some guys who don't clean their AR's until a couple of thousand rounds have been fired.

No need to remove those pins. There is not much to clean on the lower to begin with.

Agreed.

An occasional flush with a volatile gun scrubber type spray easily gets the trigger group squeaky clean without disassembling anything beyond the field strip.