M4 Armorer Kit
 

if you were going to build an armorer's kit for primarily M4, what would you put in it?

Spare parts, tools, and cleaning gear.

TR

LOL- Roger Sir, but what spare parts and what tools?

Just wanted to keep it generic hermano. Basically whatever you have seen break on your guns, and and can fix, as well as whatever your next level of maintenance would let/need for you to do to keep the guns running. If you have a couple of spare guns, so that guys can keep training, and the ability to get them fixed overnight, you may need very little. Who will fix them if you don't, how long/far will that be, and what is the impact on your mission if it doesn't get fixed? If you are maintaining team guns, for a location like we were in in Ocotopeque, you would want a lot more. As an example, if you cannot swap a barrel and headspace it, you do not need the parts or tools for that.

IMHO, for the M-4s, that would be plenty of extra mags, springs, and followers, a complete spring set for the rifle, all of the pins, detents, rings, and washers, a spare bolt and carrier, spare trigger, disconnector, and hammer, buffers, stocks, handguards, pistol grip, gas tube, flash suppressors, etc. Basically, if you can't install it, or diagnose a problem involving it, you don't need it.

For tools, I would want a small hammer, pin punches, pliers, a stock wrench, a set of receiver blocks, a vise, a 3/4" wrench for the flash suppressor, or one of the combo wrenches that does almost everything but make coffee. A few dental picks and a hemostat could be handy.

Brownell's sells spare parts kits as well as gunsmithing kits for the rifle, and are great people to deal with.

With the M-4, usually, if you can accurately diagnose the problem, the fix is easy.

Best of luck.

TR

A couple of places, one being the Web sight that Pat.R said could give us discounts. They sell M4 spare part Kits. I wouldn't buy these Kits but I would buy whats in those Kits separately. I would have at least one Bolt carrier and two or three Bolts on top of the small stuff.
Plenty of Lock Tight, Glass Cleaner, Small battery operated dremel with bits and grinder wheels. Small level for remounting loose Optics, paint marker for identifying bad mags and highlighting safeties. Also some extra fastek buckles, Tape, webbing and 550 cord for fixing slings. Of course a lot depends on who your supporting.
Last but not least. One giant Ratchet Wrench thats to big for your Armorers Kit. Maybe even Armorers School:D

Armorer: "Don't stake that gas key, you aren't qualified, give me that, here ill show you"

Me: "I just did what you showed me to the 25 Weapons on the table over there" "are my dents not to standard" "Thats what we are doing here right, putting dents in metal?

Armorer: I upset him by not understanding the complexity of Dents. He packed his kit and went home. I had to finish staking with a regular Hammer and Punch, instead of Armorers tools.

What level of work expected NDD?

Comprehensive work or just a field kit?

The MOAKS item is indispensable imo if you are dealing with other people's guns that are not Colt / milspec mfg.

http://www.m-guns.com/tools.php

Mother Of All Carrier Key Stakers (MOACKS)

Pricey but worth it and a lifetime tool. Easy to use and stakes the screws properly.

Of course ... the Journeyman Lineman in me is screaming you could just beat on it with a hammer and a chisel.

Here is a small field kit from Brownells...

M16/M4 FIELD PACK - Allows complete weapon breakown for routine maintenance and repair, plus includes tools for sight adustments and field cleaning of the Colt M16/M4. Includes special tools for removal of barrel nut, flash hider and lower receiver extension without damage to any rifle component.

SPECS: Pack - 1000 denier Cordura nylon, O.D. green. 11½" long, 8½" high, 3" thick. Includes: #81 MAGNA-TIP® hollow screwdriver handle w/ Leupold windage (L/B) and #185-10 bits; 1⁄16", 1⁄8" and ¼" pin punches; ½" drive handle; ¾" nylon/brass hammer; buttstock tool; combination wrench; lower receiver vice block; A1/A2 sight wrench; carrier carbon scraper; Deluxe model buttstock cleaning kit. Approx. 5 lb. (2.3 kg) wt.

Stock number: 080-000-458 M16/M4 Field Pack $229.95

Hope this helps,

Pat

I saw a complete AR15/M16/M4 armorers tool kit complete with reciever block at Brownnells for like $1,200.

For that I can purchase another full complete upper and lower from RRA or LMT.

My wife bought that one for me to put in my shop for my birthday. It has more tools than I need to work on any AR, but it has wheels and I take it to shows when I work the range.

I run a HSGI Warlord 4, the entire admin pouch is an armory. punches, sacrificial pliers, hex wrenches, stock wrench, locktite, lube, boresnake, roll-a-patch, and what not...

I'll add a spare bolt, and spring kit to it as I go. Basically if its a kit you will be carrying all the time, it should be only what you need to get the gun back up in a pinch.


I need to take pics eventually. The weight and comfort level weren't bad at the two shoots I've recently worn it through.