With the craze of the gun market, there are many new buyers out there buying their first AR…whether an AR15, AR10, AR9, AK, etc. However, these new owners may not know what to do next.
This thread is all about helpful pointers for those new to the AR/AK platform. If you have a pointer that perhaps you “learned the hard way” or was taught to you (whether from military, police academy, father/grandfather/family/etc), please feel free to share. Passing on helpful knowledge is a huge part of what this forum is about!
To start: get some magazines and ammo and just shoot. You need to put 100rds through the rifle to get a feel for it. Make sure you run it wet!
If you get back up sights (commonly called BUIS for “back up iron sight”), mount them as far apart as possible. The read sight should be in the farthest slot and collapse (if collapsible) over the charging handle. The front sight (if you don’t have a front sight base) should go as far forward on the rail as possible. BUIS collapse TO THE REAR, not to the front.
I think my one piece of advice that you touched on would be to buy 10-20 magazines per gun while they are still cheap and available. If the Senile in Chief does anything, they could shoot up in price, disappear due to demand, or worst case and not as likely at this point, be banned.(Knock on wood.)
Add to that a sling, a light and an optic (red dot or scope, depending on what you want to do with your firearm).
It is generally not great practice to cheap out on optics. There are lots of Chinese made $30 Amazon optics…but many won’t hold a zero or will break or may not even have an in spec mount.
Watch a video tutorial on how to properly clean and lube your rifle. Then clean and lube your rifle. Then go to the range and sight in your rifle- it may not be set from the factory (especially if you put aftermarket sights on it), or the point of impact may simply vary just from the ammo you use.
Speaking of ammo variation; try several different brands and weights of the same caliber to determine what your rifle operates best on. Then buy a lot of that.
Yep. Just like people are kicking themselves for not buying Russian AK’s when they were $300 they’re going to kick themselves for not buying P mags when they were 11 bucks
And take that spiffy new rifle and get to an Appleseed shoot…
Hmm. Their website seems to be down. Have they moved, perhaps?
Ensure you have a good bore sight (especially if you’re running optics). Plenty of videos and tutorials out there, but it’s really simple.
I usually do this inside my s-medium sized home with no tools: ensure that chamber is empty, pull rear takedown pin so that the lower receiver drops, pull BCG and charging handle out, set upper receiver on stable surface, look down the bore and align barrel so that it is pointed at something (ie dead center of a door knob, point where two bricks meet OR see about where you’re aimed at then put a piece of tape with a dot or X on it), then adjust your scope/red dot so that it’s lined up with where your barrel is aimed at (if you’re doing it at maybe 50’ like I usually do, you want your optic to be about 1" higher than what you see looking out the barrel). Double and triple check your work, then reassemble your rifle.
If you’re building the gun yourself it’s even easier and you don’t even have to pull the takedown pin.
You can do the same with iron sights, but in my experience they often require 0 adjustment on an AR.
Pretty poor explanation, but it isn’t rocket surgery. The last couple I did I needed no more than 2 clicks on 1/4 MOA adjustments at 50 yards. If you do your part you will definitely be on paper within 100-200 yard distances when you get to the range and will save time and ammo.