Soon myself and others in the family will be building rifles when our lowers come in(Century stripped lowers..).  My middle son and I want to build lightweight post-ban carbines, but I suspect my daughter wants something more accurate than her old SP-1, while not being too much heavier.  I have been to J&T's website, but it seems to me that all their rifle kits come with heavy Shaw barrels.  They have the "Expedition" kits that they say are lighter, has anyone used one of those kits??  The emphasis on 'lightweight' is important here, guys and gals.  My son would like something along the lines of my old Colt 6520 pre-ban, but in post-ban configuration, but with a flat-top.  I prefer the M-4, if only for the looks.  My daughter likes iron sights, a full-length rifle, A2 furniture, but with the A1-length stock.  Maybe a simple HBAR kit would be right for her.......



Any advice or direction you here can give me and my brood would be most appreciated!!!  I have owned AR's for years, all Colts(it just ended up that way, not by design..), and am quite familiar with their qualities.  I have owned AK's since 1991, but I have noticed that we have reached a 'dead-end' with regards to expending the capabilities of the AK and its ammo.  It's a fun gun to shoot, but my 11 year old son can hit spray paint cans @100yds with his old iron-sighted Maadi.  Building our own is something none of us have done before, but I believe we are up to the challenge!!!


Thanks,

Ironhand

I used M-A parts to build my guns and forged century lowers.

http://www.m-aparts.com/

I built heavy barrel carbines, but they have many lightweight kits available from 415-465$

All the parts were good quality. My only problem was that they forgot to send me the hammer spring and some pivot pins with one of my kits. As soon as I let them know this, they sent me the parts out 2nd day mail and sent me 2 free accurizers as well.

My guns cost me $550 a peice for Milspec quality. Can't beat that.

Oh yeah, I ordered monday, and recieved my package wednesday.

In my closet now are an Armalite cabine (in Realtree camo yet), Olympic Arms Ultramatch, a DPMS lower with Oly upper, and a few more.

Recently I purchased a kit from J&T Dist., and I was very pleased with the quality and price.  The upper was complete, ready to Rock and Roll.  I just cleaned, lubricated, snapped it onto my lower, and shot.  Three mags later, not a single malfunction.

The lower parts were of top quality, too.

The packaging was very good.  It comes in a styrofoam tray, form fitted to properly hold all the parts, inside a heavy cardboard shipping box.  Ordered on a Wednesday, and received the following Monday.  Fast enough for me.

They have enough options to please almost anyone.  Check them out:  
http://www.jtdistributing.com/

Thanks for the replies ,y'all!! I will check out M-A parts' website, as well as re-visiting J&T's website as well.

On configuratons:
Don't know what a 6520 Colt is.  Almost everything is HBAR these days, but an M4-profile barrel is about a half-pound lighter than than a 16" HBAR.  Bushmaster makes an even lighter 16" barrel.
For your daughter you might look for an "A2 Govt" profle barrel.  It's a 20" but a full pound lighter than an HBAR.  Fluting is about a half pound lighter than an HBAR.

The problem you're going to have is that both the lightweight BM barrel and the A2 barrels are pre-ban only.  Look back a few pages on the [url=http://www.ar15.com/forums/forum.html?b=3&f=12]Rifles, Uppers, Lowers, Barrels, etc. forum[/url] and there are some posts on lightweight stuff.  One of the posts mentioned someplace that could build you an upper/kit with the barrels and "neuter" them.  The alternative is to have somebody like KKF turn them down to a lighter profile after you get them.
[Edited to add: here's the thread I was thinking of:
[url]http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=3&f=118&t=144585&w=searchPop[/url]]

[url=http://www.cavalryarms.com/C4.html]Cavalry Arms[/url] makes A-1 length stocks.

Ironhand,

I'm doing my first myself and have started with J&T upper.  I can't be more pleased with the match components and my bolt slides better into the new upper than the factory OLY. The guy was down right arrogant at J&T about being the best and only using the best. I liked his confindence and as far as I'm concerned, he has a right to be arrogant.

I envy the fact your family is into it.  My wife keeps looking at me like I'm crazy. She likes shooting just not a hell of alot of guns.  Maybe it would be different if I ever sold a gun, but I fall in love with every damn one of em. Hell, I gave up the motorcycle so .......

What a family.  I can't get my wife to even touch the AR.  I hope my kids show as much interest as yours.

Well, we found a buyer for my son's rifle, so we will start building his rifle when the parts come together.





Ohhhh  Yeah.......