Old Gas Block Reflection

This week’s video covered how to properly remove an old A-frame gas block to swap out with a modernized low-profile/picatinny railed gas block. Throughout the course of this video it’s very apparent that utilizing the proper tools can make this an easy job. I’ve had the unfortunate experience of “winging it” on an upgrade on my first AR-15. I’ll now cover the importance of using the proper tools. The video doesn’t demonstrate it, but it’s also very valuable to pay attention. The Gentleman in the video removed the flash suppressor was removed prior the swapping out of the gas block. To simply put it, with the flash suppressor on you would not have the clearance to remove the gas block, now that I have covered that I will move onto the main body topic. As
Over a short period of time, I wanted to upgrade it and make it “my own” in a sense. So first came removing the old gas block. I did not have the proper tools(punch set) and improvised, only to mare up the metal and eventually get the old gas block off. Needless to say, it was an eye sore. What took the gunsmith in the video less than 3 minutes in the video to do took me over an hour. Granted, I did not understand the importance of proper tooling and had a certain arrogance to myself back then. Then came the realization that I had to remove the gas tube, once again, I was at it. I ended up wrecking the gas tube due to my lack of skill and patience. At this point I was frustrated and ended up swallowing my pride and took it to a professional. Of course I was laughed at, but I was also very fortunate. The Gunsmith I went to took the time to explain where I went wrong and allowed me to hang around and watch as she finished my half-assed effort. Ever since then I’ve been infatuated with this skillset. This video hit really close to home for me, seeing how this was my very first experience of working on firearms aside from cleaning