How many here have built a AR platform rifle ?

I am starting to gather parts. I'm am going to build my first one. Lucky for me my good friend has plently of experience to help me along. So far I have a Spikes lower and a Windom barrel. It's going to be a bench medium range shooter. I want to keep my cost with in reason. Tell me about yours.

You'll learn alot putting one together from the ground up. Spikes is a great lower. Palmetto State Armory has some pretty decent kits also.

i built an AR with a del-ton kit and a lower from my LGS, my suggestion is get extra small parts like the springs and such. i had a take down pin spring fly off while assembling. the whole thing came out to be about 700 including a 4 rail upgrade.

Good luck with your assembly. Show us some in-process and final pics.

honeycutt said:

It's going to be a bench medium range shooter. I want to keep my cost with in reason.

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If I were building one, I'd take a hard look at White Oak Armament barrels and Geissele triggers. Accuracy costs money. What is your definition of "mid range", what weight bullets do you intend to shoot? You can build a basic AR for $700, but not a target gun.
http://www.whiteoakarmament.com/xcart/product.php?productid=17565&cat=&bestseller=Y
http://www.whiteoakarmament.com/xcart/home.php?cat=307

And a decent AR (S&W) can be had for $599 or less.

Those 80%-driller polymer lowers are intriguing ...


AA

Building one yourself will not save you any money. Building 10 MIGHT..... It is mighty satisfying though as you know every part that goes in.

jason10mm said:

Building one yourself will not save you any money. Building 10 MIGHT..... It is mighty satisfying though as you know every part that goes in.

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I have in mind that this build might take a 6 months or longer. Not in any rush. I'll buy a part here or there and in stall it.

I may have jumped the gun, pun intended, and assumed you were interested in accuracy since you mentioned "bench" and "mid-range". What is your intended usage?

This rifle will be somewhere between a tack driver and a coyote getter.

honeycutt said:

This rifle will be somewhere between a tack driver and a coyote getter.

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Do you reload? What bullet weights will you be using?

I don't reload yet. I will find out what bullet weights it likes when I get through. That's to far down the road, but tell me what you built.

I have not built an AR from scratch, just assembled complete uppers to lowers, swapped out trigger groups and other parts, stocks, hand guards, and pistol grips. My older ARs are the original Bushmasters, good quality, from which Windham sprung. I tried shooting one of them in competition using the older 1:9 barrel twist and found out that at 600 yds that it could not stabilize the heavier bullets that I wanted to shoot in competition. Hence my questions to you. You will need at least a 1:8 twist to accurately shoot bullets heavier than 62 gr. and probably a 1:7 twist rate to shoot 75 gr. and higher accurately. YMMV. What is the twist rate of the barrel you intend to use? If you are plinking with 55 gr. FMJ bullets at ranges under 200 yds, it probably won't matter. If you are hunting with 65 gr. bullets it may, particularly at ranges greater than 200 yds. I've been told the the 69 gr. Sierra Match King bullets were designed specifically for 200 yd. competition and subsequently were not optimal for 600 yds. For that distance you probably want a 75 gr or higher weight bullet and the 1:7 twist rate. At least that is my general understanding. If others are more knowledgeable on this subject please chime in.

I have a Windham barrel, 20' with a 1:8 twist. Although this is my first build, I have done a little bit of research on what I generally want. Here again, being able to go from 200-600 yards is enough for me. So, the research is dead on what you just stated above. Also, this rifle is a long term project, who knows how it will turn out ? I also second your trigger recommendation.

I've helped friends build several. Recently helped a guy at work put one together with a rainier 16" med profile barrel and a billet upperwith fail zero bcg. sweet shooter!

I also have a modified core15 of my own. It has a plain jane noodle m4 profile 16" barrel and It shoots 2" groups at 200 yards with american eagle ammo.......haven't had a chance to run any good match through it yet. The american eagle stuff is not bad ammo.....sometimes I'll shoot 7 or 8 in a row that are really tight, and then call a good shot and theres one 1 or 2 inches out of the group. Its not match ammo, but for budget stuff it's not bad.

nortac said:

I have not built an AR from scratch, just assembled complete uppers to lowers, swapped out trigger groups and other parts, stocks, hand guards, and pistol grips. My older ARs are the original Bushmasters, good quality, from which Windham sprung. I tried shooting one of them in competition using the older 1:9 barrel twist and found out that at 600 yds that it could not stabilize the heavier bullets that I wanted to shoot in competition. Hence my questions to you. You will need at least a 1:8 twist to accurately shoot bullets heavier than 62 gr. and probably a 1:7 twist rate to shoot 75 gr. and higher accurately. YMMV. What is the twist rate of the barrel you intend to use? If you are plinking with 55 gr. FMJ bullets at ranges under 200 yds, it probably won't matter. If you are hunting with 65 gr. bullets it may, particularly at ranges greater than 200 yds. I've been told the the 69 gr. Sierra Match King bullets were designed specifically for 200 yd. competition and subsequently were not optimal for 600 yds. For that distance you probably want a 75 gr or higher weight bullet and the 1:7 twist rate. At least that is my general understanding. If others are more knowledgeable on this subject please chime in.

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Nice post John. I have seen more 1:8's as of lately, then I've ever had in the past.

honeycutt said:

I have a Windham barrel, 20' with a 1:8 twist. Although this is my first build, I have done a little bit of research on what I generally want. Here again, being able to go from 200-600 yards is enough for me. So, the research is dead on what you just stated above. Also, this rifle is a long term project, who knows how it will turn out ? I also second your trigger recommendation.

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gonna be a nice shooter with that 20". That 4" worth of extra velocity really helps.

Several.

My advice is three words: "Tetra Gun Grease."

I've been experimenting with frog lube recently........if you make sure to use the stripper that comes with the kit so there is zero petroleum products on the rifle,it seems to work really well. I wasn't sold on it, and am still in the trying out phase. If it still works after I put the rifle up for an extended period, then I'll probly convert over to it exclusively.

gecey87 said:

I've been experimenting with frog lube recently........if you make sure to use the stripper that comes with the kit so there is zero petroleum products on the rifle,it seems to work really well. I wasn't sold on it, and am still in the trying out phase. If it still works after I put the rifle up for an extended period, then I'll probly convert over to it exclusively.

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Been here, done this. Sounds like you are going into the testing with eyes open as I did. Denatured Alcohol works well in stripping the gun before applying the frog lube also. I thought at first, that Frog Lube was going to work for me. If it's applied and then the gun is taken right out and used, it works great.

I took a Colt Commando on a weekend tactical course a couple of years back, that I had did the whole frog lube thing to. Range temperatures that summer, were around 105 degrees. So the frog lube worked great and the gun seemed to stay and run with just the right amount of "wet" that you would want for a 10 1/2" barreled AR.

It worked so well, I ran home and put every gun I owned thru the frog lube process. The problem came, the minute I stored those guns. The lube dries in storage and turns into a thick, oxidized brown, I dunno, looking for a better word, Gunk? Goop? Paste? It turns into a dried, sticky and crumbly mess.

When I pulled a gun out of storage to use, you can't use a petroleum based product, it just rolls right off of the dried frog lube. You have to lube with more frog lube. the problem is, when that gun heats up again, the now, wet frog lube, mixes with that old dried, sticky crumbly frog lube, that has been painted into every crack & crevice and turns into some kind of weird mud layer.

I'm kind of stubborn, so when I decide to like something, I stick with it. I tried sticking with frog lube as long as I could, but it gets embarrassing when the class you're instructing gets held up, because my own bolt, keeps failing to go all the way into battery.
I finally went back and stripped the froglube from every gun I own, again...

I know petroleum based products are carcinogenic, smelly, oily and things of that nature, But I learned, if something's not broke, don't fix it.

Also, Frog lube seemed, to time consuming for me. You have to totally strip and heat your gun metal to apply, but If you get your gun dirty, the lube doesn't seem to clean as well as it should or stick very well, unless you re-heat the gun up all the time. Blow dryers take too long, and I got tired of my wife telling me to keep my gun parts out of the oven.

I know there is ymmv for everything, this was just my personal experiences with it.