AR free float foreend - removal?

[ArmedBear]

I only have standard handguard style AR uppers, and am considering buying a floated carbine upper.

How do you get to the barrel/gas tube for cleaning, drying, rust prevention, etc.?

Do you have to disassemble the upper, or does the foreend come off easily somehow?

What about a sight mounted on it? Will it hold zero?

 

[highorder]

Sights will hold zero.

Depending on the tube maker, they can be unscrewed.

 

[ArmedBear]

Where do they go when you unscrew them, if there's a sight tower?

 

[highorder]

If you have a sight tower, it must be removed via the taper pins (2x) that hold it on.

I have seen Armalite uppers with socket head screws on the FSB, but I dotn know if anyone else is doing that...

If it's a 4 rail tube, you can chop the FSB and add a front sight to the tube. I personally like the look of a rifle length tube over a carbine or mid length gas system.

 

[taliv]

How do you get to the barrel/gas tube for cleaning, drying, rust prevention, etc.?

AB, it does NOT need to be cleaned. do NOT remove the quad-rail and especially do not remove the taper pins.

if you have some compulsive cleaning issues, use a can of brake cleaner and a can of compressed air


(edit: seriously, AR15s were not designed to be repeatedly assembled/disassembled.)

 

[ArmedBear]

So you're saying that, if I shoot in the rain, and/or in mud or salt air, I don't have to dry the barrel or throw some CLP on it?

seriously, AR15s were not designed to be repeatedly assembled/disassembled.

That's kind of how I see it.

The traditional design lets you do simple stuff like get mud out of the gun without any real disassembly.

Not so with the free-float rail handguards, then?

What about the National Match style handguards?

 

[Canuck-IL]

National Match handguards are freefloat ... hence the 'Match' part of the name. More problems are caused by people attempting to clean the gas tubes (fluff and chunks of pipe cleaners stuck) the simply leaving them be. There's a fair amount of pressure blowing them out on every shot.
/Bryan

 

[taliv]

i shoot in rain, etc all the time and have never cleaned it. since i often have some expensive electronic stuff on the rails, i'm particularly shy of keen on even squirting caustic chemicals in there for fear of it affecting the plastic wires/components.

what i do is squirt some birchwood casey sheath or eezox on it, even though it's not really necessary.

no harm in hosing it down with CLP. i'd say it's more important to run a patch with a little oil down the inside of the barrel after cleaning than on the outside.

my barrels are either parkerized, bead blasted, or stainless. i've never seen any rust on them.


edit: we are talking about the outside of the barrel and gas tube, right?

 

[cracked butt]

What about the National Match style handguards?

These are quadruple the trouble to remove/reassemble. With a standard tube, you just have a tube that screws into on onto a modified barrel nut and over the gas tube- indexing is fairly easy. With NM style freefloats, there is a tube that must be very carefully indexed so that it doesn't touch the gas tube which runs up through and over the tube, and locked down in order for the handguards to fit. The handguards are hogged out at both ends to fit over the tube, and also are shortened a bit to give the free float tube a few thousanths of clearance between it and the FSB. The handguards are a bit more delicate than standard handguards because of these modifications- you want to avoid removing them at all costs.

FWIW, there isn't anything under the handguards or free float tube that ever needs any maintenance- the only reason I see to ever removing the handguard or tube is when a new barrel is needed. I've shot my parkerized and stainless barrels in the rain plenty of times and there is never any rust.