I was juts wondering a few things about AR 15's. Firstly can barrelss be switched on them by the average joe with hand tools. For example could you change a 223 rem barrel over to a 243 win with out too much difficultly? and have it so you could switch back and forth realatively easily? Also what are the better AR 15 clones. From what a sales person told me Colt no longer sold the AR 15 to civilians.

The 243 is too long for the ar 15. Lots of other companies are making ar 15's. Check Quality parts/Bushmaster as I have one and its as good or better than C. Dpms would be another one to look at. Only a caliber as short as a 223 would work. As far as doing your own gun smithing on them, I don't know much about that.

The AR-10 from Armalite can be had in .308 and .243. Some custom shops are redoing them in the WSM carts.

AR-15's can be modified by changing uppers, stocks, and other assesories. They are limited by magazine length as pointed out above.If it's longer than a .223 Rem, it's too long. If the head is bigger than a .223 Rem it's too big.

There are tools availible to change barrels, but the easiest way is to set up different uppers and just switch the entire upper. Thakes about 30seconds to switch an upper.

By the average Joe with hand tools? If you mean tools you already have, NO. But the tool investment and skills are not nearly the hardest gunsmithing to learn. The AR is designed around the 223 and all attempts at conversions I've seen have been touchy in functioning. But you can buy an upper built by one of the top High Power gunsmiths for around 900 bucks that can win the National Championships and shoot 1/2 minute at all yard lines back to 600 yards with proper bullets. Every High Power shooter I know has at least 2 uppers.

AR-15's and their clones are not very hard to build, but you do need some specialized tools and a good working knowledge of what to do with them. They don't require machine tools to change barrels but there are many things that you need to know before you go tearing into one.. AR-15's have been built with uppers that will shoot practically everything from a .22 LR to single shot .50BMG's. It is an ideal platform for switching complete uppers and bolts. If you really don't have the skills, you can just go out and buy some pretty well made uppers in various calibers. Unfortunately, there are alot of AR-15's out there built by guys in their basements who don't have a CLUE and thus, all the jams and feeding failures you see at the range. Properly done they are amazing guns.-Rob

markus-

The AR-15 family is very easy to work on, however you do need some specialized tools.

Go to www.ar15.com and check out their Forums. There is one titled Build Your Own that should answer almost anything you'd ever want to know.

Feel free to email me direct as well with any questions, I've got "a little" experience working on them. I'll help you any way I can.

thanks alot guys. Its defiantly something I am interested in but being a canadian its hard to even get exposure to these types of fire arms. No one carries them and the only ones I have seen are in stores in WA. But I have seen some which I thought were ar 15's in magazines that stated calibers like 260 rem and 243. But I must have been mistaken. what exactly do you mean by build your own though?

Mark

Given that the .243-Winchester chambering in the ArmaLite AR-10 rifles has been out a while, you "might" find a used one somewhere at a semi-decent price.

Just a thought.

Russ