Well, managed to finally get some time to inventory things. One of the things I had been wanting to do wasa inventory the support gear for the AR’s. Very sobering. Im doing great on spare parts but not as well as I’d like on magazines. Heres a partial breaakdown:
(26) 30-rd GI mags
(12) Eagle 30-rd plasatic mags
(8) 20-rd GI mags
(2) 20 rd steel mags
(4) firing pins
(4) bolts
(1) bolt carrier
Assorted spare parats for lower receiver inc trigger,sear, springs, pins, etc.
(1) recoil spring
(1) recoil spring buffer
etc, etc, etc.
Not nearly as many mags as Id like. This puts me at about 24 mags per AR. I want at least 30 per. Why so many? Mags, my friends, are consumables they get bent, get lost, get dented, left behind, etc, etc. Additionally, I want enough mags that I can keep a dozen off-site at various resupply locations. So – at next weekends gun show I haave to see if I can pick up some more GI 30’s…usually they can be had for about $15 ea. Still too much $$$ in my opinion, but….
Might get a chance to go shooting tomorrow. We shall see..
I’m actually more a fan of picking up spare rifles than spare rifle parts, as you can always fall back on a fully functioning rifle faster than you can repair one that has gone down.
Classic NY reload, eh?
How expensive are the plastic ones? How long do they last? Seems they might be a bit more resistant to getting bent or dented, and if they’re considerably cheaper, wouldn’t they be the way to go?
spares?
might be good to start finding information, even tooling up to make your own spare parts, springs, and magazines. by such pratical terms, one can stash away enough basic materials and supplies to create your own supply for self or for future barter trade. everything wears out eventually no matter how much you stash away. think about it. Wildflower
I agree, but only up to a point….
I do keep spare rifles (and, really, spares of all my firearms) but a spare rifle as a ‘complete spare parts kit’ is a false sense of security, in my opinion…heres why:
I have two AR-15 rifles, fully functional. If anything happens to ANY part of AR #1 I can replace that part from AR#2. But, if the firing pin, for example, breaks and I do this parts swap I have gone from two fully functional AR’s to one. Since some parts are more prone to needing to be replaced than others, it makes more sense to keep the spare parts as well as a spare gun. This way, I simply swap out a $4 firing pin for another one from my parts bin and I still have two fully functional AR’s. It would seem silly to turn a working AR into a non-working one because I needed a $0.98 trigger spring and had to pull it from one AR to put into another.
As far as plastic mags go, I think the Eagles are the best. They have a constant-force ‘windowshade’ spring rather than a coil spring in them…thus the spring requires the same force to loada the 30th round as to load the first and the mag can be stored loaded indefinitely with no ‘set’. I keep the Eagle mags loaded asa my ‘ready to go’ mags. I can still find them in some places for $15 ea.
Since magazines have been mentioned, I have two USMC issue 30rd M-16 mags that are probably from the late 70’s. What would I need to do in order to make sure they are still usable? I’ve had them since around 1980 or so, (got them from my older brother) and I still hold out hope one day that I will have an AR variant that will use said items.
Indeed. A spare can always be used, not so for a pile of spare parts.
Oh, understood. I also have spare parts, largely the little things like springs and pins, although a few full bolt carrier assemblies ought to be purchased as well, given how nicely I like to screw those up.
Put 30 rounds of .223 in them and see if they feed and go bang 30 times.
If the springs are worn, you can get replacement springs (and followers)…at this poibnt in time the aluminum mag body is whats valuable….maybe not so after September.
See, therein lies the problem. I don’t have access to a platform capable of using said magazines at this time.
One day though, one day…