First Ever Disassembly/Reassembly of Evil Black Rifle

Gutdoc

Gutdoc

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I took delivery of my very first AR yesterday - my Christmas present to myself - a Ruger AR-556. I wanted to support our brothers in Mayodan. As someone who has owned mainly pistols and shotguns and not had any schooling in carbine maintenance, the "simple" field strip of the AR looked anything but simple.

Still, the guys on YouTube and especially the Ruger guy on the Tech Tips ("and of course, a good pair of safety glasses.") had rifles that practically fell apart on command and then appeared to re-assemble themselves with a wave of the hand.

Mine did not behave as theirs did. The worst of it was when my second teensy-tiny little cleaning patch got stuck in the chamber/barrel, but it was close enough to grab with a hemostat which I salvaged from work. Thank God I had one! Next major anxiety was my charging handle did not drop in like those on the videos. It took me what seemed like hours to figure out the right angle to get past the little stops.

BUT - the rifle is cleaned, lubed, put back together, and looks like the picture on the box. It appears to work - except I haven't been able to fire a live round yet - but it clicks when you pull the trigger and cartridges eject when you pull the charging handle back. (I was very afraid I would get the extractor in upside down.)

I am happy to become a member of the deplorable owners of weapons of war, clinging to my guns and religion when times are hard. Now I just gotta find a time to go shoot it.

I thought I would post this so that you old AR hands would get a chuckle at the image of this aged, gray-haired newbie clumsily shaking amidst the pieces of a brand new AR around him with an Otis bore-cleaning wire hanging out of the muzzle.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Gutdoc;n20615 said:
I took delivery of my very first AR yesterday - my Christmas present to myself - a Ruger AR-556. I wanted to support our brothers in Mayodan. As someone who has owned mainly pistols and shotguns and not had any schooling in carbine maintenance, the "simple" field strip of the AR looked anything but simple.

Still, the guys on YouTube and especially the Ruger guy on the Tech Tips ("and of course, a good pair of safety glasses.") had rifles that practically fell apart on command and then appeared to re-assemble themselves with a wave of the hand.

Mine did not behave as theirs did. The worst of it was when my second teensy-tiny little cleaning patch got stuck in the chamber/barrel, but it was close enough to grab with a hemostat which I salvaged from work. Thank God I had one! Next major anxiety was my charging handle did not drop in like those on the videos. It took me what seemed like hours to figure out the right angle to get past the little stops.

BUT - the rifle is cleaned, lubed, put back together, and looks like the picture on the box. It appears to work - except I haven't been able to fire a live round yet - but it clicks when you pull the trigger and cartridges eject when you pull the charging handle back. (I was very afraid I would get the extractor in upside down.)

I am happy to become a member of the deplorable owners of weapons of war, clinging to my guns and religion when times are hard. Now I just gotta find a time to go shoot it.

I thought I would post this so that you old AR hands would get a chuckle at the image of this aged, gray-haired newbie clumsily shaking amidst the pieces of a brand new AR around him with an Otis bore-cleaning wire hanging out of the muzzle.
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Good for you and congratulations. Now you will want more evil black rifles to tinker with.
 
Great! Now...do it again...and again...and again....you'll be getting a chuckle out of your own post by 7pm today :) Everybody has a first time story, not everybody is humble enough to publish it. My hat is off to you for doing so.
 
Snal~;n20654 said:
Great! Now...do it again...and again...and again....you'll be getting a chuckle out of your own post by 7pm today :) Everybody has a first time story, not everybody is humble enough to publish it. My hat is off to you for doing so.
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I was brave enough to disassemble/reassemble the bolt carrier a couple of times.
 
Gutdoc said:
Snal~;n20654 said:
Great! Now...do it again...and again...and again....you'll be getting a chuckle out of your own post by 7pm today :) Everybody has a first time story, not everybody is humble enough to publish it. My hat is off to you for doing so.
Click to expand...

I was brave enough to disassemble/reassemble the bolt carrier a couple of times.
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THAT was the scariest part of my first time!
 
This year was my first year owning ar15s. I bought a cheap on from palmetto. Watched a few videos on how to assemble them. Downloaded the ar15 app with instructions. Then took it completely apart down to the pins. After doing that a couple times it dawned on me how stupidly simple they are. 12 months later I've built 3 more from buying parts online. Honestly it takes me back to when I was a kid and built with legos day and night.
 
Chuckle! As others have said, it won't be long before you'll be able to do it by feel. Welcome to the dark side.
 
Crap. I jumped right in with both feet. First AR I ever owned/played with was my first build. Just like Lego's.

So much easier then working on AK's.
 
Yeah my first Ar was the one I built. Just throw some lube on that thing and shoot it and shoot it and shoot it and maybe clean it next year or 1k rounds whichever come first lol. At first I would clean mine after every range visit now its kinda like a game to see how far it can go with just a little added lube and no cleaning.
 
Tailhunter;n20814 said:
Crap. I jumped right in with both feet. First AR I ever owned/played with was my first build.
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Ditto. Bought two lowers. Filed Form 1s before I assembled them.

Printed out this sheet and laid all the parts out to match:

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Brownell's has good how-to videos, and PDFs to go along with them. Used the combo of printed PDFs and their videos to build them. Yet to build a upper, as I just find deals on complete uppers, but I've built every lower I own.
 
It is clear that God has gifted us each differently! And we should be grateful. My father could stare at a piece of machinery for 10 minutes, tear it apart and rebuild it better than it was before. My brother inherited that from him. I inherited his impulsiveness and lack of sensible caution when speaking out. :)
 
Majicmike;n25124 said:
Great info to know because s AR will need attention all the time to be reliable.
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Quiet you. I see what you did there.

As I was going to say, the first time I stripped and cleaned my first AR I put it back together wrong and broke it. Well, broke a $2 buffer detent.
Yes, you can assemble the BCG incorrectly and it will go together. It just won't work, and it just won't come back apart.
Without some "persuasion"
 
My first I purchased a complete upper and complete lower (Barnes), saved about $100 by doing so somehow.

I have been itching to build one and I have no reason to have another. I really want to build a pistol and likely will eventually for no other reason than I want to.
 
Tailhunter;n20814 said:
So much easier then working on AK's.
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Only in the sense that AK's that are made right don't need work. :p

I've never cared much for AR's, but I remember one of my friends bought his first a couple years ago. It was during one of the "Obama gonna take my AR-15" scares and I think he paid $1K for what should have been a $600 rifle.
He drove all the way over the my house to go shooting only to discover that he had left the factory trigger lock on it and the key at home.
Neither one of us knew anything about AR's, and I'd never owned one at that point, so he thought for some reason taking off the pistol grip would allow him to remove the lock. He got it off, but we missed the sound of something small and metal hitting the ground and rolling under a chair.
So he sees that removing the grip doesn't help and then proceeds to remove the trigger guard with some of my tools. Finally gets it off and is able to remove the gun lock. Well, he reassembles everything and tries a function check, but soon discovers that the safety is flopping around.
About an hour later we found the safety detent on the floor.

After that we eventually got out to the sandpiles to do some shooting. I brought an Arsenal SGL and he had his newly liberated Core 15. After the struggle we had, I let him go first.
He fired one shot and a case got stuck in the chamber. Best part of all, my cleaning rod was way too big to push it out and he didn't bring anything. He ended up trying to get the case out with a stick.
When that didn't work, I drove him to a friend's house that was closer than mine where he could borrow a 22 cleaning rod to push the case out. We gave up shooting that day and he ended up sending the rifle off to Core to be fixed. I think it runs fine now, but I man what a cluster.
 
Sp00ks;n25193 said:
My first I purchased a complete upper and complete lower (Barnes), saved about $100 by doing so somehow.

I have been itching to build one and I have no reason to have another. I really want to build a pistol and likely will eventually for no other reason than I want to.
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No reason? Have you not heard..? Two is one, one is none... That's all the reason you need...
 
For first time AR disassembly, I recommend getting inside a tent and zipping it up. NEVER disassemble and AR in a carpeted room (or you won't hear where the pins land).
 
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