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Posted: 3/12/2015 11:33:36 AM EDT
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So I've read through some of the FAQs , please let me know if this is not the right place I'll delete this post.
To start I just won a raffle at work and the prize was a M1A national match loaded with a Burris scope on it. I went to collect this gun and the guy who raffled it off was raising money for his grandchild with medical problems anyway he told me he was hoping to pass it down to his grandchild and he offered me $2000 for the rifle. . Which brings me here, looking to build my first AR. I bought a book on assembling A.R. 15's and now I'm discovering I have this as a resource as well. I'm looking to go with a 16 or 18 inch barrel, probably 16.. And plan on spending a good portion of the $2000 on this rifle. I've been looking at the mega arms matched upper and lower sets. I had a few people recommend blackhole and Novesky barrels , but have heard that their availability is limited. I'm really not sure where I should be spending my money and getting quality stuff and where I can conserve money. My optic money is separate and I'm going to a lot up to 500$ I've just started looking at parts but I am anxious to start buying. And I will sacrifice getting parts from a company if they are not in stock. I would greatly appreciate recommendations on top quality parts from reputable distributors. This rifle will be mainly used for 20 to 100 yards at the local range, although I am looking forward to using it at further distances and hopefully improving my accuracy. Things I would like to have in the rifle are accuracy, lightweight, smooth functioning , balanced and looking good . Where as I won this money and it was originally a rifle, I pretty much intend on spending all of the money on this rifle. I am looking to build a rifle that I will one day pass down to future grandkids. And I'm looking to start a process which I can hopefully turn into a family tradition , taking some time and building quality firearms to go and play with. Thank you Lee |
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$2000 for a build not including optics....you can get a REALLY nice rifle built for that.
For accuracy, the barrel and trigger are the two main contributors. A free float hand guard also contributes to accuracy a little. Noveske stainless steel barrels are phenomenal in my experience. If you want lightweight and smooth, I would recommend the noveske lightweight 14.5 midlength stainless barrel. I have this barrel set up with a Vltor A5 buffer system and it's smooooth. If you go the 14.5" route you'll need to permanently attach a muzzle device or register the lower as a short barreled rifle. Look at geissele triggers and pick out one that fits your needs based on this video here There's a starting point. Pick out the upper/lower receivers you like, a free float rail you like and you're rolling. |
| Thanks for the advice! I forgot to add I am planning on getting a suppressor for this at some point. One more question that I had was, do I need to shop the same manufacturer in order to get the same color black on all of my parts? Also I found a new mega arms nickel boron coated upper and lower set together on gun broker. How do I know if these are matched? |
| You aren't guaranteed the colors matching if you go with the same manufacturer, but it helps. About the set on gunbroker, what do you mean by matching set? Color matching? The only mega nickel boron set I saw on gunbroker was a "ma ten" set, which is for building a .308 caliber AR, not 5.56. |
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Oh OK, I don't know what all goes into a manufacturer saying its a "matched" set. I could see it being literally matched for the best overall fit or just some employee putting the receivers in a box without actually checking fit. You'd have to see if there's any clarification from the manufacturer to be sure of what you're getting.
For what its worth, I've never bought a matched set and never had any issues. In my opinion, if you're buying from a reputable manufacturer, you shouldn't have any fit issues. If a matched set costs substantially more I'd say its not worth it unless youre building a match caliber rifle. |
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I've done my due diligence with manufacturer research. From what I've gathered, there's only a couple of them out there. Then the exact same parts (manufactured to mil-spec) get branded to different, ahem, brands. Therefore, a palmetto upper will be the same as the bravo upper, only cheaper. It's all marketing, man. Like someone else said, with these guns, your barrel is 90% of your gun. Good trigger and bcg is the other 10%. Everything else could be made out of paper. Well, maybe not quite paper, but you get the point.
Another bit: don't make the same mistake that I made with my first build. Get some tools. Proper tools. They don't have to be expensive. A 20 dollar AR wrench from amazon works just as well as some fancy name brand. It has one job to do, unscrew and screw. Not rocket science. Doesn't have to be made out of some "proprietary tungsten whatever". Cast iron works fine. Do invest into good pin punches. I bent all my cheap thin ones on the first whack. Upper vice block thingy is a must. Again, its a 20 dollar piece of plastic that will surely save you a 100 (or more) dollar expense for a new upper shell. Feel free to check out the carnage I left after ignoring the need for the upper block, i have a build thread up here. That's really all I can think of, in terms of tools. |
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