Saturday, February 23, 2008

Opinions Needed

I need some expert opinions. I have a customer that has an AR-15 11.5" barrel, gas port is .096" and it is going full auto. There are no FA parts in the gun. I have never experienced this before, any ideas?
While I don't pretend to be an expert, here's my opinion.

For God's sake remove this post and thread from your forum immediately. I purposely didn't include a link to it because I don't want to help in you or your customer's destruction. If you need expert help beyond your experience, it's best to get it quietly. Trust me, you'll end up paying a lot less.

[Via Len Savage]

6 comments:

  1. He must have never heard of Randy Weaver either!

    I chase away customers who have dubious items and/or requests.

    I do this in the hobby smithing and in my profession of computer consulting.
    I learned this from my Dad He was a FAA Aircraft Mechanic and later got his inspectors cert. He would not work on certain planes no matter how much they offered. He only had to worry about getting sued, not having the BATF ruin his life! Nothing wrong with looking at something you dislike and pleading ignorance or lack of experience to turn away the work.

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  2. Smells like bait to me.

    Sorry, but if he's a gunsmith and doesn't understand how firearms work, I don't want him working on my guns. If OTOH he's just a sales drone, he needs to be referring people to qualified gunsmiths rather than trolling the interw3b.

    With appendicitis would you go to a doctor, or elicit opinions on the intarw3b??

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  3. gregg,

    A malf on a firearms isn't on the same order as a medical problem, unless said malf results in your shooting yourself or someone else. If you hang out on the various gun boards, you'll discover that there's lots of very good technical advice to be had. (And some not so good, for sure.)

    I can also think of two cases where this isn't a dubious item. Customer has a tax stamp for a short-barreled rifle, or it's an AR pistol.

    However, I agree that I'd be mighty shy about posting that my AR went FA. Though it's possible it's just a soft primer issue (I don't know how likely that is, just have heard it can be a problem) -- but of course I wouldn't put it past BATFU to jump on that case too.

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  4. 11.5 inch barrels are a fairly common (and stupid in my opinion) configuration for 5.56 carbines. They have 5.5 inch flash hiders permanently attached to the the 11.5 inch barrel, bringing the total length to 16 inches.

    The loss of velocity, and lack of overall length, really make my head hurt, but popular it remains.

    Malfunctioning firearms can do the damndest things. I've even read about an old .45 cold revolver that dumped all 6 rounds into a bad guy once. I think it was an Ayoob story.

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  5. If it's got an 11.5" barrel, and no permanent barrel extension - like a flash hider or brake - which makes the barrel a minimum 16" in length, and it's not a pistol, it's already got a stamp.

    If it's going full auto, it's likely that the disconnecter is not working, or the holes for the trigger/disconnecter pins are worn out or drilled incorrectly - that is, if the trigger assembly is properly installed.

    The BATFU not withstanding, if this is a legitimate post and not some troll trying to establish that EBRs can easily be made to go "full auto" this gun is unsafe to fire, for a number of reasons - the obvious one being that it is likely firing before the bolt is locked up.

    If it was mine, I'd order a Chip McCormick drop in trigger group. The trigger/disconnecter won't be out of spec.

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  6. Of course, the other case where this isn't a "dubious" item would be where we don't have unconstitutional laws prohibiting certain types of arms.

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