Aristo! Aristo! A la lanterne!: AR15 Tricksyness.....

Friday, March 30, 2012

AR15 Tricksyness.....

I arrived home from errands to find a box on the porch from Bravo Company. After dealing with a few things, I set about opening the box... and opening my AR as well.

It took a matter of five minutes to pull the bolt carrier group from the Colt upper, strip the bolt down, rebuild it with a new Bravo Company M-16 carrier, and have it reinstalled. Moments later I was function checking the rifle, and noted the 'catching bolt' syndrome has vanished and the weapon function checks perfectly.

Not only does it feel better working the action, but I have much better confidence I won't be faced with doubling or other AR weirdness resulting from a worn bolt snagging on the hammer. In addition, the M-16 bolt is heavier (why I chose it) and will hopefully slow the cycle time of my AR down a little, taming it better for match shooting.

Just to make it even funner (Yes, I can use that word), I installed a Magpul MOE Hand Guard
while I was at it. It actually took longer to fit those tight guards than it took to rebuild the whole bolt assembly.

Final word: The Fat Man approves of Bravo Company, their products, and how they treat customers. Fast, reasonable, and good coms. Thumbs up!

3 comments:

ZerCool said...: If you want to slow it down even further, replace the buffer with a 2H or 3H. Not sure it's really worth going that far, since you're not going full-auto - or anything beyond match cadence most of the time - so trying to slow the cyclic rate that far may introduce more problems than it cures.

I run a standard-weight buffer in my A2. (Which you'll have the opportunity to lay hands on in a couple weeks!); March 30, 2012 at 4:14 PM
Carteach said...: I just wanted to slow it down a touch. With PPU I can feel a sharpness to the recoil and it seems to bottom the bolt hard. With S+B it's fine. I'll be loading my own, but since I was replacing the bolt carrier anyway, I 'upgraded' to the heavier M-16 bolt.

Are you shooting your AR in the Appleseed? I'd like to do that, but the ouch of shooting up that much $ in two days... since I don't have any 5.56 loaded in that volume yet. My bullets from Wideners haven't arrived yet.; March 30, 2012 at 4:55 PM
ZerCool said...: I believe there will be some full-distance shooting available, so I'll bring the AR, but mostly shooting the .22. I can't afford to dump a couple hundred in ammo for the weekend!; March 30, 2012 at 10:12 PM

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Robert Heinlein

"Do not confuse "duty" with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty is a debt you owe to yourself to fulfill obligations you have assumed voluntarily. Paying that debt can entail anything from years of patient work to instant willingness to die. Difficult it may be, but the reward is self-respect.

But there is no reward at all for doing what other people expect of you, and to do so is not merely difficult, but impossible. It is easier to deal with a footpad than it is with the leech who wants "just a few minutes of your time, please — this won't take long." Time is your total capital, and the minutes of your life are painfully few. If you allow yourself to fall into the vice of agreeing to such requests, they quickly snowball to the point where these parasites will use up 100 percent of your time — and squawk for more!
So learn to say No — and to be rude about it when necessary.
Otherwise you will not have time to carry out your duty, or to do your own work, and certainly no time for love and happiness. The termites will nibble away your life and leave none of it for you.

(This rule does not mean that you must not do a favor for a friend, or even a stranger. But let the choice be yours. Don't do it because it is "expected" of you.)"