Manual

CHAPTER 2
MECHANICAL TRAINING
5. Disassembly and Assembly
a. The individual soldier is authorized to dis-
assemble his rifle to the extent called f&d strip-
ping. Table I, Disassembly Authorization (para.
7)) shows the parts he is permitted to disassemble.
This amount of disassembly is necessary for nor-
mal maintenance.
b. The rifle should be disassembled and assem-
bled only when maintenance is required or for in-
structional purposes.
Repeated disassembly and
assembly causes excessive wear of parts and soon
makes them unserviceable and reduces the ac-
curacy of the weapon.
c. The rifle has been designed so that it may be
taken apart and put together easily. No force is
needed if it is disassembled and assembled cor-
rectly. The parts of one rifle, except the bolt,
may be interchanged with those of another when
necessary; for safety reasons, bolta should never
be interchanged except by maintenance support
personnel.
d. As the rifle is disassembled, the parts should
be laid out on a clean surface, in the order of re-
moval, from left to right. This makes assembly
easier because the parts are assembled in the re-
verse order of disassembly. The names of t.he
rifle parts (nomenclature) should be taught along
with disassembly and assembly to make future
instruction on the rifle easier to understand.
6. Clearing the Rifle
The first step in handling any weapon is to
clear it. If the rifle is loaded, unload it as de-
scribed in paragraph 13. The Ml rifle is clear
when there is no ammunition in the chamber or
receiver, the bolt is locked to the rear, and the
safety is engaged. To clear the rifle, pull the
operating rod handle all the way to the rear, in-
spect the chamber and receiver to insure that no
rounds are present and push the safety to its
locked position (inside the trigger guard).
7. Disassembl’y Into the Three Main Groups
a. The three main groups are the trigger hous-
ing group, the barrel and receiver group, and the
stock group (fig. 2).
Figure 2. The three m&n groupe.