My friend went to the local gunshop to pick up quadrails for his ar15. Since he had the rifle in the van, the armorer said he would put them on for him. It took this guy almost 15 minutes of witnessed mallet/hammer attacks to get the new rails on by him and his son. My  friend calls me up after the fact and asks WTF? No visible damage; however, he cant get the rails off to look at the gas tube.

Has anyone ever heard of using a large striking device to install rails? I never have.

edit:spelling

only by a dumb ass!  


when they take out the hammer i say stop.  i will take the parts and do it myself.
if i have to use a hammer on anything at least i know it was a last resort and not SOP.  
there are a lot of people who should not work on guns but have taken a class and now are a "master armor".  

Reading this I am reminded of the adage:

If it jams force it, if it breaks it needed replacing anyway.

Also I have not heard of using a hammer to install rails.

Sounds like he's probably some sort of " fudd-smith" and not really familiar with AR's.

A knights RAS was a tight fit on my LMT upper so a few blows from a rubber mallet got the job done quick and not marks left behind. And i was even using a tool to pull back the delta ring.

When I install rails for customers I NEVER use a hammer.  If they where designed to fit the rifle, then they will go on without a hitch.  Sometimes you have to be patient with the delta ring, but holy christ, never do you need to use a hammer.  

I've had to use a hammer to "tap" my surefires together. I didn't have to strike it very hard at all, but they were tight enough that I had to use a light tap to get them to seat properly. And that was with a plastic mallet.

Unless it's getting the pins out that hold on the front sight base, I've never had to use a lot of force on any part of an AR.

Sounds like either you got a bad hand guard set or the guy is a "I have a hammer, I can fix anything" type gunsmith.

The Knight's Industries rail were hard to get on my Ameetec upper but didn't have to beat them on.

Mike

Quoted: A knights RAS was a tight fit on my LMT upper so a few blows from a rubber mallet got the job done quick and not marks left behind. And i was even using a tool to pull back the delta ring.

That is what we talked about last night. Too bad it wasn't that gentle according to him. He actually said to his son that he cant watch anymore so they went looking around the store while the beating continued. I told him to take it back and tell them too blow. No hookers, just blow.

Quoted: Sounds like he's probably some sort of " fudd-smith" and not really familiar with AR's.

Yep. Did he have any beef jerky to sell, by any chance?

Quoted: Quoted: Sounds like he's probably some sort of " fudd-smith" and not really familiar with AR's. Yep. Did he have any beef jerky to sell, by any chance?

Yes, they sell jerky

I had a problem once lining-up the sights on an AR barrel that I was installing on an upper receiver, so I gave it a whack with a rubber mallet...

And I got to buy a new upper for the one that I cracked with the mallet. I guess that you can call $100 for a new upper receiver cheap tuition for a valuable lesson learned.

I keep the cracked upper on top of my tool bench where I can see it and it reminds me not to do stupid stuff like that again.

I'm going to have to vote for "FUDD-SMITH" on this one. Sounds like your guy is, at best, a shade tree mechanic and not a true gunsmith.

(We have a guy like that who works out of his house a few miles down the road from me. He does a LOT of business with the local hunters come the opening of hunting season. The last time I saw him, he was telling everyone in his shop that the Colt Python "was one of the shittiest revolvers ever made" and that you'd be better off just buying a good old Taurus. )

There's nothing wrong with giving a slightly recalcitrant part a few love taps with a non marring hammer, but there is NO excuse to beat on something that doesn't fit right.  When the love taps don't work, it's time to stop and see why it's not fitting correctly, not time to get out a bigger hammer.