Welcome everyone to the  TFB Armorer’s Bench! As mentioned in the little blurb below, this series will focus on a lot of home armorer and gunsmith activities. In this article, I decided to take a peek into something that does not really make an appearance on my bench but is supposed to act like a bench on the go. I of course am talking about my gunsmith kit for lack of a better name. I take this with me on trips or to the range all the time. It is composed of away-from-home essentials, a mish-mash of tools and equipment that may not solve every illness guns can have but it works for a good short-term “just in case” scenario. I hate that feeling of needing something and not having it so that is why long ago I put together this kit. Please excuse its disorganization, things are stacked for fit not for looks. Let’s dive into my portable gunsmith kit!

Welcome everyone to the  TFB Armorer’s Bench! As mentioned in the little blurb below, this series will focus on a lot of home armorer and gunsmith activities. In this article, I decided to roll with a more relaxed article and touch on a topic that rewinds everything quite a bit. This topic actually comes courtesy of fellow TFB writer and AllOutdoor editor Adam S. I had never really considered doing an article like this because it feels like a lifetime ago when I think back to my earliest efforts in the trade. Nonetheless, I agree it may shed some light. In no particular order, let’s dive right into 3 things I wish I knew before gunsmithing.

Welcome everyone to the  TFB Armorer’s Bench! As mentioned in the little blurb below, this series will focus on a lot of home armorer and gunsmith activities. In this article, I decided to run through another “commentary” style article since it seems they are well received and doing their job by being informative. This one is going to be centered around the Remington 74 series of semiautomatic hunting rifles. I use the term “74 series” to loosely encapsulate models of Remington rifles that share the same characteristics and similar issues. More so than anything, this article will address Model 740 and 742. Full disclosure: I am no fan of these two rifles or their “improved” later renditions.

In this spooky Halloween episode of TFBTV, James Reeves interviews Cody Wilson of Defense Distributed about the Ghost Gunner 3S. A more advanced version of the Ghost Gunner 3, this at-home milling machine allows shooters to perform DIY RMR cuts on their Glock slides (or, really, any pistol) as well as slide serrations, stippling, and even build AR lowers from ZERO PERCENT receivers – i.e., plain blocks of metal. The Ghost Gunner 3S is a hardware and software upgrade, but Cody goes into more detail about the differences between the GG3 and GG3S and the endless possibilities for at-home mods and builds.

Welcome everyone to the  TFB Armorer’s Bench! As mentioned in the little blurb below, this series will focus on many home armorer and gunsmith activities. Today, I decided to do a quick tips and tricks sort of article. I have had an extensive list of article ideas and reminders on my phone and this quick tips and tricks idea has been on the list since day one. More of a fun idea to get people talking and sharing ideas in the comments. Nothing super earth-shattering but hopefully helpful to whoever may need a hand. Let’s dive into this rapid-fire style article with 10 Quick Tips and Tricks!

Welcome everyone to the  TFB Armorer’s Bench! As mentioned in the little blurb below, this series will focus on a lot of home armorer and gunsmith activities. In this article, I decided to take a bit of a risk and pick up a bucket list gun that does not have the best reputation. I of course am obviously referring to the Colt 1877 DA revolver. These revolvers are often referred to as “the gunsmith’s favorite” or “the gun all gunsmiths refuse to work on” which I think is a little unfair. They have a reputation for being fragile and prone to breakage. With a bit of time and obsessive research, I have compiled a small list of issues, reasons, and humble opinions to talk about a gun that I rather refer to as the Colt 1877 “Rainmaker”, “Lightning”, and “Thunderer”. Let’s dive right into this Commentary on The Colt 1877 Revolver!

Welcome everyone to the  TFB Armorer’s Bench! As mentioned in the little blurb below, this series will focus on a lot of home armorer and gunsmith activities. In this article, I decided to showcase a real generic scenario in which someone would be using cold blue. Cold blue looked at critically would reveal itself as a separate chemical reaction from real-deal bluing. Real true bluing is accomplished with rust as a core fundamental. With real bluing, rust gets converted to a black oxide layer (basically black rust) that acts as an added barrier to normal red rust. Cold blue typically is a chemical solution that more or less stains steel black. It is usually used for touch-ups and small parts. This time around I will be using it on a center pin for an old German 22 revolver.

Welcome everyone to the  TFB Armorer’s Bench! As mentioned in the little blurb below, this series will focus on a lot of home armorer and gunsmith activities. In this article, I decided to touch on a specific “specialty” tool that I covered in last week’s TFB Armorer’s Bench. This is covering the M1 Carbine bolt disassembly tool and how it works.  Let’s dive right into Using an M1 Carbine bolt disassembly tool!

Welcome everyone to the  TFB Armorer’s Bench! As mentioned in the little blurb below, this series will focus on a lot of home armorer and gunsmith activities. In this article, I decided to have a little fun and walk around my shop and challenge myself to find some odds and ends to talk about. Let us call them strange or “specialty” tools. I have compiled a list of ten that I came across after a few minutes of gather and debating. They are by no means all the weird stuff but it is plenty to cover a broad spectrum of jobs. Let’s dive right into the ten odd tools in my shop!

If you frequently maintain or build a Glock magazine-fed firearm, then you should find this new tool from Midwest Industries quite interesting. The new Midwest Industries Glock Pistol Caliber Carbine Block is a vise block with magazine-shaped extensions for securing a Glock magazine-fed firearm in a vise thus making working on such guns much more convenient. Although it is apparently designed and marketed primarily for PCCs, this tool can also be used with Glock or Glock magazine-fed pistols. So, basically, it should be compatible with anything that takes Glock mags.

Welcome to TFB Weekly Web Deals 25! When it comes to the subject of AR-15, few components are as hotly debated as the triggers. The standard mil-spec AR-15 trigger isn’t necessarily bad but it does have room for improvement. The choice of whether or not to go with an aftermarket trigger is largely going to come down to your specific preferences as well as what type of shooting you’re doing and what your goals are in terms of accuracy, split times, and safety. So today we’ll be taking a look at some of the most popular (currently discounted) options for aftermarket triggers from some of your favorite online retailers.

Welcome everyone to the TFB Armorer’s Bench! As mentioned in the little blurb below, this series will focus on a lot of home armorer and gunsmith activities. In this article, I decided to show the installation process of a large loop on a Henry 22 that made it to my bench. Now, full disclosure, this is my Henry from when I was a kid and I felt it was time for some upgrades because, well, I can. This is Henry’s youth model 22 lever action and during this process, I was also detailing switching out the stock and handguard for a Boyd’s Gunstock review over at AllOutdoor.com which is yet to hit the internet. In this article, I swap out the old lever for a large loop offered on Henry’s website as well as a new receiver cover that has a saddle ring in it just for the fun of it. That receiver cover is also found on Henry’s website. Let’s dive right into this Henry Large Loop Installation!

Welcome everyone to the  TFB Armorer’s Bench! As mentioned in the little blurb below, this series will focus on a lot of home armorer and gunsmith activities. In this article, I ran out of time to work on some projects and ended up having a 10/22 in need of a binary trigger installation land on my bench. This one requires the entire trigger pack/assembly of a Ruger 10/22 to be disassembled and reassembled with new components. Binary triggers may be a novelty to some but to me, in a rimfire platform, I welcome it because it is good fun. Let’s dive right into the Franklin Armory 10/22 Binary Trigger Installation!

Welcome everyone to the  TFB Armorer’s Bench! As mentioned in the little blurb below, this series will focus on a lot of home armorer and gunsmith activities. In this article, I ran out of time to work on some projects and ended up having a Winchester 150 that was having light strike issues drop into my lap. The Winchester 150 and 190 rifles are extremely similar barring the mechanical differences between the lever action (Winchester 150) and the semiautomatic action (Winchester 190). Besides those action differences, they share a lot of the same common issues. In the middle of my work with this one, I thought it may be fun and informative to share. Let’s dive right into the Winchester 150 and 190 rifles!

Welcome everyone to the TFB Armorer’s Bench! As mentioned in the little blurb below, this series will focus on a lot of home armorer and gunsmith activities. In this article, I decided to go over the process of polishing feed ramps. There are precautions and decisions that need to be made before attempting this sort of stuff. Most handguns do not need their feed ramp polished. That being said, this will cover pistol feed ramps only. In the future, if given the chance, I will go over polishing AR15 feed ramps. Let’s dive right into Polishing Feed Ramps!

Welcome everyone to the TFB Armorer’s Bench! As mentioned in the little blurb, this series will focus on a lot of home armorer and gunsmith activities. In this article I decided to touch further on a project I had referenced intending to do back when I worked with the Frankford Arsenal Rotary Tumbler Lite. As far as cleaning rimfire suppressors goes, there are a few different options. You can do it by hand (scrubbing and soaking in solvents), you could get an ultrasonic cleaner, perhaps attempt the infamous “Dip”, or I have heard about people using stainless steel pins and a wet tumbler which is normally used for reloading. I had some time to put this to the test while I worked on some other projects and my Dead Air Mask really needed a cleaning. Let’s dive in and see how cleaning a suppressor with a wet tumbler went!

Welcome everyone to the TFB Armorer’s Bench! As mentioned in the little blurb, this series will focus on a lot of home armorer and gunsmith activities. In this article sponsored by  Wheeler,  Tipton,  Caldwell, and  Frankford Arsenal, I decided to slightly change it up. Honestly, I ran out of time to do the particular AR15-related stuff I was planning on (thank you folks very much for some assembly/troubleshooting ideas). Today I am going to cover the disassembly and maintenance of an Explorer II pistol and by proxy anything in the AR7 family. The reason I want to particularly go over the maintenance is that these guns have a reputation for being picky and jam-o-matics which I do not believe is wholeheartedly warranted. Do I think they are the best .22LR firearms? Heck no! By today’s standards, the old ones are pretty subpar. However, I will attest that (barring firearms in poor condition) with the proper maintenance and good condition magazines they should be able to work relatively decent for their construction and age. Make no mistake, I have known my personal Charter Arms Explorer II to be a cruel mistress at times but only after I haven’t cleaned it and oiled it after 6 months or so. Long explanations aside, let’s jump right into the disassembly and maintenance of Explorer II/AR7!

Welcome everyone to the TFB Armorer’s Bench! As mentioned in the little blurb, this series will focus on a lot of home armorer and gunsmith activities. In this article sponsored by  Wheeler,  Tipton,  Caldwell, and  Frankford Arsenal, I decided to take a break from the recent assembly stuff and showcase some optics mounting while it is still fresh in my mind. Recently, I have been working with the fantastic Beretta 92X RDO and it occurred to me that there is little available as far as a resource for a step-by-step optics mounting process. The Beretta manual does a decent broad spectrum job but I want to take a look under the microscope so to speak. That being said, let’s dive right into the Beretta 92X RDO Optic Installation!

The M202A1 Flame Assault Shoulder Weapon (FlASh) is a lightweight multishot reusable rocket launcher designed and developed in the United States in 1972. Although most people will inevitably recognize it from the 1985 film Commando starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, the M202 and M202A1 both saw action in the US Army and US Marine Corps as a ranged incendiary device before its gradual phase out in favor of the SMAW in the mid-1980s. Johnny Wild of Wild Arms Research and Development has been hard at work once again reviving an almost forgotten recoilless launcher with the intention of not only reproducing it but also improving on the design to make it simpler to build. I spoke with Johnny recently and he has shared some of his progress so far with TFB. Let’s take a look at what he’s got so far!

Reloading is one of those hobbies I never thought I’d actually pick up – even as a firearms owner. However, all it took for me to get addicted to the benchtop hobby was for a good friend of mine to send me a very inexpensive Lee Challenger reloading press kit and from there, the rest was history. Reloading can seem intimidating for the uninitiated, I know I was quite intimidated during my first range trip with my first box of reloaded ammunition, however, 10 years down the road, I’ve not only gained a solid grasp on the concept, but I’ve also dipped into new rabbit holes of information I once again never thought I’d find myself in. Suffice it to say reloading is just as rewarding as it is educational and I personally think that more firearms owners should have at least a basic grasp of the concept. I think these sentiments are shared by our guest today, Gavin, a.k.a the Ultimate Reloader. Gavin runs a YouTube channel and website that specializes in all things reloading, as well as some great informative precision rifle content that has really been a valuable resource to me as a reloader over the years. I’m honored today to have him on the podcast with us to give you guys a bird’s eye view of handloading/reloading so that you can determine for yourself whether or not you’d like to pick it up either as a hobby or as a means to shoot more without vastly increasing the cost of ammunition.

Welcome everyone to the TFB Armorer’s Bench! As mentioned in the little blurb, this series will focus on a lot of home armorer and gunsmith activities. In this article sponsored by  Wheeler,  Tipton,  Caldwell, and  Frankford Arsenal, we’ll show how to completely assemble an AR15 upper receiver. Previously, I covered the disassembly of the lower receiver,  bolt carrier group, and  upper receiver. Last week I also detailed the assembly of an AR15 lower receiver. I am well aware that most of the folks who pass through these parts are into the new, cool, and tacticool. I personally love older and obsolete stuff but I also like to take things apart and put them back together. That being said, we here at TFB thought it would be nice to have a resource available for disassembling and assembling an AR15.

Gunsmithing is one of those trades that often gets passed down from generation to generation. Sadly, in these times it seems like it’s almost falling out of favor. With the advent of tighter QC controls making firearms more or less maintenance-free for longer periods, and a lack of interest from the up-and-coming generations of firearms owners, gunsmithing is becoming a lost art. Thankfully, we’ve got young guys like TFB Writer Sam S. who are keeping the trade alive and today he’s here to give his advice and his take on the gunsmithing world. I was surprised to learn from Sam that there are actually a lot of great places you can either go to both online and in-person to learn these skills and along with that, the tools, reference materials, and know-how are almost all either in books or online these days. If you’ve ever wanted to be self-reliant when it comes to maintaining and modifying your firearms, have a seat, grab a drink, and listen in as our very own Sam S. gives us his best gunsmithing advice.

Hello and welcome to TFB Weekly Web Deals 18. I’ve been having a lot of recent discussions with some gunsmiths including our very own Sam S. Like a lot of you out there, I have a litany of tools strewn about several different tool boxes, and it’s not only highly disorganized at this point, I also have tools in there I’ve only used once and forgotten about. However, if you’re just getting into gunsmithing or you’re looking for some good, basic tools to get your collection started (or set up as a nice gift for a friend), I’ve brought you some of the best suggestions for gunsmithing equipment as recommended by Sam. Let us know what you use and what tools you’d recommend down in the comments below!

Welcome everyone to the TFB Armorer’s Bench! As mentioned in the little blurb, this series will focus on a lot of home armorer and gunsmith activities. In this article sponsored by  Wheeler,  Tipton,  Caldwell, and  Frankford Arsenal, we’ll show how to completely assemble an AR15 lower receiver. Previously, I covered the disassembly of the  lower receiver, bolt carrier group, and upper receiver. I am well aware that most of the folks who pass through these parts are into the new, cool, and tacticool. I personally love older and obsolete stuff but I also like to take things apart and put them back together. That being said, we here at TFB thought it would be nice to have a resource available for disassembling and assembling an AR15.

A short while back I was challenged by fellow TFB Staff member James Reeves (you may have heard of him), to build an SPR as cheap as possible. Well, myself being an unapologetic “poor”, I, of course, took him up on the challenge and started the project Special Poverty Rifle.

To those of you out there that want to either build one from scratch or managed to SOMEHOW shoot out the barrel of your Saiga 7.62×39, Kalashnikov USA has released an AK-103 Barrel Kit to suit your needs. KUSA is seemingly going all-in on their 7.62x39mm firearms offering multiple variations on their popular and high-quality KR-103 rifles.

Welcome everyone to the TFB Armorer’s Bench! As mentioned in the little blurb, this series will focus on a lot of home armorer and gunsmith activities. In this article sponsored by  Wheeler,  Tipton,  Caldwell, and  Frankford Arsenal, I decided to do a sort of impromptu tutorial on how to clean up some messed-up flat head screw heads and fire bluing them as a bonus. Originally this particular weekend I was going to start on our AR15 assembly stack of articles (it has been a while since we took one apart, I know) and talk about potential upgrades. Unfortunately, I ran out of time to do the AR15 stuff but I had this stuff on the back burner for a reason. Let’s dive right into cleaning pp and fire bluing screws!

When the Ghost Gunner 3 came out, there was a lot of potential mentioned by Defense Distributed. One major upgrade from previous generations of the Ghost Gunner (GG) is the fact the GG3 can cut steel. Well, Defense Distributed put up a teaser video on their Instagram. GG3 Glock optics cut is happening.

Last February my FFL acquired a large estate sale of firearms. Most of them were mundane Girsans, Bersas, and PSA lowers. There are other guns but the Keltec SU16 box piqued my interest. This is where I discovered the fugliest bullpup. When we opened the box, this abomination was lurking inside. We were so confused by what we saw. I looked at it more closely and decided I should adopt this SU16 bullpup and share it with the world.

WOOX has been steadily making a larger name for themselves in both the firearms and the bladed world. From the introduction of their new full tang balanced knives to their popular Furiosa Rem700 chassis, WOOX is now fairly well known for their high quality aesthetically pleasing wood furniture. WOOX has now just announced its new 100-year Support Service program which will provide WOOX customers with 100 years of free blade sharpening for their knives and axes, as well as 100 years of service and free technical assistance for its stocks and chassis.