SB,
Sorry it took so long to get these up, thanks for the skinny on the clay bar stuff, btw.
There's no magic to an AR, 'cept the way they shoot. The original, "you can tell its mattell" black rifle was designed for grunts....therefore, everything I tore down in the below pics was done with a 5.56 NATO round as my only tool. (you can take the front quad rail off with an allen wrench, and the pistol grip with a screwdriver, but I was limited on time taking these.)
Here's the AR prior to takedown:
first off, You push the rear detent on the left side with the tip of the round, exposing the other side where you can grab it and pull the detent pin out to full stop:
next, do the same for the foward detent, (optional, makes barrell cleaning easier....early AR's (SP1's) wouldn't break at the front without tools; making it more difficult to swap lower recievers.)
I've also pulled out the charging lever to show you how the bolt slides out:
this pic just shows how the rear buffer spring comes out. (hot gas runs from the end of the barrell back thru the gas return tube, just under the front sights, and pushes the bolt back into the buffer spring....this is why AR's don't have folding stock options like the piston driven AK's.
This is the guts of the AR...the only thing you're not seeing is the barrell and the gas return tube, (shrouded by the front quad rail.) The bolt, firing pin and all that comes apart super easy, (using the tip of a round,) and is nothing complicated.....(like say, a .22 speedmaster!)
This is the whole diddy...carry handle option or scope, quad rail paddles, sling, et al.....minus any laser, surefire, bayonet, or grenade launcher options
I'm still lobbying for you to go with the Stag...they make the M&P for smitty and my buddy just got a Left handed model, (they're the only lefty AR makers?)....he says the fit and finish is on par with my S&W and the Colts we all love so much.
The big caveat I'd give you when playing with AR's is only shoot NATO 5.56 ammo. .223 remington is not milspec and has lighter weight primers. Sometimes, (it happened to me,) the heavier milspec firing pins will punch thru the .223 primers and require a shell extractor or potentially worse.
Good luck.....keep us in the loop.