fixing the dreaded barrel wobble

On most AR replicas with the three piece barrel system there are a few major points to look at:

1. Forward outer barrel atach point - Can be tightened up and have loctite (red) or J-B Weld applied to it to secure things in place. It can also take a bit of tapping to make sure it is seated as firmly as possible.

2. Back outer barrel attach point - Same fix as above, but this point has a beefier segment that can take a little extra punishment. If both ends are seated extremely tight, you may want to take a small segment out of the spacer that goes between the two outer barrel parts in order to make sure it seats as tight as possible.

3. Forward Receiver (plastic receivers only) - TM recievers on the M4 and M16 utilize a metal forward block that is seated in the plastic receiver. After a lot of use and abuse the body will start to flex away from the metal trunion style block. This can be especially true on M4's that have a lot of geardo crap attached to them that add extra weight to the foreend. The only "fix" we have used is to J-B Weld the crap out of the metal to plastic attachment. This is generally a temporary fix as the glue will not hold forever.

4. Barrel Nut - This is an often overlooked area of the AR replica. Alsmot 7 out of 10 that I get sent to e for service have this nut loose. To tighten it down properly you need to remove the handguards, remove the Delta ring by pushing it toward the receiver and lining it up with the notches in the barrel nut then letting the spring push it out. Once the spring and delta ring are out of the way you can use anything from channel locks or one of those QVC rubber tightening tools to get it as tight as possible. If you don't plan on taking it off very often or it is loose entirely too often you may want to use some loctite (blue) to keep it from coming off easily.

Just some things to look for on your AR replica.

Written by Captain