Quoted: Hi guys.  I need to find a gunsmith in the Pittsburgh area who can swap barrels on my AR.  I just need  the old barrel removed and the new barrel put on.  I already have the new barrel purchased.  So basically I need someone with #1action block, #2 barrel wrench and most importantly #3 the CORRECT know-how. ANY help would be appreciated.  Thanks again. Stainless

Stainless,

I know a gent who just retired from the reserves as a small arms armorer. But before I pass on his contact info (I'll have to ask his permission), there is another option you might want to consider.

We < FIRE Institute > are attempting to arrange to have this fellow teach an armorers course in the Pittsburgh area. Swapping barrels is one of the issues we were considering covering. If you aren't in a big hurry to get your bbl. swapped, you might want to consider enrolling. We're just starting to get this effort underway so the class would probably be scheduled for late September or October. We don't yet have details on a specific location but it will be held in the Pittsburgh metro area. And we haven't yet set a price but in my estimation it should be quite reasonable.

If anyone else on this forum has an interest, please let me know as we need to gauge potential attendance in order to reserve an adequate location. Please also indicate what topics you would like to see covered.

Thanks.

Quoted: Where would it be held?  How many hours? How much? Chuck

As I mentioned in my reply to Stainless, we've just begun to work through the details. We don't really have the logistics to support a full blown five day course so what we're thinking of is perhaps a one day course (8 - 10 hours) explaining AR15 specific tools and then proceed to assemble one upper and one lower. We'd also like to cover how to diagnose various issues regarding reliability, fit and function. And then maybe a session to just discuss the AR15 system and *pick his brain* so to speak.

We'd likely reserve a local motel chain conference room so it would be held indoors.

I've assembled both uppers and lowers but this fellow has been doing this for 25 years. I personally have several questions I'd like to put to him regarding a few assembly idiosyncracies issues I've encountered.

If you have anything specific you'd like to cover, please post them here or IM me.

I really can't even ball park the cost right now but if it's limited to one day it should be resonably priced. It all depends on what this fellow ends up charging which will be based on what we request. And then there will be logistics overhead such as renting a conference room.

As I get more info I'll either post to this thread or start a new one. Thanks for your interest and please forward to me topics you'd like to see covered in such a course.

Quoted: I'm interested as long as its a weekend.

It will definitely be held on a weekend.