Field Repairs and Real World Fixes

What actually breaks on an AR in the real world? What can you fix at the range, and what needs a bench, proper tools, and patience?

In this episode of Built to Last, Tim sits down with Brownells Senior Media Content Supervisor Caleb Savant for a deep dive into field repairs, practical firearm problem solving, and his experience as a gunsmith.

The conversation also dives into overlooked firearm issues like loose buttpads, stripped screws, crushed wood fibers, improper screwdriver use, and why seemingly small hardware problems can create major reliability and accuracy issues over time. Caleb explains the difference between temporary field fixes and proper long-term repairs, while sharing the mindset and discipline that come from both military service and years behind the bench.

Along the way, Tim, Jude, and Caleb discuss preventive maintenance, gas ring myths, extractor upgrades, lubrication misconceptions, and what separates a true system thinker from someone who simply swaps parts.

If you enjoy practical gunsmithing knowledge, real-world troubleshooting, and understanding why guns fail instead of just replacing parts until they work again, this episode is for you.

Send your bench questions, range stories, or future episode ideas to BuiltToLast@Brownells.com
.

And remember, if it’s worth fixing, ensure it’s Built to Last.

This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. Please speak to a qualified firearm professional for any industry-related questions or decisions. The views and opinions expressed in this episode are solely those of the host and guests and do not reflect the official policy or position of any company. This content is intended for audiences 21 years or older. Viewer discretion is advised. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:02

Welcome to another episode of Built to Last with Brown Elves. I'm your host, Tim, alongside our co-host Jude, recording in the Ram Room at Brown Elves. Today's guest is Caleb Savant, a combat veteran, Purple Heart recipient, gunsmith, and media content supervisor for Brownells. He started as an apprentice in 2012 and went all in on mastering the trade. He specialized early in restoring obsolete firearms that most shops won't even touch. He has handled warranty work for Remington, HR, Marlin, Browning, Winchester, Grand Power, and Bursa. He's managed the oldest gunsmith shop in Louisiana and the largest shop in Baton Rouge. He is an Army small arms armorer, certified SW MP and Glock Armorer, and served as the annual armorer for the New Orleans Federal Reserve Bank from 2013 to 2016. Most gunsmiths guard their knowledge. He teaches it. He brought that mindset to Ask the Gunsmith on Louisiana Outdoors, and now on to his role at Brownells. Caleb, welcome to Built to Last. Yeah, thanks for having me. So when we talk about your experience, Caleb, what carried from combat engineer to the bench discipline?

SPEAKER_05 1:09

So honestly, not as much as you would expect. So being a combat engineer is more about breaking stuff. Right? It's literally the exact opposite of what you want to be doing on the gunsmith bench. Um, but honestly, a lot of just like that, I mean, this is sounds super cheesy to say, but like the army discipline, you know, attention to detail kind of stuff is kind of what really carries through. What's the first thing that you check when someone hands you a broken rifle? Okay, so just because it's broken doesn't mean it's not unloaded. All right. Too many, too many times someone comes into the gunsmith shop. And because it's broken, like they either just forgot, like got caught up in the oh no, my gun's broken, and uh just didn't bother to unload it. I've seen that plenty of times, and it's it's unfortunate, but it's there. Um, but so obviously that is indeed the first thing you check. But that's why most of those gunsmith shops have a jar full of live rounds that they pulled from cleared firearms. That dude, that's real. That isn't it's terrifying, especially when they come in and they're just like waving it around. Because like they're it it being broken, it just leaves their mind that it's still a dangerous item, right? So that happens all too often. But then what I want to get like immediately is their description of the problem. And yeah, because you can ask them a lot of things, like, oh, we're at in the cycle of operation, is it failing? And you know, everything's the cycle of what? Yeah, exactly. So keep in mind here, like this is South Louisiana, right? And so if you have like this old sugar cane farmer that talks like farmer Fran from Waterboy comes in and like he's trying to describe a problem to you, asking them about the cycle of operation isn't gonna make it easier for you. You just want to get their best description, and now hopefully you can translate enough of it to kind of see what's going on. And you know, we had a test fire range as well, so I could go duplicate the problem if I needed to. They said that this was the issue, you take it back to the test firing range and be like, yeah, that's not the problem. Yeah, we'll see about that. Or it's like, oh, my handgun's jamming. It's like, are you old enough like lymph resting it? Well, let's go see.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Here's a question for you Like how many people come in and say, This is broken and it's not?

SPEAKER_05 3:18

So more than you would expect.

SPEAKER_00 3:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 3:21

It's uh it's interesting. You see that most with handguns or thing, like as I mentioned before, like the Browning Auto 5, because that's a long recoil operated shotgun. If you're not holding on to it, it's not gonna cycle. Interesting. Because it relies on you holding it still for the recoil energy to actually cycle it. Makes sense. You um you see it every now and then because of that.

SPEAKER_04 3:42

So when you're talking about repairing, what's the difference or what's the difference in mindset between a field repair and then a shop repair?

SPEAKER_05 3:51

Yeah, so a field repair is what I like to say falls under your like immediate action drills, right? So, like something like you had a malfunction in the gun, you can usually clear it by hand. You know, remedi some remedial repairs can be done in the field. Like if I can just pop a few pins out, replace a part. Typically, parts changing is what I would consider easy field repairs for the most part. Um, something that doesn't have to be fitted. And then when we get into the more like remedial type stuff, stuff that I have to hammer things out, I got to beat on something, I have to measure something, I have to um fit something. So I'm gonna need to bust out a stone and a file and things like that. That's more where I would lean into the shop. So anytime I can, I'd prefer to get it to the shop, regardless of what it is, but there are some small minor things you can do in the field.

SPEAKER_04 4:44

What are the easier things to hit fix in the field and things that you'll just be like, uh, we need to go to the shop for this?

SPEAKER_05 4:50

Yeah. So like swapping out extractors, ejectors, um, things like that. Those are really easy field fixes. Uh, the most common thing you see in the field is actually just sites coming loose. And those are, I mean, you need tools to fix those, but there's still fixes you can do there.

SPEAKER_04 5:06

So let's talk about field fixes, small hardware, bigger problems, loose butt pads, first of all.

SPEAKER_05 5:12

Yeah, so loose butt pads. This is especially like in the the shotgun world, this is a pretty big issue. And um one you see quite a bit in South Louisiana because there's a lot of duck hunters there, and they're all hunting in the most like disgusting water possible, which makes things it just adds a whole nother level to everything. Um, but there's a few ways to fix uh loose butt pads. There's a quick fix you can do in the field, uh, and this is a perfect example of you know something you want to fix in the you need to fix in the field or you need to fix on the bench. Sometimes it can be both because um you can do a temporary fix on a loose butt pad and then apply the permanent fix once you get out of the field. Also, give me an example. I know I I thought you'd never ask. So most butt pads are attached via screws, right? So you're just like typical wood screws, and even on your synthetic butt pads, it still uses those same wood screws. Uh but what you can actually do, and you see this a lot with wooden stocks, because and back up a little bit further, the problem is, especially on wood stocks, is that that screw will actually just come a little bit loose through vibration or firing or whatever. And then it will just continue to move back and forth until it just the the threads on the screw just eat out the wood. And now you have nothing for that screw to grab onto. And that's whenever it's hard to repair. Because if it was just a simple matter of just tightening the screw, that's easy, right? Anyone could do that with a screwdriver, but it's whenever you tighten the screw and nothing happens. So that's the that's the problem we need to fix. And uh what you can actually do is if you have like a gun cleaning kit on you or something like that, and just like a little bit of steel wool, you can wrap some steel wool around the threads to help them bite. You can take a toothpick, you can break a toothpick off down in there, okay, and that's enough for it to bite onto and and provide a temporary fix. And if you don't have a toothpick, a toothpick-shaped thing is is perfectly fine. Uh, you can take a piece of like like the the weeds that grow in like ponds or whatever. It's like that, I don't know the name. They look like hot dogs almost. You know what I'm talking about. Cattails. Cattails, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:20

Don't eat them.

SPEAKER_05 7:20

Yeah, don't don't try, they are not hot dogs. No, they will not, yeah. But you can like you can even break the stems off of those and put them in the hole and then tighten. And that's sometimes enough for it to bite onto. So you can use those things to do a temporary repair. And when you get back to the shop, do the proper repair. And uh the proper repair would be, especially on a wooden stock, would be to just open up that hole a size. So you would just take that stock itself, find the next size drill bit that's larger, then you punch a hole into the stock, then you take a wooden dowel, put a wooden dowel in there, saw it off flush, and then um you can use so I like to use acroglass, but most wood glue works just fine. It's stronger than the actual wood is itself. So you just glue the dowels in there, sand it flush, and then redrill the holes for the size of the screw, and that's the correct way to repair that.

SPEAKER_04 8:14

Are all screws made the same? Like I can just go down to Ace Hardware, pick up some wood screws, and as long as it's the same size, it it's good to go.

SPEAKER_05 8:22

Probably, yeah. Like most gun manufacturers are just using generic wood screws for that anyway. So it uh honestly, what you get at the hardware store, depending on what gun manufacturer you're using, you may actually do a better job.

SPEAKER_04 8:35

Man, you you hit all of the talking points that I was gonna hit on the stocks there, on what you can do to get by in the field, how do you do it correctly at the end? I know that that's been a big issue with some of my older MIL SERP rifles, is that thread after you know years and years of firing just starts wearing out and drilling it out, putting a dowel in, sanding it off, redrilling it.

SPEAKER_05 8:58

Good to go. Yep, it's it's that simple. And in situations where you can't do that, I mean, just wrapping a little bit of steel wool around a thread is usually enough to get it to bite. And you'd be surprised at how long that that repair will actually last. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_04 9:14

Is there a screwdriver set that you recommend utilizing with some of these repairs or just any old, you know, toolbox screwdriver works?

SPEAKER_05 9:23

Listen, I know, I know this is this is gonna sound crazy, right? Because I'm a I'm a brownells employee. So like people are gonna automatically assume, like, oh, he's gonna say the Brownells magnetip set. Well, of course I am, but if you would have asked me this a long time ago, like way before I even had any idea I would ever be working at Brownells, I would still recommend that screwdriver set. I have wrecked so many screwdrivers, like quote unquote gunsmith screwdriver sets. Like I just absolutely obliterated them and um always ended up going back to the Brownell set anyway. The first gunsmith shop I ever worked at, where I was apprenticing at, they provided the Brownell's magnetip screwdriver sets. That was the first time I had ever used one. So like I didn't know how spoiled I was gonna be, like, right out the gate. So I used that, I use that screwdriver set every day. Never had any issues with it. Of course, bits break. Bits are disposable, they're they take wear and tear over time. They're gonna break. Um, but it's they're easy to replace. You can just go online, order the exact bits you need, and you just get the bit. It's that easy. A lot of screwdriver sets are not that way. Finding the replacement bit, like even if you call the company, like they it's almost like that bit was never supposed to break, even though they break way easier. So I'm not gonna say the name of the company, but I've used two other gunsmith screwdriver sets that were that were marketed as gunsmith screwdriver sets. And like one of them just the handle fell apart. It just like it just couldn't take my my like manly hands working on guns all day, you know? Okay, yeah, yeah, you know, whatever. Um, or it couldn't, I I would I assume, you know, if I had lady hands, it would have been the same. You know, whatever. It we're we're not here to talk about hands. I have dude's looking at my hands right now. No, yeah, he's looking at my hands, they're they're man hands. Uh but anyway, the bits, the bits themselves. I broke a ton of bits. So the second gunsmith shop I worked at, they didn't provide those magnetip set. Like you had to provide your basic tools, they provided all the specialty tools. So you had to provide your basic toolkit. So me being like broke at the time, I went and bought the I didn't buy the cheapest, but I didn't, it was it was a lot cheaper than a magnetip set. Budget friendly, budget friendly, yeah. It was more budget friendly. So I I I broke a bunch of bits, I blew the handle off of it, and like it was it ended up like the handle was just wrapped in electrical tape and it was in terrible shape. And um, I broke a bunch of bits because they were all mimed bits. Wow. And like the Brownell's magnetip bits, those are all machined, hollow ground, and heat treated. So they were super durable. Like you uh most of the time, like with all the larger bits, you're never gonna break them. The smaller, like thin bits are the ones you're gonna break. And whenever you do, like and let me say this too at that same shop, I was working on a lot of old antique firearms like Silver War carbines and stuff. And when you break a bit on one of those, the rest of that screwdriver is going into the side of the gun. Oh no. So it was terrifying, it was so like so costly. Fortunately, I never messed up something like that, but like the fear was real because I've messed some stuff up that was easy to fix, like just like reseracode or paint or whatever. Like, that's not that big of a deal. But like ruining the original finish on one of those old, like that old patina, like I was terrified of doing. I would usually just borrow somebody else's magnetips to take those guns apart. I wouldn't even risk it. I was like, no way, go from a screw replacement to now you gotta do a complete refinish. Yeah, you gotta do a complete refinish. Not only that, but the the value of this gun's gone because the original finish is gone. And it's you're not gonna make anything on this job. Matter of fact, you're probably gonna be paying something on this job. So um, especially at like, and at that place I was making commission on the work I did, so I had to be extra careful so that I could actually like eat food and like my my kids could like wear diapers and stuff. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:33

So I mean this is getting so dramatic. It is. Where's the violin when you need it?

SPEAKER_04 13:37

I know, I know, man. Listen, it's uh the struggle's real. Well, let's move from some of the older style guns to the the more modern style. Talk about ARs uh in that platform, the common field mouth functions that most people will run into. Um, immediate action versus diagnosis.

SPEAKER_05 13:54

I'm gonna I'm gonna back up just a second, Tim, because talking about ARs, like I didn't even own an AR-15 until I had been gunsmithing for almost two and a half years. Like I wasn't ever like the the AR guy. Like I always have to tell people, or I always every chance I get, I tell people.

SPEAKER_00 14:11

You are a classically trained gunsmith that has experienced a plethora of older patterns.

SPEAKER_05 14:17

So I am in no way ashamed of the AR-15 or my knowledge in it. I just like people always like view me as the AR guy, you know? But it's like that's that was that's a more recent thing.

SPEAKER_00 14:30

Let's let's talk about it. Like, what are some of the what are some of like the main platforms that you used to see when you were still doing that as a day job? Like what's the normal stuff?

SPEAKER_05 14:39

Every every like sugarcane farmer in Louisiana has a Browning Auto 5. So the Browning Auto 5, if you've never taken one apart and put it back together, it is a it's what a lot of gunsmiths consider to be a rite of passage. Um, because yeah, it there's a lot of pieces. It only comes apart and goes together one way, but it's it's not always easy to find that way. Uh especially the first, because it it's unlike any other shotgun as far as how it actually works, other than like the Remington Model 11 or something, something similar enough to it. But um, it's just it's that gun. It's just one of those ones when you mastered it, you've mastered it. But before, whenever you first work on it, you're like, what am I doing? And there's a lot in there that will cut you, hurt you, and and try to like eat your fingers. And it's uh it's just a wild gun.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

Interesting. So there's there's quite the learning curve on the Browning Auto 5.

SPEAKER_05 15:30

Yeah, there is. There is, but uh, it's a it's a great, great shotgun. Everyone who brings one in thinks they have some kind of like one of a kind because it's old. Yeah. But like Browning made millions, three cajillion of them. Don't quote me on that number because it's probably a little bit off, but it's it's not far off.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

Numbers.

SPEAKER_04 15:47

Yeah. Well, what other so uh besides the shotguns are the common firearms that you'd run into?

SPEAKER_05 15:53

So what I like to call your guild guns. Uh so guns that were made like not under a manu like major manufacturer name. So like just random, like back in the day, these random like guilds that just like made guns, right? Back in your your muzzle loader days and stuff, like your black powder times. And then um not only that, but a lot of guns that manufacturers just made batches of for different like like Sears and Robuck and stuff like that. Um, so those are really interesting to see. Uh, but they are the designs on them are all somewhat familiar. So like if you have like one company that made a bunch of single shot 22s to sell in this major like department store chain, and then another company did the same thing for another store, like they're not close enough for the parts to interchange, but they're built very similar. So if you can figure one out, you can figure the other one out. And they're usually pretty simple design. You see a lot of stuff like that. Um, but not only that, but a lot of that stuff you can't get parts for anyway.

SPEAKER_00 16:52

So, like, what would you do? Would you have to manufacture your own parts for replacements and stuff if they really needed it?

SPEAKER_05 16:57

Yeah, yep, that's exactly what you'd have to do. And uh, you'd have to heat do all the heat treating and all that stuff. And um, with that, like you you didn't have the measurements of the part. Sometimes you didn't even have the broken part.

SPEAKER_00 17:11

Oh, so you just it was gone.

SPEAKER_05 17:12

You're like, yeah, you there's a shape here on this puzzle that makes these other two puzzle pieces work together. I'm gonna have to guess what that shape is. So now you take a gun that's worth 150 bucks and you're gonna be charging the customer double that, but the gun has sentimental value, so they're more than happy to pay it.

SPEAKER_00 17:32

Sure.

SPEAKER_05 17:32

Because it just takes you so much time to figure out what that shape is, right?

SPEAKER_04 17:36

Because there's zero documentation. It's not like you can go to a catalog and or a exploded parts diagram, be like, oh, it looks like this. You're literally doing detective work trying to figure out what it is.

SPEAKER_05 17:47

Yeah, exactly. And there's this uh this book that Brown House published called the Encyclopedia of Modern Firearms. I like to call it the Encyclopedia of Not So Modern Firearms because nothing in there is modern now.

SPEAKER_00 17:58

Um back whenever the book was published, I'm sure it was, but modern versus like horses and knights.

SPEAKER_05 18:03

Yeah, yeah, yeah, like dragons and dinosaurs.

unknown 18:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 18:08

But um, if you're lucky, you'll see like a picture of that part that somebody like crudely hand drawn in that, and that'll give you a general idea of what the shape might be.

SPEAKER_00 18:17

What an interesting like workflow for you to go through. It was a lot of fun, actually. It sounds like fun.

SPEAKER_04 18:22

It'd be interesting to be like, oh yeah, I'm 90% sure it looks like this, and then you put it all together and try to cycle it, and things just don't work the way you anticipated.

SPEAKER_05 18:32

Yeah, or worst case scenario, the part you put in was so off that it broke other parts. Oh, worse. But you know, fortunately, you have you now have what those broken parts look like to rebuild those at least, you know.

SPEAKER_00 18:44

Did you like when you were going through that, would you like take your own notes on stuff like that? Like if you had to like manufacture something out of like thin air, would you like kind of hang on to that information or uh sometimes what we'd usually do is just kind of like take a picture of the part so that we at least have what it looks like for next time.

SPEAKER_05 19:01

And whenever you're building these parts, you're you're writing down, you're taking measurements and you're writing stuff down. So like you're drawing the part as you take the measurements and then changing those if it doesn't work. Uh so there was a I'm sure I have one of these notebooks at least floating around somewhere, but there's parts with there, there's notebooks with just drawings of these old parts. And I like I I was the worst. I wouldn't even label any of it.

SPEAKER_00 19:27

I would just like to get a bunch of numbers and lines in the notebook. Yeah, whatever. Just look like a crazy person.

SPEAKER_05 19:33

Yeah, if you if you found that notebook today, you'd be like, man, this guy was schizophrenic.

SPEAKER_00 19:37

It's like a zodiac dude or something.

SPEAKER_05 19:39

Yeah, this this is like some like end-of-the-world conspiracy theorist drawing pictures of flat earth and whatnot. That's cool.

SPEAKER_04 19:46

But it was documented, all right? So it was written down.

SPEAKER_05 19:49

Yeah, yeah, it was written down somewhere.

SPEAKER_00 19:51

So you didn't label it interesting. But I was just wondering if you like had something to go back to or if every time you just it does sound like a like a fun job, but like every time you just treat it as a brand new adventure, like every single time.

SPEAKER_05 20:02

Yeah, well, typically, whenever we'd get stuff like that, we would um we would assign them to the same gunsmith. Like, oh yeah, I've worked on that before, I'll take that job.

SPEAKER_00 20:10

Yeah, he's the he's a Sears and Robuk 22 bolt action guy.

SPEAKER_05 20:13

Yeah, because we're trying to make money, right? Like we're we don't want someone else to have to rediscover all this stuff that somebody already knows. Right. You know, so uh that's that's just how we did it.

SPEAKER_00 20:22

Here's a question, just out of curiosity, how many, how many guys would be like in that shop?

SPEAKER_05 20:26

So the the shop, whenever I was managing the shop uh before I left to come here, it was me and three other guys. Yeah. So and then the the shop I worked at before that, it was me and four other guys. Interesting.

SPEAKER_04 20:40

Pretty decent sized shop to what you see today. Most most gunsmiths are like what three three guys in a shop, if that.

SPEAKER_05 20:46

Yeah, you're lucky if there's two guys.

SPEAKER_00 20:48

Most of time it's just like a dude.

SPEAKER_05 20:50

Most of the time it's just a dude. And if he's not there, then you know that to come back whenever he is, you know. All right, now I'm gonna pivot to the AR. Okay. All right, let's talk about the AR. All right. Yeah, America's rifle. That's what it stands for.

SPEAKER_00 21:03

That's what it stands for.

SPEAKER_04 21:03

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_05 21:04

When you're talking about the AR, what's your typical failures you see in the field? So almost everything is just like a failure to cycle in some way. So whenever you get into the cycle of operation, it's it's typically failure to eject most of the time. And it's always almost always because of some kind of gassing issue. And that is also because everyone is building their own AR-15, which is great. I love that people are doing that, but they always mess something up with the gas system. Right. That's where that's where you see it the most.

SPEAKER_00 21:34

Yeah. The guy wants to, he just changes the barrel for like a 300 blackout and he's like, I'm gonna have a 300 blackout now.

SPEAKER_05 21:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:40

And then he runs into issues.

SPEAKER_05 21:41

Yeah, exactly. That's exactly it.

SPEAKER_00 21:43

I did it a lot.

SPEAKER_05 21:45

So just like not tightening the gas block screws enough or just or not aligning the gas block properly. And those are the two main issues you see with your home built ARs. Or people put the gas tube in upside down, um, which is not impossible. Possible. That's that's actually a for for the the new builder, that's a very easy mistake to make.

SPEAKER_04 22:06

That's wild. Yeah. I've just I've tried to plan that through my head because you have that bend in the gas tube. Yeah. How do they rationalize?

SPEAKER_00 22:15

One way or the other. You know, it's you got a 50-50 shot.

SPEAKER_05 22:19

Yeah. Usually if you have to force it where it needs to be, it's not right.

SPEAKER_00 22:23

Or they're like, man, that's snug. It feels good. Yeah, that's a nice snug fit.

SPEAKER_05 22:27

Yeah, this thing's gonna be so accurate for one shot.

SPEAKER_00 22:30

Maybe it does have those problems, though. Just call the tech line, they'll walk you through it and they'll help you diagnose that stuff.

SPEAKER_04 22:35

Yeah, for sure. So, how do you determine if it's a magazine issue, a buffer issue, or a uh a gas issue with an AR?

SPEAKER_05 22:43

So usually you can tell within the cycle of operation to where it is, but the I mean, the easiest way to rule out a magazine issue is just try another magazine because like everybody has three cajillion magazines. Also, don't quote me on that number. Um, so magazines are super easy to rule out for that reason. Now, whenever it's a a buffer-related issue, so typically you'll see your buffer-related issues when someone's using a really heavy buffer in a caliber that's not 556 or 223, because people naturally assume because you're using a larger cartridge, you need to use a heavier buffer, but that is not at all the case. Um, so that's kind of how you you would diagnose that and rule it out. But gas-related issues are pretty easy to diagnose. So if it's under-gassed, you'll know because uh you can just load one round in the magazine. If the bolt doesn't lock back on that magazine, then that's an easy way to determine it's under gassed, right? Um, but something that gets misinterpreted as undergassed quite a bit is also over-gassed. And with that, that comes into bolt velocity. So if your bolt's moving too fast, it'll throw some of the symptoms as being under-gassed. Because, you know, whenever your firearm's undergassed, your let's say your spent casing isn't coming back, your bolts not coming back far enough to allow room for your spent casing to come out. Well, if your bolt's moving too fast, it moved too fast, so it didn't have enough time to get out. So you still end up with the spent casing getting stuck because it was moving too fast instead of too slow. And then with that, your magazine may not lock your bolts open because your bolt was moving so fast that it beat the magazine spring tension, it beat the mag catch. So people naturally assume, oh man, this thing is under gas when it's at short strokey. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:37

Uh going back to your gas system, gas block alignment, you said that could cause a lot of issues. How do you deal with that in the field? Or is that one that you don't even mess with in the field? You take it back to your shop or a gunsmith.

SPEAKER_05 24:49

Yeah, and in the field, it's it's pretty easy to diagnose if something's misaligned or not, because you can just look at it, right? A lot of people will check for the alignment without the handguard on, but it's way easier if you check the alignment with the handguard on because you have something to index the the clock of the gas block with. So that's really easy to diagnose in the field because you just like unload the gun and then point it at your face, right? And you can look down there and see. Um, notice how I said like unload the gun. Thank you. Yes. You can take the upper off the lower and then point it at your face. Um, and just look down the barrel and see if that gas block's aligned or not.

SPEAKER_00 25:25

That's a good point, though. Keep the handguard on, and then you got these two lines on each side so you can help clock it.

SPEAKER_05 25:29

Yeah, and it's perfect. And most handguards are okay about this now because they have indexing tabs, but you also have to make sure your handguards aligned too, right? And you can just look down the top rail. And if the top rail is all like one smooth rail, then it's it's a good idea. Yeah. And even if it's off just a few degrees, you'll see a difference in the rail.

SPEAKER_04 25:47

Interesting.

SPEAKER_05 25:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:49

So again, visual cues, best friend, uh to inspect if it looks wrong, go back and adjust.

SPEAKER_05 25:56

Yeah, that's the I mean the easiest thing, man. Like a lot of people overcomplicate a lot of this stuff, but just look at it. Just use your use your eyeballs that God gave you. And then, you know, that's step one.

SPEAKER_04 26:06

What do you never force when it comes to double feeds or failure to extract, or you just mortar it? I hope for the best.

SPEAKER_05 26:14

No, you never never force anything. Like, if it if the gun doesn't want to do it, don't make it do it. Because it there's a reason it doesn't want to do it. Like people always make fun of the forward assist because like that is a malfunction enhancer. It seems weird. Yeah, but so if you have the slightest malfunction and you're just hammering on the forward assist, you're not using it right. Uh, that is that falls into the category of forcing things and making them worse. So it's it's amazing what what a little bit of tension inside your chamber can lock up. And it is absolutely everything, just the slightest tension. Um the easiest way to get something unstuck from the chamber is to like take the charging handle, set it on a, and it's just as hard to describe, like via voice, but like set it on the edge of something and just give the the butt stock a light bump with your with the palm of your hand and push it down. And if it doesn't move from that, then something's way stuck. If you try to mortar something, you're gonna break something. Um, a lot of the times, like being back in a gunsmith shop again, there were times where guns would come in and the first thing the customer said was, Hey, I got a live round stuck in here. So they would usually say that to whoever's working the front desk, and then they would go get the gunsmith, and then the gunsmith would be the only person that handles that. But yeah, there's there's ways to get that stuff out, and there's a lot of it involves some form of disassembly while the gun's loaded, which is not always the safest thing to do.

SPEAKER_04 27:42

Light primer strikes when it comes. What causes light primer strikes, or how can you uh can you even take care of that in the field?

SPEAKER_05 27:51

Yeah, yeah. This is uh this is also something really easy to tell, uh, especially with a lot of the the home built ARs, because it's a lot, it's another very easy mistake to make. But if you separate the upper receiver from the lower receiver, look down into the lower receiver, you may see that the hammer spring is on backwards because it can be installed that way, and that will cause light primer strikes. And it's the the crazy thing about it is that it's not a consistent light primer strike. Like sometimes it'll go off, and then most of the time it won't. So it's it makes it a little trickier to diagnose if you don't know what to look for. Like three out of five attempts, it's you know, who knows? It's different for every gun, every spring, because every hammer spring has a little bit different tension on it to like some fraction of a whatever. I don't like the unit measurement for spring tension, is you know, whatever. But uh, they're all a little bit different, so there's nothing that's very consistent and easy if you don't know what you're looking for.

SPEAKER_04 28:45

Do you ever run into fouled firing pin channels?

SPEAKER_05 28:49

Yep. That's uh that's another that's number two is is the gun super dirty? Because if it's like super dirty and super dry, that can also be another one. And then um another one is are you using the right ammunition? Right? So uh making a lot of guns will light strike whenever you're not using the right cartridge for it, like especially bolt actions, like putting 308 and 30.6 and stuff like that, because it's just sitting in there too far and it gives the impression of a light strike, whereas it just isn't even the right cartridge. But that's with AR-15s, you very rarely see that. Typically, if you're using the wrong cartridge in an AR-15, you get the opposite effect, you get an explosion. 300 blackout in a 556. Yeah, yeah, that that does not like to try to go through there.

SPEAKER_00 29:35

So you'll know.

SPEAKER_05 29:37

It'll be very clear. Yeah, you'll know. Yeah, you'll you'll know for sure. What happens uh if you get a stuck case and you're in the field? Yeah, so stuck case, we we kind of covered that a little bit. Um pulling the charging handle, you know, setting that charging handle against something and then and bumping the butt stock with your forearm or not forearm. What's this part of my hand called, Jude? Palm tree. Yeah, that's my palm tree. You bump it with with that, and um hopefully that'll that'll get it out of there. That usually does most of the time, because that really the only place you can put tension on it is the charging handle, right? Because there's nowhere else to get a hold of the bolt carrier. Because if you just try to push the bolt, the bolts not, it's made not to be pushed open. Right. So you have to push, you have to apply force on the bolt carrier. And uh you can, if you have the right tools, you know, hammer punch, and you can come at it from the right angle, you can get to the bolt carrier, but that's not something you can do out in the field at that point.

SPEAKER_04 30:35

You need to take it back to your shop or take it to a gunsmith and have them.

SPEAKER_05 30:39

Yeah, because you're gonna have to put the gun in a vise, you're gonna have to use a brass punch to catch the side of that carrier just right without you know damaging anything.

SPEAKER_04 30:47

So, what tools would you recommend carrying in your range kit to take care of a lot of these common malfunctions that you may run into in the field?

SPEAKER_05 30:55

I'm so glad you asked him. There's an excellent Brown L's video on what I keep in my range bag toolkit. Uh, but no, it's just basic, a basic uh set of drivers, and that's mostly for tightening optics. A few torque drivers for the same reason. Uh, I carry some basic Glock tools because you could like Glocks are the easiest thing to fix out in the field because you can take the entire gun apart with one tool, just one punch, and you can get to all of the gun. And it also depends on what kind of range work or like what kind of range event I'm at too. Like sometimes I'll take the big tool toolkit, I'll have calipers, files, parallel pliers, hammers, punches, I'll have everything. I could I carry enough to like basically just build an AR in the field. Um, but all other times I have a small basic set of punches, some drivers, things like that. Nothing too crazy.

SPEAKER_04 31:45

Depends on if you're going through a ditch filled full of mud and sand and water.

SPEAKER_05 31:50

Yeah, I don't know where you would run into something like that.

SPEAKER_04 31:53

But yeah, yeah, exactly. Not gunfighter gauntlet or anything.

SPEAKER_05 31:56

Yeah, never gunfighter gauntlet.

SPEAKER_00 31:58

Is it a good idea to have spare stuff or like the regular guy going to the range or whatever? He's got an AR-15. Is it a good idea for him to have spare parts?

SPEAKER_05 32:06

Yeah, absolutely. And there's another brownhouse video of spare parts to have for your AR-15. Interesting. And then we have another one, I think we covered Glock as well. Um, and then I think we also covered AKs. Believe it or not, AKs do break. And when they break, they break a lot harder than anything else.

SPEAKER_00 32:22

For our listeners, what's like what's like a list of some spare parts for AR-15s that are worth like throwing at a range bag or having?

SPEAKER_05 32:28

Yeah, just all your small pins are really good to have. Um some people go so far as to carry an extra bolt. I would it I wouldn't say you necessarily need an extra bolt, but extractor, ejector springs, uh your gas rings are good to have extra, because those like a lot of people don't realize the gas rings on AR-15 are you you have to replace those after you know so much wear and tear, or they'll stop sealing and then you'll start having issues. You'll start having the under-gassed issues because your gas rings are worn out. So those are always uh I would always say gas rings no matter what. Spare firing pin, something that you would, or it is that can just they just they never really break though.

SPEAKER_00 33:13

Yeah, how often do you go through a firing pin?

SPEAKER_05 33:15

Yeah, like everybody always like seems to have a firing pin in their spare kit, but no one ever has to think the reason why is because they're cheap. Probably, yeah. They're cheap and they look like that um what's that like is it like a masonry or whatever? Some kind of nail that's used in the construction world. I don't know, but it looks kind of like an air firing.

SPEAKER_00 33:34

And they I think a lot of people use it as a tool.

SPEAKER_05 33:36

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:37

Okay, so your firing pin is if you it's not a bad idea, I guess, because you can use it for some stuff.

SPEAKER_05 33:43

Yeah, don't use your firing pin as a tool, and then you won't need to carry an extra one. So where you carry an extra firing pin, you could just carry a punch. Carry the right tool for the job to get us. What? Wild interesting concept. If like nothing else is a lesson from this, just the right tool for the job is is it.

SPEAKER_00 33:58

So you're telling me that using my firing pin to disassemble my rifle is wrong?

SPEAKER_05 34:02

Yes. Dang it. This whole time. I came into this knowing you would say that, and this this was really just a ruse to embarrass you.

SPEAKER_00 34:13

Like a con like what do you call that?

SPEAKER_05 34:15

Intervention. Intervention, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:16

Thanks. We're all friends here, dude. We're gathered here.

SPEAKER_05 34:20

I saw you using your firing pin disassembled.

SPEAKER_00 34:23

That's why we're all here today.

SPEAKER_05 34:24

Oh, I don't want to say it. Yeah, that's why we're here.

SPEAKER_00 34:26

Yeah. If you look at my my takedown pins on all my Air 15s, they are just in awful shape. Scratched.

SPEAKER_05 34:33

So you remember those firing pins we cut for SHOT Show? Uh just take one of those.

SPEAKER_00 34:37

Okay. Thanks.

SPEAKER_05 34:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:39

Well, usually it wears first in your AR that shows up in an issue on the field or in the field.

SPEAKER_05 34:45

Um, so typically uh the gas rings. That's the thing that if you buy an AR off the shelf and you just shoot it, that is the thing that's gonna wear out first if you're if you actually like bought a good quality gun, right? Something that that what should wear out first are the gas rings.

SPEAKER_04 35:04

So uh when I first built my first AR, just from experience with engines, I thought you had to twist your AR rings or your gas rings so they overlapped correctly. And then I found out that that is a myth. What other gas ring myths that have you ran into in your profession?

SPEAKER_05 35:23

So that one is is one kind of that came about from the army, actually. That's the big gas ring myth. So the TM or the M4 M16 tells you not to line up the gap in the gas rings, but that's a complete myth. Your AR will run with one gas ring in it, three is just a redundancy, so like that whole gap thing is a complete myth. It's it's nuts. And it's a not only is it a myth, but it's still in the TM today, which is bonkers.

SPEAKER_00 35:54

That's very interesting.

SPEAKER_05 35:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 35:56

Why doesn't it matter to you know turn your each ring like a quarter turn from each other?

SPEAKER_05 36:01

Because yeah, when you push the bolts into the carrier, the gap goes away. So it seals up and you're not gonna get it. Yeah, because those rings compress once they go into the carrier. So it's I mean, I guess if your rings were really worn out, like maybe in that case it would matter. I mean, if you so let me let me also tell you this if you stagger the or if you line up the gap, if you purposely try and make a gap there, you put the bolts into your carrier and cycle it cycle the gun a few times, take it back apart, they're not it's gonna be in a completely different spot.

SPEAKER_02 36:34

Right.

SPEAKER_05 36:34

They're not gonna stay, there's nothing that keeps them there.

SPEAKER_04 36:37

That's what when I was in an argument with somebody about like how why you had to do that, that's exactly the uh example that they made me walk through.

SPEAKER_00 36:45

Who are you getting into an argument about this, Tim?

SPEAKER_04 36:48

We don't need to talk about that. Okay, I too I'm curious. All right, so I was the one arguing. Okay. All right. Understood. It was a hard lesson. Um, when it comes to your guns, what do shooters overclean or spend too much focus on when they could focus in other other areas, more impactful areas?

SPEAKER_05 37:08

Uh in terms of like guns in general or the the AR-15? Let's start with guns in general. The barrel. Like people try to get every little piece of soot or whatever out of their barrel when they're doing more harm than good in most cases. And um, you're never gonna get everything out 100%. I mean, sure, you could, but like it's it's a it's a fool's errand because I mean, what whenever you fire one round through your gun, let's say I have a barrel on, I'll just use like my my super accurate AR as an example. And let's say that barrel, I have maybe 50 rounds through it and it's shooting a super tight group. And I work through all this time and effort to get that thing spotless. Whenever I take it out again on that brand new perfectly clean barrel, I shoot three shots, that group is going to be double the size of what it just shot, even though it's cleaner than it was before. Because the fouling, it's what like your long-range shooters will call your fouling shots. You actually have to build up a little bit of layer in that barrel, like a little bit of that copper and carbon fouling to take up all that like extra space and and like like dead machine space, if if if you will, because that is going to allow your bullet to exit or travel through and exit the barrel consistent every time. It's not so much about it being uh a better fit, it's more about consistency. So that bullet's leaving the barrel consistent every single time, and that's what actually makes that group a little bit tighter. So a freshly cleaned barrel is always less accurate than a three to five round barrel.

SPEAKER_00 38:50

Yeah, because you got to start over and build up that fouling again.

SPEAKER_05 38:53

Yeah, you got to start it all over again. So people spend way too much time cleaning that, and it's silly because like you can clean it for half the amount of time, or not even that. So if I spend five minutes cleaning my barrel and then I spend 30 minutes cleaning my barrel, the gain I get between that five and 30 minute mark was like two percent cleaner, maybe because like I'm taking out the majority of the the gunk within that first five minutes, right? Yeah, so it it doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_00 39:20

You're taking out the stuff that's not supposed to be there, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 39:22

Yeah, yeah. So using good quality solvent to begin with or cleaner.

SPEAKER_05 39:28

Yeah, there's a there's a lot of really good cleaners out there, and like there's like fortunately, we live in a world right now in the firearm industry where like everybody and their mom makes a solvent and gun oil, and it's all pretty good for the most part, you know? Because like everybody's usually just copying someone else anyway. So there's not a lot of bad stuff out there to clean your and lubricate your gun with.

SPEAKER_04 39:50

Is there any issues about cleaning your AR that you can either clean it too much or possibly work debris into places that it shouldn't be and cause malfunctions? And what are those?

SPEAKER_05 40:02

Yeah, and a lot of people will overclean the heck out of their bulk carrier groups, especially the inside of them. And a lot of times, like if you're using a phosphate bulk carrier group, a lot of that inside of that's carbon or not carbon. Um, what's that? Chrome, chrome lined, not carbon lined. You don't want it carbon lined. Uh it's chrome lined. And they will scrape and scrape and scrape and just dig channels in the in there, and carbon ends up building up in those channels that they scraped in. They'll scrape the heck out of the like if you're removing the finish while you're cleaning it, you're cleaning it too hard. Like a lot of that's like it's okay to leave some of that carbon on there and a lot of that stuff like a little bit dirty. Like that's perfectly acceptable. I know like a lot of people's like OCD kicks in and it just eats them alive, but you're doing more harm than good by just scraping off every little piece of carbon you see.

SPEAKER_00 40:56

That's interesting because like military days when you're cleaning that channel, right? They they'd have you take like a section of your rod, yeah, the open end, yep, go in that hole and like scrape it around as much as possible. And you'd be doing that for like 15 minutes. Yeah. In like these circular patterns and stuff to try to get every single bit of fouling out of there. By the time you look in there, it's like, wow, it looks really clean because it's bare metal.

SPEAKER_05 41:18

Yeah, it looks really clean. And I there's there's a little channel in there that I've scraped into there that I can't see, and that channel is now eating my my uh my gas rings. And my gas rings life is cut in half for the rest of their gun's life now.

SPEAKER_00 41:34

Right. And if you think of like a uh an engine's piston, yeah, and how everything is perfectly machined and to to like hit flush when it's extended and contracts and stuff, and you start just like scraping grooves into that.

SPEAKER_05 41:45

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 41:46

What effect is that gonna have? Yep. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 41:48

Exactly. Same same system. So you're you're losing gas pressure. Um, and in that case, it'd be like your oil pressure in your engine or whatever. I don't know. I'm not a car guy. Uh I know engines have oil and stuff, but yeah, it's the same thing, except you're just like losing gas pressure in the bolt.

SPEAKER_04 42:03

So then you could potentially cause wear, like if you cut that into where that gas ring's eating into, and now pieces of that gas ring are going into places that are chewing up other components. Do you run into that, or is that not usually a thing?

SPEAKER_05 42:18

Not, I mean, I wouldn't say it's impossible for sure. And then, like a lot of people clean in their chamber, they'll scrape their chamber or their bolt face or their they'll they'll pee their bolt lug or something like that, and that'll start shaving. Then those shavings will get into other places and start shaving things. And like this kind of stuff we're talking about right now is really what separates gunsmithing from like armor work. Because armor is armor work, you're you see a bad part, you replace the part. Gunsmithing is more of I see a bad part, I replace the part, now I gotta figure out why that part broke in the first place and fix what I need to to prevent that from happening again. Because there oftentimes you'll see the same part breaking over and over and over and over again because whoever's fixing it is just putting a band-aid on the problem.

SPEAKER_00 43:07

They're they're like assuming this uh the part's gonna break, you know? So replace the part, but why did it break? Maybe they don't stop and ask that kind of thing. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 43:16

Yeah, there's address addressing symptoms than causes at that point. Exactly. Yeah. Yep. When it comes to issues that pop up in the field that you're gonna like malfunctions you're gonna run into, is there anything that people ignore that cause the more the most common malfunctions?

SPEAKER_05 43:33

So yeah, I'll say this. Your ejection pattern of your brass tells a story, and it it tells a very detailed story. So you can see a lot about what's happening with your gun based on where the brass is ejecting. And that goes for everything handguns, rifles, AR 50, you know, whatever it is. If your extractor or ejector is going out, you'll be able to see that in the brass pattern. If you're overgassed, undergassed, you'll be able to see that in the brass pattern. Um, like for Just like a quick example, undergassed will barely throw the brass out of the ejection port. Overgas will usually throw it forward. Um, so maybe it's not overgassed enough to cause a malfunction right now in this moment, but that bolt's moving so fast as the the brass leaves the ejection port, your bolts pushing it forward. So it's throwing it out at a forward angle. Like that that all tells a story. So like pay attention to what your gun is is saying at the range. And um, you can avoid a lot of issues that way just by being aware.

SPEAKER_04 44:32

Often do you check your spent casings to see if there's any issues and what what issues can you gather from looking at your brass?

SPEAKER_05 44:40

Yeah, so typically I'll see it whenever I start picking up brass after I'm done shooting. Because like whenever I'm shooting, I'm focused on the target and the sights and everything, right? But when I turn to pick up the brass, like I'll look at where it is on the ground and I'll be like, okay, yeah, that's right where it needs to be. Everything's in a nice little pile. Or maybe it's like strung out all over the place, like something inconsistent is going on here. Um, maybe it's all in front of me for some reason. I'm like, wow, this is I need to adjust this gas system or tune this ejector. Something, something's not right. But yeah, I usually won't notice it while I'm shooting most of the time. Unless I'm on a new build, I typically will because I want to I'll I'll usually fire like five or six shots where I'm not even looking at the target, I'm just looking at the gun.

SPEAKER_04 45:27

W when it comes to craftsmanship and and just system thinking, what's good enough to run? What's that mean to you?

SPEAKER_05 45:35

Man, it this means to me a lot different than what it means to a lot of other people. So to me, good enough to run and for for a lot of people also means good enough to bet my life on, but that is definitely not the case with me. Um like good enough to run, I probably wouldn't even shoot a competition with. If it's good enough to bet my life on, then it's yeah, it's good enough to shoot a competition with, and vice versa, right? Because I I want no failures whatsoever. So oftentimes good enough to run could mean like I don't know, maybe uh I need to go out and shoot a piece of ballistic gel for a video, right? And this gun isn't the most tuned gun, but it'll get that job done, and then I'm just gonna take it apart after the video anyway. So that's good enough to run, but I mean, anything else has a has a pretty high standard. And I I admit that I'm different than a lot of people when it comes to that. Like I look at the some of the more affordable AR brands, and I kind of I turn my nose up at them because I know their tolerances are not great. I know that they there's a chance that they overcooked that thing when they were anodizing it, and the holes are way bigger than they need to be, and there's going to be a lot of play in it. And and like you see that a lot nowadays, because everybody and their mom's making an AR-15 now, right? But not everybody's making a good AR-15. And a lot of things you hear a lot is, well, the MILSPEC stuff is the lowest bidder. Well, yeah, but it's the lowest bidder that actually made the cut, which is only the top percent of people making stuff anyway. Like most of this other stuff out there won't even make the cut. They don't even make it to the bid. They can't even bid because their their stuff didn't make the cut.

SPEAKER_04 47:25

In closing or wrapping up or getting close to wrapping up here, why teach openly in a trade that guards knowledge or maybe has historically guarded knowledge a little bit in the past? Well, that's exactly why.

SPEAKER_05 47:35

Because I'm not gonna be around forever, right? All these other people guarding knowledge aren't gonna be around forever. And like to expect everyone else to have to learn this the way we did, we're never gonna move forward. Like we need to we need to make sure that the next gunsmiths coming up have this knowledge readily accessible so that they're actually able to innovate for the next ones. If you're paying a gunsmith to work on something he's never done for the first time, you're probably have to pay a little extra because you got to pay for time. So if he already knows how to do it, he can charge a lower price for it. So it keeps the price down in general as well. So I mean it's it's good for everyone. Everyone wins.

SPEAKER_04 48:15

Everyone wins. What's one tool every serious rifle owner should own, but probably doesn't? A vice.

SPEAKER_05 48:21

Just a just a vice, man. You could do so much with the vice, you could break so much with the vice, but you could fix so much with a vice. A good vice. A good vice.

SPEAKER_00 48:30

It's very true. I've I've put together a lot of Air 15s at the beginning without having a vice. Yeah. And how much how dumb was that? Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 48:38

How much did you struggle to get things torqued properly?

SPEAKER_00 48:41

Oh, yeah. Well, back then torque was just a word too.

SPEAKER_05 48:44

Yeah, that's right. It was just a word. But all right, let's say, let's go back to your previous scenario. Let's say you were swapping, you wanted to put that 300 blackout barrel and take that 556 barrel off. Like, you wouldn't have been able to get that barrel off.

SPEAKER_00 48:57

No, I mean, I I couldn't tell you how many times I've used the floor or my knees as a vice. Just like don't look at me when I'm doing that. Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_05 49:05

It it does not matter how much anymore.

SPEAKER_00 49:07

Yeah. There's probably a lot of people out there that that have done that or maybe are starting their AR-15 journey now, and they're like, you know, you get in a spot where you're like, all right, I bought all the parts. I want to put it together right now.

SPEAKER_05 49:17

Yeah. And I mean, to to be fair, if you're just gonna do an AR-15 here and there, like the cheapest vice you can find at uh you know, Harbor Freight or whatever, we'll we'll get you there.

SPEAKER_02 49:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 49:28

But if you are more serious about it, then you will definitely like there are definitely some benefits to a good vice. What's the most abused screw on a rifle? The most abused screw? Yeah, not necessarily AR-15, but oh man. So like your old Winchester 94 lever actions, literally any screw, just pointed a screw on that gun. They're all abused, yeah. Yeah, like they don't even have slots in them anymore. It's just kind of like almost like the the the trenches in the the Battle of the Psalm or something that's just been shelled to death. Is I don't know why that popped into my head, but that's what that screw looks like.

SPEAKER_00 50:03

Descriptive.

SPEAKER_05 50:03

Yeah, very everyone knows exactly what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_04 50:06

Okay, perfect. Uh, what's one must-have bench tool under a hundred dollars?

SPEAKER_05 50:10

Ooh, one must-have bench tool under a hundred dollars. So you can actually get the um Brown Else Magnetip ratcheting handle that comes with some bits in it, and that's actually very affordable, and that's worth its weight and gold. How about one AR myth that needs to die? Um betting the barrel into your upper receiver, like maybe that was a thing. There was a time for it, but that is so dead. Like, there's no reason to when you apply torque on the barrel nut on an upper receiver, the that channel that that barrel extension is in is gonna constrict under that torque because there's nowhere else for that aluminum to flex. So any bedding compound you put in there is gonna squish right out. And it it makes no sense.

SPEAKER_00 50:58

But what are you talking about, Caleb? Like what what do you mean?

SPEAKER_05 51:01

Like what so people will take um it's like one of the Loctite, I I don't remember which number it is, but it's like one of the bedding ones. So what they'll do is they'll put that bedding compound on their receiver extension on their barrel and then press it into their upper receiver so that whenever it dries, it takes up any space between the barrel extension and upper receiver. But there's so okay, there's a video on uh the Brown Owl's YouTube channel. It's called How to Build an Accurate AR, part one or two, I think maybe part two, the upper receiver. And I drew a diagram in that video to explain how all of that works and why betting your upper receiver was a waste of time and money.

SPEAKER_00 51:44

So I've never heard of that.

SPEAKER_05 51:45

Yeah, there's um I'm glad actually. That means it's starting to die, Tim. That's good. Good.

SPEAKER_00 51:50

I don't know. I kind of like the idea now.

SPEAKER_04 51:52

Okay, well, we need to have a whole nother intervention for G.

SPEAKER_05 51:55

Yeah, I'll deal with that later.

SPEAKER_04 51:57

Figure it out. What's a a gunsmith discipline that you can summarize for those that are just getting started in gunsmithing, or maybe taking that step from a builder to actually fixing and repairing firearms? All right.

SPEAKER_05 52:11

So there are it's easy to learn the the how of to do something, but to understand the why is what really starts to unlock everything. And like I'll give you an example of that. Like my first year in the gunsmith shop, I was only allowed to do cleaning oils. Like that's it. I was taking apart all these like weird guns, cleaning them and putting them back together. And when I say cleaning oil, I mean like 100%. If it can come out of the gun, it comes out. So really, really detailed stripping. And um with that, I didn't realize at the time as like a Mr. Miyaga, I was like the karate kid at the moment.

SPEAKER_00 52:47

I didn't realize you're waxing on and waxing off.

SPEAKER_05 52:49

Yeah, exactly. Um, not exactly, but close enough. Anyway, with that, uh, whenever it came time to like start doing some repairs, like this gun's fell, like this. Uh we'll go back to the Browning Auto 5. Like this Browning Auto 5's failing to um take the round from the magazine tube and send it up to the chamber, right? It's like, okay, well, I know how to take this gun apart, I know how to put it back together. And because I've taken this gun apart so many times, I know not just where every part goes, but what its job is. Like understanding the job of every part will let you diagnose those types of issues because it's like, okay, well, I know that these three parts work together to do this thing. So one of these three parts isn't doing its job. Now, why isn't it doing its job? And that's really that's really when you start to fix stuff and like have your aha moments. So, like whenever I'm out at the counter talking to a customer, like he's telling me what the issue is, and like he has this super sexy gun, right? And I'm undressing it, like I can I can picture it, I'm undressing it in my mind, right? I'm just like taking it apart in my brain as it cycles. And I'm like, okay, I think I have a pretty good idea of what the problem is, and then able to fix it pretty quickly that way. So that's whenever like that's whenever this stuff's like really gets fun, like fixing, especially fixing guns, is whenever you can like you get to that point with any particular firearm and and it just it opens up all these, like I I I want to say like doors, but like doors in your mind, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 54:24

That makes sense. Rep repetitions, you took it apart a million times, you know, you see where everything goes, and like in your dreams and in your sleep, you're still doing that because you just did it for like 10 hours in a day or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 54:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 54:35

And then so like you're kind of doing that that like thing where you see it on the ceiling and moving, and then like Tom Cruise, a minority report, like just like that. And then customers like telling you like what's happening, and like as they're talking to you, you're not looking at them, you're looking at this like 3D image of the gun in your head. So that's how you like diagnose stuff.

SPEAKER_05 54:53

Yeah, yeah, pretty much. Yeah, yeah, like your mind's eye is already fixing the gun. And then sometimes you take it apart, and that's not at all the issue. But when it is, it's really cool.

SPEAKER_00 55:01

I think one of the disciplines just on on that, something I thought of, like something like Caleb has shown me and taught me while I've been working here for like a discipline of gunsmithing, it's using the right tool for the job, but not as like a blanket statement that everybody already knows that everybody already says. But like one of the things is like punches. Yeah. Use the right size punch for the job. Oh, yeah. Not any punch is gonna work. Yeah. It's like night and day difference between using the exact correct size punch and using a punch.

SPEAKER_05 55:29

Yeah, exactly. That's why there's so many different sizes in that punch kit. Interesting. And the like the Brennell's magnetip screwdriver kit, right? That's why there's so many different sizes. Because you like a stuck screw with the smaller bit is usually not a stuck screw with the right size bit. Like it, you're just not applying leverage where it needs to be. And with punches, I mean, same thing. Like removing front sight pin or front sight block pins that everyone hates to do on an AR 15, like that's that's easy. I can I can knock that out. Lickety split.

SPEAKER_00 56:02

And it's and it's feared.

SPEAKER_05 56:04

And yeah, and not only that, but people come to still come to me and complain about that all the time. And I'm like, just I did a I did a video that no one's watching, apparently. Like I I've already shared this knowledge. Just go watch the video. You'll get it easy. I swear, I can take any, any, like it doesn't matter who makes it, any AR in this warehouse, and I can get those pins out in you know less than a few minutes.

SPEAKER_00 56:25

This is the this is the feared and horrifying taper pins of the front sight gas block. That's the ones. Tap tap and they're gone. Yeah, tons of people that'll see that and be like, how?

SPEAKER_05 56:36

Yeah, I'm like, um, I don't know, I hadn't seen the movie in a really long time. Hopefully this stands up. I'm like like Keanu Reeves, like getting rid of demons and Constantine or something, you know. I can follow that. All right, we'll we'll allow it.

SPEAKER_00 56:50

Yeah, whatever. I'll take it.

SPEAKER_04 56:51

Caleb, thanks for bringing real world mechanics and field discipline to the table. Where can people interact with you or reach out to you?

SPEAKER_05 56:57

Right here at Brownells and all the Brownells YouTube is a pretty good spot. You know, um, you can call the the tech line and ask for me. I won't answer because I'll be filming stuff, but they they put they're pretty good about passing on messages. All right.

SPEAKER_04 57:12

Well, if you value practical skills and understanding your equipment beyond surface level, share built to last with someone who should hear this one. As always, ready, aim, fire your comments or questions to built to last at brown elves.com and rate and comment wherever you stream this podcast from. Remember, if it's worth building, ensure it's built to last.