Changing the barrel on a M&P 15 Sport

:D Reminds me of the time I needed to change the drive belt on my John Deere GT275, requires removing the Electric PTO. Watched videos and it was all magic in how they simply removed the crankshaft bolt and the PTO all but fell off.

Me, removed bolt fine, PTO wouldn't budge! I gave up on it for awhile, soaked it with some penetrating oil, called a friend who works on mowers and told him the story and he laughed. He said, yeah, he's seen videos and replied 'but here in the real world....' Well, I did get it off, but it wasn't anything like the videos.

Just passing on some advice from my gunsmith. I noticed he had one of those plastic blocks laying on his table that you lay the barrel/FSP in. I pointed to it and he say yeah, some kid was wanting to remove his FSP, had bought this block and never could budge the pins. So the kid brought the rifle to him, and just gave him that plastic block. He says that block is pretty neat, but doesn't use it. He opens a drawer and pulls out a piece of babbitt steel, about an inch thick. Says he uses that to back up the FSP as it doesn't bounce all over the place like a piece of plastic will, yet the steel is soft and won't mar the surface of the rifle.

I've no doubt you could get it apart, hopefully its a breeze as they are on those videos.
 
McE said:
Remove flash hider, punch out pins on the front sight block, replace with a low profile gas block, replace flash hider, the end.
Click to expand...

Easier said than done sometimes. I tried to remove the front sight on my Sport and could not get the dang pins out. Took the rifle to a local gunsmith and he couldn't get the pins out either. We had to cut the front sight off the rifle.
 
I got faith in Chinook... he sounds pretty confident.. that's the 1st step.. I remember my 1st time knocking the pins out... just need a good punch and hammer.. good support for the front sight and don't be bashful.. also, will need to punch out the pin for the gas tube... may want to have another pin, just in case or even a gas tube... that's always an adventure, more of a PITA doing than the sight..
 
Thanks turbo38gn. I bought the gas block on Friday. Just need to find me a good flip up front site before I swap it out. Then once that is done I will search high and low and over think what optic to get.
 
Yes it does look like a great deal but why am I going to take a $550.00 AR and then spend $200 to swap the barrel?? There is a video on youtube everyone needs to see. I believe it's called "stop buying AR's". They guy isn't saying people shouldn't own them so please do get mad. His point is don't buy an AR for say $850 and then spend around $1450 changing out everything to keep up with the 'cool' kids. He is talking build your AR if you are going to swap out 'everything' instead of buy. So basically I'm saying after the optics I'm more or less done with swapping out anything more on this one. NOW not saying I don't want to be like the 'cool' kids, but to do that next one will be ground up build.
 
Chinook1717 said:
Yes it does look like a great deal but why am I going to take a $550.00 AR and then spend $200 to swap the barrel?? There is a video on youtube everyone needs to see. I believe it's called "stop buying AR's". They guy isn't saying people shouldn't own them so please do get mad. His point is don't buy an AR for say $850 and then spend around $1450 changing out everything to keep up with the 'cool' kids. He is talking build your AR if you are going to swap out 'everything' instead of buy. So basically I'm saying after the optics I'm more or less done with swapping out anything more on this one. NOW not saying I don't want to be like the 'cool' kids, but to do that next one will be ground up build.
Click to expand...

not a good post....... maybe you should reread your 1st post because we have responded to your original question. This isn't about being "cool". It's about options.... changing out a complete upper allows for having a completely different Ar... not being "cool" ... It appears you are looking to be the "cool kid" and oh so smart.. and for the record, you didn't buy an AR for $850 and look to do $1450 worth of "upgrades". Also, unless you want 2 AR's, you don't have to build a complete gun from the ground up, just need to build an upper and drop it on your existing lower.
 
I started this post due to the fact I wanted to put optics on my AR but didn't want the A2 post 'in the way'. I thought I would have to swap barrels to do this hence the name of the post. Not I found our from you great folks that all I needed to do was swap out my gas block and I would be good to go. But why take a base line gun (I think we can all agree that this is what the M&P sport is) and put new grip, bolt, charging handle, rails, stock, barrel and the like when we could have bought the parts for less than we have in the stock gun and all the upgrades. As far as having a different barrel and have a different gun, why not get another lower to go with that barrel and you will be on your way to a second AR. Sorry you can never have too many AR's. Anyone agree??
 
Have you even shot the gun yet? Do you have the optic that you want on the rifle in hand?
 
not at present. I'm still waiting to put the cash together to get the optics.
 
Chinook1717 said:
not at present. I'm still waiting to put the cash together to get the optics.
Click to expand...

Ok, stop.... go shoot it... alot. You should not make any changes to the firearm until you have put at least 500 rounds down range and you know what you like and what you don't like about it.

Once you get the optic, go shoot it again. You may find that you don't even need to remove the front sight post. I probably have the least modified Sport on the board... I added a red dot and replaced the rear Magpul sight with a Matech folding sight. That front sight post is still there and makes absolutely no difference when I use the red dot.
 
Turns out I need to change barrels to swap uppers. Anyone got a barrel wrench recommendation?
 
Chinook1717 said:
I started this post due to the fact I wanted to put optics on my AR but didn't want the A2 post 'in the way'. I thought I would have to swap barrels to do this hence the name of the post. Not I found our from you great folks that all I needed to do was swap out my gas block and I would be good to go. But why take a base line gun (I think we can all agree that this is what the M&P sport is) and put new grip, bolt, charging handle, rails, stock, barrel and the like when we could have bought the parts for less than we have in the stock gun and all the upgrades. As far as having a different barrel and have a different gun, why not get another lower to go with that barrel and you will be on your way to a second AR. Sorry you can never have too many AR's. Anyone agree??
Click to expand...


If you swap out all those parts for less than the price of the Sport, I wouldn't consider it an 'upgrade', it'd probably be a downgrade.
 
How could it be less??? I'm talking about paying $550 for the rifle then another $2,000 to "upgrade" all the parts, when I could have bought all the parts for around $1500 and built the AR. So I want to keep the $550 AR as cheap as possible.
 
If you want to keep it cheap, mount the optic of your choice and replace the trigger. You now have a $550 gun with less than $300 worth of accessories. My guess is that many orders of magnitude more AR's are left stock than are fully pimped out. Not all of us are mall ninjas.
 
MichiganScott said:
If you want to keep it cheap, mount the optic of your choice and replace the trigger. You now have a $550 gun with less than $300 worth of accessories. My guess is that many orders of magnitude more AR's are left stock than are fully pimped out. Not all of us are mall ninjas.
Click to expand...

I don't think you have to replace the whole trigger, just change springs. I put the 3.5 lb trigger spring kit from JP and achieved what I wanted.
 
You can't just swap out with any ol gas block, it has to be one that accommodates the handguard retainer, if you're keeping the stock handguard setup.
 
The way this usually works is that you will buy a red-dot sight. Then you need spacer/risers so you buy them. Then you want a tru scope that can double as an astronomical observation device so you buy one of those. Then you buy more risers. Then you find that its a huge pain in the tail to be changing them and you get the brilliant idea that you can just buy another upper, so you do that and put the scope on one and the red-dot on the other. Then you find that changing the lower all the time is a pain in the tail so you buy another lower and put that on whichever upper is currently bottomless. Then you find you prefer one lower over the other so you set about making them equal. But while you're doing that, you decide that you'll try the latest whiz-bang trigger and you love it so you have to buy two of those. Then you find that with the new trigger you need a....... Eventually, your spare parts box will have enough parts to make a whole rifle if you just buy a cheap upper receiver which just happens to be on sale. Now you have three rifles. But the one you just built from parts needs a better trigger to be just like the others. There is a better trigger on sale, too......

Good luck. You're gonna need it.

I'd tell you more but I have to look through the web sights now because I need another riser to go on my new upper receiver that I.....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

cporfe
Help Please: M&P 15 Serial Number TE836XX
Replies
1
Views
919
hardluk1
H
P
M&P Sport II
Replies
3
Views
893
McChemist
M
albroswift
Barrel replacement 4th change M&P 38 Special
Replies
11
Views
496
albroswift
albroswift
D
Has 2 inch barrel been replaced on this C series M&P snub-nosed ?
Replies
6
Views
386
Frailer
Frailer
valkeriesilk
Juggernaut Tactical Featureless Grip M&P AR-10 Lower
Replies
7
Views
628
valkeriesilk
valkeriesilk

Latest posts

Back
Top