10 Mistakes to Avoid when Building an AR 15...

all right party people so I figured today we would do a video on the top 10 mistakes that people make when they're building their first ar-15 and in fact I've made these mistakes too even after I built my first ar-15 so this video isn't intended to be like a complete exhaustive list of everything and you know some of the things in the today's list will be widely agreed upon by the gun community and some of them people are gonna be like yeah I think that's stupid you know it doesn't really matter this is just my list of the top 10 mistakes that people tend to make when building their first day ar-15s but I kind of came up with the idea for today's video because last night I was building this ar-15 right here for a good friend of mine this is his first gun ever he'd texted me a while back asking you know hey looking to get an ar-15 what would you recommend and and I recommended to him this Palmetto State Armory build kit it came with the sights and everything you need I think he got away with like less than $600 in the reason I recommended that to him is I have a couple of Palmetto State Armory guns you know I built this AR pistol here about a year or so ago and it's been holding up really well it really surprised me because you know before I got this I'd seen reviews about Pomona state Armory the reviews that I saw were you know from three or four years ago where their quality control wasn't as good as it is today but because they've you know increased their quality control you know a lot of their stuffs really good and the prices are really affordable so because I had a good experience with this one and because I had a good experience with their AKM I figured hey I'll recommend that to him and he's a you know dear French so that's what inspired today's video just a heads up if you see anything in today's video that you want to buy or you know check the price up just follow the first link in the video description i'll also pin that link in the comments that way to be the first comment at the top that'll take you to a separate page where you'll be able to find links to stuff like camaro state Armory builds I'll also include links for like my favorite barrels and my favorite boat carrier groups all the stuff that's relevant in today's video so the number one mistake that I've seen people make is not planning out their build and what I mean by that is not really defining what it is you want your rifle or pistol or whatever the case is you know not defining what you want it to accomplish not defining you know what the budget is to be this is the very first air 15 that I ever built don't get me wrong the trigger has been added since I got it the this optics been added handguards been added this barrel shrouds been added but prior to that you know they just had a milspec trigger it had a different handguard and all that stuff but in 2015 was when I built my very first ar-15 I built one before I've ever even bought one I think I only have two ar-15s actually maybe 3 3 air 15s that actually came from the factory already built the rest of them I either pieced together or I bought as a build kit and this one is one that I pieced together it's a radical firearms upper anderson lower and this one has the Magpul stock on it right now but it did have a mission first tactical stock on it Magpul grip all that stuff and you know when I first built this it was not as cheap to build ar-15 as it is today I think when I bought this and got it all assembled I had to wait like three months for the upper because everybody was freaking out they thought it will you know Hillary was gonna win the elections and guns were gonna be banned I didn't even know all that was going on when I was wanted to build it I was just like wow I kind of want to get an ar-15 I had no idea what was going on politically and you know I remember I placed the order for the upper and it was a barreled upper I mean it literally took I think I ordered it early December I didn't get it until the end of February so you know just a heads up guys the gun world even if you're buying it online it's not gonna be like Amazon and the reason I bring that up is I - a lot of guys that are FF ELLs that sell stuff and they get a lot of complaints from people that the shipping took too long or this and just understand when it's made in America and because of what's happening with coronavirus and riots things are gonna be back order guys that's just the nature of the game but anyways I planned this build out I had to mainly plan my build out based around budget because budget was my biggest crunching factor I had approximately $700 in my budget to spend on an ar-15 and before I built this I remember watching a video from Iraq veteran 8888 this is way before I started YouTube it's funny how we're friends now but okay weird how life works but I remember watching their video and I took away a piece of advice that I've actually echoed in a lot of my videos in the past and this is actually gonna bring up my second mistake that a lot of people make cheaping out but not just cheaping out in regards to price cheaping out on quality but even more so than that cheaping out on the barrel and bolt carrier group so essentially the entire heart of the gun is the barrel and the bolt carrier group those are those are the parts of the gun they're gonna experience the most wear and tear because that's where the explosions occur so choosing a barrel and or a bolt carrier group that really has no name to it or not even just a name no reputation to it or a bolt carrier group that hasn't been high pressure tested and magnetic particle inspected and the same thing with the barrel you know you at least want to know that when that barrel left the facility that it was at least high pressure tested you know in magnetic particle inspected and I'll actually include a link to some of my favorite barrels that were magnetic particles inspected and you know high pressure tested and I also have a video on how to choose bolt carrier groups I will link that in the description if you will watch it later but what that taught me at the time was I need to base my entire build around the barrel in the bulk hair group so if I got a splurge on something splurging under barrel the bolt carrier group now I haven't made a video dedicated to ar-15 barrels but I'll put it like this even on the with the affordable barrels 99% of people in America aren't gonna outshoot their barrels and what I mean by that is a they're probably not going to be more accurate than their a barrel can beat and be they aren't gonna shoot enough rounds through it to wear out the rifling in the barrel and so you know most standard you know mil spec barrels are gonna do you just fine which is why I've recommended the Palmetto State Armory to my friend was because they use a standard mil spec parts and I've had no issues with their stuff and now I haven't fired that gun yet if I have issues with it I'll definitely make a video about it but me and him we're gonna go shooting later this week he's I don't think he's ever fired one so I gotta show him how to do it but don't cheap out on the barrel and the bolt carrier group at the bare minimum just make sure that they're high pressure tested magnetic particle inspected and then plan out your build going back to number one number three spending too much especially spending too much money on the wrong things you know as an example for that I don't think people should spend more than a hundred and twenty dollars max on a lower receiver that's just a personal opinion guys you know way back when I remember like people would buy spikes tactical lowers for 250 bucks I don't know how much they cost today but people would buy them and they're like oh my god this lower so great and it just looks cool they really had zero functionality to the firearm so for me you know if you're gonna build just a standard ar-15 there's no reason to spend more than a hundred dollars on a lower receiver now with that being said there are benefits to spending a little bit more on lower receivers as an example you can get lowers as cheap as forty bucks and they can go up from there now I'll have a link to this in the build list for you but I highly recommend these Aero precision m41 lowers couple of reasons which is actually going to tie in to the next part for number four two things that I like about this lower more than any other lower number one the trigger guard is integrated a lot of people when they're building their first ar-15 when they're installing these trigger guards break these ears you can get this trigger guard here where they're threaded so you have a threaded portion here and a threaded portion here and you just you know use an Allen wrench to screw it in so if you have a lower like this I highly suggest getting I'll put a link to where you can get these trigger guards but they're threaded trigger guards that way you don't accidentally break in here on the second reason that I like this aside from having this integrated air guard is right here on this bolt catch this bolt catch is also threaded you don't get a hammer a punch in this is definitely the more one of the most difficult roll pins to drive in on an ar-15 build especially when you're using a hammer and punch now if you are going to use a hammer and punch put painters tape all over the side of this and use the proper tools which we're going to cover proper tools here in a second so another thing that I see people spending too much money on is the way their gun looks or they're more worried about features than they are the quality of the gun or the way that it shoots you know a great example of that would be a mistake I made on this a Kay right here when I got this a K it originally had you know the short four end where the four end only came out to here it was made of wood stuff like that and I wanted something that had a tactical rail so I got this awesome Midwest industries rail the problem is it's freaking heavy it makes the gun easier to shoot because it doesn't bounce as much but it is a hog to just come from like low ready up to here like it it messes with me because I used to being lighter so you know don't worry about keymod versus m-lok you know that's fine I have both you know one thing that a lot of people like to stress over when you're building an ar-15 is their handguard oh do I get keymod do I get em lock I'm just gonna be honest I know there's been studies to show that when you're throwing these off a bridge that em lock might hold up a little bit better but for the standard American it ain't gonna affect you I promise I've have em locks I have key mods I've never had anything come off because I torque everything down correctly that's not to say that they won't I'm just telling you what my experiences are so you know I wouldn't worry too much about you know the hand guards and stuff like that you know just find one that you like you don't got to go spend a ton of money on it you know another area where I see people spending a ton of money is on CNC machined lowers now I'm all about getting CNC machined receivers but not just the lower you know one of the benefits to getting a CNC receiver is because you don't get this wobbly listen so that's the upper in the lower there's a little bit of a gap between them and in this case I'm using different brands between the upper and the lower but sometimes even with the same brand you'll still get some of that slot with that said when you get CNC lowers they definitely have way less slop especially when you get them as a machined set this is a set from a send armory these are pretty much impossible to find right now I will include a link but I don't know they're gonna be in stock this is gonna be a build that I'm going to build in the future but if you listen there's a little bit of play like right here but that's because it's not assembled but for the most part this thing is rock-solid in regards to the fitment between the upper and the lower because it's a matched set now these do get a little bit pricey you know whenever I've had a gun to have a lady play between the upper and lower I've never really had any issues with the gun because of that so it's more of an OCD thing than it is you know an actual real benefit to the functionality of an ar-15 now one thing that I have had is I actually this is a stag arms lower this was a replacement lower because the original lower that I got the magwell wasn't machined out completely enough and no mags would fit in it and that does happen guys like it can happen to any company that makes lowers basically something slips through the cracks maybe that's not machined out enough and then now sudden mags well you know little things like that are bound to happen but that's why you order from a reputable dealer or a reputable brand that has a good return policy now earlier when I was talking about you know breaking ears off lowers and showing you that the lower that I liked because you didn't have to worry about breaking years that all kind of comes down to having the right tools I'm actually in the process of upgrading all of my ar-15 tools because all of these tools are really old and are getting really worn out here's the bare minimum for what you would need to build an ar-15 if you buy it as a barreled upper and what I mean by that is that's my favorite type of kit to recommend people with where the uppers already assembled together and then you assemble the lower that's usually gonna be the best bet for a very very beginner and that's what I did when I bought mine I just bought a barreled upper because there are more tools required and there's more skill that's needed in order to assemble an upper correctly which we'll talk about in a second but as a bare minimum you know this is just a set of roll pen punches and if you look at the very tips of these if you look at the very end of these they have a like a little nipple on them that fits into the end of the roll pin so your punch doesn't slide when you're actually hammering it into place these are a big-time life saver the next tool that I use is a bench block this is more for a handgun but we'll talk more about that in a second because there's actually a new tool set that I'm gonna be upgrading to but definitely you need a bench block and this is something that you can set your receiver on you can actually you know hammer things in and you're not gonna scratch up the receiver or the surface that you're using to hammer on another thing that I use this is a vise block for receivers so basically a receiver fits on like this you will pinch this between a vise and now you have a stand for you to install your parts these are good the one that I'm gonna be upgrading to is a lot better when I lived in the house that I lived in when I started this channel I actually had like a workbench in the garage and now this house doesn't have a workbench in the garage and we're just renting so I can just go out there and build one so I'm having to improvise you know I haven't been able to use this bench block and I've just kind of had to wing it or you can get this other option where you get an ar-15 stand and on the stand you can put one of these vices and it bolts down and then you can set it on any surface that you want to you won't scratch up the surface that you're using nor will you scratch up the gun another thing you're definitely going to need is an ar-15 wrench this one is the DPMS ar-15 wrench this is the first and only wrench that I've ever bought it's not the best wrench out there but it's definitely done its job but I will make sure to link to this one and I'll also link to a couple of other ones that I think are a lot better you're definitely gonna need a hammer and punch set especially one that comes with a mallet that has a nylon side and a brass side that way you can use the nylon side so you and when you're you know hammering against a receiver and you won't scratch off the finish and stuff like that I'm actually in the process of upgrading this one too because it's like four years old and I've bent everything up and everything's falling apart but it's really done this job you know I mean we've built like at least ten ar-15s on this channel and I've used it for Glock builds I've used it for 1911 builds and this thing's really held up for me the next thing you needs like some aeroshell 33 I put this stuff on like the threads of my buffer tube that way you know if I ever need to take that buffer tube off it won't seize up and I also put this around the outside of the barrel on the chamber where it fits into the receiver that way if I ever want to change the barrel I can actually upgrade that later as well and it won't seize up now this is probably going to be the most important tool that you need for any ar-15 and don't only cost about a dollar or two this is a quarter-inch clevis pin you need this if you don't want detents to go flying and I'm actually gonna roll some b-roll right now so you can see that this fits into where your front takedown pin goes that's one of the most difficult detents and pens to install without this tool you will thank me later it's a quarter-inch clevis pin i recommend ordering two or three not only because you might lose one but because sometimes the sizes aren't correct like as an example this one's a quarter-inch clevis pin this one's a quarter-inch clevis pin right here this one is just a couple of millimeters off and it won't fit through those holes on my receiver so I pretty much can't use that but that's why I bought like you know a handful of them another thing that using the right tools will prevent is breaking those ears for example if you have the lower receiver that I have right here and you don't have one of these threaded trigger guards and you do need to drive a punch to it you can use your bench block to support the ears right here you can drive your hands and because you got a roll pin punch that doesn't slip you're less likely to break the ears of your air 15 now knock on wood I've never broken an ear on here but ever since I discovered threaded trigger guards I haven't had the drive a pen for like the past eight bills in the future here I'm actually gonna be upgrading to this kit right here I believe it's from a real avid I just ordered it so it'll arrive here and wanted it arrives I'll make sure to make a video on it now if you're gonna be building an ar-15 where you are installing the barrel to an upper there's a few other tools that you're gonna need number one you're gonna need either a reaction rod I'll make sure to put links in the description where you pick these up you're gonna need a rack reaction rod or you're gonna need another vise block for your upper receiver when you're installing the barrels the second thing that you're going to need is a torque wrench because you want to get that barrel nut torque down the spec that way you know it doesn't back out another set of tools you're gonna need is a set of go and no go gauges so you can test the headspace before you shoot the gun you know typically if you buy a barreled upper receiver from a company and the barrels already set into place it's probably it's most likely already been headspace checked especially if it's from a reputable come for example with this BCM recce 14 this is definitely my favorite rifle of all time there are about thirteen to fifteen hundred dollars depending on where you get them I'll try to find links to them but these you can literally buy them as an upper or just buy them as a lower and things like that maybe you want this badass barrel this badass bolt carrier group and you want to put your own lower on it now you can save some money by building your own lower so you know with this I know a hundred percent just by the quality control that these guys do it's definitely headspace if you haven't seen that video that I made on this gun it'll blow your mind I'll put a link in the description but the the amount of quality control that these guys go through to build these they're insane so you're definitely going to need those torque wrench you're definitely gonna need either a reaction rod or bench block and you're gonna need a set of go and no-go gauges therefore if you are inexperienced or you've never built anything before over at the build list I'm gonna put links to my favorite build kits that I've used over time I'll also include uppers and lowers and stuff that way you know to make it as easy as possible on you if it's your first time if it isn't your first time and you want to graduate - you know putting your own barrel on your own upper then I will include a link to the tools for that and I think I have a video on that as well that I'll link to mistake number five not buying what you wanted from the get-go just because you're trying to keep out this kind of ties in with the number two one of cheeping out you know a lot of times you know you'll see something that you want or you know that something has like a great reputation as an example you're like you know what I really want to get a B cm bolt carrier group because I hear they're like bomb-proof and you're like oh man they're like 150 bucks or I don't member how much they cost maybe 180 I don't remember and you're like I'm definitely gonna get that bolt carrier group but because it goes over your budget a little bit you're not willing to wait another month to save up the money to buy it so you cheap out and you buy some no-name bulk air group or something that's subpar to that well you're not gonna be happy you know because you're always gonna know I could have had something that was a little bit better and the difference in price wasn't that much I would say you know don't let anyone dictate to you what you should get now there are companies out there that sell really cheap ar-15 and I don't know what their quality is like and you know because I don't know what their qualities like I don't typically recommend them to people I only recommend things to people that I've actually tried now the next mistake that I see people make and this isn't Dogma right here this one's actually gonna be I could see people fighting in the comments over this one I don't shoot reloaded ammo out of ar-15s or any rifle for that matter main reason being if you get a double charge load on a rifle you're gonna blow your face off and and don't get me wrong double charge loads can happen with factory hammo however it's more likely to happen with reloaded ammo that's a personal opinion mistake that I think is you know some people say when I shoot it all the time it's not a big deal I've just seen enough things where you know with a handgun I will shoot you know reloaded ammunition all the time you know if I have a mistake there is a possibility that could hurt my hands but there's way less of a possibility that it's gonna blow up and you know knock an eyeball out or something like that and usually when if you get a double charge load on a handgun you know sometimes you might get your hand hurt sometimes you don't but the main thing is it's not next to your head whereas when you have a rifle you know you get the chamber you know right here get your hand right here you're all up on it like this if this thing blows up it's going to right at your eyeball so that's just something that's a personal opinion like I said I know people probably fight about it in the comments but I think shooting reloaded ammunition out of a rifle bad idea now the next mistake that I think that people make when they're building their new rifle is just not shooting it you know they build it and they get it all put together they go shoot it like once or twice and they never shoot it again they're like oh I'm gonna put it over here in the safe or over here in the closet until I need it to defend my life and you know as a gun enthusiast I understand that shooting is a very perishable skill I've seen a lot of ups and downs in my shooting ability over the past a couple of years you know in here in the past few months I haven't really done that much shooting I've been busy with other things and I just haven't been able to make it to the rank ranges often and in my last range trip I noticed a ton of fundamentals that I just forgot in my head you know for like a rifle for example and low ready you have the safe on and then when you come up you have the safe off and then you press the trigger you know before a couple of months ago I was pretty much able to go from low ready to shoot and have that safety disabled and a shot on target very quickly and that faded very fast and I think even I even realized you know with handguns when I'm gripping it I have my my support hand like kicked out like this I remember the last time I went shooting or the time before that I was shooting and I didn't have my elbow kicked up and I had all this recoil and I'm like what and I was like oh yeah kick your elbow out so definitely shoot your guns definitely invest in ammo because your guns useless without it the number 10 mistake that I see on ar-15 is people not cleaning them or not cleaning them correctly unless you have a piston driven ar-15 this thing I think needs to be cleaned every time you shoot it and that's what I do every time I take these to the range and I get them home I just clean them and I don't let the carbon build up but because these guns [ __ ] where they eat for a lack of better term meaning the gas comes all the way back into the chamber fouls up the chamber with a lot of carbon and lead you know you really want to make sure you get that chamber cleaned out because you're gonna have a lot of issues if you don't let me show you more about what I mean you know as a quick bonus for today's video I'll just kind of run down real quick you know what tools I use why I think they're important I keep my cleaning very simple actually he used to be a lot more complicated but once you find the right tools you know things tend to just get easier over time number one I use shooter loop it's a two-step system you can either use this or CLP my main reasoning for using this is number one it's non-toxic you could literally eat it because of that there's zero smell or odor to it and so you know I've been using it for going on three years now and it's always taken the carbon off and it's not eroded through anything so I'll include a link to that I think I got a 5% out promo code for it the second things that I used for tools is the Otis chamber cleaner and essentially what you would do is you would spray your cleaner you know down into your chamber down here you'd reach this tool and it has this tool has these replaceable pads on it so you know over time when they get wore out you replace them and it goes down into your chamber and it cleans out all the grime you know that's a big that's really important because you could see how the lugs on your bolt here are shaped if you get too much carbon in there and this bolt one of these bolt lugs right here hits that piece of carbon then it can literally shear off one of these lugs so you don't want that to happen so that's how I clean the chamber and then to clean the barrel I simply you know keep spraying more cleaner down in here then I drop this little fellow through it this is the rope there's different versions of these ropes but this is one I use I just pull it through a couple like I usually do it twice just like that and then it pulls all the carbon out and then you know I'll look down the barrel with light coming into it just to see but overall that's how I clean the upper now the other thing that's important to clean on a ar-15 is your bolts and to clean the bolt and the firing pin I use a couple different tools first off you know I would spray this down and I would let it soak in cleaner for a little bit before I start attempting this but I just wanted to show you what this bolt does number one you can see on this bolt here that I got a lot of carbon built up right here on the nose of it you know I forget I don't matter if that's called a nose but that's what I'm going to call it so it has this little space right here and you just twist it you know and it cleans off the carbon and you can already see how started cleaning some we got a shiny spot so anyways you spray it down with clean or let it soak and it takes more often and you just do that over and over and over again until that's completely clean the other thing that it does is it cleans down into your carrier right here with this side here simply goes down you turn it same way I mean these are all areas that are really difficult to clean on a bolt carrier group and this little tool it's called the bone tool I'll have a link to it it's been really good now the next way that it cleans it is on our firing pin I'm gonna wipe it off now this firing pin isn't actually isn't that bad typically on our firing pin you're gonna get a lot of carbon buildup where the firing pin meets this cylinder part and it's really difficult to get off well if yours is built up this one isn't it has another space right here so you can just twist it and then you get all the carbon off of that another tool that I use and this isn't actually the tool this is just a stand-in for the tool but I do use a brush now this is a copper brush the brush that I use is actually from Otis as well the only reason I'm not showing it to you is because I misplaced it and I can't find it I think it's in my range bag if this is a gun part you know you can get all the carbon off with that and it uses plastic really stiff plastic bristles that won't you know Mar up the finish of your parts back up top it's my top 10 mistakes that I see people doing when they're building a ar-15 so don't get me wrong they're not always going to be a mistake you know for example you can totally build an ar-15 with the wrong tools and make it work right and not scratch it up because I've done it before however not everyone has the ability to build an air 15 with the wrong tools and you know not scratch it up so that's why I say that's the top 10 mistakes if I left anything out guys let me know down in the comments section below if you have any questions I'll try my best to answer them if you liked today's video hit the like button if you didn't hit the dislike button twice but until next time guys I love you you guys stay sexy

Channel: Tactical Toolbox

Views: 929,653

Rating: 4.8631492 out of 5

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Id: IEfgWKy8Jj4

Length: 26min 50sec (1610 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 15 2020