Why we love ARs.

[Kevin Thomas]

Ever rebarrelled an AR? Here's some of what goes into the process of rebarrelling an M14/M1A Match gun. Pics taken during a recent trip up to get some AR-10 and M14 barrel work done. Some of the pics related to the AR-10s are posted on another thread here.

The top photo is the soon-to-be barrelled M1A receiver and the bolt that needs to be fitted and headspaced.

The bottom pic is the beginning of the long, slow and torturous step of hand reaming the final few thousandths of the chamber. Ream, clean, reassemble bolt, receiver and headspace gage, recheck, and repeat. Over, and over, and over again.

 

[Kevin Thomas]

Checking and rechecking the fit of the bolt with headspace gages after each reaming, getting closer to the point at which the bolt will finally close on the "GO" gage. Slow and patient work here.

 

[ICANHITHIMMAN]

Kevin

Is that you doing the work? I would be very interested in learning this?

 

[Kevin Thomas]

No, that's my buddy (and fellow LCSA team mate) Greg Meredith. Greg is one of the best M14 shooters in the country today, and one of the very few M14s you'll see on the lines at Perry. I think we may have finally gotten him to make the switch to the dark side, and shoot the M110 (AR-10) for Long Range this year. There's some pics of him with his AR-10 on the other thread I posted concerning my AR-10 build. The fellow in the blue shirt is our coach, team mate and barrel maker extrordinaire, Steve Satern. He was teaching Greg how to chamber the 14s, but making Greg do the work. Have to post a few more pics of the process, but yeah, after reliving all this, you really appreciate just how easy it is to knock together a Match grade AR.

 

[Kevin Thomas]

A few of the gages, GO and NO GO used for this process. Lastly, timing the barrel up and torquing it into final position before fitting the gas system parts. Man, SOOO much easier on an AR!

 

[Kevin Thomas]

Finally, with the chamber cut and the headspace set, the barrel is clocked into it's final position. Everything in this build is indicated off the gas port, making these barrels much more complicated to produce than the ridiculously simple set up for an AR.

 

[ICANHITHIMMAN]

Thanks Kevin, very jealous.