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35 www.officer.com April 2014 Law Enforcement Technology F I R E A R M S TA C T I C S for AR-15 products: The M84 Gas Buster Charging Handle. This charging handle diverts hot gases away from a shooter's face. It is a safety device used by the U.S. Marines. For officers building the upper, this is especially important with suppressed guns. For some reason they kick back more gases. Pick a good kit: Del-Ton This past month I built two AR-15 lower receivers and disassembled another. It doesn't take long to build a lower. I built two of them while watch- ing a couple of episodes of AMC's Walking Dead. I do it for the same rea- son most law enforcement professionals should undertake the activity: I want control over the parts that go in my gun and I want to save money. For this article I picked probably the most cost effective AR-15 kits in the industry, a Del-Ton. Based out of Elizabethtown, North Carolina, Del- Ton Inc. builds complete rifles right out of their shop. They use quality U.S.-made parts and their customer service is top notch. I build Del-Ton guns because I can get a complete gun of good quality for half the price of most other manufacturers' products. The product needs only a rear sight and is patrol-ready. Why not put an AR-15 into every patrol car in the agency? Del-Ton Inc. sells complete rifles, but I like their rifle kits. The upper comes assembled and test fired. The lower comes ready to assemble. I usu- ally put the lower together, then add my own "furniture." Furniture is the term for easily-replaced forearms, pistol grips and buttstocks. My 16-inch mid-length Del-Ton kit came with a 1/7 twist bar- rel, round hand guards and a 6-position stock. This Del-Ton will eventually have the Mission First Tactical Battlelink stocks, the lightest stock on the market today. The foot has enough grip for the user to roll it from low ready to sighting plane smoothly. The reward for putting together my Del-Ton from a kit is a lightweight, quick handling AR-15 for "double tapping" targets out 50 yards. The assembled Del-Ton was lightweight and reliable. The next step in this process is to convert the fixed sight version to a "flat top". This consists of removing the front sight and replacing it with a gas block. The fixed front sight has a gas port where gases are metered to the action. The gas port takes over the metering job. Once this is done, a machined aluminum or carbon fiber handguard can be added for comfort and mounted tool stability. Dunlap told me that a lot of surplus AR-15s have found their way into police agency inventories. They require careful inspection and working knowledge of parts compatibility. LET_34-38_FirearmsTactics0414.indd 35 3/20/14 11:13 AM