And for the first joker who says "give it to me!"...[:D] Seriously, I have an Oly/SGW made between 09/15/1986 and 03/09/1988, with A2 lower, A1 upper, and [b]heavy[/b] barrel w/A2 flash suppressor (not sure of rifling.) Nothing is really "wrong" with it but there are some areas that I think could use improvements, and I wanted to know if anyone more knowledgable about ARs had any recommendations.

First, with the handguards off the slip ring is very loose - you can move it side-to-side about 1/8" in any direction. I've never noticed this on any of the M16s I've been issued. It also seems to be made of plastic and not the usual aluminum. Should I go ahead and replace it?

Next, the upper itself. I do like the A2 sights better, but my real problem is getting hit in the face with ejected brass - it only does it with Wolf, for some reason. Still, since my rifle eats up Wolf just like it does the expensive stuff, and seems to be just as accurate with it, I plan on using Wolf most of the time and don't want to get beaten about the chin and face with it. Neither do I want to use a brass deflector. Would changing an upper in order to keep using ammo I like be considered excessive? And if I had the tools for the job, would it be something I can do myself? What tools would I need? From looking at the rifle and my Bushmaster catalog, it seems that all I'd need would be a vise block, barrel nut wrench, torque wrench (1/2" drive?), and a set of roll pin punches. I'm a mechanic by trade so the actual disassembly and assembly shouldn't be a big deal, but are there any things to watch out for that I should know about? What range torque wrench would I need to torque the barrel (barrel extension?) into the new upper? I'm thinking 20-200 lb-in should do, which I don't have, but I'm always willing to buy more tools LOL. BTW, if anyone wants an A1 upper receiver, with minor scratching, let me know. Maybe we could work out a trade once I get it apart.

Next, there's a stupid little peg coming out of the lower receiver, whose purpose seems to be to stop the selector. Now, I'm pretty sure that the selector's not going to fall out if that peg's not there to keep it from moving to where AUTO/BURST would be, but you never can tell. Is it OK to chisel this thing off? And what's a good touch-up paint to hide the round mark it'll leave? (The AR is a very nice and even black color.)

Lastly, my trigger is pretty rough. Should I polish it (or have it done by a gunsmith), or is a replacement trigger a better idea? I'm not looking for anything fancy (or expensive), just a nice 2-stage job with a pull of around 4.5lb.

As an aside, the rifle is quite accurate, even with the gritty trigger. I don't have a problem keeping all my shots touching at my estimated 25m zero range. The barrel is unmarked, which leads me to believe it's an Oly factory barrel, but I seem to remember hearing they have excellent barrels.


Edited for Cyrax777!

ok then give it to me [:D]

Well, to take your various questions in order, my opinions are:

1) get a new handguard.  Even though there are lots of way-neato-cool things out now, my favorite is still the knurled aluminum tube that Oly sells.  $35 at the gunshow yesterday.

2) Don't use Wolf ammo.  There, that was easy, wasn't it? [:p]

Both 1) and 2) can be solved by buying a new factory upper from Olympic.  They'll make it pre-ban if you want.  Their "UltraMatch" uppers are pretty nice.  You can then either sell off your old upper or keep it around as a spare.  If you want to do the work yourself (changing out everything except the barrel), you'll need some vise blocks and such (in addition to the parts) that will cost more than the complete new upper itself, probably.  Not that they're a bad investment, but unless you're going to do work that needs them in the future (or want to have them "just in case"), there's not a lot of point in letting them sit on a shelf.

3) Why do you want to chisel off the "peg"?  It's not hurting anything where it is, unless you have the necessary Class III stuff that makes it be "in the way".

4) If you're not going Class III (one of the things I always liked about NH), get a Jewell trigger.  You can install it yourself pretty easily if you want.

Oly's .223 uppers:
[url]http://www.olyarms.com/stduprs.html[/url]

The K6 has the knurled free-floating handguard but with a flattop;  the K2 has regular handguards but an A2 upper. . . .  I'm sure they'd be happy to do a mix-n-match for you (they have for me).  Ask Tom over in the "Industry Forums - Olympic Arms" forum here:
[url]http://www.ar15.com/forums/forum.html?id=31[/url]

I'd convert it into a M-4A3 forgery. Get a flattop upper, the new S.I.R. rail system,and a collapsable stock if it dosn't already have one.

Oh yeah, and Oly barrles are the bomb

I have new Bushy handguards on it, but with the handguards off the slipring moves a lot. It's tight with the handguards on, and I guess that's what matters, but it just doesn't seem "right" for it to be that loose with the handguards off - none of "my" M16s or the last Oly I owned were that way.



Very easy LOL. I might have been premature in saying it only happens with Wolf - I just haven't fired the AR in so long that I forgot if it did it with the SA 5.56 that I last fired. Looks like I have an excuse to go to the range again soon now!



Actually, getting a new upper HAD crossed my mind, and it's still an option - I'd looked at Bushy uppers but not Oly. I'd also noticed that buying the tools and parts would cost more than just buying a complete upper. As far as the tools sitting on the shelf, it's something I see every day when I go to work - I have about $20K worth of tools at the shop and it seems half of them have been used one time or less LOL. But, when the time comes that I need them, nothing else will do. If I knew anyone else with an AR15 up here, I'd buy the tools and do whatever work they needed LOL.



Mainly aesthetics - I don't like it there.



Why a Jewell and not regular ol' USGI? Is the Jewell that much better?

This AR is something a little different to me, I'm used to buying parts for my M1A, where you basically only have 1 choice - USGI! Of course, the USGI parts, like the rifle itself, are so damn close to perfect it's easy to understand why nobody could really improve on most of them [;)]