AR Sponsor
Posted: 11/29/2007 8:38:34 AM EDT
|
Well I am jumping into the world of Ar. I first started looking at them because of the Remington R-15 VTR, but I think I want something a little more hardcore and BR. Anyways here are the parts I am looking at, let me know if this will work. Bushmaster lower (any better suggestions?) Bushmaster upper flat top Can't decide between a M4 Barrel w/short yhm handguard, or the midlength handguard w/16" barrel (which barrel variation w/16" and midlength guard? lightweight, heavy???) Stainless or chrome lined. BCM Bolt carrier group DPMS collapsible stock What flash hider? DPMS lpk Am I missing much? How does this look for a starter? |
|
actually i can save you some money here....check this post in a few min and i'll have a parts list for you with links ETA 1: This is the cheapest way to go overall. Lots of people have said good things about the CMMG bargain bin rifles. Get the chromed lined if you can. As for the profiles, I have a HBAR 16" and I can tell you that it's muzzle heavy with a collapseable stock. I will probably swap my collapseable for an A2 on it. If you go this route and still want the DPMS collapseable stock send me a PM and we can trade stocks straight up. You'll be hard pressed to build something for cheaper than that and have parts that are all new or might as well be new. If you still want to build however....and I'm going to step on a lot of toes here...but oh well... ALL NEW MANUFACTURED LOWER RECEIVERS ARE THE SAME AS FAR AS DIMENSIONS AND HOLES. THAT IS ALL THAT IS IMPORTANT. If you want to pay more for a roll mark or a brand name then by all means do it. I don't drink the LMT or Colt Kool-aid, I don't doubt they have great products, but I'm not willing to pay what they're asking. Essential Arms receivers are the cheapest, $79 each . Essential Arms web site If you go this route pay for the tough coat and order several since I believe their shipping is pretty flat rate. Superior Arms are the next cheapest $89 each. They have this funky think were you can adjust a trigger set screw to turn your GI trigger into a "match" trigger...more like improved trigger pull. Not worth it IMO because it will ruin your trigger assembly after a while and a trigger job is a better alternative when you install the LPK. EE vendor, also has them with LPK installed Double Star and Stag can usually be found for $99 each. They're nice too, I use DS lowers because I like the roll mark more than the Deer head and I can get them locally cheaper than paying for shipping and a transfer from anywhere else. Both can be found here. This vendor also has Superior Arms lowers as well DPMS, Bushy, and all the other ones command a higher price because of their name, they're no different than the previous ones mentioned. The ONLY time that the lowers are different are high shelf vs low shelf. The low shelf lowers allow for you to use a registered Drop In Auto Sear or a registered Lightning Link. People will get high and mighty about fit and finish, it's a rifle based off of a combat weapon that is supposed to have some tolerances...and furthermore fit and finish does not mean you'll have better accuracy. The whole argument about upper and lower play effecting accuracy in my opinion is moot. Buy the damn accuwedge and that fixes that problem right there for cheaper than a new upper. The above lowers are FORGED lowers, not BILLET. BILLET lowers cost more because they're machined from a solid block of aluminum. Frankly I see no advantage to them other than looks...and I'm not willing to pay what they ask for them. If you like them and they make your Willy stand on end and you can afford them by all means buy them. They don't fit my budget and when something cheaper can do the job just as well I'll save the couple $$$ and use it on other parts of the rifle. People can argue the strength aspect of a billet receiver...but if you're a somewhat responsible owner you're not going to be beating the living shit out of your gear if you want it to last. Lower parts kits, don't pay more than about $60 for a standard lower parts kit. I don't care what people say, they're 99.9% the same. Just buy this and call it a day EE ad. They're RRA or Stag or something like that. It's cheap and it ain't DPMS so the DPMS haters don't get their panties in a bunch. That seller also has 2 stage triggers in that same ad if you're into that sort of thing Stocks, very subjective here. The standard M4 and A2 work perfectly well for me so I see no sense in going with the Magpul stuff or any of the other stocks out there. Are those other ones good products, for the most part I'd say hell yeah. Again not in my budget and the cheaper one works just as well so thats what I use. Chances are you'll never butt stroke someone with your rifle anyways. Some of the standard M4's rattle more than others, and if you decide on a collapseable stock you have to decide commercial tube or mil spec tube. Again people get their panties in a bunch over that as well saying mil-spec is better and yada yada yada. Pick what fits your budget, if you can get the mil-spec then do, they cost around $75 if I remember correctly. The commercial style one can be gotten from this guy on the EE for the cheapest, Link here. Those are 6 position, I recommend that you go with a 6 position stock if you go with a collapseable, but if you need to pinch some more money or like the look of this one more, here's a 4 position stock from that same seller Click me. 6 position just gives you more room for adjustment thats all. Grips, the standard A2 that comes in your LPK isn't the best but it works. I took a dremel to the nub thats on the grip and got rid of it. That makes it feel a lot better to me, but the standard A2 grip doesn't bug me a ton. You can go nuts here, cheap or expensive $20 to $60. I chose to pinch my pennies in this area. Since this is your first AR I recommend you just buy a completely assembled upper. You could buy all the tools to build them yourself, but until you know what you want exactly and do your market research it's probably better that you just buy a complete upper and get out there shooting sooner. Check out this link, CMMG complete uppers. That has everything you'll need to slap on a complete lower and go shooting...well thats not entirely true. You still need sights. You can purchase a detachable carry handle from CMMG when you order, or find one used on the EE under the AR15 used parts section, you should pay between $50-$60 for one, anymore it's not worth your while. Of course if you're mounting a scope you don't need that carry handle at all. The flash hider is up to you, the A2 works perfectly fine for me. Its all a question of how much money do you want to spend. If you have the money to spend, vortex and phantom are the two that come to mind right away. Just be aware that if you get a barrel shorter than 16" the flash hider will be permenant and will make the barrel come to the legal length of 16" overall. A 16" barrel is exactly that, the flash hider adds on another inch or so. Rails and what not, you need to decide what you want from them. Do you want free floating ones for accuracy or do you just want quad rails to add cool doo-dads onto. With the free floats, do you just want to add a bipod or do you want to add more? If you're just adding a bipod then a free float quad rail is a waste of money, might not look as cool but it does the job just as well for a lot cheaper. YHM free float tubes are decent, they even have one where you can customize it by adding rails onto it. Otherwise for just a bipod put a stud through it and mount it to that, it can be done. So there you go, thats my quick and dirty intro to the black rifle and what you could get and look for. The sky is the limit as far as modifying your rifle goes. You can add all sorts of dohickys and what-cha-ma-call-its to it at your hearts content. Buy quality parts the first time around to save you money and remember that often times you can find another product that does the same job for less money, you just don't get the bragging rights of a brand name. That is not always the case, but you'd be surprised how often it is. |
AR Sponsor