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Building an AR upper for accuracy

Rock Knocker

I have a cheap Model1Sales 24" varmint upper put onto a DPMS lower. For the price it has been a great gun.

I will be replacing the barrel sometime this year and i figure i dont want to put a top of the line barrel on a sub-par reciever so i figured i would just buy a new upper also.

I want to stick with 24" and i would also like to stick with 1-9" unfluted barrel. Realistically i only target shoot with it but i have it for varmint shooting and when the need arises i need it there for varmint shooting, so i dont want to build it as a target rifle.

Im just looking for some suggestions on a brand upper reciever and barrels i should start looking into. Once again im not going to be buying a whole new top of the line AR but fitting this upper onto a DPMS lower.

Also have any of you tried those Accuwedges? do they work or help out with anything?
 
check out 6mmar.com and call him up to see about building you a 223 if thats what your wanting. the wedges help if your upper and lower fit is sloppy.
 
I have built a few good ones over the last few years. I have never had a barrel from John H. at http://www.whiteoakarmament.com/barrels.htm that did not shoot well. Other barrels I have used include Lothar Walther, Sabre defense, (no longer in business), and noveske. So many barrel makers do a good job with AR-15 now.

With the long 24" heavy contour barrel, you don't have to but you may want to use a billet upper receiver that will offer more strength, and less flex. Of course the billet will be more money.

If you are not already a member, join AR15.com, there are alot of vendors and plenty of help available on that site. Good luck, and feel free to contact me if you get stuck.
 
You can buy a complete Match Upper from White Oak for under $700 which is a steal. They are VERY good.
John at WOA builds Uppers and chambers barrels for a large number of Service and Match Rifles shooters.
I use one of his for F/TR. You can get them with or without the muzzle turned down.
For a non-.223 Upper, Robert Whitley makes amazing stuff.
Accuwedges work if you have a lot of slop. For just a little slop, try slipping an O-ring over the front receiver post (of the Upper) before you put the Upper/Lower together. Works for some.
 
I put a Lilja barrel on mine with no other special parts and it really shoots good.
Try one of their barrels and see if it shoots to your liking in your existing upper before you spend a bunch of money you may not need too.
If it works spend the money on other goodies.
 
squirrelduster said:
I put a Lilja barrel on mine with no other special parts and it really shoots good.
Try one of their barrels and see if it shoots to your liking in your existing upper before you spend a bunch of money you may not need too.
If it works spend the money on other goodies.
Click to expand...

Cool. Are AR-15 Lilja barrels available somewhere as drop in, or was it done by a smith for you?
 
I just bought my complete upper from www.precisionfirearms.com This guy has AR barrels in Lilja, Shilen and Lothar Walther. He will assemble a complete upper for you with your specs, or you can buy just the barrel. I just bought a complete upper with Lilja 23 inch 8 twist barrel with free float handguard, round gas block and a neat billet upper with National Match BCG. This guy is the most well stocked AR guy I have ever seen at a gun show, he had a line of guys placing orders at the gun show and assembled them at the show. Not cheap, but quality is there. I threw this on a DPMS lower with an accuwedge and he guarantees .25 MOA with Lapua brass. Your DPMS lower will be fine.

Frank
 
You can also "bed" an upper & lower together with J-B or other bedding compounds if it's sloppy. Sounds like White Oak is a great place to look but my guess is that a barrel will work just fine if your original shot good to start with. Rock river also has comple uppers that aren't that expense. Their varmint rifle is guaranteed to shoot 3/4" with factory ammo & they do much better than that.
 
the upper you have will be fine. most uppers come from the same foundry and leave it up to the manuf to machine them to their specs. get any of the top brand barrels, get a match or wylde chamber with match bolt. then find your load after the rifle is put together. i got my last barrel from compass lake (douglas 1-7"). i set the torque wrench to 35 and after 3 tighten and untighten, i tightened it down one last time and everything was in perfect allignment. and that barrel is a shooter also
 
Ok this is some great advise. Millard also brought up another one of my questions, what chamber for accuracy? I use 223 FL dies and have a chamber for 5.56 and 223. Are the tolerances going to be a little tighter just getting a 223 chamber or should i stay with the Wyled and not have to worry about pushing some hotter loads than you may want with sandard 223?

Also is it fine for me to use my current gas block and tub for the new barrel as long as the specs are the same? i also plan on keeping my aluminum floated hand guard.
 
The wylde chamber is actually quite generous, and is know to shoot just about anything you put into it. The only other match chamber i would consider is the bushmaster/Compass Lake Engineering (CLE). It is a bit tighter, and I have only ever had problems with very aggressive loads. Both chambers work great with off-the-shelf standard sizing dies, no small base or bushing dies required.
 
+1 on the Wylde. Only possible drawback is that they won't necessaily chamber in a standard 223 AR chamber. No issues with standard dies.
 
Rock Knocker said:
The Vltor upper and White Oak Armament looks like the way i will be going, the prices are more impressive than i was thinking also.
Click to expand...

Hard to find the good stuff for cheap. ;)
 
Larryh128 said:
+1 on the Wylde. Only possible drawback is that they won't necessaily chamber in a standard 223 AR chamber. No issues with standard dies.
Click to expand...
Wylde is the chamber type and you would use 223REM dies. So, I'm not sure what you mean.
 
scotharr said:
Larryh128 said:
+1 on the Wylde. Only possible drawback is that they won't necessaily chamber in a standard 223 AR chamber. No issues with standard dies.
Click to expand...
Wylde is the chamber type and you would use 223REM dies. So, I'm not sure what you mean.
Click to expand...

From what I remember looking at reamer prints, the difference between the Nato chamber, and 223 Rem is the amount of free bore. The Wylde is a design between the two that does a good job with a wide range of bullets, and handles 5.56 nato loads. Most of my chambers are Wylde, and capable of shooting an 80 gr. bullet although they are too long for mag, so single load only.

Dies are not an issue, use what ever fl sizing die you want, and set the head space back .002 or a tad less when re sizing.
 
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