First I would like to say Hi
This site has been a fountain of information, so a big thank you to all the contributors.  My AR journey began when I decided I needed to add an AR to my small collection of guns. Thus began my research, which spawned the desire to build my own in an effort learn and fully understand this awesome versatile piece of weaponry.  My research led me to arfcom.

I have already decided, in fact purchased all of my parts for my build.

Build Specs:

• Aero Precision blem upper, forward assist and charge handle


• Sionics medium 1:8 16" mid-length chrome lined


• AIM Surplus NiB BCG


• Magpul MOE handguard


• A2 flash hider


• Franklin Armory Lower (Local company sources lower and has it branded as theirs. Wanted to stimulate my local economy)


• Anderson LPK CA edition with bullet button


• Aero Precision mil-spec carbine buffer tube


• Magpul MOE M4 carbine collapsible
  [*]BUIS, A2 F FSB, and Troy fixed rear

Parts have been arriving all week and the last thing I need to do is get my lower our of jail (CA 10 day waiting period).

No plans for optics any time soon. I will likely use $$$$ to build another AR before I purchase optics. Most shooting will be at range or out in the hills at cans, targets, and squirrels. I want to do another in 14.5" with full floating rail, low profile gas block and flip up BUIS.

Thanks in advance for any comments or input you provide. I have been eating, sleeping, breathing AR-15 for weeks and know I still have lots to learn. I will be sure to post up pictures in AR pictures thread once my build is complete.

Why didn't you just purchase a complete upper assembly from BCM?

Why buy a complete BCM?  Is what I built not a quality kit?

I would not have got the chance to assemble it myself and gain that experience.  I wanted 1:8 twist and I don't think I would have saved any money.  BCM SS 16" mid in 1:8 twist is $515 or $565 in Ionbond Black.  This is without hand guards and BCM.  I am still sub $600 for my complete upper.

Your upper build is excellent kit, I use a lot of Aero receivers myself.  
Your barrel is well chosen,  Sionics uses Green Mountain blanks, some of the best around.

Enjoy!

Congrats, OP!
Everything you learn from building and shooting your first one will guide you towards understanding what works best for you on future builds. Enjoy.

Yuo should have a good reliable shooter... you definitely went the right route in building your own.

Thanks for the feedback.  Can't wait to complete my build and take her out to the range for some lovin'.

As someone who grew up with zero experience using tools, assembling uppers is both easy and fun. And if you run into any problems, all you need to do is post here to get helpful advice.

? Because it's way more "operator" to put it together yourself?

Congrats OP. Great build. Don't forget to post pics when it's all together.

Got my lower out of jail today and promptly set forth with my build.  Only one mishap with the pivot pin detente.  As everyone cautions, I shot it out.  Fortunately it landed in the chandelier above the table I was working on.  I hear it hit and found it right where it sounded like it went.  Whew!!!  I was gluten for punishment.  Even after that incident I still put it in using just the pin itself.  Other than that the build went very smooth.

Now to get my sights sorted.  I need to get a front sight kit, detente, spring and post and the Troy di-optic fixed BattelSight I purchased just does not want to slide onto my rail.  I thing with just a smidgen of filing it will fit.  It is very tight, but with wiggling I can get it to go on and each subsequent time I tried it went a bit farther.

Here she is in all her glory:

Well, I got my front sight parts.  A big shout out to Marty and the guys as Mil-Spec Armory in San Jose CA.  I walked in looking for the front sight post, spring and detente.  They did not have them, but through some serious awesome customer service magic they had the parts for me the next day.  It was my first visit to the shop, the guys there are cool and customer service was above and beyond.

Dont worry, you built a great gun, and you did good on price

Have fun shooting it!

Thanks everyone for the great feedback.

I got the rear sight sorted.  There was an issue with the way the base was cut.  Some filing with a triangle shaped file and she is good to go.  Glad it is aluminum.  Goal is to take her on a date tomorrow and sight her in a 100yds.

Great looking build.  When's the first trip to the range?

Personally,  I would have returned that out of spec upper.  Filing on a brand new receiver irks me!

Congrats on the first build.  I'll bet there will be more.  By assembling everything yourself you have learned a lot about the workings of the rifle.

How bad was the blem on the upper, and how much did it save you? I've had a great experience with my BCM blem upper, the blemish pretty much rubbed off. I'm curious about what Aero calls a blem.

Solid build.  Congrats!  You should be proud of that one.

Very nice build, can't wait to hear the range report!

Nice first build.

Use it proudly.

Nice build.  Looking forward to the range report.

You are making a mistake in feeling you should build another AR right away.  

Use the rifle you are building now.  Put at a minimum 2000 rounds through the rifle and make the changes that you find you need to make based off of those 2k rounds.  You will feel almost no difference between a 16 and 14.5.  For the money you will dump into that next gun you could buy a high quality red dot and a quality light both of which are a good choice.  You could also buy a better trigger and more ammo which will do you more good than another rifle sitting in a safe.

It is also silly to have your rifle on fire when sitting around your apartment.  It doesn't matter what the reason is safety is a beast of habit and if you habitually place your rifle on the ground on fire you will make the mistake of doing it at the range some day.  A good friend MR. H is on a crusade to stop that type of lunacy and I would like to see you have your rifle on safe and pointed in a safe direction.

Have a great day and I hope you get your issues figured out with your iron sight issues.  I distrust any kind of modifications of iron sights if they are being used.  You mentioned shooting to 100 so I very much hope you have done your research on the proper ways to zero your rifle to include standard and RIBZ methods.  Reading the postings on MOLON would be of great help the basic ar15 zero info can be found here

The pivot pin plungers or detents are a bitch and I lost three of them and was about to order a tool from Brownell's when somehow I got it installed. I found one of the lost springs a few days later.