Red Dot Arms Forum

Solutions to 8 Common Problems With AR-15 Rifle Upgrades

Choosing to own an AR-15 pattern rifle means buying into a platform that's fun to shoot and easy to customize. However, freshly minted AR owners need to be aware of a few important points before they start swapping out components. Although AR-15s generally look alike, subtle dimensional differences in some components will cause problems if the wrong size is purchased. Other parts are trickier to install than you might expect. Here are a few of the gotchas that often show up for new AR owners when purchasing and installing upgrades.

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Thanks, good info. I am in the process of learning all this. I am taking the AR-15 classes first before diving in. Although I bought a used one from Red Dot for education purposes (and the class) and made a couple minor changes already.

Good info Lisa.
Many Noobs get caught in some of these traps. I know a few guys that have and while it may not be that expensive, it was still a lesson.
Also lot of the time when one purchases the gas tube, since they changed the length of the hand guard, the gas tube did not come with a roll pin. So also having the correct roll pin punches and other tools to disassemble and reassemble the parts is VERY important. The tools can get very expensive. One not so cheap needed (to some it may not seem important) accessory, when building from scratch is a go/no-go set.

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Oh, don't for get the Gas Block. Knowing your barrel size for the new lo pro gas block is important. Even tough you may think they are the same, there are some differences. Specifically if your barrel has a different port size or has a coating/painted. It may make the new GB a tighter than normal fit.

So the AR community thinks go and no-go gauges are expensive? It's the exact opposite in the AK community.