Because I'm a patriot, I have an AR15. It's made by CMMG and I've had several years of shooting fun with the little gas-driven blaster. But I wanted to change it up; swap out the stock handguards with a free-float tube, install a gas block, and a single point sling mount.
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| Go On, Take Your Gun Apart |
Off went the flash hider, the barrel nut and the front sight gas block. Fine, but the gas tube roll pin didn't want to come out. It did in the end and the new one, that came with the new gas block, didn't want to fit in it's allotted hole. After a lot of aggro, I filed it down slightly and drove it home.
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| The Old D Ring |
The new barrel nut went on easily enough, along with its Yankee Hill handguard, and the sling mount was simple to install. I'm pleased with the end result, but there was an adventure half way through the project.
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| Oh No, We Can't Sell You That! |
Looking down at my old, dirty, gas tube, I thought why not get a shiny new one? So I drove to Ray's and asked for one.
"Do you sell carbine length gas tubes?"
"Oh no, we don't have any."
"But what's that, there, in a plastic bag? Look you have about five of them."
"Hunh! We do!"
"Well that's great, I'll buy one."
"I'm sorry, you can't."
"Excuse me?"
"No. You can't buy those."
"And why not?"
"You can only buy one if we install it for you."
"Of course. And how much would that cost?"
"I don't know, sorry."
"Goodbye."
I felt, for a moment, there in the gunsmith's section of Ray's, that the world had gone completely mad.
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| Looks Good, Does It Work? |
As soon as it stops raining and snowing, I'll take the gun out to the range and see how it shoots. The free float tube should improve accuracy, we'll see.
Shoot straight,
LSP
6 comments:
Makes you wonder who they were saving those for...
Projects are fun. Hope it shoots well!
Isn't that barrel about 6" too long? And no threaded barrel for the silencer -- for feral hawgs and such?
Ray's is notorious for their "sales policy"...
Maybe I should remove the lame flash hider and replace it with a "can"?
I think I'd have complained to Ray (or whoever the manager is) on the way out, unless that *was* Ray at the gun smith's counter. I understood the AR to be a lot more user friendly, as long as one knows which end of the wrench to turn, compared with an AK. (By my reckoning, the AK rules when it comes to easy field stripping, no tools needed, but for the home gunsmith, I think the AR noses out ahead.)
I'd like to get an AK, Mattexian. Not too expensive...
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