I’m wanting to take an AR15/M4 armorer course to learn how to build these out the “correct” way and not necessarily specific to any one single brand. I have found several, but many are specific to manufacturer, LEO only, or I’ve never heard of them. Would like to get the forums recommendation.

I live in W/SW Ohio if there is anyone nearby, but I'm willing to travel to the "right" place.

Thanks in advance!!

I did the Sig AR-15 armorer's course and while it wasn't bad, I really didn't learn anything I didn't already know. I did Shotgun Armorer through Defensive Edge, and he went into much more depth...I'd love to take his AR-15 and advanced AR-15 courses sometime. Unfortunately most of his are LE only, but if you contact them they may be able to find you an open slot somewhere.

https://www.thedefensiveedge.com/category_s/78.htm

School of the American Rifle is one I encounter often, in my searches for AR-related info. Looks pretty awesome.

I don’t know what your experience with other armorer courses is, but most simply cover disassembly, assembly, and replacement of factory parts. And even that may be limited. In only one of the three AR armorer courses I’ve attended was changing the barrel even mentioned, and that was a discussion only without an actual demonstration, much less hands-on practice.

If you know how to do all that all ready, yes, you probably won’t learn much new or different.

Unfortunately as Sigfreund mentioned there are a ton of courses that aren't teaching much more than how to fix commonly broken/worn parts. Which is all good info to have, but not worth the cost unless you need a slip of paper to be allowed to turn a wrench on guns.

I attended a SOLGW course that was hosted at a local shop in Michigan. The two days included an entire ground up build with an overview of every part. SOLGW's focus is still on duty, self defense-oriented firearms so the emphasis is on simplicity and function. But it was a very good class on weapon function and furthering your understanding to be able to better build, diagnose, and repair the weapon.

School of the American Rifle is really in depth. The classes sell out fast, but you'll have two very full days going very in depth on every aspect of the gun. This includes the how and why of dimensional tolerance balancing in the gas system to understand better on building or diagnosing gas management in the gun. This is also encompassing of information on a wider variety of substitute parts such as adjustable gas blocks and different buffer setups. You have the opportunity to build a complete rifle from scratch and every student has a complete workbench and specialized tool and gauge set. I would say Chad's classes are some of the most informative and misunderstood, just as a lot of people get the wrong impression of him online.

I got an old stripped barrel assembly, a cheap receiver and bolt, plus all the parts and ordered the tools. Put it together and took it apart many times, until I got everything in order and made no mistakes. Springs go flying when you make a mistake. Work in a big ziplock bag to begin with like I did with watches. I knew this to begin with.

I watched the Brownells videos and others out there and learned proper, high quality tools are king.

I finally settled on this barrel install rod.

https://www.brownells.com/tool...-upper-receiver-rod/

And the hardest punches I could get. I got the set with the plastic lower take down pin installer pins.

Roll pin starter punches are a must.

The Midway bench block was miles better than the Brownells front sight only block.

The Magtech armorer's tool fits the bill just fine. My torque wrench fits it just fine.

I built my Dissipator from blank parts and swapped out the upper on the XM177 clone, rebarreled my M16 upper with ease.

The lower assembly is almost mindless.

Clocking and torquing the barrel is the area of real concern. It's why you need the barrel rod.

I CAN drill and ream a front sight on (I did this for the M16 to fit its original sight on it), but it's just beyond easier and CHEAPER to buy a ready to go barrel with the block on it.

This is just armorer's stuff, not gunsmith stuff, like drilling and reaming the front sight base pins.

If you want to spend the money and have the credentials, look at Specialized Armaments Warehouse's courses.

Another option is Defensive Edge training. They do a good course and their lead guy Sully posts on a couple websites sharing AAR bullets.

I'd love to go to the school of the American rifle class.

I like Brownells' videos on youtube.

Doublestar has a good one and it’s in Central Ky. So depending on where exactly you are in SW Ohio only a couple hours away.
https://doublestarusa.com/training

I was an M16 armorer in the service and when I became a cop the department sent me to armorers school bc the State of NC didn’t recognize my military quals. I spent 2 days in a classroom taking apart my rifle and putting it back together by following the Army TM.

The class was put on by Armalite. They didn’t push anything and only said once that their stuff was better than colt. They did point out that the military allowance was for a 4 MOA gun.

You would get more info watching videos and buying a book. There’s a guy who is a cornucopia of knowledge on the rifle and he shares his info on YT https://schooloftheamericanrifle.com/
But you don’t need all the gauges he uses for just assembling an AR. Midway USA has a series of short clips showing a build, it’s pretty good.

Just fyi, use tape on the side of the receiver when you are installing the roll pin for the bolt catch/release-so you don’t scratch the rcvr. And the first time you might want to use a gallon ziplock over the front takedown pin assembly-that detent will leave the gun at Mach 1 and will never be found.

quote:

Just fyi, use tape on the side of the receiver when you are installing the roll pin for the bolt catch/release-so you don’t scratch the rcvr.

This thing changed my life:

https://www.brownells.com/tool...olt-catch-pin-punch/

Colt armorers course. Held annually at gunsite in Arizona. Only place civilians can take the colt factory course.

I took the Colt course as a department armorer. It is no different than the others. All you do is take the guns apart and put them back together again. There was no barrel changing but it was explained. I've learned more by online videos than by the course.
And along with putting tape to protect the receiver buy a flat sided punch (handle is flat on one side instead of round) , definitely makes it easier.

We pulled the barrels in the Sig Academy course. They had both free-float and clamshell handguard styles with fixed FSB and we got to work with both. We also punched out the pins and removed the FSB on the guns that were so-equipped. About the only thing we didn't do was remove the gas key from the carrier.

It wasn't a bad class, and we got a lot of good practice working on the guns over the two days, but with all the information out there about the AR-15 these days, I wouldn't say it was necessary and I wouldn't have paid for it out of my own pocket. Probably the best info I got from it was exposure to some specialty tools that make some of the tasks easier.

If you can get a copy of the Colt manual, It's pretty good. I think Chris Bartocci model some of his manual off it.

If you can find a free copy of the military -30 manual, it's also decent. Justmake sure you get the right one (inch pounds vs. foot pounds), you want foot pounds.