Well, I'm starting to build another AR, as is a frend of mine (this will be his first "EBR"). My first, I built to be a tack driving varmint gun. This one, I want to build to be a "Tactical" CQ/HD rifle, so I want it to be as short as legally possible. My friend wants to build his to similar specs.

I don't want to use an 11" barrel, and then have a 5" flash hider, so I'll be looking for a 16" barrel. I'll probably want a reail mount surefire or some other light. Might want a laser as well, but I'm not sure. I will want to end up with an EOTech or similar holosight,  but I'm not sure if I want to have a front sight on the berrel or not.

We're starting with Spike's Tactical lowers. When we saw them at the gun show, I'd never heard of them, so I did a quick search here and they seem to be a good group with good quality. Looking at the recievers, they do seem to be of good quality.

We also picked up lower parts kits from KB Design & mfg while at the show, which I'm not too impressed with. The bolt catch plunger was too big to fit in the reciever, so i had to file it down something like .005" so it would fit. One of the trigger/hammer pins was somewhat tapered and I had to file one end down about the same as the bolt catch plunger. The pivot pin does not like my bushmaster upper; it binds up bad. Moved my bushmaster pin over to it and it worked fine. The Takedown & pivot pin detents also needed modification as they where too pointy and pretty much locked the pins.

I picked up a Tapco collapsable stock, but I'm not sure I like it. It doesn't slide smooth, especially when pushed all the way in.

I'd also like to have the barrel set up to accept a quick detach surpressor. Can anyone recommend a good QD surpressor?

Does anyone have any suggestions on good parts we can use to build these rifles up?

Thanks