I think it's a good beginner's article, but there are several key areas of the article that I really did not like, and these were reflected in both the comments following that
TFB article, as well as is captured well, here in our continued discussion on this thread.
First and foremost, even at this late date and with our ever expanding hobbyist understanding of the AR15 platform, this article continues to propagate the myth of gas-ring alignment (
@Keystone19250 , I hope the following helps!
). Both the late William Larson (
iraqgunz on M4Carbine.net and the man behind Semper Paratus Arms) as well as SOTAR's Chad Albrecht have repeatedly tried to point out the fallacy behind this claim.
Semper Paratus Arms 2 Day Armorer Course www.semperparatusarms.com May 16/17, 2017 Greater Seattle, WA area Instructor: William Larson I had seen the announcement for this course by watching Will Larson’s company’s posts on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/SemperParatusArms/...
primaryandsecondary.com
The AR-15 Direct Gas Impingement System is a rather straight forward system to understand. When the weapon is fired, gas travels down the barrel behind the bullet. As it passes the gas port, it is diverted into the Front Sight Base (FSB) or Gas Block into a gas tube which carries it into the...
primaryandsecondary.com
Similarly, as
@Jfal noted above, the Brownell's
Smythbusters series featured the following:
In 2010, M4Carbine.net member
P2000 also made a video in which he aligned the rings and proved that the gun still functioned as-intended, and while this video is I believe no longer available, there have been many others in its wake. And although the video link is no longer valid in this old thread -
https://www.m4carbine.net/showthrea...o-which-disproves-the-gas-ring-alignment-myth - you'll see that among the other members who attest to the fact that alignment is a non-issue is no other than Jack Leuba (aka
Failure2Stop), who, aside from his military background, is also the Sales Director at Knight's Armament.
For a more nuanced discussion of not just the gas rings, but also the gas system as it is found in the BCG, I found the following videos by Albrecht (the first hosted by ARBuildJunkies) to be very, very helpful -
and
Next, I really do not like it that the article sometimes use "slang"/common/incorrect terminology. I think it sets the reader - particularly newbies - up for more work (at best) later on in their time as hobbyists.
For example, the author referred to the firing pin retaining pin as a "cotter pin" in the article. While it is more laborious to write the words "firing pin retaining pin," the fact is that pin is absolutely not just an average "cotter pin" from the local hardware store. This old thread on The High Road Forums is illustrative of my point:
I was looking around at Home Depot today and I noticed they had stainless steel cotter pins. The 3/32" pins appear to be the correct size to replace the firing pin retaining pin. How much stress is the firing pin retaining pins subject to? I figure it can't be much since it's such a small...
www.thehighroad.org
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As always, both good points and some less so. Just figured that I'd toss in some constructive criticism for those who actually read that out-linked article.
