Broken Rifle Weekend

I have an Olympic Arms Heavy Barrel AR 15 from the assault weapons ban period which means that it does not have a bayonet lug on the rifle. I would not use the bayonet anyway that is why I have the Kukri machete. Speaking of that I have the zombie weapons at the tool sharpening place as I do not have a belt grinder to get the edge started. I was told that both machetes ( I also have a regular machete) will come back nearly shaving sharp from there I can keep maintained. There is something about a good carbon steel blade that once you get a working edge on it they will hold it forever (the dull machete from last summer is a funny story).

Anyway I digress I have started to feel better and thought I would get the rifle out and make sure it would pass inspection. So I begin to field strip it and the recoil spring buffer retainer and spring go shooting out of the weapon. This is an issue I thought I had corrected uh guess not. So I take the butt stock off and find that the buffer tube is loose (well there is your problem). So I tighten that down but since I do not have a torque wrench I just get it as tight as I can. I then get the weapon field stripped and notice that one of the bolt key screws is gone. CRAP then as I am taking the bolt apart the firing pin retention pin looks like it has seen better days. If I was braver I would also fix the ejector as well it looks rough but it seems to be working well. Then as I am putting the rifle back together a spring I have never seen before falls out of a hole that I have never seen before. Turns out that the take down detent and spring have fallen on hard times as well. This spring has seen way better days for sure and the detent is just gone. I did not think I was that hard on the rifle as I only usually put a magazine a month through it. Thankfully I have been around the Black Rifle for most of my adult life so I know my way around one a bit. Besides what I do not know the instructions are easy enough to find.

So I start getting on line to get the parts I need. First I hit Midway (they are sometimes pricing but usually have everything you need) and they have most of what I need (but not the take down spring and detent) then I remembered a company called Del-Ton who I was looking to buy an upper receiver from for a great price. They had the parts that Midway did not and for cheaper and when I mean cheaper it is hard to be much cheaper than the $1.99 I spent on a spring but they were and their shipping was also cheaper. I am looking forward to using them for parts in the future.

That gets me to another topic. My Queen has just about talked me into going to an online Gun smithing school and while I will not learn how to do the machining I will get everything else for mounting scopes and doing accessories.. Then Midway has a "How to Gunsmith an AR-15" course as well and Brownells has even more stuff. I could be done in year and have a way to earn a little money on the side for my projects.