5 MYTHS OF BUILDING AN AR-15

Yes, yes, yes; we all know that building an AR-15 is easy enough so that with a little bit of persistence and a big enough bag of treats, you could teach your Labrador retriever to build one. OK; maybe your Australian cattle dog or a poodle. But there are things that shooters, builders and AR-15 owners get themselves tied up in knots over; things that do or don’t matter.

Let’s start at the top—almost literally.

MYTH NO. 1: BARREL NUT TORQUE

The barrel nut torque limits and the precision of alignment are areas I’ve seen shooters obsess over—to the point of spending an entire afternoon doing nothing but this. The “book” torque limits are 35 in-lbs—not to exceed 80 in-lbs. (Technically, it’s “pounds-inch,” but we won’t go down that particular rabbit hole right now.)

First, 35 in-lbs is a force so minimal that you could almost wring the barrel nut on by hand and make 35. If you’re using a torque wrench, I would consider this the absolutely lowest level I’d be cool with, and even then, I wouldn’t be cool with it. My target figure,