Do I need to mill my new AR barrel?

[cactus]

I recently bought an A-1 kit from Copes that came with a new barrel. My question is do I need to mill the grooves in my barrel for the front base pins? Its still out being parked but I was curious.

[JohnBrian]

I would imagine they are already there. If not, I'd give them a call/email since NOT having them would be rather odd.

[cactus]

I remember when I mailed it that they were not present. I know the uppers I have built before all had them but this is a different profile barrel.

[Faust]

IMHO, using the original pinned front sight, a fixture that keeps the front sight aligned witht the index pin on the barrel extension is more important; if the fixture is made you could use a drill press, or if nesesary, a hand drill with the tapered drill bit set up with a stop.
$0.02

[ar15barrels]

The replacement barrels with those M16 kits do not come with the cuts for the taper pins.
Due to the way that a FSB gets installed on a barrel, I don't recommend trying to re-use the existing FSB unless you can fixture it and go to oversized pins.



The issue is that the FSB is pre-drilled do the drill bit tends to wander away from the barrel when you try to drill and ream the barrel.
When you have an un-drilled FSB and an undrilled barrel, you just put them in the fixture and drill right through both parts.
THAT is how new barrels are made.

[Faust]

If you have zero skills the tools are irrelevant.
For all we know he is a student of WECSOG.

[Bug Splat]

Looks like Randall has the setup. If it were me, I would just ship it to him and have it done.

+1. I have a mill but that not whats important. The jig is the key. You must properly align everything or you will have a misaligned FSB.