Ok, seeing so many completed builds, I took a photo of my not quite finished AR...

Kinda depressing seeing 3/4 of an AR and having to wait to try it out...

Mostly done, still need a barrel which is on back order from ADCO. A 16" fluted Wilson stainless hbar mid. Please Steve, hurry! ;-)

Only thing left to do is to decide which handguard I want. I can go with a YHM Lightweight quad rail, a RockRiver Aluminum free float tube, or a Briley's Custom carbon free float tube. I'm leaning towards the Briley's because the carbon is light and heat resistant.

The YHM is the most expensive option and the heaviest, not because of the handguard but because I'd wind up hanging stuff off the rails. It's also the least ergonomic because of the rails. I'm not really one who seeks to "tac out" but if I've got them, I'd probably use them.

The RockRiver mid-length I like the looks of the best but it gets hot.

What do you think and why?

Damn thats a helluva Camo job,  what twist barrel ya got there?  

nah looks good so far.  

just think how much more fun it'll be when completed!  looks like a great start.  hard to wait on all the pieces to show up isn't it?

-septic tank

Kinda reminds me of an airsoft gun when its like this.



jk.....

I feel your pain.  Right now, my varminter has the same invisible parts problem, except I can see my barrel ok, but the lower is invisible.  Yours is looking real nice so far, it's worth the wait if you end up with something that is setup just the way you want.  A stainless barrel with a carbon fiber handguard will look really classy.  

Lois

job well done to this point. Keep up the good work

Looking good!

Some other options for the hand guards;

PRI's mid-length carbon fiber setup with the aluminum barrel nut, about as light as you can get and you can put rails on or not.  It's an expensive option though.

JP's V-TAC mid length set up, it's lightweight and a good value.  One of the most flexable systems for putting rails where you want them (they can be mounted on the 90's and the 45's).

You gotta take some detailed pictures of the barrel when you get it in, weigh it too if you can.

Just got off the phone with JP Enterprises. I've got a V-Tac on the way. Thanks Stiles. Unfortunatley their accesory rails must be molded from pure crack or something considering the price, so I'm going to mount some YHM rails on it instead.

Ok, handguard's in I mounted it on the rifle to await the barrel. Got a question though. According to the instructions, you're supposed to attach a barrel flange to the upper reciver with RED LOCTITE. Both parts are aluminum so this dosen't seem like a good idea to me. My question is, would there be enough torqe from the barrel flange and the barrel nut to keep everything from rotating and damaging the gas tube with the barrel torqued? If not I may wind up drilling and tapping a hole for a setscrew into the bottom of this thing. Either that or mabey just installing it dry though even that dosen't strike me as a particularly good idea.

Nice, hope to see more soon.

Here's the handguard hand tight in there. Still need to call up YHM and ordered a foot of weaver rail though.