So like I said before I'm beginning my first AR build.  Not my first AR obviously but my first build from beginning to end.  Since things around here aren't exactly hopping I decided to sort of document it as I go for those who are interested or just bored silly.  Initially my plan was to sell my Loki .264LBC to help with the cost but while money is great, family is greater and I'm giving the Loki to my sis (GunLuvnGirl on here IIRC).  That way we both have a rifle in 6.5 Grendel since we shoot together 99% of the time and the Loki stays in the family.  Means she also inherits the nice embroidered Loki hat that came with my gun (with strict rules to never wear it).  Why? I dunno, maybe it'll increase in value someday but either way it's cool despite all the bad crap that happened when Loki's owners screwed over so many of their customers at the end.  


This whole thing started when I wanted to swap the Hogue free float tube handguard that had no way to attach anything for a sweet Midwest Industries Gen 3 Free Float Mlok handguard.  I bought the new handguard and then noticed that I had a large gas block leak too.  I asked Dan to help me remove the Hogue since I knew it was going to be a pain and I needed a strap wrench which he had and I didn't.  He was happy to help because, well, he's awesome.  I did a lot of research prior to attempting to remove the Hogue because there were a lot of horror stories due to the difficulty of removing these handguards.  Sure enough, it was a real b!tch.  Loki loctited pretty much everything and it became a worst case scenario requiring us to use everything from hacksaws to Dremel cutting wheels to finally get the Hogue off.  This obviously meant that the Hogue handguard was mangled during the process making it a total loss (was hoping to sell it and recoup a few bucks towards the build but no deal).

The carnage.....


Now that the Hogue was dead and gone it was time to deal with the leaky gas block.  After doing some research I found out that these Liberty .264LBC barrels were commonly released with oversize gas ports so I measured the port and sure enough it was significantly oversize (can't remember the exact size at the moment).  Some more research tells me that this issue often causes problems with cycling (which I had initially before the block started leaking so bad) and it can be fixed by installing an adjustable gas block.  That's sort of where we are now.  Since this is my sis's gun now she has to decide which gas block to put on the rifle.  I'm pretty sure she has made her choice so just a matter of ordering it and replacing the gas tube which was destroyed during the Hogue removal.  The good news is the Lo-Pro gas block which came on the Loki is just fine and can be used again.  The bad news is it's a "dimpled screw" mount style and my new Grendel barrel coming requires a "clamp on" style so I'll have to source a gas block for it and put the Lo-Pro in the extra parts bin or sell it.  Once the adjustable gas block is purchased and installed with the new gas tube her Loki will be up and running.  I will be still be Grendel-less at that point.

As far as my rifle goes, I've purchased and am waiting on delivery of a brand new 20" Faxon 6.5 Grendel barrel, a brand new Grendel bolt, a brand new upper receiver (Spikes-Unmarked) and a brand new NiB bolt carrier (Spikes-Unmarked).  That leaves the lower which will ultimately be a Sharp's Bros. "The Jack" skull style with a LaRue MBT trigger.  I'll likely use another Hogue grip (I really like how they feel) and the handguard will be a 15" Midwest Industries Gen 3 Free Float Mlok lightweight just like the one I bought for the Loki except a few inches longer.  The charging handle will be a BCM Gunfighter Mod 3 (large) which I use on almost all my AR's.  I'm not positive on which stock I will use but the Luth-AR stocks look promising as well as the Magpul adjustable models.  The scope mount will be another LaRue like the one I have on the Loki except I will go with a 20 MOA base instead of the 10 MOA base on the Loki.  The scope is a huge unknown right now, I'm considering switching from the second focal plane BDC scopes I've been using forever on most my rifles to a first focal plane model.  Since there are almost no FFP scopes with BDC reticles and none with the magnification I want, I'll have to choose a new style of reticle but that's a decision that's going to probably give me an aneurysm before I'm done.

That's it for now.  The new barrel, bolt, upper receiver and bolt carrier should arrive within the next one to two weeks.  I'll update this when they arrive. I knew going into this that it was going to be more expensive than I anticipated but now I'm seeing it's going to be way more expensive.  Not selling the Loki took a huge chunk out of my budget but while money is great, family is greater and giving it to my sis outweighs all the negatives .  Looking forward to the day she and I can shoot our Grendel's side by side .

UPDATE: Barrel, bolt, upper receiver, NiB bolt carrier are purchased.  Gotta wait till the barrel is finished by Faxon then it will be delivered with the bolt which is ready.  The upper receiver and NiB carrier are in the mail and on their way.  Getting close...

It's not hard to dimple a barrel. A set punch and a good sharp drill bit with a stop collar. Faxom has also mounted blocks for people in the past. I like the Yankee Hill flip sight gas block on one of my other builds. Only thing I have against it is it's not adjustable. But for a clamp on it's pretty good. I use a snap ring as a spacer on barrels that have a larger than normal gas port. It helps give the block a little more shoulder to butt against.

I'm not a fan of dimples and pointed set screws.
the point wears down and now it's loose.
much better to machine a flat where the set screw hits and use a flat set screw.

So had a bad couple days, won't go into that but woke up to find a brand spanking new Sharp Bros. "The Jack" lower sitting in my recliner .   Was a pretty awesome surprise for sure especially considering I had pretty much come to the conclusion there was no way I was going to be able to afford to buy one for this build due to the entire project coming in at a fair bit more than I had anticipated.  I found a great price for the lower last week but after looking at everything I still needed I was leaning towards just using the extra Spike's lower I already had.  Now I don't have to do that and my rifle will look as mean as I had intended!  And, yes, she's an awesome sister !

That was the good news, the bad news is after doing a rough estimate of what it's going to cost to finish the build I'm not even going to come close to having enough $$$.  I may end up having to sell some stuff before it's all over but I'll worry about that when the time comes.  As of now I still need the handguard, the gas tube, the gas block, grip, charging handle, parts to complete stripped upper and BCG (minus bolt), muzzle device, buttstock, scope mount and scope as well as a few things I've likely forgotten or not even considered yet (this is my first 100% build so I'm learning as I go).  Hopefully the barrel and bolt will be finished soon so I can start the assembly and figuring out exactly what little parts and doodads I haven't accounted for yet.  

Anywho, at least the barrel, bolt, upper and lower receiver and bolt carrier are either in my possession or waiting for delivery.  That's a pretty big chunk of the goodies.  Dan's going to be helping me assemble this thing so at least I know all the necessary parts will be installed before it's over with lol.

Take your time and pick part's here and there. I think taken a year sometimes to pick sales and hunt bargains. It's all part of the fun.

I'm trying but my want to have it done is strong lol.

OCD is strong within Brandi. Brandi must fight the OCD. I've had a lower setting in the safe for almost a year now. A barrel and an upper for 6 months. Patience Brandi it'll come together.

I've got a complete lower in the safe too, just haven't been able to decide on what to do with it.  Either a lightweight pencil barrel carbine for a home defense gun (just can't make myself keep my high dollar LE6920 outside the safe) or an M16 A1 20" triangular handguard rifle.  The opportunity to build my "super Grendel" just sort of fell in my lap.  A chance to build the Grendel I wanted to begin with and give my current rifle to my sister so we can shoot the same caliber side by side was too good to pass up.  It also means I'm Grendel-less until this build is done and being Grendel-less is no bueno especially since we just got the dies to start reloading it.

In addition to the Grendel dies I also got .45-70 dies and brass for my birthday so sometime in the new future I'll be lobbing big lead blobs out of the 1873 Springfield Trapdoor carbine .  I've owned it for probably 5 years and shot it once, it needs to fulfill it's destiny of being a beast (well antique beast anyway).

Getting closer......

I now have:

1.  20" Faxon 6.5 Grendel barrel
2.  LeHigh Defense/Millennium Manufacturing 9310 QPQ nitride bolt
3.  Spikes Tactical upper receiver
4.  Sharp's Bros. "The Jack" lower receiver
5.  Spike's Tactical Nickel Boron bolt carrier
6.  Midwest Industries MI-G3M15 15" Mlok handguard
7.  LaRue Tactical MBT-2S trigger (quite nice)
8.  Alexander Arms A2 fixed buttstock (came on my Beowulf lower) I've given up on the Magpul PRS for now.

So a pretty good start.  Still need my SLR adjustable gas block, BCM Gunfighter Mod 3 charging handle, Odin Works Atlas 6.5 muzzle brake/compensator plus all the little relatively inexpensive parts.  The scope is going to still be the hardest thing to acquire just because of the cost but things are moving along thanks to the occasional holiday sale.

Brandi, I feel you on ocd??

I’ve been looking a scopes lately too and have looked at many in the 2-10, 3-12, 4-14 power areana.  One that I am liking what I’m seeing is the Athlon Talos BTR 4-14x. It runs for around 300 bucks, 30mm tube, FFP, 44mm obj, side focus, and illuminated. I really like the reticle too. I am down to one AR and it is an accurate gun but I’m running a Comp M4 and red dot and my eyes don’t do it a distances any more. I figure a good scope in qd and a red dot in qd gives me a good all around gun. Anyway, check the Athlon optics out.

I picked up a Hawk Sidewinder SF 30 6-20x the other day for  $250.00 to help a friend out. I was initially going to give it away. But I had a Burris that had ran out of adjustment. So I mounted the scope. And so far it's been relatively impressive. Glass is good and clear. Very comparable with my Vortex PST GEN II. Only complaint I have so far is the clicks are a bit smooshy. But it tracks really good.

I have had a Millett scope on my 20" Grendel and it's a great optic for the money. I seen them on sale for less than  $200.00. Only complaint I have is the etched reticle is not clean. It has some fuzz. But it tracks pretty true I had to use 1/5 adjustment in my bc program. But I have a leupold that has the same correction factor.
Refurbished Vortex
Several members swear by these guys.

I’ve read several reviews of Hawke optics and most have been favorable except the mushy clicks. I’m not an operator so I can live with the little things like that as long as tracking is good, reticle is clear and there is a warranty behind the glass.

I have not gotten time to really play with it yet but it doesn't seem junky so far. Tracking was good and we shot yesterdayevening into the sun and it actually did quite well with little to no hazing. I couldn't tell much difference between it and the Vortex PST GEN II. The Vortex might have a little better edge quality.  I don't know if I'd mount one on a  .338 Lapua. I just wish the clicks were a bit more positive.

Sparky is a Pig Operator, as in he's a highly trained and disciplined feral hog eradicator!  Do you have any of that fancy night vision and thermal gear Sparky or still doing it the old fashioned (i.e. poor folks) way? I keep looking at the pics you post and getting jealous lol.  Out of curiosity, does it ever stop being fun? I understand the aggravation of hogs tearing up your property but do you ever get tired of having to kill them? Seems like it would never stop being fun but then I've never had the chance to hunt them let alone be at risk of getting tired of it.

I had been using a Vortex Viper HS LR 4-16X44 SFP on my Loki .264LBC and it's a pretty good scope but I gave it away to my sister with that rifle.  I'm thinking more magnification this time around, the longer barrel on this build is going to give a bit more distance and while scopes are getting better my eyes are getting worse so a little more magnification may help.  Certainly a little better glass will.

I think I'm going to go to Cabela's or H&H or both and just look at scopes one of these days.  Actually spend some time looking through them in the store and try to get some idea of what the difference is between the different optics as well as the first focal plane vs second focal plane.  I'm leaning towards FFP at the moment but I've never even looked through one let alone shot with one so I gotta increase my knowledge base on the subject.  When I was young picking a scope was easy peasy but not anymore.  Good news (sort of) is that it's gonna be looooong time before I can afford one so I have plenty of time for research.  

Yeah after I hit 2000 it got tiresome. As you know I kill most with the traps. But you have to kill the trap shy one's with a rifle.

That's with the XD50 I had an old ATN before that but Photo choke it ate them. I lost track of how many I killed with it.

Probably tired of pork too I bet lol.  Well except bacon of course, impossible to get tired of bacon!

Yeah and them nasty critters don't have bacon! They jip you. I got a couple in the freezer just for smoking. They make pretty good pulled pork samwich.  They make pretty good sausage.

Hell I have even burned the Buzzards and coyotes out on the nasty things!  Last two I killed I put one in the freezer and threw the other on the pile. Well I didn't cover it. Then I forgot about it. Nothing has touched it!  Now I'm kinda worried about the one I put up. It smelled good glands were normal and the liver looked really good. In fact I was wondering if they had wormed themselves on the safe guard blocks I'd put out for the cattle.

I never even considered the bacon thing.  I'm guessing it's because they are so much leaner than "farm hogs"?  You know it's bad when the buzzards and coyotes are tired of eating them LOL.

We threw a skunk on the pile and he didn't last the day. The buzzards fought over the skinny little guy.

Damnit Brandi you hijacked your own thread!

I'm multitasking lol.

Why have you given up on the PRS butt stock??

Hello? (Echoes through the building)

Mice are quiet.

Two reasons....A. the heavy weight and B. the high price.  I'm already at the point where I won't be able to afford the scope after buying everything for the rifle so the extra price of the PRS just didn't offer the value for price in this case.  They are nice butt stocks for sure but I gotta go with something much less expensive for now.  Maybe sometime down the road it'll be an option but not for now.

Had a varmint build with a PRS and it was nice but like you said heavy and not not budget minded.  If I were to do a varmint build again the PRS wouldn't even be on the list.

i

I like the Viltor but it cost almost as much as the PRS. I have been thinking hard about the Luth AR. But the RPR'S have side tracked me. I got the  .223rem on layaway hopefully my patronage check will come in in a few days. To tell you the truth a good adjustable with foam rubber glued to it is pretty functional. Only thing I don't like is they don't ride bags good. Neither does the ace. A2 hook stock is another good one to ride bags.

I didn't really like the Luth AR stocks when they first came out but after doing a lot of research looking at them as well as the PRS I've come to think they are quite the value.  For now, just for $$ reasons, I'm going to put the A2 I have sitting around on it.  Eventually I'm guessing either a Luth Ar or maybe a Magpul CTR with a LaRue Tactical RISR for better cheek weld.  My build is going soooooo slow...it's making me crazy.  Not having a bank account and associated card is a real pain in today's electronic marketplace.

Don't feel bad I got pieces and parts setting.

I have pieces sitting in a box trying to fight the urge to build another AR, so far I'm winning the fight but I don't know for how long

I spent more and bought two RPR'S or at least one and the other half is still on layaway. I have been watching the mail box like a Hawk waiting on my patronage check.

Not really sure I made the best decision but I think I did and it's too late to do anything about it now anyway.  So, I had my little nest egg of funds that I've been saving for the last two years to build my new Grendel.  I've purchased several parts already and had just enough money to finish the build if I nixed some of the higher end parts I wanted and replaced them with basic "just get it done" parts.

That would have left me with a big ol' ZERO funds left in the kitty for an optic.  Being that this rifle's primary usage will be learning to shoot longer distance at the range and secondary usage hunting (although I've no where to hunt so that's more of wish than anything) I wanted a scope capable of being able to see better out to 1000 yards than my previous Vortex Viper HSLR 4-16x44 allowed me.  My eyesight gets worse every year so I wanted something with more magnification than I had in my previous scope.

So if I finished the build I'd have zero funds left for an optic.  A quality optic made for long range precision shooting.  Considering the costs of such an optic and the rate at which I could save the money to buy one put me at around another year and a half to two years to afford one.  Two years of shooting iron sights on a purpose built long range rifle doesn't really make for a great time.

I've been researching optics for a long time now knowing that I was eventually going to buy.  Comparing first focal plane scopes (something I've never used before), second focal plane scopes, different magnifications, different reticles, illuminated vs non-illuminated, 44mm vs 50mm objective lens diameter, exposed vs covered turrets and all the various other specs and features there are out there.  I looked at every quality scope manufacturers offerings under $1000.  There was no way I was going to afford a thousand dollar scope but I had to set a maximum just for comparison sake.

Prior to me giving it away to my sis, I had been shooting my Vortex Viper HSLR 4-16x44 and I've really come to appreciate the quality of Vortex scopes as well as their extremely good warranty.  I own several Nikons, a Leupold as well as the Vortex's and I like all of them but my fate was sealed earlier this week.

I happened to look at the flyer that came in the mail from Cabelas and saw that they had the Vortex Viper PST 6-24x50 on sale for $659 (iirc) which was $300 of the normal price.  Vortex recently introduced their Gen 2 model of this scope and Cabelas was liquidating their stock of the Gen 1 scopes. The Cabelas advert didn't make any mention of them being FFP which means they were selling the lower cost SFP version which made sense considering the price.  I checked every other store I could find online and they were all selling these scopes for $850+ (for the second focal plane) and $999 (for the first focal plane).   I always go online and compare prices whenever I see something on sale for what seems like an unbelievable discount.

Sure enough, Cabelas price was significantly lower than anywhere else and I checked everywhere.  There was one place that was lower but they were out of stock and since Vortex wasn't making any more there was no more coming in so it was a moot point price.  So, I summoned all my intestinal fortitude and we went to Cabelas.  This was probably around 3 or 4 days after the sale was announced so I checked online and the OKC store said "limited quantities" for this scope.  I figured that meant they had a few left so it was now or never.

We walked in and went straight to the guns and fun counter.  I looked down and saw all the Vortex scopes but the spot marked "ON SALE" where the Viper PST was supposed to be was empty.  My heart kind of sank, I figured I waited to long second guessing my decision.  Eventually a sales guy noticed us and came over.  I told him I wanted one of the PST's on sale and did he have any left.  He looked in the display case, looked on the computer, looked in the storage case and couldn't find one.  Then he went and talked to another sales guy and he came back and pulled a box out from close to where he had searched before.  He walked over and set it down and opened it up for us.  I immediately noticed that it was a PST but not the second focal plane that I had expected.  I thought no way they were going to sell me a PST 6-24x50 first focal plane scope that was $1000 everywhere else for $659.  I looked at the guy and said "and this one is still going to be $659?" and he said "yup".  I immediately pulled out my wallet to pay him but apparently they have to walk you to the front cashiers and you pay there.  I was so sure that they were going to ring it up and say "Oh, this isn't the one on sale, this one is $999" but she rang it up for the sale price.

I was, and still am, a little concerned that I just spent my entire build fund buying my scope first but there was no way in hell I could have afforded this scope, or anything similar, without it being drastically marked down like this PST was.  I got it home and dang is this thing a sweet optic.  When I first decided I wanted this scope, before it ever went on sale, I was really hesitant about choosing FFP or SFP since I had never used a FFP scope before.  After getting it out and playing around with it a bit I gotta say, I really like the FFP.  Time will tell once I get it mounted but, so far, I'm really liking it.  This is my first actual illuminated reticle too which is a feature I figured was nice but not that important.  After playing with it I think it's going to be a great feature, far more precise than I expected it to be.

Hopefully I can get this rifle built this year because I really, really, really want to shoot it with this new scope!

Happy, happy time

Well look at it this way when Bush did the steel and aluminum tariffs steel got to 0.50 and aluminum got to 0.70 pound. Start picking up up pennies.  
Oh by the way great score.  Patience is usually rewarded.

Aren't pennies mostly zinc with copper plating now?