AR15 Parts, M16 Parts, Assault Rifles, Tactical Gear

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Frequently Asked Questions

Should I read this first?

First, last, twice or again... read it! Then be sure to click on THIS to get even more detailed advice and information on building your AR. Click on it!

Why should I buy a "kit"... what's this all about?

Sure, you can go into any gun shop and throw down $1500 and walk out with a "lowest common denominator" AR15 Rifle. It will have the same old "custom" gee-whiz combination of features that the manufacturers might be buying as sepearte parts from our M&A Warehouse. Why not create your own "customized" AR15 by selecting just the parts you want, the features you need?

The minute that a manufacturer puts the simplest part into a Lower Receiver, they have to pay (and charge you) the 11% Federal Excise Tax. If you do this simple assembly, not only do you get parts from Current Government Contract Machine Shops, but you also save the labor fee and the F.E.T.

AR15's are to a specification that is written in stone. All parts are interchangable. Some guys grind the parts willy-nilly in their back shop, we get them from Current US Government Contract Houses. We make nothing ourselves, we buy the best in huge job lot quantities. We sell to the manufacturers of the rifles- those with names that you know and love. When we read on the internet "don't buy M&A Parts, get a built up AR from XYZ company"- often we laugh- as many of these respected manufacturers get their parts from us- as do most other parts houses. It's a small world in here!

Are these kits difficult to assemble?

The hard part is done: the barreled upper is fully assembled and built to any of your custom specification orders. By deffinition, any USGI dimensioned part will constitute a head-spaced rifle. You're good to go.

The Lower Receiver assembly process? We liken it to snapping in leggo blocks. With a bit of mechanical aptitude, it's no big deal. If you don't have a friend to ask if you get stuck, order up the inexpensive USGI manual (it is a US Marines TM 05538c-23&p/2 M16a2 manual but the full auto pieces look pretty much so the same for assembly purposes). There are some inexpensive tools that we sell that can make the stock simpler to put on, or the take down pins easier to prepare with the springs, but since the hard part (the barreled upper) is all done and ready- the rest is easy.

You can see an excellent tutorial on the web at This link.

I have this problem with a kit I ordered

We'll assist you in every way possible with resolving any problem. We can more effectively manage any situation if you call us immediately upon receipt. YOU MUST CLAIM any shipping damage with UPS immediately upon arrival. If something arrives broken- it happened during shipment. Get on the phone with UPS first! There is no other assistance we can offer- that's how their insurance works.

Here are some common problems and resolutions: Q: I can't cock the weapon, very hard to pull the charging handle back. A: You have the hammer spring upside down. Q: Now it double taps, gives me two shots at a time. A: You have the disconnector spring upside down. Q: My Bolt Catch is defective- it broke! A: No, you dry fired it. Buy a new one and don't do that. Q: Upon extraction I wind up with 1/2 ripped out shell casings remaining in the chamber. A: Clean the chamber, if necessary gently buff the chamber area with a light compound such as Flitz. Stop using crappy ammo, lubricate the chamber area correctly. Q: I am having failure to feed isuues. A: Try several different magazines and types of ammunition. Collpapsable stock only work on 16" barrels.

That will solve 999 out of 1000 problems, I mean to say- better than nine out of ten, see?

We sell several thousand barreled uppers in any given year. We get more than enough frantic calls from buyers who are certain they have been screwed and bought junk on this, their first ar15 buy. After they calm down and take care to follow the above steps- and other basic instructions on building and operating this black rifle- their problems go away. Unfortunately, for the rare barreled upper that we receive as a return for service, most all are resolved by proper cleaning and lubrication. In the machine shop world, there is no such thing as "one error". When you see one, you see one hundred. With the process that we go through with LMT test firing each upper, this is as rare as a steel penny.

All of these different ways to buy what I want… it sounds confusing!

Building up an AR15 platform rifle is easier than you might think! The biggest problem you might encounter is selecting from the many variations. First, you should understand how we 'package' the various parts that make up an AR15. Sure… you could order 'One Each' of every part, but that would be time consuming, more costly, and there are assembly issues you don't want to handle. We have other options.

The AR comes in two distinct ‘chunks'. The first is what is called the "Barreled Upper". That includes the upper receiver and all of the parts that are attached to it (usually for the long term, the duration of use). This would include the barrel (with a timed and head spaced barrel extension), the front sight/gas block, the sight post, the handguard, the gas tube, Delta ring, etc). A Barreled Upper does not come with a Bolt Carrier Assembly and Charging Handle- the two other pieces you would need to install a barreled upper on an operational ar15 lower receiver. Many folks simply take these two pieces out of their existing upper and easily exchange them into the new upper.

You can buy one of these Barreled Uppers to snap on and off of your pre existing operational AR15… maybe you want a Varmint Upper (a long distance tack driver) to replace your 16" Carbine Upper. Different uses, different configurations. They interchange within seconds. Some folks want an additional Charging Handle and Bolt Carrier to keep with that specific upper, you can order the Barreled Upper as a "Barreled Upper Complete" and that will give you an additional bolt carrier and handle just for this upper. We offer these at a special price if you are buying a barreled upper.

The other "chunk" is that pre-existing AR… it is a complete lower assembly. Now remember, we are not an FFL dealer- we do not sell stripped lower receivers, but we do have every other part you need to complete out the ‘stripped lower' that you obtain locally from a Gun Shop or Show. In the "Complete Rifle/Carbine Kit", you get your choice of Complete Barreled Upper (with charging handle and bolt carrier) as well as an AR15 Lower Parts Set and an appropriate Stock configuration to build up your stripped lower receiver.

Within these main categories, you can mix, match, substitute and swap out features to your heart's content.

CHROME Lining, what's the story?

We view chrome lining from a perspective of long term experience. Sometimes it is the only way to go, but for most, this is not the case. Read on....

The military specifies chrome lining for a great reason: sheer momentum. It started with corrosive ammunition. We saw corrosive ammo only as recently as Central America (76-84), it has pretty much so gone away. The additional bogey of dealing with untrained local militia made the chroming of the bolt carrier a plus as well. They were not only easier to inspect but easier to clean in the field with limited resources, as well. Now that such ammo has disappeared, and since you're likely to often clean and lubricate the entire piece, those needs for chroming have gone by the wayside.

Chrome lining means longer barrel life? The military is interested in a barrel life of over 8000 rounds (to 12,000), which is roughly the upper life of our well maintained standard chrome-moly (CM) barrel. That's a lot of bullets. The barrels and technologies have evolved in the last few years, and the newly configured CM barrels combine the best of a standard steel barrel with the addition of chrome in its mixture.

The military is thrilled with hits within the size of a dinner plate at 300 yards. As a chrome lined barrel wears, this isn't a bad average. Your shooting requires greater accuracy. Many of our buyers are Law Enforcement and these days, accuracy is paramount. Much as LE is getting away from scatterguns due to obvious collateral hit liability, is an inaccurate rifle any less of a liability?

It protects the barrels, right? There is so much lubricant built into modern ammunition that the oiling of the barrel to protect it from corrosion is easily done by pulling the trigger every so often. I have seen weapons submerged in the ocean, then immediately fired and left uncleaned. The only part that didn't corrode was the inside of the barrel itself. It's an extreme example, but~ Think about it!

Correct MilSpec Hard chroming is applied as a part of the rifling process. In that chrome adds a fairly thick coating, the bore of the rifle is over sized, with the understanding that the Chrome will take up that slack, making the barrel the correct and desired size. This is not child's play. To be done correctly takes skill and money.

We offer MilSpec Hard Chrome barrels in the LMT line, click on LMT and see our short barreled configurations. We also sell a 20" e2 A2 Government Profile barrel. We understand there is a use for milspec hard chrome: Full Auto M16 application.

We might not sell you what you think you want, but we're ready to sell you what you need.

Your M&A ads say that I will need a "stripped lower receiver"… what exactly is that?

Our Complete Rifle/Carbine Kits come with everything you will need to build up your AR15 except a stripped lower receiver, a magazine, ammunition and targets!

A lower receiver is the part of the rifle that the US Government and the ATF decided constitutes "the gun". It is the inert chunk of metal that has all these openings and holes, along with a serial number. By ATF regs, you must obtain this from your local FFL Gun Dealer or an individual, usualy within your state. They are easy to order and obtain.

To this piece of metal, you attach the pistol grip, insert the magazine into the large hole or "well" on the bottom, install the internal parts (such as the trigger, safety, magazine catch, and all of the included parts in the AR15 Lower Parts Kit, etc) and then with the use of two pins, snap on the "Complete Barreled Upper". Your lower receiver when combined with all of the other necessary parts in our Complete Kits will have you off and shooting in short order.

Please ask the manufacturer if your stripped lower receiver is to USGI dimensions. Most any milled forged receiver is. Do not ask us if our parts will fit XYX receiver. We know what we are: USGI dimension.

Do the barreled uppers come with...?

We use the words and deffinitions that are used by military technical manuals. Here are the following recognized 4 component assembly sub-groups: 1) The barreled upper (BU), 2) The Bolt Carrier Assembly and Charging Handle (BCA/CH), 3) The lower receiver parts set (LRPK), 4) Buttstock assembly.

We also use a civillian word: kit. That includes everything except your stripped lower receiver. It does include all 4 component groups as above. No magazines, bullets or targets, though ;)

So~ a barreled upper is just that. Add a BCA/CH to any of our 5.56 barreled uppers for $100. When people buy a barreled upper, they usually have an operational AR15 and quite often they will swap out their existing bolt carrier assy and charging handle from their old upper~ that's why we sell them as a seperate items.

As a further example: Our A4 Flat Top barreled uppers do not come with rear sights, scope mounts or night vision optics. We try to describe things very literally.

What's my first decision then?

A good starting point is to consider for what you want to use the rifle. Long distance "tack driver" or for a short-range metal-plate competition run-and-gun, shoot-and-move CQB type of application?

First thing to get in mind is what "barrel profile" you want. A heavy Varmint style, a Lightweight, and M4, an E2, a CAR, XM or Commando? Then barrel length. Do you want a standard A2 style "carry handle" built into the upper receiver, or did you want an A4 "flat-top" with a Picatinny Rail built into the upper (to which you mount optics or flip up iron sights, etc)?

Okay, I know what general configuration, what about all of these options?

Remember that this is but your first upper, you can always get into other configurations later, as you already now will have built up your lower! You can customize your barreled upper in a few other ways, as well. Some barrels are offered with fluting which lightens the weight and dissipates heat to a small extent. Some are available as chrome lined (but accuracy isn't as good!). You might want to substitute the standard front sight base with an aluminum or steel gas block/front site base (to add a flip up front site or lights, etc).

Some folks want to change the standard black stocks (or also known as ‘furniture') with OD green. You might want to do something different with the fore-end or handguard, changing it into a free float cylindrical aluminum tube, or a free floated front 4-way Picatinny rail system. You can also do the Picatinny rail in a non-free float configuration, and save a lot of money.

Anything that you can substitute or upgade on a barreled upper, you can also substitute or change while ordering a "KIT".

I wanna see pictures !

What we have for photos.... are already on the internet. We understand your desire to see pics, but consider that all of these rifles have specific features that can not be captured by just one image... remember- this object is 3" x 28".... an odd shaped thing!

This means that we would have to put a close-up of the receiver, the handguard, the barrel and muzzle. More picture dramaticaly increase internet download costs, and guess who winds up paying for that? To keep it simple, we have salted our web pages with images of specific components so that you may see them up-close and individualy.

Where we can, we will put in an overall photo and then add close-ups of individual components. You will see the exact same picture of the exact same barrel on any m4 configuration we show, kit or barreled upper and more! As much as the components are interchangable, so are the photos!

Then we have the additional whammy of trying to show a "completed rifle", something we aren't even selling. We show close ups all over the website- of the individual components that make up ours (or any) such configuration. Lets face it- an a4 upper is an a4 upper. An M4 barrel is... well, you get the idea.

You can either stitch the pictures together in your mind, or if you have-to gotta see what it will look like all put together, look at the PDF downloadable outdated catalog. All sorts of pics there.

If you are looking for a specific view of our quality, understand that when we need a picture, we grab the next barreled upper off of the rack and snap the picture. When you see supermodels in a magazine, do you think they really look like that? We show reality, we sell reality.

We are selling materials built to USGI dimension. It aint pretty, it aint ugly- but it is what it is. It goes bang every time and will wear well over many years of service.

Will M&A advise me on what is my best choice for my shooting style, budget, and need?

If you put it to us in those terms, yes, but most folks haven't thought that through before they call. If you don't know your application, we really can't do much to help. Take a look at what is available, both here on our website as well as in books (see The Black Rifle, R. Blake Stevens). Gather your facts, think through your needs and applications- and we'll answer questions as to how best they should be fulfilled.

M&A Barrels are specified at 5.56 Nato, can I shoot .223 ammunition?

Not a problem. With our 5.56 chambering, you can shoot either with no issues. In a .223 chamber you are likely to have stoppages firing 5.56 ammo as the primers may blow out and foul in the lockwork mechanism of your lower. All of ours are chambered for 5.56, again- no problem!

What are the laws regarding my buying M16 parts or Barrels that are shorter than 16" in length?

Short answer? Contact the ATF or see www.atf.gov. Our understanding of the Federal Laws is that mere possession of any M16 part is the constructive intent to assemble a machine gun. Trying to insert an M16 part into your AR will waste your time and money- and screw up the mechanics of the rifle. We advise against that unless you want to do felony time in the Graybar Hotel. The same goes with a Short Barreled Rifle (SBR) barrel. If you don't have the paperwork to have this, don't have the parts sent to you. We also urge you to check any and all laws that might pertain to you and your location, from the US Government down to your condo association. We don't give legal advice and we won't knowingly ship anything that is illegal. The recent sunset of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban has nothing to do with this topic.

Will you ship to other countries?

No, nor can we to ship to APO addresses. Maybe your Mom lives in the U.S.A. and has a good UPS address? We ship via UPS and need a physical street address (No P.O. Boxes). Alaska and Hawaii have other considerations, not limited to the simple fact that UPS requires higher air shipment rates.

Does shipping cost that much?

Yes it does. UPS isn't cheap but they are the most reliable we have found. Most find our shipping and insurance to be quite reasonable when compared to other parts houses. Our costs also include "handling" which refers to the cost of packing materials (boxes aren't free), as well as paying skilled people who won't botch the packing job.

Now here's the point: Even though we promise a 7 day turnaround, we also do our best to get your order out the same day you paid for it, so we do keep people around on a continuous basis to serve this purpose.

Fast shipping doesn't just come from good intentions. We ship everything UPS ground (except to AL or HI) but can do any UPS expedited service you need. A request for US Postal Service can be made over the phone, it is going to cost more money and take longer- we have to send a driver to the PO which is some distance away. Any small part that we can put in an envelope and mail out indeed we will do to save shipping cost. We like UPS as a general rule.

Why are your prices higher than some others that I have seen advertised?

It is because of quality factors. We buy all of our parts from current manufacturer USGI and Government Contractors. We make nothing on premises nor from any foreign country.

Everything is US manufactured that goes into your AR15 rifle. Our upper receivers are manufactured by Lewis Machine and Tool, and LMT cuts and chambers the uppers using Wilson or Mike Rock Premium Barrel Blanks, which they then headspace and test fire. We do have some Rock River Barreled Uppers as noted. [The few foreign parts that are shown on this website are so noted in the descriptions – they do not come in any rifle/carbine kit, period.]

I am an FFL Dealer, can I send you a copy of my FFL for a discount?

It isn't necessary, as we begin our discount structure in quantities of five kits or barreled uppers per order, mix or match. We are in business to help bona-fide dealers get into the AR market. We will work with you and are flexible to your quantity needs.

What's your guarantee, any specific accuracy?

We hear this odd question seldom, but we know it is always asked in sincerity. The short answer is: No. Sad to say, but the bottom line on any accuracy issue boils down the shooter themselves. We've been in this business long enough to know this, and have heard nothing negative from the field in regards to our products- nothing we couldn't resolve. Check your order as soon as you receive it and advise us of any issues. We are not in the business cranking people off, we look for repeat customers. At the same time, we can't exchange a used kit just because someone decided that they instead wanted something different. That seems to make sense, we handle things pretty fairly- most times to our detriment. We do what's right and fair, we expect the same. We've pretty well seen it all by now. Our gear works.

As a general rule, do not dry fire your weapon. If you do, we know what you're going to break, and we'll know why you're asking for this-or-that new part. That applies to the entire piece... we've seen and heard it pretty much all before. Nothing happens without a reason, nothing ever happens just once.

Quite often any initial function issues encountered will evaporate after switching magazines or ammunition. (And we don't mean just trying a different box of "Ed's Ammo" brand ammunition) These are quality kits that you receive, so put them together with appropriate lower receivers, magazines and ammunition. Why build a performance car and expect it to run on 83 Octane?

Why are there price differences depending on where I look?

Simply stated: we reserve the right to be told of our pricing errors, smack our foreheads with the palms of our hands and state the correct price.

Many folks "download" the PDF file of our old catalog, not seeing the numerous warnings that it's out of date... and you get the picture. Shotgun News and various advertisements can sit on someones table for many months- even after we issue pricing changes, it takes months for some publications to cycle through.

Bottom line- we're doing our best to keep prices accurate and updated, but if you want the real scoop, check the internet and then call in your order for availabilty, final pricing and the best quantity deals.

Will your stuff fit my.....?

Question: Will your parts and uppers fit my XYZ Lower?

Answer: We know what we have, it's all spec'd out to USGI dimensions. It will quite likely fit any other AR15, but we know what we have- and that is USGI dimensioned. What have you got? You have to know. Anyone that says "aye, yes or no" about any other manufacturer's products is a fool.

Useful info on the web... got any?

For an easy tutorial on how to build up your ar15...

Go to www.ar15.com (arfcom) and click on "ar-15", then "build it yourself". Pinned to the top will be the "how-to" threads, they are handy.

Also at arfcom, click on "hometown" and see individual state news and quite often gun show dates.

A fair civiliam commentary of Federal Laws? Click on "General", then about 3/4 the way down, click on "Legal Section"

If you want to see the real deal take a read at www.m4carbine.net

Gun Shows- which ones do you go to?

Really, "we" don't go to any of them, however, independent contractors take our gear along with them to several shows. (legal mumbo-jumbo is now over)

Belleville, IL; Grand Rapids, MI; Princeton, IL; Birch Run, MI; Louisville, KY; Harrisburg, PA; Tulsa, OK; Wheaton/DuPage, IL; Waukesha, WI

Don't call our order takers looking for the next show dates, try Google. We also do Camp Perry (August). Try not to call and ask if we do Knob Creek or the show down the next county over from you as we gave you that answer in the list above!


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