I see a lot of rifles on the site, about which the owner states "this is just my start up gun...or...my rifle is in the early stages of development", and these are rifles with good gear on them, solid rails, good optics (Aimpoint for the most part), good lights/stock/grips/etc/etc.

Here's the crux of the biscuit as Frank Zappa would say:

What constitutes a "finished" rifle?  Most of those aforementioned rifles are ones I'd go into battle with, and I've gone into battle w/ M16A2s, M4s, etc, etc.

There seems to be a bit of one upsmanship occuring here, I may be wrong, please feel free to correct me if I am.  I'm just as guilty as the next guy of building gadget guns, but I think we've lost the focus of front sight squeeze...or just go shoot the damn thing because it's fun to hear it go BANG.

Thanks for your time, comments?  I've got my Nomex on, fire away...

V/R

There is no end to the proverbial yellow brick road of AR-15/M16 accessorizing.

Usually, if I say "something's finished..."
it means something broke beyond repair!

When I see a weapon with a bunch of shit strapped to it I generally automatically assume the person shooting it must be completely inept.

Not intended to flame anyone.  All that forementioned "shit" is all cool,  I just usually see it on rifles that appear unfired so it gives the impression that the gear is for show more than function.

+1!

I think that there are 2 distinct separate answers here:

Some guys are definitety saying "Mommy, Mommy, look what I made!!! And that's OK. Whether it's all tricked out, or simply a basic A1 or M4, the guy's proud of his first build, and wants to show it off to someone who might appreciate his creation. And from what I've seen from these forums, he's going to get several attaboys no matter what it looks like. No crime; no victims. And some of the attaboy responders are looking for (and sometimes finding) ideas for their current or future builds

2nd answer: some guys aren't looking for attaboys - they're looking for both positive and negative criticism - "What did I do wrong? How would you improve on this concept?". Again, no crime; no victims.  

There is no limit to the shit you can hang on a rifle these days.


I had a friend with a "25 pounder".