It's been awhile since I posted this, so I thought I'd repost just to clarify RBRD for some of our newer members:

We think of ourselves as a 12-step program.

Step1: You want a sort of 'Vietnam looking rifle or carbine' and find the forum.

Step2: Spend hours and hours reading through a zillion threads and still don't understand WTF an 'MVP' marked barrel is, but like the pics you see.

Step3: After a particularly long session online you follow our advice and go to the EE where you see an upper JUST LIKE IN THE PICTURES! You buy it immediately and congratulate yourself by opening another beer. You gloat until the next afternoon after work when:

Step4: You post pics of your new aquisition and 36 members post a list of things wrong with it, but, in the nicest possible way. You just feel like a dumbass.

Step5: Some long term member feels sorry for your predicament and contacts you, offers to help by supplying the part/gun/upper/bayonet you really wanted or gives advice, or both.

Step6: You read more, find ALL THE FUCKING GUIDES PINNED AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE and realize that everything you bought is worthless except for the absolfuckinglutely 601 charging handle and the early barrel, which although pinned with an ugly, POS 5.5" 'moderator' is just what a certain member wants for an E1 build. Someone mentions 'RBR'.

Step7: You buy $100 worth of tools to tear the upper down, sell the parts, and break even, but immediately spend 3x the money you recovered buying more parts off the EE.

Step8: You put your perfect, well, nearly perfect upper together, then realize you should have reanodized the receiver because it doesn't match and has a couple minor scratches that are driving you nuts. You tear the whole thing back down, having never put a round through it, and send it to Victor, along with the Spikes lower you already had 'to save money'.

Step 9: You get all the parts back, plus a REAL ALUMINUM CAR STOCK! Who gives a shit if it's Bushmaster - it's NOT PLASTIC! WAHOO! Your barrel comes back from being pinned, but you are now thinking E1 instead of E2, and WTH, a tax stamp is only $200 - well worth it. In the mean time, somehow you missed that the NDS lower reciever is the only way ONLY WAY to go. You realize this the day Victor returns your gorgeous Spikes lower in XM grey. You can't bear to look at it, but are too ashamed to sell the damn thing. You put in an order for an NDS lower, but of course they are out, so you spend 3 weeks staring at your other parts, which drives you nuts, so you spend your time perusing the EE and score a REAL 602 UPPER! I MEAN THE WHOLE DAMN THING! HOLY CRAP, HOW DID I FIND THIS?????!!!!! You don't tell anyone on the retro board because you are still missing parts and want to present the build as complete, plus those bastards will now want one like yours and be competing for the same parts.

Step10: The bank repossesses your car and the gas company shuts off service for non-payment, but you've been eating nothing but Top Ramen and Tecate for 4 months, so who gives a rat's ass? The cold showers take some getting used to, but since your girlfriend left you for being a 'gun freak' you kind of need them, and they're really not so bad. You buy a real GI steelpot off ebay for only $289 and start wearing it in the shower with your poncho just to see what it was like. Your friggin' closets are full of so many small, medium and long cardboard boxes that you start sorting them and inventorying them periodically, and marking what is in them with a sharpie. You soon begin consolidating parts, making the markings into lists. You congratulate yourself on coming up with such an innovative system on your way to the food bank because you decided to buy a few extra parts as an investment.

Step 11: You quit your job for a job in a gun shop that pays 1/2 as much just because there's a raggedy-ass LH handguard in the display case that is painted green, with brown bakelite showing through. You cringe and sweat everytime your boss shows it to someone casually : 'Can you believe the AR15 began with crap like THIS?' When they laugh you consider where to hide the bodies. How could anyone be so blase about this? You move all your good shit into a storage unit because you can't afford your apartment anymore, but who cares? You shower at work using the rainspout, fantasizing about the green LH handguard in the case. You are almost there.

Step 12: Charlie Sheen stops in the gunshop one day and your boss of course, spends an inordinate amount of time bullshitting with him, even though he is on record that he thinks he's worthless. Bosses. Charlie has a thing for AR15's, so of course, after handling several, your boss shows him...the handguard. Charlie says, 'Yeah, that's cool. Whaddya want for it?' and your boss hems and haws until they settle on $150. You want to slit your boss's throat because you offered him $250 a week earlier, but maybe it was the smell of the dumpster you slept in that night that threw him off. Anyway, CS buys the HG...the very fucking HG that is an exact match for the RH one you have (The one you smuggled in to check while your boss was at his daughter's wedding, bar mitzvah, whatever.) You sneak out the back, then haul ass around the building just as Charlie is getting into his Ferrari with 'Precious' in his hand. You consider just jumping on him and mugging him, but you aren't that well armed, and Charlie's no pushover. So, you strike up a conversation, trying to keep your eyes off the HG he keeps waving around. Scarred as it is, you can't abide it being dinged or scarred further. It just wouldn't look right in the shrine you're building in the storage unit. Suddenly Charlie gets a scared look in his eyes, perhaps becuse of your references to Vietnam, ear necklaces, B-52's. tunnels, and Bouncing Bettys. He tosses the HG into the air and you dive for it before it hits the concrete, and he takes the moment to start the Ferrari and tear off into the smog.

The moral of this story is, YOU GOT THE HANDGUARD!!!! WAHOOOOO!!!!

Welcome to the forum.

Sticky, this is great!

Can I buy some of what your on? I really need to go on a magic carpet ride........

Enjoyed reading this one. Thanks for sharing.

It only gets worse as your tolerence gets more for retro parts...you will want more expensive parts...i mean who pays 250 for a bolt catch or 150-200 for a port door thats 50 years old?

I need help! $25 for a take down pin! errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Dammit, Morg! I just blew lemonade out my nose.

My question is; Once you own one of every A1 model, does it stop? I fear it may enter a terminal stage at that point... The perfect, date coded part down to every part on each model.

Have you been secretly recording me?

Awesome

I don't think it ever stops... I have stuff like 621, M16K, M231, DOE, even an "AR14."  Sometimes it slows down, and once in a while something else jumps in between AR15 projects, but... I don't think it ever stops.

John Thomas

LOL!  You've been following me, haven't you!



And what is the deal with the left side handguards?  I can't find one anywhere!

Needs to add a line, "but at least I've stopped drinking..."

Can't afford even Milwaukee's Best when you're saving for an unissued 1:14 barrel...

Tha's some good readin right there I tell you what.

That dayum book better be ready soon Morg!

I done did read me some Gentle Propositions cover to cover and now I'ma wantin some more ter-lit readin materials!

When one finds themselves in the enviable situation of having every model,  you can start acquiring duplicates.

Lol morg...this needs to be a sticky.

You have every model from Prototype, 601, 602 XM16E1 603 , Early 604, Late 604, 605, 606, 607, 609, 610 and on and on. What keeps you driven to keep going, especially since you have all the models or at least 99% of them. Does the retro business stoke the fire? Cause I'll tell you the truth I've started getting into M1 Carbines, Enfield's, P14's 1903's, and 1896 Krags..

I'm waiting on some other projects to finish up before I order another lower from nodak...

that will finish my 604

Then it's onto the 703, which i'm planning to take between 5-10 years on...seriously

This is so funny, I can Identify with so much of this " I think it is almost qualified as a short story"
I just haven't lost my house or my wife yet. Thank God My Wife Loves Guns Too! .
As I read this I kept saying that's me, every line, that's me. But the funny part is I don't
think by reading this excellent description of the sickness we call RBRD will slow me
down a bit.  Excellent bit of descriptive text pertaining to the kind of person that loves the retro
rifle. So I just bought a book " The Black Rifle"  Thinking I now own "The Book"  You just inspired
me to by my second book, but I'm just waiting for it to come available, Written by you. Then I will
be the proud owner of two books
Excellent writing Morg, I got a real kick out of it.

Morg, I think you have looked into a crystal ball (or maybe a singlepoint scope used in Star Wars ) and seen my future...

The only good thing about this post, the ONLY thing - is that if you read it and can relate, you know now, without a doubt ....

You are NOT alone!  

Nice read Morg - also looking forward to the book!
Mike

No, then you start building A2s.  Easy, peasy, right?  And then Mother Army issues something like this:



and some retarded idiot posts pictures of it anytime someone starts discussing the hallowed M16A2...

no, then you start replicating every single variant shown in "The Black Rifle".

tool room models that never made it TO testing, one offs, you'll go blind trying to make out details at x20 magnification.

then you discover Reed Knight's display.
OMG, i want one of everyone of THOSE!

every production model is but the start.

Morg - absolutely classic , and I'm guilty if making those lists,,,

Ha, this is dead on !   I wish I had never seen reed knights wall,,,,
Or what I can from a I- phone screen

Wait..... What?.. What's a 621, or a m16k ?!, please don't let me like it.., please don't let me like it.

 
I think a 703 would be the most ambitious build
In retro land , even harder if you can make it a real
Piston system

THATS NOT FUNNY!!!!!!....I ended up with H6 buffer collapsible stock set, and it tried at LEAST a couple times to spawn into the Pictured unit....AND YES, I have the extra lower, upper, bcg, barrel, RAS M5, AND Aimpoint, lying around....SO I am FIGHTING HARD too...

DITTO FOR THE C7 style builds as well...I have to sell two C7 uppers ASAP, so I dont see them anymore...

That photo was taken in Talil, Iraq, in late 2011.  It was an Engineer unit, and their armorer hooked them up w/ the conversion kit b/c they were in & out of vehicles all day, and didn't have M4s on the TO&E.  You KNOW you want a late Iraq build - that ranges out to 800 yards with irons, and a red dot for up close, and a stock that collapses to make it shorter, and the reliability of rifle gas...

NOPE....CANT READ YOU.....LALALALALALALALA...NOPE!.....
















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I got nothing.

Well, as long as you don't stake the castle nut, it takes me all of about 3 minutes to change buffer tubes on an AR.  Did it this morning before I went to the gun show.  (And I've started taking the buffer out of it before I carry it around for the whole show.  One of these days I'm gonna forget to put it back in, & start a 7 page thread about my AR not functioning right...)

Great post and very funny too.  I still hope that our ways attract more ar15 enthusiasts.  Sure a 14.5" m4 clone is cool,
but at some point, every shooter needs a light weight, reliable rifle with (gulp, I am going to say it) iron sights !  Yes,
civies and the military have used iron sights for years.  I think they are still legal to use in most states  Cheers to the
retro crowd.  Shooting the same way our dads and grandads did.

And then we turn 40 and need retro scopes.  

I think about this every time I go shooting. Man how I could use a scope on this thing... Then I remind myself that the iron sights were what brought me to these models. Then I find myself shooting at 25 yards so I can see everything.

When I have to qualify on the pop ups @ 300 yards, it gets very dicey even w/ the Aimpoint.    I want my own magnifier I can flip up.

Have you tried cowitness thru the iron sight?  I know for my astigmatism,  it really cleans up the dot.

I got plenty of carbine lowers to swap around....at least that is why I dont need any more builds.....

Aimpoint doesn't always zero on the lolipop.  My problem is not the dot - it's seeing the target @ 300 yds.  

Awesome. Very nice~!!

Some of you guys got it easy.  I have to apply those warnings in addition to:

90 series HK's
UZI
Garands
M1Carbines
Galil SAR
Rhodesian FAL's
WW2 Training .22 Rifles
Some Shotties
Vietnam Era Survival Gear

and a dozen other oddball addictions.  Divorced and no kids.

"You buy a real GI steelpot off ebay for only $289 and start wearing it in the shower with your poncho just to see what it was like"

LOL..  made my day

Do the same thing with a kevlar, get confused, and the moderator moves your post to the A2 forum!

 I think I popped a stitch I laughed so hard. MEDIC!!