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Building an AR


pjtoledo

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A buddy of mine has 3 AR's. He told me he can get me one with a forward assist shipped to me for $650. Seriously thinking about it.

My personal defense weapons are a Glock 22 Gen 4 .40 cal, Glock 42 .380 cal, and my tried and true S&W .38 Special.
Cabelas just opened a new store in Avon, check 'em out!
they have some ARs for $650 on the rack in Dundee, just north of Toledo.
provided you're back in Ohio.

a small shop near Toledo says he can beat the big store prices all day long, and he did.
 


Jim Oaks

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Will: Been there and done that. We trained with Berreta 9mm and I hated every moment of it. They are almost as bad as High Point in my opinion. I have never had a issue with any of my Glocks; Gen 4 G17, Gen 3 G26 and current edc Gen 4 G19. They go boom every time I pull the trigger. Between the 3 I think have ran several thousand rounds and only had maybe 1 or 2 jams/failure to fires. I think those were related to the ammo though (junk practice rounds).
When I was a Trooper, we switched from the S&W .357 to a Beretta .40. I hated it. It was inevitable that you would have a malfunction with the gun and it wouldn't feed at least once when you qualified. The state eventually replaced all of them with Sigs.

I like my Glocks. I also like they they give police, fire, ems, and military discounts.
 

85_Ranger4x4

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A buddy of mine has 3 AR's. He told me he can get me one with a forward assist shipped to me for $650. Seriously thinking about it.
Find anything yet?
 

hoosier1104

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Better question is have you built anything else? I am looking for a Beowulf upper currently. I love my x39 upper, harvested 2 deer with it during firearms last deer; however, it is only provisional right now. Beowulf is 100% legal and ammo is not as expensive as SOCOM.
 

85_Ranger4x4

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No I have not... yet.





The green charging handle and buffer tube kind of annoy me. They match perfectly outside but in artificial lighting they are horrid at matching.

18" 6.5 Grendel, BCA/Classic barrel, Matrix handguard, NiB BCG with a 6.5G forum group buy bolt, 3# Velocity trigger, DD furniture. I need to finish my gunroom and my new bench (in pic) in addition to getting ready for a wedding reception in our barn... its been a crazy summer and it is only going to get worse.

Beowolf is interesting... and now legal in Iowa (considered a straightwall pistol cartridge) Not sure it is much better than a slug gun though (enough to justify the cost of the upper/rifle and ammo/reloading supplies)

AR's are fun and all but I am ready to move on to something else after I get the Grendel together. I would really like to get one of them smokeless pistols, I think they might catch on.

7.62x39 is going to be bumped to being more of a ranch rifle and the 6.5G will be my huntin' rifle.

Here is my bench:



I have a 4' LED shop light to put on the bottom of the shelf, going to put all my Ford Ranger shop manuals on the shelf and I have a old blacksmith leg vice to put on it too.
 
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hoosier1104

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I have the 3 lowers I want; fixed, collapsible and pistol. I just build uppers now.

Sent from the front seat of my Ranger.
 

85_Ranger4x4

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I see photobucket crashed on me too now...

Anyway I like complete rifles, I think I have more than met my needs with what I have.

I like shooting my pistols but it is quite a routine you have to follow every time to clean up afterwards which results in me not shooting them very often. I don't think I have had them out to shoot for like 3 years.

Really wanting a 1875 Remington replica. A '73 trapdoor carbine would be really cool too. I like the wood and blue steel ones too. :icon_thumby:
 
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85_Ranger4x4

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What a build.

It started out I was going to build a 6.5G for my fiance as a surprise. Turns out she hates the look of an AR and wants nothing to do with one. Crud, I have a 5.56 and a 7.62x39... so I guess I will build something of a target rifle for myself, stuck with the 6.5G.

I had a Anderson upper and lower set before it came out she didn't want one, still a pretty blank slate. Picked up OD charging handle and buffer tube kit, DD grip and stock, NiB WMD BCG minus bolt, WMD gas tube, 6.5G Forum group buy Lehigh bolt assembly. Anderson UPK, 3# curved Velocity trigger, CMMG builder LPK since I have had good luck with them and a Seekin's adjustable gas block so I could get it dialed in just right. Finished off with a 13" (IIRC) M-Lok Matrix handguard and a 18" fluted BCA barrel from Classic Firearms.

OD Buffer tube and charging handle don't match in incondecent light, buffer tube is almost gold. Natural or flourecent light they match... whatever.

Ordered an A2 flash hider for 5/8" threads. Got an A1 flash hider with 5/8" threads... whatever.

Go to assemble the lower. FCG goes in fine, safety selector fits funky. Drags on the ledge under the stop on the receiver and is binding on the trigger so there is a big "hump" in it as you engage the safety. Tear down my 5.56 and put the Velocity and 6.5 SS in it, same hump but no drag. Reassemble in 6.5G and it is the same, no drag but big hump in swing. I have an email into Velocity on that today, haven't heard anything back yet.

Lap the upper receiver (pretty cool) Bed the barrel extension with locktite and torque the barrel.

Install the gas block. Go to install the gas tube, rollpin will not even start to its hole. Note the rollpin that came with the tube is swelled on both ends, go to hardware store and get another pin, install it.

Slide BCG in and it sticks. Get it back out with a struggle. Try to tweak the gas tube and nothing makes any difference. Pop the Anderson BCG out of my 5.56 rifle and try it... fits perfect. Put the 6.5G BCG in 5.56 and it fits perfect... whatever. Not sure what to do about that. I kinda like my 5.56 being mostly Anderson and kind of wanted my Grendel to have the nicer stuff, not my iron sight 5.56 rifle.

Kind of annoying, the first two builds kind of fell together with like Ford/Chevy quality parts. The 6.5G with like Mercury/GMC quality parts is fighting me every step of the way.
 

hoosier1104

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I milled out my brothers 80% lower over the weekend. That was a interesting experience. Not overly hard just very time consuming.
 

85_Ranger4x4

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I milled out my brothers 80% lower over the weekend. That was a interesting experience. Not overly hard just very time consuming.
That does look fun to do. Kinda hard to justify the tooling for just one though and a 80% lower isn't much cheaper than a stripped lower all ready to go. I did check into it, if I had the CNC mill I ran in school it would be a lot of fun...

I know it is more involved but it would be fun to do a 1911 too.
 
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85_Ranger4x4

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'Tis done (minus scope and mount) No deer hunting in Iowa with a centerfire rifle. I might take it out west for a backup/alternative if I go out west chasing antelope next year though. Fingers crossed they bring back "just about anything goes" late doe season next year but everybody says the numbers are still down so not likely.

It has a reflex sight and a light on it now, kind of my ranch rifle sort of thing. CMMG trigger is noticeably worse than the one in my 5.56. Very heavy, I don't like it... ordered a new one today:

https://www.larue.com/products/larue-tactical-mbt-2s-trigger/

Slide BCG in and it sticks. Get it back out with a struggle. Try to tweak the gas tube and nothing makes any difference. Pop the Anderson BCG out of my 5.56 rifle and try it... fits perfect. Put the 6.5G BCG in 5.56 and it fits perfect... whatever. Not sure what to do about that. I kinda like my 5.56 being mostly Anderson and kind of wanted my Grendel to have the nicer stuff, not my iron sight 5.56 rifle.
After a few rounds for break in both carriers are now interchangeable and now back in the "correct" guns. :dntknw:

Grendel is a sweetheart of a rifle and very enjoyable to shoot.
 

adsm08

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'Tis done (minus scope and mount) No deer hunting in Iowa with a centerfire rifle.
So what can you use?

I can't think of any non-center fire cartridge that has enough umpf for deer.
 

85_Ranger4x4

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So what can you use?

I can't think of any non-center fire cartridge that has enough umpf for deer.
Muzzleloader, shotgun with slugs, pistols of certain criteria and as of last year a rifle with a straightwall cartridge.

So AR friendly rounds such as .450 Bushmaster and .50 Beowulf are legal... not sure I want to blow $1k on a gun to do pretty much the same thing as the slug gun I already have though.
 
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