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 it would be a fun exercise to go through the maintenance portion of the Glock Armorer’s Manual and demonstrate or explain what they say in the book. I myself do not own a Glock so my TFB coworker and AllOutdoor editor Adam S loaned me his Glock to demonstrate on and he also got a free gun cleaning. Fair trade! Let’s dive right into Glock maintenance by the (Glock Armorer’s) book!

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 dive into the rabbit hole of attempting to explain the M1 Garand’s gas system, why average modern ammunition is not ideal for the rifle, and solutions to that issue. In the last few years working at a gun shop, I have noticed the increase in the popularity of older firearms among younger people. People will come in whether it is those young folks or older ones that just got a dream gun (an M1 Garand) from when they were younger and they will ask for 30-06 ammo in general. Yes, the rifle will function and shoot any type of .30-06 Springfield on the market but unfortunately, the gas system is not engineered to deal with the velocities and pressures produced by modern ammunition. The result? Their piece of nostalgia and history ends up damaged or broken. All of that being said let’s dive right into the M1 Garand gas system and ammunition solutions.

Defense Distributed (DD) came out with the Ghost Gunner to help freedom-loving individuals machine 80% receivers with more precision for a garage builder. Other than buying a HAAS or similarly expensive CNC machine, the Ghost Gunner gets the job done. Well now that 80% are in danger of being restricted and regulated, DD came up with the 0% lower receiver kit. They sent one of their kits in for review so let us dive in and see how the 0% lower receiver build process is and how the receiver works.

Glock enthusiasts rejoice, there’s a new Field Toolkit for Glock pistols from Fit It Sticks around. Some of the specialized tools included are front sight tool, base plate removal tool and a channel liner tool. There are also a number of parts and bits which can come in handy for the overall cleaning and maintenance of the handgun. The MSRP is $184 and the kit comes in a soft zippered carrying case.

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 had a chance to take some time with a customer firearm and I figured it would make a fun sort of diagnostic article. The last time we did an article like this was with light strikes on a Chiappa 1887 lever-action shotgun and also investigating the lockup on a reproduction Remington 1858 revolver. Most of the time I don’t have a chance to stop and take pictures for articles when working on stuff for customers or friends. I am not the type of person to stop in the middle of a project for fear of forgetting something. It is always better to give the workpiece my full attention. In this situation, however, it was a simple fix paired with a mystery of sorts. Let’s dive into diagnosing a Smith & Wesson Airweight and its disappearing cylinder!

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 dive back into the  Caldwell Ballistic Precision Chronograph Premium Kit. This time I am going to detail my first impressions, setting it up at the range, and using it. I may be getting ahead of myself but I really like this chronograph setup and I will be happy to tell you why. Let’s dive right into using the  Caldwell Ballistic Precision Chronograph Premium Kit!

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 give a Caldwell product a chance for some limelight. Here we are taking a closer look at the Caldwell Ballistic Precision Chronograph Premium Kit. That is a mouth full. Recently I reloaded some .30 Carbine and this felt like the next natural step in the evolution of that process. I will elaborate further in next week’s “using” article but this was my first time working with a chronograph. Let’s dive into this closer look at the  Caldwell Ballistic Precision Chronograph Premium Kit!

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 dive back into the Frankford Arsenal Intellidropper Powder Measure that I covered in a small Closer Look article last week. This time I am gonna talk about my experience using it. This was a short couple-hour experience of reloading some .30 Carbine ammunition but I plan on doing some other cartridges with the Intellidropper in the future. That being said, I am excited to dive into my experience using the Frankford Arsenal Intellidropper!

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 closer look at Frankford Arsenal’s Intellidropper Electronic Powder Measure. Lately, I have been basically taking you, folks, with me as I go through a slowed reloading process highlighting some of the tools being used. Next up is this Intelidropper Electronic Powder Measure and I am very excited to use it. Before the actual “using” part happens let’s dive into this closer look at Frankford Arsenal’s Intelidropper Electronic Powder Measure!

Most custom AR builds often start with a purchase of a lower receiver. After that, it’s pretty much picking out and selecting the components you want that will work with your build and assembling everything. But what if you wanted to make a truly custom AR? One that foregoes the conventional terms of what a firearms “part” is? Well, once again, we have our good friend and dedicated reader Stubbs here to show us the way it’s done. Stubbs is proud to introduce his latest DIY creation, the StAr-15 Open Source AR15 Upper Receiver Firearm. The goal of the StAr-15 is to take the general operating principle of the “standard” AR-15 rifle and make it as inexpensive as possible and also avoid any registered firearms parts. Today we’ll be taking a look at the StAr-15 and how Stubbs cobbled this random assemblage of parts into a functioning DIY firearm.

Welcome everyone to the TFB Armorer’s Bench! As mentioned in the little blurb, this series will focus on many home armorer and gunsmith activities. In this article sponsored by  Wheeler,  Tipton,  Caldwell, and  Frankford Arsenal, I decided to go over my short experience using the Frankford Arsenal Platinum Series Case Prep Center since we took a closer look at the product itself last week. That being said, I hope everyone is having a great memorial day weekend! Maybe you folks had some time to do some reloading yourself. Let’s dive right into using the Frankford Arsenal Platinum Series Case Prep Center!

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 closer look at the  Frankford Arsenal Platinum Series Case Prep Center. Recently, as you may well know, I have been working with a few of the reloading products that Frankford Arsenal offers. Most recently it was their Rotary Tumbler Lite and the accompanying Wet/Dry Media Separator which has been a humbling experience, and in the end, an enjoyable process. That being said, this tool is the next natural step in the process. There were a few learning curves here and there which I will cover in a “Using the Frankford Arsenal Platinum Series Case Prep Center” article soon. Let’s dive right into the Frankford Arsenal Platinum Series Case Prep Center!

If you’re a gunsmith, armorer, historian, designer, or just a regular gun nerd that likes hi-res firearms photos, blueprints and schematics then you’ll be interested to hear that the digital version of the Firearms Guide 13th Edition is now available. Firearms Guide 13th Edition claims to be the world’s largest, and fastest computer searchable guns & ammunition reference guide featuring well over 65,000 high-res images and containing reference material for over 80,000 firearms spanning from antiques to more modern designs.

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 closer look at the Frankford Arsenal Platinum Series Wet/Dry Media Separator. Recently, as you may well know, I have been working with a few of the reloading products that Frankford Arsenal offers. Most recently it was their Rotary Tumbler Lite which was a humbling experience, and in the end, an enjoyable process. That being said, this accessory to that vary product was part of it being enjoyable. The Frankford Arsenal Platinum Series Wet/Dry Media Separator is a quality of life tool and I am excited to break it down below. Let’s dive right into the Frankford Arsenal Platinum Series Wet/Dry Media Separator!

Dusting off the Underground Arms Watch series after a dormant start to the year, we return with a look at some recent examples of ‘ghost guns’.

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 give the Frankford Arsenal Rotary Tumbler Lite a whirl since the weather here in Minnesota has turned to springtime and long periods out in the shop will not be a grueling as they could be in the winter. I have been excited to try out the Rotary Tumbler Lite for some time now and I had some .30 Carbine brass on hand that needed a shine. So that being said, let’s dive right into using the Frankford Arsenal Rotary Tumbler Lite!

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 closer look at the Frankford Arsenal Rotary Tumbler Lite. Recently I have been preparing to work with a few of Frankford Arsenal’s products in order to reload some ammunition for one of my rifles. I have always wondered about and been interested in wet tumbling for cleaning fired brass and other uses. That being said, let’s dive right into it and see what wet tumbling has in store with the Frankford Arsenal Rotary Tumbler Lite!

AK-specific maintenance tools aren’t all that common. Usually to prop your Kalashnikov upright in a vice one has to sacrifice a magazine or put the receiver itself inside the jaws. With the rising popularity of the AK, Midwest Industries has released their AK Receiver Maintenance Block to provide some much-needed help to this growing community. This maintenance block can not only hold your AK upright while you do things like installing fire control groups, replacing furniture, cleaning the rifle/pistol, field stripping and reassembling, but also has a spot that acts as a bench block and secures your bolt at the same time. This of course beats holding the bolt still with the side of your hand while you hold a punch and try to keep everything steady on a universal bench block.

Hello and welcome back to another edition of The Rimfire Report! This ongoing series is all about the rimfire firearm world and its various guns, gear, sports, ammunition, and trends. A couple months ago, you guys will remember that we took a look at the old school High Standard Flite King. In that article, we discovered a few things about my little pawnshop find including the fact that it may have actually been a mash-up of a High Standard Sport King frame with a Flite King barrel. During the course of my testing of the pistol, some of you will remember that the magazine’s follower humorously broke and ejected itself from the pistol en bloc clip style. My review of the pistol ended right then and there and for weeks I wasn’t able to find an affordable solution. Today we’ll discover the process I took with fellow TFB Writer Giorgio O, TFBTV Discord member/notorious firearms mangler Stubbs to return the Flite King’s magazine to service in the hopes that it may inspire some of you hesitant about 3D printing to take it up yourself.

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 closer look at the Frankford Arsenal Platinum Series Precision Scale. Recently I have been preparing to work with a few of Frankford Arsenal’s products in order to reload some ammunition for one of my rifles. I have always owned their more budget-minded DS-750 digital scale that I covered in a previous Closer Look segment but this Platinum Series Precision Scale is a whole different animal. That being said, let’s dive right into it and see what makes this scale tick!

There are very few examples of ingenuity that both impress and terrify me at the same time. This DIY pistol that was featured on the Meskwaki Nation Police Department’s Facebook page is one such example of an item. Dubbed the “Smith and Meth-Son” by the department’s officers, this pistol was confiscated from a drug dealer who at the time of his arrest was in possession of meth, and had previously been convicted of distributing cocaine. Both of these incidents are felony offenses as far as I know and thus the perpetrator (a convicted felon) was already barred from possessing or purchasing firearms – so obviously he had to make his own.

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 jump back into the topic of Wheeler’s AR Receiver Lapping Tool that I covered in last week’s Closer Look portion of Armorer’s Bench. In that segment, I took a closer look at the product and talked about what it is and its purpose. I intentionally left out exactly how the process works but I am sure you folks could put it together. Just in case though I am happy to elaborate in this article. Let’s dive right back into the Wheeler AR Receiver Lapping Tool!

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 look at the  Wheeler AR Receiver Lapping Tool. I have little experience lapping receivers beyond a handful of bolt action rifles let alone AR15 receivers so this was mostly a first impressions sort of thing and it has been a hot second since we have done much in relation to AR-related stuff. A lot of that has to do with me planning out future “assembly/reassembly” articles since we took apart a Smith & Wesson Sport II last year. If you are curious about those aforementioned articles you can find Part One:  The Lower, Part Two:  The BCG, and Part Three:  The Upper at their respective links. That all being said, let’s dive right into this closer look at the Wheeler AR Receiver Lapping Tool!

Have you ever wanted to make your own SCAR 17s? Me neither but maybe I do now. The folks over at Imperial Arms Co. have just made their CYPHERX-ZERO receiver available to the public and this receiver requires no FFL to purchase. This “Zero Percent Blank” (basically an 80%) was approved by the ATF back in April of 2021 and now Imperial Arms is more than happy to offer customers a shot at building out their own SCAR 17s using one of their receivers.

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 look at the  Wheeler AR Armorer’s Ultra Kit. It has been a hot second since we have done much in relation to AR-related stuff. A lot of that has to do with me planning out future “assembly/reassembly” articles since we took apart a Smith & Wesson Sport II last year. I was thinking today about how integral this kit was to that string of articles and that I should make sure to do a closer look at it. If you are curious about those aforementioned articles you can find Part One: The Lower, Part Two: The BCG, and Part Three: The Upper at their respective links. That all being said, let’s dive right into this closer look at the Wheeler AR Armorer’s Ultra Kit!

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 you along with me in diagnosing and accessing a Remington 1858 reproduction. This revolver showed up having severe issues with its timing mechanism which I have seen before. Unfortunately, this article will not cover how to time a revolver, that should be its whole other thing. I just thought it would be fun to take a peek under the hood with everyone to show how I knew what was wrong with this gun. Let’s dive right into diagnosing and assessing a Remington 1858 revolver!

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 touch on the topic of punches. More specifically the topic of punches dedicated, intended to be used for, or ones that can be used for gunsmithing. I admit at a base level it may seem mundane but punches are an essential tool for any would-be armorer or gunsmith. I had previously briefly touched on punches in my second armorer’s bench article covering essential gunsmith tools. That article was only at a glance. Let’s get into punches under the microscope!

When it comes to custom work, few places carry the same reputation and quality of service as Langdon Tactical. Langdon Tactical Technologies used to mostly focus on Beretta pistols and a handful of other highly focused pistol lines but now they are offering their custom gun work services for Glock pistols. This turns the daunting task of customizing your handgun into a simple online order with pricing comparable to brick and mortar stores. This new BYOG (Bring Your Own Glock) service is available now and only takes a handful of weeks.

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 have a good old field strip article coupled with just a few tips on picking up older firearms. This will be a relatively laid-back run-through since I am currently a little under the weather and unable to head out to the shop or dive into something more intensive. That all being said, let us dive right into the precautions of picking up older firearms as well as field stripping a Mauser 1914 pistol!

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 are jumping back into the second part of this bluing topic. Welcome back to those of you who were kind enough to tune in last time and hello all who may be new! If you want to check out Part One find it here. I had originally written this all to be a single article but it came out too long so I apologize for the split up. That being said if there are any references to a different bluing that is not on this page make sure to refer to Part One. Let’s dive right back in!