Son's of Liberty Armorers Class July 19-20 PA

Son's of Liberty Armorers Class July 19-20 2021

Location


Class was held in Allentown Pennsylvania at the Allentown Police Academy. It was not a restricted class and had a good mix of LE, prior military and civilians.


Instructors


Mike Mihalski owner of Son's of Liberty Gun Works and Dillon one of the Armorers from Son's of Liberty


Equipment


I brought a complete rifle to work on a DDM4V1 and a stripped Son's of Liberty Lower to build out with one of their parts kits as well as a law folding stock adapter, Vltor A5 system and BCM pistol grip and stock. Tools needed were purchased from brownells from the tool list provided for the class.


Experience prior to the course.


Not much in the way of working on ARs beyond basic maintenance. I do have armorers certifications for Glock , Sig Classic line and Sig Pro series pistols though so working on guns and attending classes isn't new.


TD1


Was set to begin at 0900 though we did have a couple show up late so we ended up starting a little later. Mike and Dillion gave us some background on themselves and told us what we'd be covering in the class. Then we got right into it.


Day one was almost all about the lower, we did a deep dive into the system (or at least it felt deep to me) going over not only how they came apart and went together but the history of the gun and parts, their evolution, what they should be made of, what some places unfortunately make them out of, how they worked, why they worked and more importantly what would make them not work. This became a trend in class and is something none of my other armorer level classes had they showed you how to tear down and put together guns but not much beyond that. This was refreshing and I truly enjoyed it.


One thing I was truly shocked by was when a student would find a broken or sub standard part in their gun. When it happened and it happened often Mike or Dillon would grab a part out of their kit and give it to the student to replace the unacceptable part. They didn't charge them they just handed it to them and said that all rifles would be in good working order at the end of class. That was unexpected by all and was refreshing to see and was appreciated.


We made sure every gun in class was properly staked and installed parts on the guns people were building. Mine left at the end of the day with my law folder installed and was ready for an upper. Mike pointed out that with the folder I should check it periodically to ensure it hadn't loosened up. They were extremely patient with everyone, stopping often and making sure people weren't being left behind and often explaining the same concepts in multiple ways to ensure everyone was understanding the material.


In the end day one concluded and we had covered the entire lower, and began talking about the Bolt Carrier Group before we called it a day around 1700.


TD2


We again had a few stragglers and started at little late. That's clearly not on the host or the instructors it's on students who can't manage to get places on time which is sadly common. Once we started the information was flowing. We deep dived into the bolt, what it should be made of, checking function, tearing it down, replacing parts. They handed out 5 coil extractor springs and cups for those of us that wanted to upgrade to that. We learned what coatings work on bolts and why, and we learned how to check bolts to see if they're in spec or not.


Next came the rest of the upper, some guys were building complete guns and they built their own. The rest of us played with a couple demo uppers Mike and Dillon had brought with them. Learning to assemble it properly and check function. Next barrels were installed and builds were competed. We were all allowed to come up and download the PowerPoint presentation for the class to take home as well. We finished right around 1700 again.


Conclusion


Take this class! If you don't want to read anymore then those three words cover it. If you do want to know why then it's because it was more than worth the time, money and driving to get there. Mike and Dillon are what I would say represent some of the best of the gun industry. At no time did the class become an advertisement for Son's of Liberty or a place to bash their competitors. In fact it was quite the opposite with Mike repeatedly discussing how great several other brands are and talking with obvious respect about the owners of other competitor companies. Did they talk about their own guns? Of course because it would be impossible not to because those questions come up but he didn't hold them on a pedestal he simply told us why they were built the way they were and why they work. Did this class gain him business? I'm sure it did because his business model is such that his CS and QC are evident in class as is his passion for arming good people. It's impossible not to want to do business with someone like that. Honestly I went in with high expectations for this class because I'd heard it was good and I left having had those expectations exceeded on every level. I brought two friends to class as well and we spent the 6hr drive home discussing what we learned and how good the class was. Definitely jump on this class if you get the chance.
 

prepare

Newbie
Your experience mirrors mine at the Virginia Beach class earlier this year.

I really like how transparent Mike is with specs and where stuff is made which very unusual in the industry.

Mike is a encyclopedia of knowledge and information on the platform.
 

Grizzly

Regular Member
Thanks for the write up. I'm headed to a armor's class with them this year and am looking forward to it.
 
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