
Originally Posted by
Shao
So I got a wild hair and decided that I wanted to swap the upper receiver on one of my ARs with a MUR-1A that I had lying around. To make a long story short, after removing the rail, muzzle device, gas block and gas tube, I went to work with my reaction rod and that gnarly barrel wrench that Brownells sells (the 5 prong one). After securing the upper in my vise and about 20 minutes of near hernia-inducing counter-clockwise twisting, I decided that help was needed. I tried the freezing trick. I tried the blowtorch trick. I tried the freeze then blowtorch trick. I tried using a breaker bar. I tried rapping it with a hammer. Kroil? Been there... done that... I have NEVER encountered a barrel nut like this. I've only bought 4 pre-assembled uppers and built the rest and this is one that I bought pre-built - I will refrain from using the vendor's name currently, but they are a respected assembler of AR uppers. There is NO WAY that anti-seize compound/grease was used on this barrel nut. In my 37 years on this earth I've never encountered anything like this. I've never resorted to sending a gun/part back to be worked on unless it suffered catastrophic failure. Does anyone have any magic tricks that they would like to share that I haven't mentioned or maybe any advice on how I should proceed (give up and send it in)? It's extremely frustrating since all the threads I've read concerning this subject either end up with a happy resolution or the poor sap having to dremel the barrel nut off (which I really don't want to have to do). Anyone who comes up with a solution that works will get the AR named after them. LOL. Thanks in advance.
Personally, I recommend sending it to the builder. I always ask my customers to let me look at a problem 1st; anyone can screw up once or twice. If that doesn't work for you I'll be happy to give it a try for you.
"An opinion solicited does not equal one freely voiced," Al Swearengen, Deadwood 1877.
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