Just trying to get your thoughts.
www.jprifles.com

One of our civilians who went to the gulf with us spent some of the MAD cash he saved over there on a used but in perfect shape JP rifle. I will say this, it is pretty, and silky smooth and, and balanced well and shoots like a dream and... The list goes on. Would I have ever bought one? Oh no not for that price. For what he spent on just the rifle he could have built a very nice SPR easy. So Let me say if you really want one and get a deal on it somewhere then by al1 means go fo it but you can build a comporable rifle for much, MUCH less

IPSC_GUY sends

Thanks for the input!

I have a JP Enterprises upper, an older Grade 1 upper, that I've been shooting for about 4 years.


Back when flattop accurized uppers were starting to get real popular, JP Enterprises was one of the first to do it with style while also delivering on performance.    I bought mine back when I wasn't quite as knowledable about how easy it is to build an accurate AR15.    On one hand I couldn't be more satisfied in the rifle I have, it's served very well and it's accurate averaging around 3/4 inch for 10 shot groups at 100 yards(with rather simple handloads).     But on the other hand, it was kinda the model of "what I wanted, before I knew what I wanted" sort of thing.     Lots of decisions that I made back then I may have done differently if I had the experience I have now.


For instance, I'm not 100% sure who's barrel I have whether it's a total custom make or if it's from one of the more recognized makers and then I also don't know precisely what chamber I have nor how it's throated.    You can call them up and get a certain amount of information from them but it's not nearly as much a custom process as if somebody were to have a Compass Lake upper built or have George Gardner of GA Precision build one up where you have choices of reamers for the chamber, choices of contours, or choices several twist rates or rifling patterns.


JP Enterprises supposedly offered their uppers with Mike Rock 5R barrels at one time, now THERE is a reason for going with a maker if they offer the Mike Rock barrels and chamber them correctly.


My rifle weighs in at friggin 15 pounds unloaded....   Now a LOT of that was planned, I wanted a light recoiling rifle and by gawd I got it, this thing from a stable position allows for the shooter to spot all shots no matter what the range and recoil is extremely mild.    Makes for a great varmint rifle when shooting from a single position for long periods of time but it makes a crappy walking gun.    Much of the mild recoil is due to the weight but even with a 24inch barrel the JP brake is helping out, I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH THOUGH, REQUEST TO HAVE A REMOVABLE MUZZLE BRAKE WITH NON-STANARD THREADS!    It is near impossible to clean the muzzle crown of your rifle if that brake is installed permanently, in fact I went through the trouble of torquing that muzzle brake off of my barrel so that I could clean the 2+ years of carbon fouling off my muzzle.    Really mangled the finish of the brake too but I got it off(was on there with red LockTite), I've tested accuracy with and without the muzzle brake and the point of impact and group size change is minimal between when the brake is installed and uninstalled.     Go with a removable brake for sure and have them send a thread protector with it.    There are times that the JP brake is more than just a pain, sometimes it's downright punishing because it is SO loud.   It redirects MUCH of the muzzle blast back at the shooter and in 4+ years of owning the rifle I have fired it without hearing protection exactly 2 times.   Once was sorta deliberate and after that I said I would never again fire it without hearing protection, the 2nd time was an honest mistake when I removed one cup of my hearing protection to listen to what a mumbling friend was saying then I forgot to place it back over my ear.



Now long story short, everyone and their grandmother are putting out accurized uppers these days.    MANY of the uppers out there can offer performance similar to if not equal to that of the JP Enterprises upper while doing it for slightly less to significantly less.    But sometimes a person has got to admit that style plays a little bit of a role in what causes a person to choose one upper over another.   If it comes down to all your choices being equal in price and in accuracy capabilities then typically all that is left is deciding on which style you like more.


Here's my squirrel killing beast....
[url]http://home.bak.rr.com/varmintcong/jpar/jpar.html[/url]

I used a DPMS stainless steel lower in my build up to help off set some of the weight of the long bull barrel.    The paracord wrapping is there for 2 primary reasons, one was for insulation from those stupid black aluminum handguards which soak up the heat of the sun during summer or get DARN cold during winter.   The other reason for the paracord was for additional texture, the 1/2 twists line up right along the joints of the fingers making for a comfortable grip, plus I managed to make a flat "pinch point" for the thumb and index fingers so that I could get a repeatable hold each and every time.


If I had it to do over again, or when I goto replace this upper after shooting out the barrel, I'll probably go 100% custom with something like an upper from Scott Medesha or similarly qualified knowledable builder.   Just because I've advanced far enough to know where I'd do something different, the JP Enterprises rifle has been a GREAT rifle though considering it was my first step into the world of accurized long range firearms and was great to learn and even make mistakes with.    For the 750 or so I spent for the upper assembly, it has been a decent upper assembly while maybe being a bit more expensive than some others.

TX65, have you tried the Lapua Scenars yet for 6.5mm?


Impressive little bullets from what I'm hearing, some of the 308Winchester folks are loading up the Scenars in 165s and the things are tracking the M3 300WinMag 190grn cams.   Suggests they are aerodynamic little buggers.

I can't wait to try some of the heavier Scenars in my 300WinMag and one day a 260Rem chambered AR10, just need to figure which project I'm gonna go after first.

That's a sweet rifle UG, but what's the electrical tape wrapped inside the trigger guard and around the magwell for?

my brother got a grade2 JP upper a few years ago and it was a slick bit of work. shooting along side my bro that muzzle brake was murder! fortunately he did opt for the removeable version. it works very very well, as uglygun said you can stay on target but i pitty the fool that forgets his hearing protection as i once did. as far as the chamber i think my bro said the throat was a might short for some VLDs but i'm not sure which. pretty much a non issue as he sticks to mag length varmint loads for 99% of the shooting we do.

you can probably do just as good for less cash but i cant say anything bad about the JP upper i have shot.

personaly i'm really leaning towards mounting a krieger on SOCOM diamond upper/lower set rather than buy a complete custom deal.

Einrich, it's not electrical tape, it's a piece of bicycle inner tube.     I'm kinda strange in that I don't much like the feel of cold or hot metal.    It's mainly there for insulation, I stretched it around the mag well of all my ARs for improved feel(even my AR10).

I've made lots of little custom tweaks to my rifles over the years to make them more comfortable to shoot for extended periods of time.    Like my trigger guards, I've actually rounded the corners of them so that they are not square anymore.   I found that I got strange chaffing between my trigger finger and "social finger" after very long extended periods of shooting(5-6 hours behind the gun either at the range or while varmint shooting).    By knocking the corners off the plastic trigger guards I resolved that problem and honestly I can feel the difference, my AR10 has a metal trigger guard which I have yet to sand down and I can really feel the difference, it seems thicker almost because those stupid 90 degree corners.