Build my own AR-15?

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K40

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Is it legal for me to assemble my own AR-15 from seperate parts? Is it possible(I have no smith skills)? Is it cheaper this way?

I always notice all these parts offered in shotgun news, would I have to purchase through a FFL holder? Are all Ar-15 parts interchangable, with no fitting or alterations?

Yes, many,many questions from an AR newbie!
 
Legal - Yes
Possible - Yes
Cheaper - Maybe (depends on what you buy).
FFL - You have to purchase the lower reciever from an FFL. Everything else is shipped right through the mail. You can also build your own lower receiver if you have the expertise. There are people that have built an entire lower reciever and this is perfectly legal. Other people built 80% lowers which is a lower that is 80% completed and you finish it. This is also perfectly legal as long as you are building it for yourself and not building them for sale.

I have built a half dozen or more AR15s. If you buy a lower, installing the fire control parts into it takes about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes. You can then buy a complete upper and you are ready to go. Building an upper is slightly more difficult and is best done with a couple specialized tools but people have done it without any specialized tools.

This is a good source for info: http://www.ar15.com/content/docs/assembly/
http://www.ar15.com/content/parts/

Everything you need to know is available on-line. You don't need to buy any books or anything.

Cheaper: If you buy good quality components from well known reputable manufacturers, then it most likely won't be cheaper; maybe a little bit. If you buy off-brand stuff you can save more. I personally buy the best stuff I know about and don't care about trying to save money. I want the best quality weapon possible rather than the cheapest. It has been my experience that both work. It is hard to go wrong with an AR15. But the better quality stuff works better in more severe conditions.
 
I think about doing this every so often. From my reading the simplist way for a newbie to get started with AR-15's is to buy a kit from J&T, Model 1 or M&A. J&T seems to be the most popular. Order a receiver and have it shipped to a local FFL. I'd talk to your local dealer and see what works for them. Then order the kit. It can ge shipped directly to you.

The choices are overwhelming. A kit and receiver will cost around $600-$700. The prices go up real fast...want a flip-up rear sight...+$140.


tjg
 
K40,

I recently did this myself, or at least part way. I bought a stripped receiver, which is the one part that MUST be transferred through an FFL with a NICS check. Everything else is just parts. 444 covered most everything above so I'll just add my $0.02.

First, be sure you're aware of what is pre-ban vs post-ban. If you build one and use pre-ban parts you're going to have a Bad Day.

Second, although plenty of information is available on line, I found the books "The Complete AR-15 Assembly Guide" and "The Complete AR-15 Owner's Guide" to be very informative. They are inexpensive (around $20 each). The assembly guide has LOTS of pictures to go along with the descriptions of what you should be doing. Yes, it does sometimes read like an add for Fulton Armory but that's ignored easily enough.

As was stated above, putting the lower together is pretty simple. The upper part is a bit more involved. I finally decided to buy a pre-assembled upper (without a bolt, bolt carrier or charging handle which I ordered separately at a later date) from someone on AR-15.com.

After you've put everything together spend a few extra $ - hand it over to a competent gunsmith to make sure you did everything right.

Finally, once you've got it built and checked out, take it to the range and have blast. I finally got around to taking mine out recently and it was great.
 
I built my PRK Legal Neutered FAB-10 myself. I ordered a nice Bushmaster Pre-Ban (my rifle does not have a detachable magazine so I can have the evil flash suppressor!) V-match 20" upper with bolt carrier, bolt, and charging handle from the AR15.com equipment exchance (I highly recommend). I got the buttstock from there too, then I bought the lower parts set and the rest of the buttstock parts from Rock River Arms. I ordered the stipped FAB-10 lower receiver from my FFL and I slapped it all together. It works just fine.
 
Excellent question, I was wondering if you can place a bushmaster upper on a Colt/RRA/Olympia lower or vice versa.


Has anyone done this with success or problems?
 
In the Bushmaster catalog,they say not intended for Colt models.They list certain Colt parts separately.I believe the guide pins onColts are bigger or fatter.
 
Generally speaking, you can put mix and match manufacturers. Sometimes they are a little tight, or a little loose(I have even encountered that with uppers and lowers from the same manufacturer).

Colt is the caveat to that statement. Colt used an oversized front piviot hole on their products for years. There are adaptors that will allow you to use these on standard lowers.
 
Piece 'o cake......

First, go here to order your upper. I found this the latest Shotgun News, Sarco ad:

Sarco%20ad.jpg


Then I ordered up an Armalite lower receiver (the FFL part) for a paltry $85 from www.quanticoarms.com. Just scroll down and look in the center field and you'll find them listed.

This brings your total to $370. Add to that some extra parts, maybe an armorer's wrench or some go/no go gauges and you're still under $500 and will take about 2 hours of your day to complete.

Be aware, however, that you still have to comply with 922r regs which means no original flash hider and no bayonet lug. Make any adjustments you have to make to comply with those regs. A fake flash hider can be attached over the threads if you use 1100 degree silver solder. This can be removed later when the AWB goes away.

Rome
 
Thanks for all of the great info, my reasoning for building one would be not spending a chunk(for my budget) at one time...dont want the wife to get suspicious;)
 
That is one of the great things about building one up for yourself. You can buy the parts as you have the money and not have to lay out the whole thing in one lump sum like you would if you bought a complete rifle.
To me, the biggest reason you would do this is so you actually understand how the rifle works and how to repair it if something every goes wrong.
Yes, you can buy any part from any manufacturer and put it together with parts from another manufacturer. As was mentioned, some Colts use different sized pivot pins. But, you can buy adapters so even this is easily possible.
There are several companies that sell "kits". J&T is but one of them. I personally don't see this as being any easier than buying the parts seperately, but to each his own; there is certainly nothing wrong with it. Personally, I demand a chrome lined chamber and barrel and most of the "kits" dont' have it including J&T. If you arn't in a hurry, and are trying to save some cash, the best way to do this would be to shop around and wait on the right deal to come up. For example, you might check out the equipment exchange section of AR15.com and buy a used complete upper instead of just ordering a new one. Stocks are also frequently found on-line since this is something that a lot of people change and experiment with. Someone might get a fixed stock rifle and want to try a collapsable stock or a Mag-Pul stock or whatever; I have probably a half dozen various stocks laying around the house. Every once in awhile I see a post somewhere about someone that has good forged lowers for a good price. You probably arn't going to save any significant amount of money on a lower parts kit.
My advice is to do a little research on what makes up a good AR15 and buy quality stuff. It costs a little more money, but might actually save you money in the long run. Be careful what you buy, and who you get it from. There are always rumors about stuff being sold as seconds. Personally, I buy most of my basic rifle parts from Bushmaster. They are a ruputable company and their parts are made to mil-spec. The exception is the lower reciever itself which I usually get somewhere else.
One interesting item are the lower recievers from Cavalry Arms. They are made out of plastic with the stock, lower reciever, and trigger guard all moulded from one piece of plastic. I have one, and it is a great rifle, although it doesn't look exactly like a military M16.
 
Thanks for all of the great info, my reasoning for building one would be not spending a chunk(for my budget) at one time...dont want the wife to get suspicious
Click to expand...

Well, there goes my suggestion.

After a little less than 4 years' affliction with the AR bug, I have purchase only 2 complete rifle (my first purchases). My collection since then has been built up by building my own.

Because of this experience, I always suggest that someone looking to enter the world of ARs buy a complete rifle first and spend some time with it. The act of field stripping it alone makes building one so much simpler becuase you already have an idea of how things go together.

Plus, with the complete rifle disassembled for cleaning one gets a fabulous look into the parts of both upper and lower without the hassle of having to put one together from scratch without knowing what goes where. (Yeah, the books help, but there's nothing like having seen the real thing. I've put all of mine together without the help of online guides or books or manuals. Simply knowledge of the rifle and having a complete one sitting in front of me was enough.)

It's certainly not required to be successful in building an AR, but it helps tremendously. If you can't buy one (to avoid buzzing the wifey's radar), see if a buddy would let you borrow one for comparison when you start putting it together.

Will you save money? Over all I dont' think there's a big savings. Especially if you use quality parts. If you go with the cheapest for everything you might save as much as $30-50, but it's not worth it to use the cheap stuff, IMO.

Either way, it's a fun project and you'll have the satisfaction of knowing you did it yourself. Of course, you'll have to provide pictures and range reports. You know that, right? :D
 
That really didn't tell me much, at least not in reference to an AR-15 receiver. If it's just a couple holes that need to be drilled, I can do that. I can't think of much else that would need to be done to an AR lower, dince they are fairly simple. Any machining or milling is out of my league.
 
There are a number of good links on the net about finishing an 80% receiver. I believe there have been threads on here or on TheFiringLine.com about it. I know there have been numerous threads on AR15.com about it but you have to be a member to really search and go way back in the archieves.
Try an internet search.
I know you have to drill the holes, and they have to be drilled precisely. There are jigs available for the drilling. I seem to remember that you have to tap the rear of the receiver for the buffer tube also. Of course you would have to apply some kind of finish. When I was reading the stuff on-line I remember thinking that it wouldn't be hard with the jig and a drill press. The catch is that the jig costs about the same as a finished lower. It was only worthwhile if you were going to do several of them or if you could get some other people to chip in on it with you. In fact I am pretty sure that some people on AR15 did a group buy and mailed it to each other after they were done. It got screwed up several times and the more experienced people had to fix it more than once. I am pretty sure it was AR15.com, I know I read about the group buy somewhere.

There was a GREAT thread on some board where a guy that owned a machine shop built a lower from a block of metal and showed very detailed pictures of the process. I posted a link to it on the gunsmithing section of this board six months or so ago. Of course this is way beyond the scope of most people, but it was interesting to look at anyway.
 
I've got to believe that there are all kinds of issues regarding registration of a newly made receiver. If I'm correct, those 80% receivers are not transferred by FFL which is why they are for sale in places like eBay, and have no serial number. How does one assign one, or am I missing something........or not missing something if you catch my drift.

For the $85, I'd rather have one all prepared. There isn't enough savings in money to warrant finishing one up in my book which leads me to believe that there may be some motives that I'm just not aware of.

Rome
 
Yeah, you are missing something.
No offense intended, but everything isn't about money.
There are people who take great pride in knowing that they built their own firearm, and did as much of the work as was reasonable. They do it because this is a hobby and not a business. They guage it's value in their own enjoyment and not the bottom line of a balance sheet.
Think about other hobbies. We all know there are some people that restore old cars. They might buy, let's say, a POS 1968 Camero and they end up spending $30,000 restoring it and making it into their idea of a dream car. Was it a good financial move ? Maybe, probably not. Was it worth it to them ? Most certainly.

There is nothing illegal, or shady about finishing an 80% receiver.
 
Absolutely no offence taken, 444. Taking pride in knowing you did a good job in building your own rifle is just fine but we're talking about firearms here, not a sofa table or doll house. To my knowledge these receivers still need to be numbered, am I right? All I'd like to know is what has to be done to keep these rifles legal, that's all. At some point in the finishing of these receivers, they become firearms.

I'm particular about keeping my collection above board and in compliance. Here at this forum and at many others we talk about compliance regs all the time when it comes to FALs and AK47s or any of the so-called assault weapons. So, it would stand to reason that building up an 80% receiver that has no serial number, into a working rifle would also include some knowledge compliance within those regs, too.

I'm only asking because I don't know and would like to understand.

Thanks!

Rome
 
Thanks!

Now I know. I've always been curious about this.

So, you can complete this modern rifle, own it and shoot it and never have to go through NICs. That is a definate + in my book.

Very interesting.

Rome
 
Make sure you check out that link to AR15.com and then check out the links posted in that thread. Especially the one where they guy builds one on his kitchen table using hand tools. JB Weld, he even made his own tap using a bolt.
He has more guts than I do, that's for sure.

Edit: I added the links to my previous post.
 
To my knowledge these receivers still need to be numbered, am I right?
Click to expand...
Nope. If you're building a rifle for yourself, it doesn't need a serial number. You can still put one on if you want, but it's perfectly legal without any.
 
Don't know where you are in Illinois, Houndawg, but not long ago Concealed Carry Inc. hosted a series of classes on building your own AR-15. From their point of view, the main attraction was the ability to create a rifle with no paperwork or serial number. (Of course, attending the class may have put you on a list anyway, but I guess you could make yourself 3 or 4 rifles and turn in 2 or 3 when the time comes. . . . )

Might check out http://www.concealcarry.org
 
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