I finished this build a while back, but had never actually taken it out to shoot, and hadn't gotten any good photos of it until today.

My brilliant plan was to hit the range on this National Holiday, in hopes that most folks would be distracted by the Superbowl, and leaving the range mostly empty.  I was sorely mistaken.  I took 3 rifles out, my 723, my Prototype, which isn't quite finished yet, and an old Winchester 70 I'll be slowly converting into a Hathcock-esque Vietnam era 70.

Unfortunately, my usual diligent record keeping on who I get which parts from, fell down a bit on this build and I've lost track of a few things.  What I do know for sure, is that I got the charging handle and 6 hole handguards of Hal143 here.  I'm pretty sure I got the C7 upper as a pair of them, from someone here, but all I have as reference at this point is an email to myself, reminding me to send a PMO to Dean Doglietto (hopefully someone can tag his username in here so I can thank him properly).  I'm guessing the trigger guard came from BoyWonder, but that's about the extent of my knowledge other than a few things off ebay/gunbroker, and the usuals from Brownells/Midway.

I can already hear you saying, "Shut up and get to the pics, Tumerboy!"

Yes'm.

Full album, with more/larger photos can be viewed here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nduguid/albums/72157664267361141











And from the range earlier today:


Here's all three I took.  Don't mind the unfinished Proto, it's still a work in progress:

What barrel?

Beautiful looking rifle and just how I would like to build my C7 upper. Awesome rifle man!

Also what barrel and where from?

well done!!  looks just about right.  congrats

Very cool

Thanks, fellas!

Barrel is a 16" Lightweight 1/7 Colt - http://www.brownells.com/rifle-parts/barrel-parts/rifle-barrels/ar-15-m16-16-5-56-barrel-assembly-prod71164.aspx

I just realized I probably should have posted this over in the A2 forum . . . Mods, feel free to move it if you see fit.

Very nice carbine - nice choice on the barrel too!

Tell me about the light and mount if possible.

Great work!  

I plan on building a 723 when funding allows it.  Going to go all Colt minus the lower receiver, possibly the barrel if I never find the Colt 14.5 lightweight.  I researched and rebuilt the M14 SFC Shughart used, and now I want to build the 723 used by his team leader, MSG Gordon, on their final mission.

If you want to go one step further, you can see that almost all of the rifles in this photo have redi-mags installed.

Very nice! I'm working on a 723 also.

It's an old Surefire (Laser Products/Fountain Valley) 660, in a 1" weaver ring, on a surefire barrel mount.  I had to get new screws because the ones that came with the mount weren't long enough, strangely.  There is some pics to guide you through the differences in early surefires in the 1993 Somalia thread in the A2 forum.  Old surefires are all over Ebay, just have to be careful about which one you get.





Yeah, a redi-mag would be good.  What I'd REALLY like for Christmas is a Faux Ops Inc can.  But I haven't found anyone making one that looks the part.  If anyone's got a lathe and is feeling ambitious, send me an IM.

Very Nice trio.

Your Prototype....being a work in progress is what makes it look like like a real one.  I dig the miss-matched furniture.

I don't mind the mis-matched furniture, I just don't like how plasticky the handguards look.  Need to do something to them.

What are you using to secure the pressure pad?

Seems in the past I've used bicycle inner tube sections and they've been too tight causing the light to activate.

It's a bike innertube.

It was a royal pain to get on, over the FSB, etc.

The switch tape would be pressed if I put it in certain places, but not in other places.  The inner tube holds it in place pretty well, so I just shifted it around until it was off by default, and left it there.  That seems to have worked pretty well, though I mostly leave the batteries out of the light anyway.

Very interesting, thank you for that.

I remember it being difficult to get over the FSB too.

Nice build. I'm in the midst of a very similar one and probably going to use the same barrel. Do you know what your rifle weighs without the light and RDS?

The bolt gun.....  



Are you gonna do a pin and weld on the AR?  It's really nice.  Can't  believe you even went A1 lower.   Quite the build.

723's (and 727's) were a pretty mixed bag of whatever parts were laying around.  While an M4 barrel, and A2 lower are viable, I wanted to make an earlier (?) version with older parts.  I like the pencil barrel and the A1 lower for it.  

No need to Pin & Weld since it's a 16" barrel.

Well I guess I left out an important part of that.  Cut down, pin and weld.  14.7"........  

Courtesy of our own  Joescuba while he was in the service.....   Desert Storm....

Nah man, I really dislike pinned and welded stuff.  I like knowing I can remove the FSB if I need to.  I get that other people prefer it, but I'd rather just deal with the extra 1.3".

More Model 70 pics please.

HA!  Someday.  I'm going to be sending it off to be trued and tuned, and it will hopefully one day return as a Hathcock-esque 70.

Excellent! Love the Gothic Serpent Period carbines. I have a 727 build I need to finish the machining of the FCG pocket on the lower, norrell moly, and put together. I've got a surefire 660 for my 727 but I'm having a problem sourcing an old tail cap, the one on there is more of the modern flavor cap like what is on my trusty m951 light. Anyways, bad ass build and glad you got her to the range!

 

My BHD-era 723 is almost complete. I just picked up an Aimpoint 5000 for it (need to source a correct ARMS #2 style mount) and I'm absolutely kicking myself for not buying a couple of vintage Laser Products marked Surefire 6Ps that I guy had at a local gun show a few months ago for $15 each! What a dummy I was not not snapping those up, but that was before I had even built this rifle.

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Great build!

Are current versions not correct?  I'm truly curious, not being smart.

Oh, sorry you passed on those lights - those "duh-oh!" moments happen to all of us.

I agree about the variability in parts and that is why I built mine as a later version with an M4 barrel and A2 lower receiver.  I also substituted an A1 pistol grip for this photo.  I subsequently replaced the A1 grip with an A2 that has the finger bump removed.  That darn finger bump just doesn't fit my hand.


It shoots very well and is my current house gun.

Thanks for all of the compliments guys.  And great to see some other Op GS builds! Nice looking carbines.

Huge fan of anything retro representing the ar platform and clicked this thread cause I never heard of bhd-723, to my surprise I built something similar from parts lying around.....but what really caught my eye is the aimpoint 5000, I have one for a couple years.  were these models actually used on the 728s?  
all I need is a rail to mount the aimpoint, and remove my beeman scope
The rifle I put together last year

And the aimpoint

I think they are. I just meant I need to find one. That's another one of those things I have passed up for cheap on gun show tables countless times because i had no use for it at the time.

Thanks man, that's a good looking carbine.

Mine is the older 3000 not the 5000, but they're both really similar.  The 3000's and 5000's were both used on rifles in Op Gothic Serpent, and other places around that time.

Full album, with more/larger photos can be viewed here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nduguid/albums/72157664267361141

Nice rifle and nice photostream.