Help me build a new AR

[chuckw2]

Guys,
In an effort to ward off a fit of depression I am going to build a new AR with your help.

This will be a truck gun that must be very light. It will ride in a high rack in Texas most of the time for night hunting but I also want to shoot PD's with it.


What are your suggestions?
What trigger, whose bbl,what length, whose lower, whose upper, what stock, what scope, what twist etc?


Please be as specific as possible.


Thanks in advance for your input..

Chuck

 

[billmo]

Chuck, First of all you may want to check out some of the different calibers that are offered now in the AR. The .223 is a fine cartridge but there are several 6mm and at least one 6.5 caliber being offered. Rock River Arms is my pick when it comes to accuracy for both uppers and lowers but you may want to do a little looking around and talking to some guys on here. I have one of Robert Whitley's 6mmAR uppers and I love it. I am very quickly moving towards having a 6.5 Grendel custom built also. I hope this helps. Bill

 

[dreever]

Chuck,

You may want to hold off till late summer when the Bushmaster ACR,AKA Magpul Masada) becomes available. With this new modular weapons system you'll be able to switch back and forth between calibers etc. in a matter of minutes. Check out the you tube video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJhPMIVgF6c

Personally I prefer the Sig 556 over the AR 15, but that's just me. Field stripping the Sig 556 compared to an AR15 for cleaning is a breeze. The 556 IS the Swiss 551, all the parts are interchangeable except for the magazines. The 556 uses standard AR15 type mags which are a lot cheaper and more available. Here's the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJ8JRQ4sjvQ&feature=related

Danny

 

[7stwhunter]

Chuck

I would have to agree with bill on this one you cant do much better than to go with the rock river uppers and lowers and i know when i get some money saved up again im gonna be looking at one of those 6mmAR turbos.

But for a compact truck gun i dont think you could beat a 20" kreiger DCM barrel with a good colapseable stock. I prefer the ones from VLTOR. And for a scope i know im going to be replacing my 6.5-20 VX-III with something in the 4.5-14 range.

Nathan

 

[Loupeznik]

If it were mine to build…

Trigger: JP single stage.
Barrel: That is tough to say. There are a lot of good barrel makers out there, but you don’t find many that specialize on a light and accurate for the AR. I would be looking at single point cut rifling.
Barrel Length: I have been looking at 18” lately for light weight. Keep your long hand guard. I understand that you need at least 4” of barrel after the gas block to make it reliable. I like the slower cycling of the gas block being out further than the 16”.
Who’s upper and lower: I’m not sure that matter much if you are going to build it. I just wouldn’t go with something that had a non-standard pin size.
Stock: I have been waiting for the Magpul UBR. I have been holding my breath so long I am blue. This is a comfort issue. Buy what you like.
Scope: Long eye relief ACOG with BDC. TA33-8. This would be good for night and it has a BDC for 223.
Twist: 1:9


I like JP's V-Tac hand guard too. I hate rail systems due there weight. If I wanted to add weight to the barrel I would add it to the barrel. The V-tac allows rails where and if you need them. You can put your sling where you need it as well.

 

[MrMister]

Hey Chuck,

Although the brain trust in Sacramento feels the citizenry of California is too stupid to handle such a fine weapon, and has sense made all the ones that work illegal, I nonetheless have friends in Nevada and get to play with theirs.

If you are talking out of the box then go with the Rock River hands down, in my opinion.

If you are talking a custom gun I would go with a Rock River lower and a White Oak upper-expensive and not practical for dog hunting but you also mentioned P-Dogs which it is well suited for.

The good thing about AR's is you can use the same lower and have multiple uppers.

For your Texas hunt I would go with a .223 16" barrel. I'm not a big fan of the .223 but in close quarters when you want to throw lead it's perfect and cheap.

Once you get home from that Texas trip and have saved up a few bucks I'd look into the White Oak upper in .204 with at least a 22" barrel,I'd go 24" myself).

I've seen that upper in action on rats and for a semi-auto it reaches 400-500 with authority!

Scopes:

For the dog gun I would go with the Nikon Monarch 1.5x6 with the 30mm tube. I have one on my calling gun and it's the best calling scope I have ever owned.

For a .204 upper I'd look into a 6x18 at the most but I think I'd prefer a 4.5x14 VX III.

Sure wish I lived in Free America!

Let us know what you decided on.

Steve

 

[billmo]

Chuck

I would have to agree with bill on this one you cant do much better than to go with the rock river uppers and lowers and i know when i get some money saved up again im gonna be looking at one of those 6mmAR turbos.

But for a compact truck gun i dont think you could beat a 20" kreiger DCM barrel with a good colapseable stock. I prefer the ones from VLTOR. And for a scope i know im going to be replacing my 6.5-20 VX-III with something in the 4.5-14 range.

Nathan

Nathan, that will be my next AR upper for sure. Robert Whitley's
uppers are # 1 in quality, workmanship, and accuracy. When you look at his web-site and see pics of his uppers, you can count on getting what you see and what he describes. I would reccomend Robert's products to anybody, anywhere. As you can tell I am very happy with my 6mmAR. It is a shooter with everything from 70 gr. Nosler BTs to 108 gr. BT Bergers. Bill

 

[CT10ring]

Chuck, I also have a 6AR from Robert Whitley. It uses a 6.5 Grendel case necked down,by me or shooter ) to 6mm. Robert provides dies, & brass if wanted). I have shot sub .125" groups with 75g V-max. Easy to size & Robt provides load data on his site that is spot on. Upper is heavy, though, for your use, but will sling a 75-90g bullet fast with mucho accuracy. Taking it PD shooting in a month. Superb machining on upper.
FWIW, I put a Chip MC single stage trigger in it,, and the creep is noticable. I also have a bushmaster varminter . 223 that is a quarter inch shooter with factory ammo 50 g.
Nice gun & not too special to knock about a bit. I put a scout rail on both-helped.

 

[skeetlee]

I think the answer is pretty simple. Look at the rock River Predator puruit. 20" mid weight barrel and very accurate. I love Mine. Lee