I am ready to take the next step in AR’s. With components cheap, I want to learn how to build them. I would like to buy a book or books on building, tuning, how Ar’s work in relation to press, dwell times etc. I googled it and have looked on Amazon as well. Who can recommend a good book on this? Thanks! Krw
Book on Building and Tuning AR’s
- Thread starter krw
- Start date
Zediker's newer "Competitive AR-15" (the BLUE one) and "AR-15 Builder's Guide" (that's the red spirally one) are indeed what you need.
When you get to it, Derrick Martin's "AR-15 Accuracy" is decent as well.
I've spent a lot of time and money on these silly guns, but the dogears and grease all over the Zediker books of mine are what saved me a lot of wasted movement and dollars.
-Nate
I built an upper and a lower as an experiment, and the results have been very good for my particular still-amateur level. I found this book by Walt Kuleck from Scott Duff to be very helpful. Zedecker is outstanding, and is probably the next book for the beginner after Kuleck's one.
It's also very helpful to have an AR15 Assembly DVD, the picture = 1000 words analogy is highly valid in this case.
Be aware that there are some essential tools involved. There are a lot of them listed here; but clearly, not all of them are required. Most of my specialized tools came from Wheeler.
Some things can just be done quicker, cheaper, and better by just buying the essential component. I just acquired this Upper, and I probably could not have built anything as neat and sweet as it for the price.
Greg
It's also very helpful to have an AR15 Assembly DVD, the picture = 1000 words analogy is highly valid in this case.
Be aware that there are some essential tools involved. There are a lot of them listed here; but clearly, not all of them are required. Most of my specialized tools came from Wheeler.
Some things can just be done quicker, cheaper, and better by just buying the essential component. I just acquired this Upper, and I probably could not have built anything as neat and sweet as it for the price.
Greg
Last edited:
There are quite a few places that do armorers courses too. I took one from Sully at Defensive Edge. It was excellent, even for me who has quite a few years of paid time behind M16/AR type rifles.
ARs are pretty simple. If you choose your components carefully, they pretty much fall together accurate.
You need some esoteric knowledge if you're going to create new wildcats or something, otherwise you can figure most of it out with Google searches and YouTube videos.
I have built a handful of accurate ARs but have no book.
If you are starting from zero, you might want to look for a bootleg copy of the AGI AR15 video, then look in to specific topics as they come up.
I look for reviews and videos on every AR part I'm considering. There are so many out there that if you can't find the exact part combo you want, you'll find a few that are close enough to answer any questions you have.
Anything you can't find, ask about on a forum.
To me, the real trick to building an AR is to figure out what you want it to be good at and then picking the parts to get you there.
Choose well and it's Legos. Choose poorly and you might go down a road of modifying parts until you figure out it's just not going to work together.
If there is anything you don't like about ARs like rattling, takedown pins that need a hammer and punch to pop out or trapping your beard in a carbine stock, there are tricks and parts that improve it. You don't need to look very hard to find them.
You need some esoteric knowledge if you're going to create new wildcats or something, otherwise you can figure most of it out with Google searches and YouTube videos.
I have built a handful of accurate ARs but have no book.
If you are starting from zero, you might want to look for a bootleg copy of the AGI AR15 video, then look in to specific topics as they come up.
I look for reviews and videos on every AR part I'm considering. There are so many out there that if you can't find the exact part combo you want, you'll find a few that are close enough to answer any questions you have.
Anything you can't find, ask about on a forum.
To me, the real trick to building an AR is to figure out what you want it to be good at and then picking the parts to get you there.
Choose well and it's Legos. Choose poorly and you might go down a road of modifying parts until you figure out it's just not going to work together.
If there is anything you don't like about ARs like rattling, takedown pins that need a hammer and punch to pop out or trapping your beard in a carbine stock, there are tricks and parts that improve it. You don't need to look very hard to find them.
What do you want to tune and tweak specifically?
When I'm assembling a lower, I do a little prep on the LPK, I radius the detent tips and if I'm going to use the LPK trigger, I deburr the disconnector, hammer and trigger, then I do a "15 minute trigger job".
On a large frame AR (LR308 type in my case), the takedown pins are large enough to use an adjustable reamer to fit oversize pins for a no rattle upper to lower fit. It's not terribly important but nice.
On an upper, match guns will lap the barrel seat to square it with the bore and some people will bed the barrel extension to the upper with loktite.
Installing a barrel is pretty easy with an armorer's wrench. Some handguards make it difficult with odd barrel nuts. The torque is supposed to be 30-80 ft-lbs, I prefer good and tight. The issue becomes getting proper torque while aligning the barrel nut with the gas tube hole. On a standard style toothed barrel nut, I'll tighten it to good and tight and then Dremel off any tooth that blocks the gas tube. After the handguard goes on you'll never see it and it doesn't need every tooth.
Once you have your AR together, there is a bunch of stuff you can change for ergonomics.
If your rifle is over-gassed, you can try heavier buffers to slow it down or an adjustable gas block (usually more effective). If your rifle is under-gassed, you can enlarge the gas port, try a krink brake to add a bit of dwell or maybe go for a light buffer and carrier (I haven't seen that fix a problem).
A muzzle brake can reduce recoil at the cost of muzzle blast and noise.
Reloading can let you get the most out of your barrel.
Free float handguards are a key to accuracy.
If you need a better trigger than an LPK trigger with a 15 minute trigger job, there are lots of match and drop in triggers that work very well so there is no need to learn how to do more than a 15 minute trigger job.
Beyond that it's just being handy enough to get your parts to fit together. It can take some filing if you have minor parts incompatibility. It can take machining if you are trying to build a real oddball setup. Sometimes it takes buying new parts when you find a genuine this won't work with that incompatibility.
When I'm assembling a lower, I do a little prep on the LPK, I radius the detent tips and if I'm going to use the LPK trigger, I deburr the disconnector, hammer and trigger, then I do a "15 minute trigger job".
On a large frame AR (LR308 type in my case), the takedown pins are large enough to use an adjustable reamer to fit oversize pins for a no rattle upper to lower fit. It's not terribly important but nice.
On an upper, match guns will lap the barrel seat to square it with the bore and some people will bed the barrel extension to the upper with loktite.
Installing a barrel is pretty easy with an armorer's wrench. Some handguards make it difficult with odd barrel nuts. The torque is supposed to be 30-80 ft-lbs, I prefer good and tight. The issue becomes getting proper torque while aligning the barrel nut with the gas tube hole. On a standard style toothed barrel nut, I'll tighten it to good and tight and then Dremel off any tooth that blocks the gas tube. After the handguard goes on you'll never see it and it doesn't need every tooth.
Once you have your AR together, there is a bunch of stuff you can change for ergonomics.
If your rifle is over-gassed, you can try heavier buffers to slow it down or an adjustable gas block (usually more effective). If your rifle is under-gassed, you can enlarge the gas port, try a krink brake to add a bit of dwell or maybe go for a light buffer and carrier (I haven't seen that fix a problem).
A muzzle brake can reduce recoil at the cost of muzzle blast and noise.
Reloading can let you get the most out of your barrel.
Free float handguards are a key to accuracy.
If you need a better trigger than an LPK trigger with a 15 minute trigger job, there are lots of match and drop in triggers that work very well so there is no need to learn how to do more than a 15 minute trigger job.
Beyond that it's just being handy enough to get your parts to fit together. It can take some filing if you have minor parts incompatibility. It can take machining if you are trying to build a real oddball setup. Sometimes it takes buying new parts when you find a genuine this won't work with that incompatibility.
Similar threads
