Spare parts for AR 15

[JB111]

• Gas rings for sure. These are a wear item and will eventually need to be replaced.
• Buffer spring.
• Extractor and spring.
• Firing pin retainers get damaged or lost.
• Bolts can crack at the cam pin hole. A complete bolt is not a bad thing to have.

Good list. I pretty much stock up on all springs, completed bolts and bolt rebuild kits. I also like to keep a few spare barrels.

 

[Charlie98]

but odds are, most AR owners will never experience a bolt breakage

And through all of that - bolt breakage is NOT 1) a common failure mode, and 2) is NOT a high consequence failure for nearly all AR owners.

I guess I... or my friend... beat the odds. I'll have him go out and buy a lottery ticket tomorrow.

 

[Lo-Profile]

I keep 2-3 complete lower parts kits and 2-3 BCG parts kits in.
For, budget LPK the BCM ones are really nice, or you can go on Geissele and check the blem section. Can pick up some FCG for under $100

 

[DustyGmt]

Haven't read through the entire thread so I'm sure this is going to be a common theme but having a spare Extractor and swapping all springs out with Sprinco springs would be good back up and upgrade. A good quality BCG like a BCM or equivalent would last a few lifetimes on your firing schedule and having your existing BCG would be an excellent back up for parts such as springs, extractor, firing pin, cam pin, gas rings, etc.

A lil Windham Weaponry AR spare parts kit ($25) would also fix you up nice for all the lil parts and pieces that seem to evaporate during detailed maintenance at the work bench, other than that, if you bought something half way decent none of the things listed above are likely to ever be needed, but being prepared is wise.

I have decent triggers in all my AR's, I had someone comment to me on the internet (so you know it's true ) that it was silly to have a Geissele trigger, Geissele BCG and Aimpoint optic in a gun like an M&P sport, while it might not be typical to have bougie gear on a budgie AR, I find that AR's are all more alike than different and scoff right back at those who would stick their nose up at my setups....

Don't be afraid to upgrade a few things is all, you'll wind up some spare parts and pieces.....You could possibly shoot 50rds a week for the rest of your life and never need to replace a thing, but having spare stuff around just makes good sense for just about anything

 

[gotboostvr]

I keep spare parts for my AR's in a sense as I have parts that I haven't built into another rifle yet.

I had just enough spare parts recently that they're now just becoming a back up gun set up ever so slightly different from my go-to carbine so as not to be entirely redundant (3x and a pencil barrel, instead of a red dot and gov't barrel)

 

[jmorris]

As far as having spare parts on hand, I would suggest another rifle.

I think there are 31 different parts in the lower alone. If there are 100 parts and I have 99 on hand, guess what part I am going to need next…

 

[jonnyc]

As mentioned above, there are a few "Emergency" kits available. If you're really worried, a complete Upper Kit and Lower Kit can be kept on-hand.

 

[Domino]

Here’s why: Your personal anecdote based on your experience of building and owning 3 AR’s and knowing at least one buddy with a AR is somehow supposed to be evidence that carrying a spare bolt is pertinent - akin to carrying a spare tire in your car. In today’s market, a quality spare bolt is ~$100, and there an estimated 25 million AR-15 owners in the US. So a spare bolt owned by all of us is a $2.5 BILLION - with a B - industry all of its own, just so we’d all have spare bolts, nothing else, just spare bolts.

As I mentioned above, assuming your buddy is like almost all AR-15 owners, the only consequence your buddy had when his bolt failed was that he found himself at a hobby range holding a “deadline” AR, and he had to go home and couldn’t play for 1-4 days while he sought a replacement (assuming there wasn’t a shop within reasonable driving distance of the range to buy a new one within minutes or hours). Pretty low consequence for that particular failure.

As a comparative anecdote of MY personal experience, I’ve owned something around 60-80 AR’s at best estimate of my own, and operated a business for several years based on building, rebuilding, and repairing AR’s. Not holding an FFL today, I still end up building around a one per month. I’ve built from ground up more than 200 AR’s, and have built and rebuilt more than 700 others in the last ~25yrs. I’ve used AR’s in high volume 3 gun competition (as well as Service Rifle competition, which was my introduction to the AR) and at least 10 “carbine courses” I can recall to count over the years - a couple of my current AR’s are PRS competition rifles now, so they see a pretty sizable volume of fire compared to the average AR owner. I have loaded at least 5,000 rounds per year for my AR’s since 2000, with some years topping 25,000. Several of my customers have been 3 gun and service rifle competitors, and dozens of them have taken my rifles through high demand training courses - when I held my FFL, I manufactured ammo to go with my rifles, and during my relatively short business in doing so, I sold over a million rounds to those customers. My “buddies” for most of my life have competed in shooting sports with AR’s, or make a living relying upon one. And through all of that - bolt breakage is NOT 1) a common failure mode, and 2) is NOT a high consequence failure for nearly all AR owners.

I can’t recall breaking more than 3 bolts in my personal use (none of which have been 6.5 Grendels, for reference), and I’m not certain I recall more than that many coming to my bench for repair/replacement. And for almost all of those breakages, the ultimate consequence is “I went home for the day and had to wait 1-4 days to get a new bolt.”

AR owners do LOSE a few specific things - extractor springs, ejector springs and ejectors, firing pin retainers, trigger/hammer pins, and there ARE parts which do break - but odds are, most AR owners will never experience a bolt breakage, never a firing pin breakage or a cam pin. I’m more prone to bet on folks damaging roll pins by using the wrong punches for removal and installation when they’re “servicing” their bolts, and WAY more prone to bet on folks bending charging handles than to bet on broken bolts… I’d bet I’ve had 20-30 bent charging handles come to my bench over the years.

I’ve had more people use the wrong buffer in their home builds and smash their carriers into their lowers than broken bolts. I’ve had more people fall with or otherwise drop their AR’s and break their lowers than I’ve seen in broken bolts (or buttsmashing a coyote). I’ve seen more broken bolt stops than broken bolts. I’ve seen broken hammers, and even broken hammer/trigger pins. Hell, I’d bet more people fire 300 blk ammo out of 5.56 barrels every year than break bolts. But as I stated in my first, unless your livelihood or competition performance depends upon an AR - in which case, you should have 2 or more AR’s ready for the task - then the consequence of breaking almost any AR part is simply ordering a new part on your phone while leaving the range for the day, and waiting 1-4 days to receive a replacement.

I know guys which have never built an AR which have spare pivot detent pins, because someone online said they were good to have around because they’re so easy to lose… how in Sam Hell is someone going to lose a detent pin from a pre-built rifle? They don’t even know how to take it out to be able to lose it, and wouldn’t ever need to do so… but they spent money to have the spare…

So no, I don’t tell my customers or my friends which only casually use their AR’s to waste money carrying inventory of spare parts. They have a spare tire under their truck beds because having a flat can have significant consequences - but they don’t have 4 spares on board. They might have spare oil filters on hand, maybe air filters even, as regular maintenance items, but they don’t have spare plug wires or spare fuel injectors, they don’t have spare shocks or struts, don’t have spare u-joint bearings, don’t have spare transmissions or engines sitting on the shelf…

It’s more sensible to balance your likelihood of risk with your consequence of failure, rather than wasting money on spare parts you’ll likely never use and would have no tangible difference in experience if you DID need to use them and simply ordered them later when you actually experienced a failure.

Your experince is certainly valuable and appreciated, but your perspective is narrowly applied to current times. The ONLY reason to get spare parts for a gun is to keep the gun operating when those parts are no longer available. Either the parts are no longer available due to some disaster, are no longer being manufactured, or if you are trying to make sure your grandkid's kids will still be able to shoot long after you are dead and guns and gun parts have long been banned. Otherwise economically it makes no sense, as you noted. But the expectation that you can always go online and get parts for your recreational guns within a week is not something that will exist forever.

Buying spare guns is certainly useful, but it does nothing to get the broken weapon back in order. Hence spare parts.

 

[Domino]

Recently I watched a video on the subject of storage of certain spare parts for various firearms especially for inexpensive AR 15's that are assembled using cheaper components.

I shoot maybe 40-60 rounds per week and so far my AR performs extremely well (for me) but it is an economy model. What parts should I expect will wear out or fail first on my AR? Are there any cost effective upgrades that I can do now to avoid problems in the future?

How do the cheaper AR's sold in today's market compare in quality to the rifles issued by the military to our soldiers?

It's a rather complex question because due to the economics of mass production, military spec AR-15's have become much more available and at cheaper prices. That said, with modern manufacturing techniques most mil-spec AR-15's are very durable tools that should last a long time. I am talking 15k-20k rounds and most the stress will be on the barrel and bolt. Which is why it is good to get carpenter 151 bolts and chrome lined steel barrels most importantly. Most people would never shoot that much in their life. But if you want to be prepared just for the sake of doing so, my own list looks something like this, and this if for multiple AR-15 rifles as the parts of course interchange should one fail: (Keep in mind many of these items can be bought in kits)

2 firing pins and retaining pins
2 sets of spare gas rings
2 spare extractors and springs
1 spare gas tube per rifle type
1 complete lower parts kit
1 spare buffer spring per rifle type
1 spare bolt (no carrier)

All of this should be able to be purchased for under $250, far cheaper than a new rifle. You would probably never need the parts in your lifetime. But you would have them if you thought there ever might be a situation when you need them. Choices.

 

[Varminterror]

Either the parts are no longer available due to some disaster, are no longer being manufactured, or if you are trying to make sure your grandkid's kids will still be able to shoot long after you are dead and guns and gun parts have long been banned.

This is silly. Plain and simple.

I DID source parts for AR’s during the Federal AWB. We KNOW AR’s being banned now under new laws can’t be effectively loopholed or grandfathered. So if the rifle is banned, the rifle is banned. Play “if guns are outlawed, I guess my grandkids will be outlaws” games if you want, but recommending folks buy spare parts for one of the world’s most proliferating rifles because those parts might not be made someday is just silly - if they aren’t made any more, the rifles can’t be possessed any more either, so the logic is non-sequitur and the claim moot.

What’s in the LPK which is of value for the typical AR owner? Are they going to need another pivot detent pin - meaning the lost a captured detent pin? Are they going to need another mag catch? How often do those break? Another take-down pin? A whole bunch of parts which are never replaced and never fail - ever. The only common failure point in a common LPK is the FCG, and many, many, many AR shooters aren’t shooting rot-gut Mil-spec-ish FCG’s anyway, so why have a spare trigger and hammer you wouldn’t use anyway? Spare gas tube, but no spare gas block? You realize the gas block takes more erosion than the tube, right? And gas tube failures in semi-autos are how common? A bolt, but no carrier? I’ve seen far more broken gas key bolts than I have broken bolt lugs, so why have a bolt but no carrier? No cam pin? Way, way more frequent to break a cam pin than bolt lugs - but no cam pins on the list? Two spare extractors and one bolt - do extractors wear out 3:1 to bolt lug failures? And 1:1 extractors to FP’s, and those 1:1 with gas rings - so you’re suggesting those wear or break with equal frequency, yes? Two sets of gas rings with only 1 buffer spring - so you’re suggesting gas rings wear twice as fast as buffer springs? No replacement buffer bumpers at all? No spare FP retainers - which is a common field strip and PM removal, and a common small part to be lost… no replacement barrels, no replacement FCG’s or hammer springs (which we know DO relatively quickly lose power)…?

It all sounds good to recommend most of those parts, until we put logic into it. Most folks making lists like this are just making up a list of the cheap parts of an AR and implying “well they’re cheap, so it doesn’t hurt to waste money on them.”

 

[Domino]

This is silly. Plain and simple.

I DID source parts for AR’s during the Federal AWB. We KNOW AR’s being banned now under new laws can’t be effectively loopholed or grandfathered. So if the rifle is banned, the rifle is banned. Play “if guns are outlawed, I guess my grandkids will be outlaws” games if you want, but recommending folks buy spare parts for one of the world’s most proliferating rifles because those parts might not be made someday is just silly - if they aren’t made any more, the rifles can’t be possessed any more either, so the logic is non-sequitur and the claim moot.

What’s in the LPK which is of value for the typical AR owner? Are they going to need another pivot detent pin - meaning the lost a captured detent pin? Are they going to need another mag catch? How often do those break? Another take-down pin? A whole bunch of parts which are never replaced and never fail - ever. The only common failure point in a common LPK is the FCG, and many, many, many AR shooters aren’t shooting rot-gut Mil-spec-ish FCG’s anyway, so why have a spare trigger and hammer you wouldn’t use anyway? Spare gas tube, but no spare gas block? You realize the gas block takes more erosion than the tube, right? And gas tube failures in semi-autos are how common? A bolt, but no carrier? I’ve seen far more broken gas key bolts than I have broken bolt lugs, so why have a bolt but no carrier? No cam pin? Way, way more frequent to break a cam pin than bolt lugs - but no cam pins on the list? Two spare extractors and one bolt - do extractors wear out 3:1 to bolt lug failures? And 1:1 extractors to FP’s, and those 1:1 with gas rings - so you’re suggesting those wear or break with equal frequency, yes? Two sets of gas rings with only 1 buffer spring - so you’re suggesting gas rings wear twice as fast as buffer springs? No replacement buffer bumpers at all? No spare FP retainers - which is a common field strip and PM removal, and a common small part to be lost… no replacement barrels, no replacement FCG’s or hammer springs (which we know DO relatively quickly lose power)…?

It all sounds good to recommend most of those parts, until we put logic into it. Most folks making lists like this are just making up a list of the cheap parts of an AR and implying “well they’re cheap, so it doesn’t hurt to waste money on them.”

I'm not suggesting anything, that's all you friend. I just simply stated my personal strategy. Everyone has to decide for themselves whether or not they care or if it is moot or not. You do you.

It can be difficult to get individual parts hence getting kits may be a more effective way to get coverage even if some the parts included are incredibly unlikely to fail. The cam pin is generally included in bolt kits. The LPK covers the hammer/trigger spring so not sure what you are ranting about there. A properly staked carrier should last a good long time but hey, get the carrier too if that fancies you. And you seem to think that a few cheap parts are a complete waste of money with all the countless dollars you have spent on gun stuff over the years? Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. I waste far more dollars on useless crap personally, but a few spare gun parts probably ain't one of them. Hell I probably spend more on entertainment and eating out in a month than I do on a lifetime worth of a few gun parts.

In the end, some people just want to be prepared. If you don't think it's necessary then don't do it. That simple.

 

[tarosean]

The only common failure point in a common LPK is the FCG, and many, many, many AR shooters aren’t shooting rot-gut Mil-spec-ish FCG’s anyway,

That does bring up a question. Who sells a high quality LPK without the FCG?

**Not for spare parts**