Bayonets on the AR

National disarmament is such a long range goal that there is a lot of misinformation out there. If you look back at Russia and Germany as they made the transition into socialism and communism there were moves to transition their people away from guns. This was done by packing the leadership with many political people who were friends of socialism in the press and upper crust of individuals with clout in the government. Terms were used that are being repeated today in anti-gun rhetoric. Terms like non sporting arms are guns without bayonets etc. Not mentioned in history was the pee WWII registration of cutting and slashing weapons and their confiscation in national disarmament.
 Guns like the AR15 with the M4 configuration have their bayonet lug set back so a bayonet will not be an effective tool on the gun. In fact the bayonet if clipped on only sticks out 4 inches and any slight movement will have the bayonet make a rattling noise. The military is currently saying the day of the bayonet is gone. But it is a known fact that if short on ammo and if you can come out in a controlled assault on a soldier you can retrieve his gun and a bayonet is as good a tool as it ever was. To place restrictions on guns with bayonets when the military and government today keeps saying the day of the bayonet is over is simply a method of placing guns without one  in a position where they could not be used in an offensive assault in a national takeover like  happened in Germany and Russia. There has to be near “0” statistics on people in the USA being killed with a bayonet attached to a gun so why the concern in pre-communist Russia and Germany or the BATF today? A bayonet on a gun from hiding is an effective tool in a time of national disarmament when ammo is in short supply. By today’s standards a very sharp bayonet will pears many bullet proof vest when a bullet will not. If what was done in Germany and Russia is repeated here bayonets will account for many loses, so to eliminate some of those loses they want to ban the bayonet.  

Richard W Norman  Author of American Handbook on Guns Ammo and Freedom       

AR Gun Barrel Composition

A) Melonite Barrel is a thermo chemical treatment that improves surface hardness properties. This makes a surface that is extremely hard infused steal. Melonite is not a coating but an infused surface hardening process in a heated liquid salt bath. The surface is then 100% harder (62-72 on the Rockwell hardness) than before treatment. It is good at withstand corrosion heat and abuse. See (B) below

B) Iron Nitride barrel. Nitric acid is used as a surface hardener and like Melonite creates a hard outer crust on the steal. This crust is not very thick in Melonite or nitric acid hardening but is very hard and ware resistant. Though it is not clear concerning the Melonite process it is a molten salt bath which requires a good amount of heat to preform. Around WWI liquid salt baths were common place one used liquid potassium nitrate as part of the bath and the barrel was then put in an oven under controlled heat to finish the process. Nitric acid hardening is called low heat hardening and the part is dipped in nitric acid and then heated to the desired heat to give the surface an extremely hard Iron Nitride thin crust. Which is best Melonite or Iron Nitride is unclear as I am unaware of comparative testing.  Some say however that they are both about the same. But I do not know?     

C) Chrome Moly Barrels (Not chrome lined) Around WWI and into WWII steel was being developed of superior nature and this was done by adding chromium and molybdenum to the mix this gave a stronger and harder product for military rifles. Today it might be called 4140 steel or there about depending on the scale used. By today’s standards it is a cheaper product and labeling it as chrome moly people think they are getting a chrome lined barrel when they are not. This does not make it bad stuff it is just not as durable

D) Chrome lined barrel—This is considered by many as the most durable barrel and will shoot the most bullets- - out lasting other gun barrels. Some claimed a slight loss in accessory. This is the most desired barrel.
E) HBAR barrel- This is a Heavy Barrel Automatic Rifle 15- which  is a Match grade barrel which is exclusively guns for target shooting and competition shooting and is perhaps the most accurate barrel of the AR line. The down side is the extreme weight of the gun and the necessity for something to set it on to shoot it. Not a good bush gun for hunting!  

E) Rapid fire and gun barrel life no matter which gun barrel you have you need to take the time to not get it to hot. In a war of course you may have no choice than to shoot a lot of bullets in a short period of time but shooting a number of clips of ammo on rapid fire can according to Gun smiths cost you 1,000 rounds of barrel life each time you do it.

 Gun Barrel Steal – This is created by an emulsion of steal or a better term is to mix chromium and steal in the manufacturing process. People think it is like your kitchen cook ware stainless steal pots which is not so! People think it needs less care which is not so! People think it is as strong as steal which is not so! While taking the instructors course for concealed carry one policeman spent some time talking about the misconceptions of stainless steal gun parts and guns. 1) Stainless is weaker than steal as the emulsion is not as pure and mixed as finely as dairy stainless. 2) The problem of Stainless steal gun barrels is the amount of chrome added creating the mix and creating molecular gape making the steal not as strong, 3)A Stainless steel gun needs more care in cleaning especially under the grips of hand guns and in gun barrel cleaning in rifles and pistols because of the molecular gaps allowing corrosion.

 I Have a precision machining certificate so I can discuss metal kind of intelligently though I do not know all the refining processes in their entirety I can explain a few.

As in any process the right amount of products can be useful and the overabundance of some products can have a detrimental effect.

Nickle – an element used in steal in some gun barrels.  

Chromium – an element used in some gun barrels steel but not enough to create stainless steel. The other use is to chrome line a gun barrel which is the most desired gun barrel to own.

Tungsten—This product is too hard for gun production and would take a lot of heat to create a gun barrel let alone rifle one. Tungsten rings are sold today and you are warned that if you ever crush one on your finger you will need to cut your finger off to get it off as cutting tools will not cut it. Tungsten is a metal cutting tool in a machine shop. Christensen arms clams a  CA 10 –308 caliber tungsten rifle but only mentions a carbon wrapped match grade barrel.

Titanium as an alloy in steal in small quantities can be useful but as a gun production product it has many problems such as Titanium barrel with a steal liner—Such barrels are sold manly for pistols and Titanium receiver parts but offer no real use other than making a much lighter gun. The downside of making such guns is the fact that they need a steal liner in the gun barrel and when the gun is lightened to much there is a great loss of accuracy from recoil. Titanium is thought of as corrosion resistant as the US military makes our submarines out of it. The fact is that it is very susceptible to corrosion and a submarine would sink in a few days if it did not have a coating of 3 inches of rubber protecting it from the salt water. I would not own a titanium gun or gun part under any condition unless it was free. Titanium is a gummy product when it is machined so on ware parts or parts that rub in movement we would have to expect this gummy nature to be present from friction and heat.  

Nickle—useful as an alloy in a gun some barrel.

Non Metallic products useful in steel production.

Sulphur – generally a trace element in steal.

Molybdenum in describing gun barrels it is called Moly and when a small amount of chromium is added to the steel the gun barrel is called a Chrome Moly gun barrel.

Carbon is removed from molten iron makes a brittle product when the carbon is removed you end up with steel and the right amount of carbon is added so the steal can be hardened after the machine work is preformed to make a part.

Silica or sand--A small amount of sand or silica is added to help in not only binding but cleaning the steal when it is melting. In ancient crucible steal the mix was sand, steal scraps or ore and carbon in a mud furnace and a full days work of pumping air into the mud furnace and jamming in charcoal and another pounding the steel to make a fine knife or sword. Followed by weeks of finish work. Silica today is added according to amount needed and nothing more.

Richard W. Norman    American Handbook on Guns Ammo and Freedom 

AR Barrel Length How to Pick

These are standard barrel lengths and though others exist in between this list should suffice as to giving you a very good idea  of how to choose.

A) 10 inch barrel (or less) AR Pistol. To have an AR qualify for the shortest barrel there must be no but stock attachment. The gun is considered a pistol as it can be fired with one hand. Rifle powder does not burn up all at once but burns the whole length of the barrel as it pushes the bullet. By shortening the barrel muzzle flash is extreme. Though similar to the Israeli UZI for daytime use if there was ever a war the gun fired at night would draw fire from anyone seeing the flash. The moment you put a stock on this gun it is considered an illegal gun. The UZI uses a 9 MM pistol case pistol powder burns immediately because the gun has a short barrel it needs the push all at one time and thus lessons muzzle flash. The 10 inch AR barrel lessons bullet rang and so this gun should be considered a short range gun. Some have noted that the short gas system can lead to short stroke which means the shell you just fired does not eject. In looking back at the gas system explanation the barrel length after the gas port determines pressure to extract the last round. With such a short barrel the gas system inefficiency could cost you your life with a short stroke at the worst possible time. Deficiencies in the past
1) muzzle flash
2) short range
3) possibility of jamming. Some have said that using the heavier 77 grain bullet helped with function. And others have mentioned some function problems have been overcome. This is not a gun I would own!

B) 14.5 inch barrel AR rifle M4 military configuration This is only legal for a civilian to own if the person takes the barrel to a gun shop and permanently has the muzzle break welded to the barrel bringing its overall length out to slightly over 16 inches. If doing an AR Build take the bolt and barrel to the gun shop and have him check the head space first as with current higher AR production rates some barrels are not head spaced right and making it past quality control and if he welds the muzzle brake on the gun barrel you will not be able to exchange it. This is a fine close quarter’s barrel and you can still have about mid range capabilities and use a collapsible stock. (It is too much trouble is to keep it at 14 inches and pay for a $200 tax stamp and go through a enhanced FBI background check which checks mental stability etc. )
  

C) 16 inch barrel AR rifle M4 civilian configuration.  The advantages of picking this barrel over the one above will be obvious. This barrel has some unique abilities and that is it is still an excellent close quarters gun and has the ability to use a collapsible stock shortening the guns overall length. If you use a thread protector instead of a muzzle brake then the barrel will be the shortest possible legal length adding grater muzzle velocity and grater range. Plus factors over the 14.5 barrel which must have a muzzle brake welded on. The gun is 16 inch
1) The overall gun length is the same as the gun with a 14.5 inch barrel.
2) slightly longer accurate range
3) Overall gun barrel is the same length using a thread protector and the muzzle brake can be legally screwed on and taken off of the gun and can be switched unlike the 14.5 inch barrel.

D) 18 inch barrel-  Not one of the more popular AR barrels two inches shorter than the 20 inch barrel and though offering grater range; when a muzzle brake is screwed on the gun barrel it will be about 20 inches. so why not own a 20 inch barrel and take advantage of the longer range and muzzle velocity. The gun is beginning to sacrifice some of its close quarter’s ability.

E) 20 inch barrel AR rifle Originally the M16 this AR offers longer range than the 16 inch barrel M4 and even today the 20 inch barrel has US military usage and is excellent for open field fighting. For civilian use it is excellent for target, and varmint hunting. On the overall the AR line of guns are considered mid-range guns. Militarise around the world have generally moved towards mid-range weapons. The ammo is smaller and you can carry a lot more of it. The guns are lighter and more manageable fits in well quick attacks and fast troop movements needed situations.

Barrel Heavy and Contoured

 F) HBAR Heavy barrels are generally for target shooting and would be impractical for all day rapid movement where the gun must be carried for long all day walking hunting.

      

Contoured Barrels

Made to be as light as possible and would be more practical for long walking hunts.
Richard W. Norman author of American Handbook on Guns Ammo and Freedom 

AR Gun and Parts Manufactures and Suppliers List

To do an AR build you need to know where to shop and have a verity of names of companies where deals may be found from time to time. This list will provide you with places to look for a variety of AR Parts, uppers and lowers and finished guns.  I listed everyone I could think of if you know of others make a post
Warranty

Some sellers and manufactures offer a warranty this information would be important to confirm reputable companies will offer good service others will offer limited warranties stating that anything you add to the gun will void the warranty. This is in some cases unreasonable like putting on a scope on a flat top AR upper.You obviously can not shoot the gun without it.

Scratch and dent- - when working on a low budget ask for factory blemished parts this may take a phone call but you can build a high quality gun at cut rate prices.

1) Andersons AR parts-- Large scale AR Builder and gun seller ( when I wanted a cretin barrel they were out of stock on I was told to make a note and they made it up for me with no additional charges. Like having a local gun smith on line. What service! Good people!) 

2) American Spirit Arms AR parts manufacture

3) BCM High quality mill spec AR guns and parts (to cut cost ask for factory blemished )

4) Bushmaster --Good reputation is known

5) Colt--  Good reputation is known  

6) Stoner Barrels and parts – said to have nothing to do with the AR inventor of the basic AR design but it appears to be Midways trade name given to various gun parts. Just because the part was made by someone else does not mean it was a bad part. Midway is a reputable company and backs their products.

7) DPMS – Large scale AR Builder and gun seller

Green Mountain Gun Barrels—Appears to be limited to production and manufacture of an extensive line of gun barrels with a good offering of AR barrels.     

8) Double Star AR—Made for the Military and law enforcement and civilian use in their own shops and said to be very reliable.

Guns America-- Large scale large volume supplier

9) Browniles – Large scale large volume supplier  a good warranty many products have a 100% unconditional life time guarantee. 

10) Founding Fathers Armory—Relatively new but specializing in one of the highest quality AR receivers you can buy.  If you plan an AR build the few extra dollars you will spend will be worth it. Watch out Colt and Bushmaste  for Founding Fathers! "No, I do not work for them, or get paid by them!" (To cut costs ask for factory blemished surprising as it may seem many of the factory blemished lowers can not be told from the #1 product that is the kind of quality control they run.) 

11) Midway -- Large scale large volume supplier  a good warranty

12) Olympic Arms -- Said to be an OK product but had trouble navigating their website

13) Denials Defense-- Prices $280 dollars and up for barrels May find a comparable substitute for less.

14) Veriforce-  Currently not a brick and mortar store but an e-shopping store.
15)Numrich Gun Parts in business for over 60 years and carry a wide variety of AR parts as well as rare and hard to get parts for other guns.

The lower and upper recover is the foundation of a good AR. Plastic products in the upper and lower would probably not offer long term use in a stress situation. Some of the look of the new plastic parts can hardly be told from the look of metal parts.Do not scratch the part on the gun as you will get the owner ticked off. Flip the upper and lower receiver with the flat part of your finger nail and you can hear the plastic sound. You will want good parts that last I have seen plastic clips that have had their lips worn thin so buy good products.metal ways a little more but would last. Your life may depend on it but you you do not have to break the bank if you are careful nor do you have to spend an arm and a leg. The suppliers above may not be an all encompassing list but it is the ones I know about. If you would like to add another vendor make a comment.

Richard W. Norman

   

AR 15 Barrel Nut Lockup Solution

Looking on the internet people have said there are problems with barrel nut locking up to the upper receivers. The problem is dis-smellier metals! It does not matter which you chose copper and steel, aluminum and steel, etc. when they touch there is an electron exchange and corrosion begins and an untreated spark plug can fuse itself in an aluminum head. It seems the auto industry has already solved this problem. Mechanics have for years have had to deal with this but now they do not! At an auto parts store you will find small packets of a product specifically made for this purpose at Autozone it is called Anti Seize and sold in a small package for about a buck and should do one gun, For AR builders Napa it is called Anti Seize they sells an 8oz. bottle for $9 and a 16oz bottle for a little under $25. . If you have nothing else automatic transmission fluid works on car spark plugs works reasonably well and should work on an AR too.

Richard W. Norman author of American Handbook on Guns Ammo and Freedom  

AR Sight System, Scopes, Flash Llight Illumination, and Lazars

Lazar sights – Night self-defense offers some problems when using a Laser sight. Yes, you will hit what you are aiming at but your laser sight offers a target for your opponent to aim at. You are best served by a laser switch which lets you turn on the laser when you have your gun already pointed at your opponent. Push the button and fire.

Gun Flashlights- Flashlights offer your opponent an advantage as he can indiscriminately pepper the place where the light is coming from with indiscriminately shots keeping himself in the shadows. For a dollar or two buy a LED high powered flash light. Turn it on and from a secure position role it in the middle of the room with your opposition He will now be illuminated and you can stay in the shadow.

Red Dot Sights – These are particularly helpful as no laser is being used no origin of light is being sees by your opponent  back to you and no matter what if the dot is on your opponent (if the scope was properly sighted in) you will hit him.

AR Flattop Platform – Do not get me wrong these are fine guns but if there was a war parts get lost. People drop things, and there will be no replacing them. If your batteries are dead and your sight system is down you can only offer approximate shots. I think the military style A2 upper offers the best platform. On the A2 carry handle you can install a top rail with a single finger nut and run your read dot scope and it works fine. In a stress situation if your scope gets damaged you will still have your iron sights If you have the clip on A2 upper carry handle for your flattop and get separated from it you will have nothing at all.

Overkill on scopes—people many times do not know the limitations of the gun they own. The gun barrel length, gun barrel condition, shortcomings of the ammo, etc. can be factors in determining whether or not to put a scope on a gun. For example if a gun barrel is worn from years of use a scope will not improve gun accuracy you might as well get a brass lamp and rub it and wish for the gun to shoot better. Some old gun whose barrel is pristine and is extremely accurate using the iron sights is a different story and would well merit a scope.  Short barrel guns and  guns that shoot pistol ammo should not be considered as a scoped gun. The exceptions is guns where the scope matches the maximum accurate range or the weapon like read dot scopes on an AR M4 16 inch barrel carbine. To tack on a high powered scope would be foolish yet I have seen it done.    

Richard W Norman  Author of American Handbook on Guns Ammo and Freedom 

AR Head Space Gauges

 Head Space Gauges right now are like gold and so you should look for the best deal you can get. The question is whether you need one. Of course the gun needs to be checked with a gauge but depending on the gun shop this might be a nominal charge and keep you from having around  a product that you gave about $30 each for.

On the AR the bolt is removed and disassembled. The head of the bolt has the pins driven out and the ejector claw and the ejector cylinder pin removed leaving a striped bolt head. The striped basic bolt is temporally put back together and closed on the "GO" gunge and it should close. The bolt is removed from the receiver and the "No Go" gauge is inserted the bolt is brought forward but this time it should not close. The gun passed the test. If the gun will not close on the "GO" gauge it has a head space problem! If you shot the gun it may not close on a loaded round and you can have the bolt driven down your thought. If the gun closed on the No Go Gauge and you shoot the gun it can blow up.

Companies that make the gauges Forster, another Clymer,

Graff  and Sons sell  Head Space Gauges for about $5 to $10 under price of many others pricing and as much as $25  under others. www.grafs.com   No I do not have any connection with this company
Richard W. Norman Author of American Handbook on Guns Ammo and Freedom

AR Manufacture and Cartridge History

The AR started out as being designed for the military market by ArmaLite who ran into financial problems and sold the designed to Colt who redesigned the gun a little more and the gun was adopted by the military in 1963 The gun was originally not well liked by the soldiers in the military as it had functioning problems and the cartridge needed a different powder charge. Some were told to shower with the gun and one of the interesting instructions was to strike the gun butt on the ground and if jams persists turn in for repair. This is not even fine for a civilian market but for the military this must have sent dread and fear to the heart of a soldier. Some have said that if the opportunity arose they would have dropped their gun in favor of picking up an enemy AK 47. 

The cartridge was a scaled down 30/06. The 30/06 was a very efficient cartage and got its name 30 caliber #6 attempt in the development process or 30/06 for short. The scaled down cartridge was to use a 22 bullet whose goal was to injure the enemy and leave the enemy to care for them. This is an example of where our western idea of fairness was mistakenly placed on a foreign battlefield; This did not work in Vietnam as if the enemy was not able to walk he was shot by his own people. Knowing that they were dead anyway when our soldiers walked passed them they would shoot a US soldier. This started the practice or we should call it a necessity to shoot the downed man a second time before you walked by him. The Arab terrorists work the same way so our soldiers must shoot them a second time before they can go near them. Back in the day this was called double tapping but today to be politically correct it is called controlled seconds.
  The cartridge was called 223 Remington cartridge later would be adopted by NATO with a heavier powder charge and grater muzzle velocity as 5.56X45 or 5.56 for short. Whatever the cartridges deficiency it has the distinct advantage of letting the guns user carry a lot of ammo compared to 30/06 or 308 or even 7.62X39. At fairly close range the bullet caries a vacuum behind it which on impact creates about  3000 psi in the torso  and it would pay you to watch  a ballistic gelatin video on the Internet in slow motion. The cavity is expanded and the damage is not just from the hole the bullet makes but by the inflation rips and tares creating massive internal damage. The bullet many times bounce around in the body surrounding tissue from bone to bone. So whether fired from close or longer ranges the bullet will ricochets around the body creating more damage along with the vacuum effect.
Richard W. Norman Author of American Handbook on Guns Ammo and Freedom

AR Ammo, Barrel Twist, and Gas System etc.

AR Ammo
1) M193 Standard military cartridge 55 Grain Lead core boat tailed copper jacket bullet.

2) M196 Tracer Possible corrosive to gun barrel they come in orange or green tipped and should be used in a 1 tracer to 4--  M193 regular bullets. Used for signaling or for laying down accurate night fire or incendiary ignition.

3) M856 Tracer  same use and characteristics as above except the projectile is near 64 grains and has a longer burnout time.

4) M188 Dummy used for gun handling training. The shell has a series of about six long dents uniformly down the body of the shell.  

5) M200 Blank this is used with a muzzle clip on generally read in color which allows the flash powder to cycle the gun to keep from manual operation. This is for simulated fire with no projectile.

6) M855 Green tipped steal penetrator 62 grains. This bullet is good out to 90 meters and is not as susceptible to deflection from glass, thin metal, or small twigs and leave. Its sole purpose was to penetrate solders thin metal helmets. It was produced in abundance cheaply for a military market and filtered into the civilian market so its low price was very popular to sportsmen for hog hunting. Currently banned by Obama.

7) M862 SRTA  Short Ranged Training Ammo only efficient target ammo out to 25 meters for quick fire training,  silhouette short range target shooting. It is also used in indoor training where range use would preclude regular service ammo because of close quarters training dangers.

         

AR Barrel Twist Rates

A) 1 in 7 twist long rang Match ammo from 77to 90 Grains is what is suggested for long range sporting use but the military ammo seen above has a 62 M855 and so most military guns have a 1 in 7 twist but also fire the 55 grain bullet as well. The M855 performance out to 300 yards in the AR type guns with a 1 in 7 twist is good. This was probably why Obama banned this bullet. It makes one suspect that our political conglomerate may have other ideas besides the public good when it comes to disarmament.

B) 1 in 8 twist Medium to long range bullets  62 – 77 grains but Stabilizes many of the heavier bullets  as well for long range use. 55 grain bullets preform extremely well well at close range but as the range increases accuracy falls off.  

C) 1 in 9  twist this is for bullets from 40 to 62 grains but the gun can also shoot heavier bullets but accuracy diminishes somewhat for the heavier bullets.

D) 1 in 12 twist work best with light bullets at higher velocities for long range use for varmints

AR Gas System
Gas flow determines recoil- to much barrel after the gas tube can increase gas pressure and recoil and can cause excessive gun deterioration and ware. To short of a barrel after the gas tube can cause functioning problems such as insufficient cycling glitches causing jams. Military AR guns are set up for a faster cycle rate still allowing for recovery after recoil so you can aim and make your next shot. For civilian barrel purchases of different AR barrels gas function is usually thought about by the barrel manufactures to a great degree so what you buy will work. Some have experienced problems but in a pinch an adjustable gas block will let you tailor the gasses so you have the lightest recoil and the gun still functions but you sacrifice cycle rate.Though there are exceptions for the most part worrying about this gas system stuff is not necessary and the barrel you buy and the matching gas system is not a problem.

Muzzle Brakes verses Flash Hiders

Muzzle brakes are a good addition to a gun. What happens is that when the gun is fired the muzzle climes up on recoil. A good muzzle brake uses the spent gasses as the bullet leaves the barrel to physically hold the muzzle down allowing for quicker response for the next shot, and also allows you to cray a lighter gun barrel. in other words you can approximate more accurate shots of a heavy barrel gun and not have to carry the extra weight.Do your research before buying your muzzle brake,  some are no more than glorified thread protectors which do nothing but they look good and cost a pretty piney.

 Flash hiders are illegal but what they do is to allow the unburned powder from the cartridge to burn in a controlled situation lessoning the flash.  
Richard W. Norman   Author of American Handbook on Guns Ammo and Freedom