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Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Today's Gun Technical Question

When you drop the magazine on an AR-15, does the button stay depressed until another magazine is inserted?  The gunsmith insists that it should.  How does your work?  \

I went back to talk to the gunsmith today to clarify.  He explained what he meant--the magazine release was not adjusted correctly for holding the magazine.  I characterized this as a "communication problem," which provides face-saving opportunity.  He insisted that if there was a communications problem, it wasn't on his side.  Anyway, I am leaving it with him.  He is still insistent that a friend who installed the rear QD mount used the wrong part, and apparently installed it wrong.  This gunsmith isn't strong on the communications part of running a business, but if he has the technical part right, this doesn't matter much.

13 comments:

  1. Nope. There's supposed to be a spring that pushes it back out.
    Part #70 on this diagram: https://www.midwayusa.com/General.mvc/Index/Schematics~AR15

    I'd find a real gunsmith instead of this pretender.

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  2. Find a new gunsmith ASAP. This is AR building 101.

    The mag release button is held out by a spring. It should always pop back out as soon as you release it.

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  3. Absolutely not. The mag release button is spring loaded. In fact, if it stayed depressed, one would have to push on the left-hand side to engage the mag, toggle style.

    Push- mag falls out.
    Release- button returns to position.
    Slam fresh mag in- no movement of button.

    This isn't even gunsmith level stuff, in my opinion. I assembled a couple of ARs myself and it is ridiculously evident when you do so as you have to put the spring in. I'm not totally mechanically ignorant, but I am far from a gunsmith. If he has been assembling them without the spring, I don't even know what to say.

    Either he's never assembled an AR or he is horribly ignorant for a modern gunsmith.

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  4. 4 years Marine Corps.
    2.5 years Army National Guard
    5 years USAF Reserves.

    I've got a brand new AR on my lap (as in hasn't been fired).

    Find a gunsmith, he doesn't know what he's talking about.

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  5. the mag release button? that's on a spring that pushes it back out.

    i guess if you left the spring out the button would tend to stay in.

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  6. Hit publish too soon. There is nothing to hold the magazine catch open while no mag is in the well. Further, the spring is under the button, lok at a video on assembling a lower receiver. Truly, this "gunsmith" doesn't understand AR's.

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  7. No, of course not. It pops back out since that action is what holds the magazine in. Get a new gunsmith.

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  8. Gunsmith is wrong. The entire magazine release on an AR consists of 3 parts - the button (female threads), the magazine latch (which is L-shaped, with one arm of the L being the male threads that feed into the button and the other being the piece that actually holds the magazine), and a spring that resides between the button and receiver exterior.

    The button may not go out quite as far to the right when a magazine is inserted depending on clearances, but the button should always push out to the right when a magazine is released.

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  9. In my experience 13 years in the army it does not

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  10. Clayton,
    My AR-15 is a Colt Delta-Hbar model 6600. The mag release button springs back to the full, raised position when the mag is released.
    The mag release is depressed only when I hold it down, a spring keeps it raised all other times ; whether a magazine is inserted or not.

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  11. Wow. What they all said: The mag release button pops back out, and you need a better wrench-bender

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