How OCD are you about mixing & matching AR uppers, lowers and parts?

At the end of BMTS four of us were detailed to the Armory for several days. We made the mistake of raising our hands when asked who had experience with firearms before enlisting in the military. To this day, I still remember them saying “Armory” and being so naive thinking, “This is gonna be really cool!” :roll_eyes:

Off we went… turns out “Armory” meant hard time cleaning all (and I mean all) of the guns coming back from the qualifying range. It only then hit me that when we’d qual’d week’s prior none of us cleaned our rifles. We just left them there on the ground.

So yeah, I can attest to the fact BMTS is where all of the military’s garbage small arms end up. We’re talking Vietnam war era M16’s that had miles and miles of rough road on them that had taken the word abuse to a whole new level. In fact, I have to chuckle at anything painted and marketed as “battle worn” these days. I mean, some of these rifles would literally fall apart in your hands as soon as you pulled them off the tree. I couldn’t get my head around how dangerous some were (some with loose and/or split barrel nuts) and that someone had literally just shot them and (presumably) lived.

There were two bins, one for metal and one for everything else. The metal bin was always full. We broke down, cleaned, and scrapped (at times) hundreds of guns. There was no care or consideration whatsoever given to what part came from what gun. If it fit and the bolt cycled, it went back on the tree and out the door. As soon as you finished a tree another bread van would show up with two more. :ghost:

A few lessons learned from this experience:

  1. Mixing and matching parts among well worn weapons makes absolutely no difference whatsoever. Don’t overthink it or even worry about it if it function checks okay.

  2. The M16 (AR-15 for this matter) can endure a lot of pain and suffering and still shoot good enough to get you by. It’s a simple tool that’s given way more thought and attention by the civilian consumer than it’s ever been due -even by design.

  3. No civilian application will ever rival combat weaponry with respect to abuse. Attempts to mimic combat abuse by some folks online by way of so called torture tests are tantamount to an exercise in futility.

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Not sure if this was in response to the article I posted but that article I posted was by a combat vet and LEO. He also put over a 100,000 rounds A year through the platform training military and LEOs. Pat Rogers was a SME with decades of experience training professionals on the platform.

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I agree with the torture test part , they are not scientific or a representation of anything outside of the weapons ability to sustain some abuse.

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No sir, was not intended to be. My post was rather lengthy and I was distracted a few times during it’s development. I didn’t see yours until after I was done and wondered if you might think that. So yeah, no… not intended. Also not intended to take away from anyone who conducts their own testing. I’ve always felt the best experience is personal experience.

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Don’t forget to mention AR15s are better than AKs. Im starting to see commie rifles make a comeback around here since I havnt been around to regulate the riff-raff

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Awesome read and thank you for you service, I always get tickled reading some of these keyboard commandos post, we don’t have many here. but on a couple other sites they are bad. they buy an AR15, put 50 rounds through it and watch a couple videos and now they are expert warriors. Or the ones that will criticize anything you own unless it falls in their little click of what a real gun is.

Even more funny is they know their “Battle Rifles” will outlast others and they have a total of 100 rounds through it.

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I forgot you are a former arf’er too. Them guys also go on crazed rants about how thier AKs will survive a nuclear blast and a zombie apocalypse yet they are barely surviving heart disease. So what good is your rifle to you when you are dead?

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Never joined there, after a few reads I knew it wasn’t the place I wanted to be. I did join M4 carbine for some unknown reason. same crap there. I didn’t last long.

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Arf has a decent section or did…the place hurts my head now of days though

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I hate the layout of the site, it’s confusing to use for us old folks.

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The layout is better than the average poster, imo.

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I put 1000 rounds through my RRA 6.8 in my 1 hour lane rental, just because. Not a torture test.

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Now go put tannerite on it then shoot it, pick it up shit in it then use it as a sleedge hammer followed by a 1000 rounds…or don’t its a waste of money like most torture tests.

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I’ve dropped the upper from my YHM ‘Todd Jarrett competition’ onto my cheap M&P-15 sporter without issue(and vice-versa). Function was flawless. The only real difference was a tiny bit of play between the YHM upper and S&W lower. I don’t even think it was the fit of the two receiver halves, more likely a small difference in pin size(the YHM’s pins always seemed harder to push in and out regardless of upper) that could have been corrected by swapping those as well. If both halves are from a reputable manufacturer, I don’t think there will be any real issues barring your buffer weight and spring being completely wrong for barrel length/bolt weight. Will you necessarily get the best fit and finish? Maybe not but function should be fine.

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I used to think it mattered and maybe it does if 2 mil-spec extremes meet each other, but long ago I mated up uppers and lowers to get the best fits possible and have had no problems with any of them.

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I buy a lower from the lgs that matches the quality of the upper I purchased, I buy complete uppers as I lack a bench of a vice and I would prefer to buy a whole rifle from my chosen manufacture but I like to buy a piece at a time as I have a hard time saving money.

Its usually due to once I have a lump of cash some bullshit happens and I end up broke, I really really want a full solgw weapon but that wont happen any time soon.

So I buy an upper from them with their bcg, I get a quality lower from the lgs(best I got is spikes and aero and I have one of each) and I fill the rest of the gun with what SOLGW suggests for the rest of the running gear with my substitution because I shoot left handed.

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Here is something I did not think about regarding mixing the bolts between rifles, besides being broken in. Headspace. In my email this morning was a list of online articles, this time from PRI. You know how these companies post info to remind you they exist. I had not thought about headspace because it is not adjustable on the AR pattern rifle like M2. The manufacturer sets it when it is built.

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True but I have had bolts not headspace on one barrel but work on another, tolerance stacking can be a thing when building these rifles or swapping bolts. Problem is until your illness becomes severe enough you have a half dozen or more spare bolts around it can be tough, and expensive, finding one that fits.

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:grimacing:

Could someone direct me to the support group thread, please?

:rofl:

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This IS the support group. We support you spending all your disposable income on guns , ammo ,etc.

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