Parts and Firearm Accessories You Should Get Before It’s Too Late

Source: https://www.askaprepper.com/

It’s probably safe to say most preppers own at least one gun. It’s hard to think of any single item that’s more likely to protect you, your family and your vital supplies in a crisis.

Unfortunately, guns have two problems: They’re complex machines that can go wrong, and they’re a political hot potato. Both these problems create the risk that, just when you need your gun the most, it won’t be giving its best performance.

The good news is you can cut that risk by having the right parts and accessories available – and the time to get those parts and accessories is now, while you can be sure they’re easily available.

Here’s the top items you should be collecting to make sure your guns are ready for whatever’s coming down the road.

Magazines

Even if you don’t plan to stock up on any other gun parts, get some more magazines.

Without a magazine, most modern firearms are just clumsy, inefficient single-shot breech loaders. Yes, you can run an AR15 by loading one round at a time into the chamber, but that’s slow and awkward.

It’s just about adequate for hunting, but for self-defense it’s hopeless. You need magazines to use a gun effectively.

There are a couple of problems with magazines, though. One is that because they’re detachable they’re the most likely part of your gun to get lost or damaged. Magazines can fall out of unsecured pouches or get dropped under the stress of combat.

They’re vulnerable to damage – especially the vital feed lips – and almost impossible to repair if they get dented. Aluminum magazines, like most metal AR15 mags, also wear out; repeated loading and use will eventually erode the ends of the feed lips.

Magazines are also a main target of gun banners. Gun control activists would love to ban “large capacity” magazines. Some states already have – for example, in California it’s illegal to buy a magazine that holds more than ten rounds.

Related: The Guns the Government Doesn’t Want You to Have

However, even in California pre-ban magazines were grandfathered in. Stock up on them now, so if a federal ban ever happens you’ll have enough to keep you shooting reliably in the future.

Extractors

Running out of serviceable magazines will convert your gun into a single-shot breech loader, but a broken extractor is even worse – you’re going to have to push a cleaning rod down the muzzle, and probably hammer on the end of it, to get every fired case out of the chamber.

Unfortunately, extractors are one of the components that fails most often on any firearm.

On AR15-type rifles it’s probably the #1 failure point. Fire enough rounds and sooner or later your extractor will break, probably at the groove where the rim of the cartridge snaps into it.

The good news is extractors aren’t too expensive. You can pick up an AR15 extractor for less than $8, and for under $20 you can get a kit that also contains the spring, pin and other parts needed to install it. It’s worth getting a few of the kits just so you have the parts to deal with any extractor problem, then some bare extractors too.

Continue reading our article on www.askaprepper.com.