Just about a year ago I got the idea that I wanted to find an M-16 like I carried long ago. That’s all I was looking for. Over and done.
So I went online, found this site, and became a member. Well there was this nice young fella called Kalahnikid that had a complete 603 upper with the buttstock, handgrip and LPK for sale. He was so darn nice and helpful, plus, he offered as an option an NDS lower, at cost whenever it arrived. Well I was not one to pass up such a great deal so I bought it.

Then the trouble started.

I put the upper in the basement shop and kept looking at and finally decided I needed to shoot it to make sure all was well. So off I go to buy a lower receiver and a new LPK (whatever was available at that time) to get this thing working. I get it all together and boy is it fun to shoot!  Then “THE KID” sends me a note that the Nodak receiver will be here soon, so I start thinking crap – what am I going to do with the lower I have now.

Problem solved – I get back on this site, buy an M4 upper, barrel, furniture etc. and now I will have two more AR’s.

Then someone posts “Heads up!  LG Outdoors M16 kits available for sale”. Next thing I know, I got three kits and between EE and GB and local gun shows there are a whole bunch more of nice parts out there and the bench is overflowing.

The wife has not raised her eyebrow as high since the time I told her we were going to buy another tractor for $180K.

My defining moment was when I pulled a box out from under the bench and found a complete upper and could not remember where or when I bought it. (Do you think these things breed?) So now I’m finishing one 603 BFPU, chasing parts for a 723 and parts for a XM177 (hope Brick starts making 4.5 moderators soon) and building one more 603.

I think I’m sick. Not sure if it’s an affliction, addiction or a disease.

Regardless, it sure is fun and I sure have appreciated all of Kalahnikid’s help.

Thanks Ryan.

Perfect symptoms of retro black rifle disease or RBRD. I remember when
I caught the sickness and it sounds very similar to your story.

Is everyone in the retro forum gonna drop in here and hit +1?

Nope. Some outsiders are going to post too, just because they love kkid.

Oh jeez, you're going to give me a complex.

The funny part about that AR kit I sold you was it sat for sale in the EE for a long time and no one offered me anything for weeks and weeks until I got two emails on the same day about it, one from someone with a username about some kind of sports car (which I have no interest in at all) and one from Mr. Jd5020 to which I thought..."Cool!! I wonder if he has one?! Those were the biggest of Deere's New Generation series! I'll always deal with a fellow farmer if I can. it was a pleasure to meet you Bob, maybe we will again sometime.

My retro instigator was uxb who let me shoot some of his retro SBR's a couple years ago, then a few months ago let me propose to my girlfriend in his back yard. And in the end the best part of this hobby are the great folks you meet along the way, and there's a ton of them in this forum.

Be careful, retro is a addictive drug, and this forum is populated
By enablers

No kidding - I blame mine on jntmjt1, Morg308, and boywonder777 from almost 4 years ago now....  They made it WAAAAYYY to easy to catch this disease!

Proof is that my 604 plan turned into a 601,603,604, IDF, 651,652, XM177E2 (underway) - need I say more?  

i stumbled in here when i got a sp1 that was "upgraded" to a delta ring and had an A1 flash hider and i was curious on it's original config.  this was back during the 94-04 awb and i got the SP1 b/c it was an affordable preban.  

i think it spent some time with an offset pin and a m4 upper w/ collapsible stock

then the ban ended and i was able to restore it to it's original config.

Pics needed or we don't believe you..

Sounds like you got it bad, but have done good with it. Finding the mystery upper in your stash is a big hint that the retro virus crept up on you. It tends to do that.

+1........

+1!!!!!!

I think there's something in my eye........

I can't blame my retro madness on anyone in particular, the whole lot of yahoos here contributed in one way or another. Haven't been building retro lately, but I am still here everyday, proof there is no 'absolute cure'.

I do love this place and the folks in it. I think I may break out my last GM kit soon and finish my 80% for it and get another one built.

M-1 Sniper will personally help you destroy your marriage!  Just remember the line, "it's an investment".

I know that raised eyebrow look very very well !   +1

I'm so old my original BRD started when all that was available was A1 stuff LOL.  To me it's not "retro" - it's the form of the black rifle I have always preferred. I guess that means I'm officially a "retro" myself (old fart) LOL....

Most of us liked retro before retro was deemed retro! HAHA

I looked at the web site for my LGS (walking distance) every so often. Then I saw an A1 listed. After 3 days of it being listed, I said screw it, I hobbled up there with my cane, and bought it. Then I found this web site, and my bank account went out the window in a blaze of 5.56MM rounds.  

My work here is done.  

I think it may be time to repost this :

We think of ourselves as a 12-step program.

Step1: You want a sort of 'Vietnam looking rifle or carbine' and find the forum.

Step2: Spend hours and hours reading through a zillion threads and still don't understand WTF an 'MVP' marked barrel is, but like the pics you see.

Step3: After a particularly long session online you follow our advice and go to the EE where you see an upper JUST LIKE IN THE PICTURES! You buy it immediately and congratulate yourself by opening another beer. You gloat until the next afternoon after work when:

Step4: You post pics of your new aquisition and 36 members post a list of things wrong with it, but, in the nicest possible way. You just feel like a dumbass.

Step5: Some long term member feels sorry for your predicament and contacts you, offers to help by supplying the part/gun/upper/bayonet you really wanted or gives advice, or both.

Step6: You read more, find ALL THE FUCKING GUIDES PINNED AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE and realize that everything you bought is worthless except for the absolfuckinglutely 601 charging handle and the early barrel, which although pinned with an ugly, POS 5.5" 'moderator' is just what a certain member wants for an E1 build. Someone mentions 'RBR'.

Step7: You buy $100 worth of tools to tear the upper down, sell the parts, and break even, but immediately spend 3x the money you recovered buying more parts off the EE.

Step8: You put your perfect, well, nearly perfect upper together, then realize you should have reanodized the receiver because it doesn't match and has a couple minor scratches that are driving you nuts. You tear the whole thing back down, having never put a round through it, and send it to Victor, along with the Spikes lower you already had 'to save money'.

Step 9: You get all the parts back, plus a REAL ALUMINUM CAR STOCK! Who gives a shit if it's Bushmaster - it's NOT PLASTIC! WAHOO! Your barrel comes back from being pinned, but you are now thinking E1 instead of E2, and WTH, a tax stamp is only $200 - well worth it. In the mean time, somehow you missed that the NDS lower reciever is the only way ONLY WAY to go. You realize this the day Victor returns your gorgeous Spikes lower in XM grey. You can't bear to look at it, but are too ashamed to sell the damn thing. You put in an order for an NDS lower, but of course they are out, so you spend 3 weeks staring at your other parts, which drives you nuts, so you spend your time perusing the EE and score a REAL 602 UPPER! I MEAN THE WHOLE DAMN THING! HOLY CRAP, HOW DID I FIND THIS?????!!!!! You don't tell anyone on the retro board because you are still missing parts and want to present the build as complete, plus those bastards will now want one like yours and be competing for the same parts.

Step10: The bank repossesses your car and the gas company shuts off service for non-payment, but you've been eating nothing but Top Ramen and Tecate for 4 months, so who gives a rat's ass? The cold showers take some getting used to, but since your girlfriend left you for being a 'gun freak' you kind of need them, and they're really not so bad. You buy a real GI steelpot off ebay for only $289 and start wearing it in the shower with your poncho just to see what it was like. Your friggin' closets are full of so many small, medium and long cardboard boxes that you start sorting them and inventorying them periodically, and marking what is in them with a sharpie. You soon begin consolidating parts, making the markings into lists. You congratulate yourself on coming up with such an innovative system on your way to the food bank because you decided to buy a few extra parts as an investment.

Step 11: You quit your job for a job in a gun shop that pays 1/2 as much just because there's a raggedy-ass LH handguard in the display case that is painted green, with brown bakelite showing through. You cringe and sweat everytime your boss shows it to someone casually : 'Can you believe the AR15 began with crap like THIS?' When they laugh you consider where to hide the bodies. How could anyone be so blase about this? You move all your good shit into a storage unit because you can't afford your apartment anymore, but who cares? You shower at work using the rainspout, fantasizing about the green LH handguard in the case. You are almost there.

Step 12: Charlie Sheen stops in the gunshop one day and your boss of course, spends an inordinate amount of time bullshitting with him, even though he is on record that he thinks he's worthless. Bosses. Charlie has a thing for AR15's, so of course, after handling several, your boss shows him...the handguard. Charlie says, 'Yeah, that's cool. Whaddya want for it?' and your boss hems and haws until they settle on $150. You want to slit your boss's throat because you offered him $250 a week earlier, but maybe it was the smell of the dumpster you slept in that night that threw him off. Anyway, CS buys the HG...the very fucking HG that is an exact match for the RH one you have (The one you smuggled in to check while your boss was at his daughter's wedding, bar mitzvah, whatever.) You sneak out the back, then haul ass around the building just as Charlie is getting into his Ferrari with 'Precious' in his hand. You consider just jumping on him and mugging him, but you aren't that well armed, and Charlie's no pushover. So, you strike up a conversation, trying to keep your eyes off the HG he keeps waving around. Scarred as it is, you can't abide it being dinged or scarred further. It just wouldn't look right in the shrine you're building in the storage unit. Suddenly Charlie gets a scared look in his eyes, perhaps becuse of your references to Vietnam, ear necklaces, B-52's. tunnels, and Bouncing Bettys. He tosses the HG into the air and you dive for it before it hits the concrete, and he takes the moment to start the Ferrari and tear off into the smog.

The moral of this story is, YOU GOT THE HANDGUARD!!!! WAHOOOOO!!!!

Welcome to the forum.

I blame an estate sale for selling me boxes full of Colt parts for "Best Offer" and luckily old ladies and a few airheads showed up....and then M1Sniper's "Your sitting on a Goldmine." quote over the phone.

This post is the best post I've read off anywhere on the net, let alone ar15.com! Thanks for posting.....

Hi. My name is Brian and I'm a junkie.








 

Wow! Morg you are absolutely right on the money with the 12 steps. What's scaring me is I think I'm at step 3 right now but I have already dabbled in steps 6 thru 9.  I have to stop this!

But thanks to everyone for the support. I always assumed there were several junkies like me but not THIS many. I'd like to post some pictures and I thought I recall a thread that detailed how to post from photobucket.
I've been unable to find it. If someone can steer me in the right direction I'd like to send pictures of the trouble I have gotten myself into.

Thanks again to all

I forget which Step this was, but I knew I had a problem...










,

,

,

,

,

,

Just kidding - the last photo is not mine.  

OH CRAP! We are in trouble Alfalfa.

mein gott

It's an addiction and disease. I spend pretty much all my money on AR shit and gear. You'll eventually come to terms with it. YOLO!

Money dictates the sickness, and mine isn't bad as as others, but those pictures absolutely awesome.......... Got any of those green handguards left?

There's a very good reason why I don't mix alcohol and the retro forum together...an A1 Colt parts kit mysteriously showed up at my door two weeks later after I came home from a birthday party.

Damn you all

I came here with help on a 601,,,, or a xm,,, I can't remember.

This is a old pic when the desease was taking hold.
I've since turned some of these into working guns.
Only to write new numbers on the empty boxes.....
It never ends .

OK. This is my first attempt to post pictures. I am neither computer or camera savvy.

This is the 603 that started it all.

http://i1370.photobucket.com/albums/ag260/huskingpegfarm/builds/017_zpsb3da932a.jpg
http://i1370.photobucket.com/albums/ag260/huskingpegfarm/builds/014_zpsddccb8b2.jpg
http://i1370.photobucket.com/albums/ag260/huskingpegfarm/builds/012_zps29f233b0.jpg

Which begat this

http://i1370.photobucket.com/albums/ag260/huskingpegfarm/builds/012_zpsa4221e0f.jpg

Which begat this

http://i1370.photobucket.com/albums/ag260/huskingpegfarm/004_zps3f18d34f.jpg

Which begat this.

The LG kit and my attempt to try and match a PSA lower to the original upper. After seeing GeoBartlett's and Trimdad's recent pictures I'm going back to the drawing board.

http://i1370.photobucket.com/albums/ag260/huskingpegfarm/builds/007_zps89134888.jpg
http://i1370.photobucket.com/albums/ag260/huskingpegfarm/builds/009_zps95573f0b.jpg

Which begat this

Oh by the way did I mention the NDS 80% lowers for the XM177E2 and the 723 builds?

http://i1370.photobucket.com/albums/ag260/huskingpegfarm/005_zpscb5902d7.jpg

Despite what everyone may think, I have decided I do not have a problem.

Just the 'begats'

Yup, you have the same disease we all do! Very nice collection with more to come it looks like.

Now....how about pictures of the 5020 and any other old iron you might have.

Ya denial ,,,, ain't just a river in Egypt .
BFPU looks good!

I wanna see what's in the box marked "601 Stocks"!

I'm trying to decide if I envy you or feel sorry for you.

I feel guilty, but somehow keep ordering more parts!  

When you tire of ARs go buy a FAL to start down that road.   Collecting the 100+ variations of the FN FAL will take care of any surplus cash problems.    What retro AR fanatics complain are high prices for parts and optics is where FAL prices start.  

Or you could get into the original Armalite AR10s, for which even finding stuff can present a challenge no matter how much cash you have on hand.