i've got a free float hand guard to instal looking at the wheeler or dpms tools or !!!!!!! any preferences ?

Ed

Depends which hand guard it is. Some come with their own. Others take a crow-foot wrench. Others the standard type wrench.

I've had the DPMS tool for close to 10 years and used it a bunch. No complaints, it has been well worth the money.

The best standard barrel nut wrench out there is the PRI wrench.

I have used more than a few different ones over the years and most work but I have broken one before. You get what you pay for...

Nice wrench. Plus it has the spanner for the nut on collapsible stocks which work well on RR steel float tubes too.

I'm kinda fond of the MagPul version;

LINK

Ed

When it comes to AR stuff, I'm a newbie, so take this for what it's worth. A year or so ago when I bought my first AR, a Ruger AR 556, I wanted to change out the hand guard; thus I needed some tools. Bought a Wheeler Engineering "Armorer's Essentials Kit". Was happy with everything but the "Combo tool" (barrel wrench).

I ended up shearing off almost all the teeth on the barrel nut before I finally ended up breaking the thing loose. A couple per try. Reading the reviews at Midway, I'm not the only one. My opinion, but I think the Wheeler wrench didn't have enough engagement to do the job properly. Two pins, IIRC. It took a SERIOUS amount of force to break loose. I'm a big boy, used all 250 lbs plus a breaker bar, plus beating with a rubber mallet, and it still didn't want to turn loose. If I remember right, I used a 3' pipe wrench with a cheater bar before it was all said and done.

Sounds like the barrel nut was over torqued at install. That or they used some type of thread locker. That's why we grease the threads.

I looked at my combo armorer wrench which I believe is a dpms, one of the 3 pins is broken off, another bent.

You do this enough, you're gonna find one that is too tight. In my box, I have a Troy specific wrench, BCM specific wrench, a PRI, the broken dpms and a rigid strap wrench for when all else fails.

The MagPul looks interesting but I wonder how strong the open ended wrench is.

My experience with the Wheeler wrenches has been similar, they are soft metal, poor fitting, and not serious tools for barrel work. I have a GI wrench, and a couple types of commercial barrel nut heads that work better than the Wheeler.

I recommend a barrel wrench with a barrel nut head that engages the majority of the teeth on the nut, the tool heads with the three pins will often sheer the barrel nut teeth off. Barrel nuts are sometimes soft metal as well, and the pins won't hold on them enough to turn the nut.

IIRC, the three pins are supposed to be used only for the DPMS style round barrel nuts with the circle of gas tube holes in the face of the nut.

I think the Magpul tool is good quality, but I have the tools it offers already, or I'd buy one.

Like TWR said, you start collecting tools for different installs...

Did you heat it up until it smoked first?

Didn't know enough to do so!

ended up ordering the pri wrench, its on its way.

Ed