Something to be aware of if you have older stock AP uppers.
I had planned on doing a partial tear down and rebuild to swap out a gas block, change a FF handguard and strip the flip up sights and red dot to mount a scope. All well and good, but as an afterthough I figured, why not upgrade to a billet aluminum dust cover. Purely one of those... an opportunity came up to snag a couple of them (the same).. now what should I do with them situations.
The rifle is built on an M4E1 upper, which, of course, doesn't allow you to pull a dust cover rod without removing the barrel nut. Great..... That hadn't occured to me before I got started. I wasn't really excited about that, but what the heck, right?
Pull the nut and what do you know? The billet aluminum cover hangs up when rotating from open to closed and won't latch.
I tried the cover on an AP standard upper... same issue. I tried the OTHER dust cover... same issue. I was starting to get a bit peeved with a covers thinking they were the problem. As an afterthought I tried them on another M4E1 I have. They both fit and work like a charm!! I try them on an RTB upper. Works beautifully.
So here's all I can figure. The orginal M4E1 and the AP standard are fairly older stock (maybe 5yrs-ish(?)) and the other M4E1 and RTB are new purchases in 2022. It would "appear" that the older AP's are ever so slightly different spec that won't accomodate the thicker billet type cover designs, or.... at least the Timber Creek billet covers, anyway.
I could be wrong, but it sure seems that way and thought it worth mentioning.
I had planned on doing a partial tear down and rebuild to swap out a gas block, change a FF handguard and strip the flip up sights and red dot to mount a scope. All well and good, but as an afterthough I figured, why not upgrade to a billet aluminum dust cover. Purely one of those... an opportunity came up to snag a couple of them (the same).. now what should I do with them situations.
The rifle is built on an M4E1 upper, which, of course, doesn't allow you to pull a dust cover rod without removing the barrel nut. Great..... That hadn't occured to me before I got started. I wasn't really excited about that, but what the heck, right?
Pull the nut and what do you know? The billet aluminum cover hangs up when rotating from open to closed and won't latch.
I tried the cover on an AP standard upper... same issue. I tried the OTHER dust cover... same issue. I was starting to get a bit peeved with a covers thinking they were the problem. As an afterthought I tried them on another M4E1 I have. They both fit and work like a charm!! I try them on an RTB upper. Works beautifully.
So here's all I can figure. The orginal M4E1 and the AP standard are fairly older stock (maybe 5yrs-ish(?)) and the other M4E1 and RTB are new purchases in 2022. It would "appear" that the older AP's are ever so slightly different spec that won't accomodate the thicker billet type cover designs, or.... at least the Timber Creek billet covers, anyway.
I could be wrong, but it sure seems that way and thought it worth mentioning.