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Posted: 7/7/2006 7:49:12 PM EDT
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Well, I have my lower and I am planning on building my first AR. I need a little imput on how to configure and stock it. This rifle will be primarily a hunting rifle for ‘yotes and maybe a few ‘jacks and California ground squirrels. I know I need a scope rail but I am uncertain about the barrel length and contour. The typical “varmint” set-up shows a bull barrel with a long aluminum floated tube. I am worried about the weight, so am wondering about a lighter contour with a shorter handgaurd. Can I come in under 7.5lbs and still get a handy shooter? I will be sharing this rifle with my daughters so am considering one of the colapsable stocks. Which trigger would you folks install? How would you scope this rifle? What say you? Sorry about all the questions and thanks for the imput… GaryO <>< |
| For years, my dedicated varmit gun was a Colt Match Target HBAR II* a postban 6721* with a variable 1.5-9 power scope. I had friends who owned dedicated varmit AR and bolt guns and I was never at a disadvantage with my carbine. Depending on conditions, an AR with good ammo can shoot 1.5 MOA or smaller which is plenty for varmit hunting. Dedicated varmit guns will shoot smaller groups, but this increased accuracy isn't always necessary or apparent in the field. Dedicated varmit AR's are essentially bench-only guns as they are too heavy and unwieldly for anything else. My carbine was accurate, compact and light enough to walk around with. When I was younger, I used my 20 guage 870 Youth Express with slugs to shoot piles of Coyotes waiting for the siren to signal the start of pheasant hunting. My point is that you can shoot the whole gammit of critters without a dedicated 24 inch varmit gun. I no longer have my neutered Colt carbine, so I use my KAC SR15*essentially a 5.56 SR25* with a Leupold Mk4 scope for varmits. The gun has the stock KAC free floated handguard, match trigger and excellent barrel. It shoots MOA or under and it doesn't work one iota better than the rack grade carbine. A 16 or 20 inch flat top with a stock 2 stage trigger will work famously for you, IMO. I tend to prefer carbines, but I find myself hunting with 20 inch rifles. A tele stock is an excellent tool for a hunting rifle and to teach small stature shooters marksmanship. Unfortunatly, if you live in CA, telescopic stocks are out of the questions*for the most part*. There are ways to have one in CA, but you had better triple check with the CA DOJ before installing one. |
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You're concerned about weight so I assume this will be a walking rifle. Next question is: can you wear hearing protection while hunting. If the answer is yes, go with 16" barrel, if no, 20" barrel. I'm currently on my second walking coyote upper. If I decide to build a third, here's what it will be: Barrel: 20", bead blasted stainless, straight .625 contour, either from AR15barrels.com or a turned down OLY SUM. Gas block: Either a low profile (but choices are slim in .625) or a cut down front sight base. Handguard: Clark or Briley carbon fiber Upper receiver: Flat top RRA or other quality brand. In my experience, 16" barrels are much louder than 20". But, 16's are shorter and lighter. |
You'll have to check the legalities for yourself but here's my hunting setups. 20" A1 Colt 1/12 twist, limited to 55 gr or lighter bullets but it only weighed 8.4 pounds and shot 1 MOA. After finding out it only shot 100fps faster than my 16" guns I traded it off.  The top gun is a Colt HBAR II 1/9 twist with quite a few mods, Jewell trigger, KNS pins, Houge FF tube w/ PRI rail, Vortex FH, milled FSB, LMT SOPMOD stock and a Leupold 2.5-8 scope. It weighs 8.3 pounds and shoots sub MOA. The bottom gun is a Colt lightweight upper 1/7 twist, Vortex FH, it now wears the Leupold 3.5-10 scope in an Armalite mount, on a RRA lower with the NM trigger, LMT SOPMOD stock. It weighs 7.7 pounds and shoots under 1 MOA. You can knock off .4 of a pound if you use an M4 stock body. Oh and I run Heavy buffers in all my collapsable guns. I don't notice the extra muzzle blast until I shoot a 24" gun. In fact I traded the 20" upper for a Colt M4 with 14.5" barrel. But there are alot of sounds I don't hear anymore due to my proffession not shooting. |
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consider this for stocks: stocks your kids might have some length of pull problems w/ the A2/A1 stocks, so a collapsable might be in order; M4/CAR stocks usually have some play; i use a MagPul, no play whatsoever i like the stock AR triggers; you can get someone to work on em to lighten the poundage (there is a trigger smith in the EE who does it for $28, but i forgot his username...); another option is a 2 stage trigger, w/ the RRA being the cheapest available for ~$100 scope mounting: i use a 1 piece mount (armalite); armalite, RRA, and Model 1 sales are more budget priced, larue and others tend to be more expensive; also, std leupold rings/mounts have been used to good effort, but i prefer the 1 piece as to a scope: i use Leupolds, Nikons and i'd check them out; i'd also avoid the chicom made ones as to an upper, a 16"-18" might be best suited for your needs (probably a 16" for a little less weight); as to contour, the varmiters are kinda heavy and combined w/ a collasable stock (M4/CAR), it will make the AR front end heavy.... if you dont opt for a varmiter setup/bbl, i'd prbably check out an HBAR contour overall, for precision, i prefer SS, but some opt for the chrome moly bbls |
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