In the photo you might notice through the all the wiped oil, this is where my rifle bleeds oil, and I have moved to a light mix of oil and grease to counter the issue. Is this something I should look into replacing due to how the lower interfaces with the upper near the rear takedown pin? First build, please roast lightly. Thanks everyone.
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Looks like all mine. I run them wet @Redneck_SPR . What type of lube are you using? I prefer one of the ALG lubes as (at least to me) they tend to stick better.
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Welcome @Redneck_SPR !!
Congrats on your first build! The lube issue is nothing to worry about it. AR’s are meant to be run with a significant degree of wetness.
I’m typically able to run mine fairly dry with a little excess lube in the bolt channel. When shooting suppressed I soak it to where the receiver is dripping like the walls in Amityville Horror. More lube isn’t a bad thing.
I’m using a very minute amount of Hoppe’s oil and Black Molybdenum Grease from Cajun Gun works. I thought the action was butter on just oil, but this does the trick for me. I’ll have to give thag oil a try.
Will the cuts in the lower where it interfaces with the upper near the rear takedown pin being that deep affect accuracy at long range? I feel an accuwedge would fix the shifting but it’s not as tight of a fit as my service M4 was. That’s what I’m concerned with. If necessary I can pull order numbers from the upper and lower as I have an account with Palmetto. I was in CO at the time of the build. Would non mil spec pins cause this? If so, I can switch to milspec takedown pins, as I have a backup set from Strike Industries.
@Redneck_SPR the sloppiness between upper and lower doesn’t affect accuracy. As long as you are using a good optic or BUIS and the upper,barrel, and rail are tight you should be good to go. All the accuracy of an AR is in the upper.
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That sick new 2.5-10x44 Raptor M2 with the orange tape on the diopter. Lol Thank you kind sir.
As @GuitarGuy said the upper to lower fit doesn’t affect accuracy at all. My M16A4 was extremely loose and used to shoot 500 yds no problem.
The only company I’ve found that doesn’t have slop between their uppers and lowers is SOLGW, and they oversize their uppers on purpose.
I have an old EA 16" that’s got several thousand rounds thru it. If I run it wet, it also weeps oil in the same way and I think just about any AR that’s run wet will do the same thing. The only time it’s a problem is if it tosses oil back on my glasses, so I usually try and keep it down to a minimum. When it’s stored, I leave it fairly dry, with some Brownell’s Action Lube, but it gets a bit of CLP before I shoot it. I also tried an Accuwedge on this rifle and it destroyed the accuracy! Lockup was nice and tight and ghere was no rattles but it went from just over 1.0" at 100 yds to 3 to 3.5" with the same ammo. Got rid of it pretty quickly! It also shoots better by 1/2" with the long heavy flash supressor than it does with the normal birdcage assy., which is kind of weird but not unusual for this rifle or my luck! Every rifle is unique in some way, compared to every other. Some of it is science and some of it’s just plain voodoo!
Cheers,
crkckr
There is a lot to be said about all the accuracy being in the upper, and while very true, there are other variables involved as well ( IMHO )
You or I being a big variable. If you are consistently wielding the AR the same, IE via a sling or your bench technique, you are GTG
But if you are still learning to be as consistent as possible, a little tightening between the upper and lower could help.
Any tightening of the fit between the upper and lower , could result in a more consistent wielding of the AR… IE one less thing to focus on.
I have tightened the fit on all mine, as I do shoot better groups that way.
Uncle Sugar did a test on AR upper and lower fit , and it effect on precision, during the Vietnam War. And while it showed a tight fit v. loose fit did effect accuracy… the testers considered the differences in accuracy acceptable.
But… those same testers considered 2.2" MOA differences as acceptable, and meeting USGI parameters.
Quote…
"“The 2.2 inches criteria was chosen because new rifle acceptance criteria is 4.8 inches extreme spread at 100 yards and the user rejection criteria is 7.0 inches extreme spread at 100 yards. It is felt that any single parameter which could degrade the weapon from new-weapon-status to unfit-for-use is significant.”
The test was concerned with “Combat Accuracy”
I shudder to think how loose the fit was on the 7MOA one.
To me… 7MOA would leave a sour taste in my gut… And if my "new AR was shooting 7MOA, I would be very let down.
I realize that was using USGI spec’d field used AR’s pulled from issued AR’s… I would love to see an updated test of it.
For those interested in reading the test… here it is.
https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/772939.pdf
For additional comments, apart from my own, please read this link. Lots of good comments as well.
https://www.ar15.com/forums/precision-rifles/The-often-quoted-Army-test-about-loose-fitting-upper-to-lower-and-how-it-doesn-t-effect-accuracy-/4-9663/
YMMV.
That oil leakage is completely normal.
If your takedown pins are a poor fit on both the upper and lower… JP does make “oversized” pins.
Combined with an AccuWedge, those JP pins might help your fit concerns.