I've thought long and hard about talking about this again. So, I guess I won't talk about the disparity in the on-line voting anymore.

I will simply say 'Thank You' to Phase 5 Weapons Systems and Vortex Optics AND the Gunstruction crew for making this competition idea become reality. Thank you all. I've been certainly enjoying putting in entries :)

A $2500 dream rifle - that certainly is a dream. I built one AR - it took me 1½ years to afford to do so and it was on a budget of $500 over all that time. The rifle came out at $506.63

I built it because I had use for it to protect my livestock from wolves. So, it has a tac light on it for the dangerous winter dark nights. I had to build it part by part, and buy the castle nut and barrel nut wrench plus the two vice blocks in that same budget plus magazines (I have 9 of those but by doing some horse trading they ended up costing nothing).

Ammunition wasn't included in that $500 budget.

A dream rifle is an AMAZING competition.

I am so thrilled that Anderson Manufacturing came on board. Their barrel is on my AR that took me so long to make. I tried their hand guard tonight for a new build in Gunstruction. It would work fine with just the Strikefire II, but not with the magnifier sad to say if any basic iron sights are included.

I did post a pic in Facebook of what the closest design I could get to in Gunstruction was with the finally built rifle. Parts I needed to make the rifle weren't in Gunstruction SO I worked on prototypes to come as close as possible to what the one I built would actually look like. I had no clue to start with - I had never fired an AR or even seen one. When I was in the Navy we were trained and taught with M14's (and 1911 .45's). 30 years later there is this AR. I was away from my country for 29 years so, this was a bit new to me. Places where I went after my Navy time I needed to know the weapons they had, not what we had.

I most certainly happy to finally be home in my country even though my wife and I are usually very broke financially. At least we own our home though. We used everything we had to buy it an move here and that we did with cash. It was a giant leap of faith. We're managing, but a dream rifle certainly isn't in the budget. I did get a stripped lower receiver a couple months ago for $57.50 but have no parts to build on it. (Another reason I'm happy you have Anderson parts now - it is an Anderson stripped lower :) )

Now, I'm going to go check those Anderson gas blocks that were just added. It will certainly take me another year and a half to build something on the lower receiver. I'm thinking a 7.62x39 pistol build with a  9½" barrel. I do have some 7.62x39 ammunition but nothing to shoot it with. I traded my SKS for my 1911 .45 (which is perfect and I can chase a can up a hill all day long with it).

Sorry for rambling on a bit guys. There are few I can share my thoughts with way out here in the mountains.

Again, Thank you all for making Gunstruction. I don't know if you realize this, but so much of our country population can not simply go to a store and buy what they want - there are no stores. Much like in the old days of the Sears Catalog the Internet is now the Sears Catalog. Buy it, it ships to your door (or your local FFL when necessary)

Kind regards,

William H. Smith IV
Moore, Idaho