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AR-15 Complete Assembly Guide
bagged for protection. see my image. VJB
- GenresReference
155 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 5, 2012
This review is really premature, but I want to give my impressions.
Background: I owned a Ruger Mini-14 for many years, and it's the only gun I've ever owned that I really didn't like. It was an early stainless model, with the noodle-thin barrel, and never shot a group smaller than 3" at 50 yards (with a scope). I decided a little while ago to look into what it would take to make it something worth shooting (and hence owning), and basically for the cost of gunsmithing I could have bought a new one. So I sold it. Meanwhile, I started learning about the AR-15 platform, and I can only describe it as an amazing piece of engineering. As the Forward (sic -- this book was clearly not written by an English major) puts it, "The AR-15 is, in all its glorious (and some not so glorious) manifestations, the most versatile and transmutable rifle platform ever devised." There are dozens of sources of nearly every component of the rifle, and anybody who can use a hammer and a torque wrench can assemble a custom rifle to match his needs exactly, from a lightweight field carbine to a long-range target rifle. So, for what it would have cost to have somebody else take my Mini-14 and make it shoot, I can build an AR-15 myself to exactly meet my desires. Cool!
The only thing I can't do, sadly, is make it pretty. No stained walnut stocks, no graceful bolt actions. It will always look like an Evil Assault Rifle. Oh, well. I've got my stripped lower receiver, and I figure any efforts to shut down parts sources for the rest of the rifle will take enough time that I can reprioritize some expenditures.
Anyway, it's likely that all of the information in this book is available for free on forums like ar15.com or on youtube. All the same, for someone planning to build his first rifle, having all of the information together in a single book is well worth the purchase price -- to me, anyway. Even better, near as I can tell, this book presents it all in a really easily understood way.
In general, the book focuses on standard parts. However, there are some extra sections discussing things like high-performance trigger assemblies (specifically the Jewell trigger) and full-floating front handguards. It quite deliberately concerns itself only with the semi-automatic AR-15. Fully-automatic versions are dismissed as outside the scope of the book early on, and never mentioned again.
The instructions appear to be clear and concise. Every step in the process is accompanied with "tips", "tricks", and "pitfalls", describing ways to make life easier and ways you can, if you aren't careful, make life harder or even damage parts. The illustrations are very well-composed and focused photographs. There are parts and tools lists, and the author describes both the steps he takes in building the rifle, and other approaches to some of the hard parts with clear statements as to whether or not he has found them helpful.
I won't really know how good this book is until I can afford the parts, and have fulfilled a promise to clear out some existing projects before starting a new one, and build my new rifle. I'll be updating -- and quite possibly completely completely replacing -- this review after that happens. In the mean time, I think I've got my assembly instructions.
Background: I owned a Ruger Mini-14 for many years, and it's the only gun I've ever owned that I really didn't like. It was an early stainless model, with the noodle-thin barrel, and never shot a group smaller than 3" at 50 yards (with a scope). I decided a little while ago to look into what it would take to make it something worth shooting (and hence owning), and basically for the cost of gunsmithing I could have bought a new one. So I sold it. Meanwhile, I started learning about the AR-15 platform, and I can only describe it as an amazing piece of engineering. As the Forward (sic -- this book was clearly not written by an English major) puts it, "The AR-15 is, in all its glorious (and some not so glorious) manifestations, the most versatile and transmutable rifle platform ever devised." There are dozens of sources of nearly every component of the rifle, and anybody who can use a hammer and a torque wrench can assemble a custom rifle to match his needs exactly, from a lightweight field carbine to a long-range target rifle. So, for what it would have cost to have somebody else take my Mini-14 and make it shoot, I can build an AR-15 myself to exactly meet my desires. Cool!
The only thing I can't do, sadly, is make it pretty. No stained walnut stocks, no graceful bolt actions. It will always look like an Evil Assault Rifle. Oh, well. I've got my stripped lower receiver, and I figure any efforts to shut down parts sources for the rest of the rifle will take enough time that I can reprioritize some expenditures.
Anyway, it's likely that all of the information in this book is available for free on forums like ar15.com or on youtube. All the same, for someone planning to build his first rifle, having all of the information together in a single book is well worth the purchase price -- to me, anyway. Even better, near as I can tell, this book presents it all in a really easily understood way.
In general, the book focuses on standard parts. However, there are some extra sections discussing things like high-performance trigger assemblies (specifically the Jewell trigger) and full-floating front handguards. It quite deliberately concerns itself only with the semi-automatic AR-15. Fully-automatic versions are dismissed as outside the scope of the book early on, and never mentioned again.
The instructions appear to be clear and concise. Every step in the process is accompanied with "tips", "tricks", and "pitfalls", describing ways to make life easier and ways you can, if you aren't careful, make life harder or even damage parts. The illustrations are very well-composed and focused photographs. There are parts and tools lists, and the author describes both the steps he takes in building the rifle, and other approaches to some of the hard parts with clear statements as to whether or not he has found them helpful.
I won't really know how good this book is until I can afford the parts, and have fulfilled a promise to clear out some existing projects before starting a new one, and build my new rifle. I'll be updating -- and quite possibly completely completely replacing -- this review after that happens. In the mean time, I think I've got my assembly instructions.
February 23, 2013
Perfect follow up for the owners guide. Simple concise instructions explained with humor and intelligence. Kuleck is a master at the art of taking the complex and making it understandable. This is a must have for anyone with even a passing interest in this weapon system.
February 27, 2013
Good step by step instructions with photos.
January 4, 2019
Well written for a firearm manual.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews