I thought AR-15s were supposed to be EASY (learn from my stupidity)

[Rembrandt]

Scares me when I see a claw hammer next to the finished product.....

 

[Bezoar]

and people wonder why the man with a goooood bolt action rifle just grins and enjoys his bolt action rifle.

 

[JamieC]

After reading this, (congrats on being persistent and finishing!), I'm glad my first build was a kit. I bought a full kit of parts from one company, TWS, $700, went together just fine, shoots great. I thought a full kit seemed like a great idea, ASSuming all the parts were picked to fit together, any problems would be me not miss matched parts.

 

[1KPerDay]

Video for any interested. I already scrounged for a new mag catch and fixed that problem.

http://youtu.be/hYG1A7mOxk8

 

[MistWolf]

and people wonder why the man with a goooood bolt action rifle just grins and enjoys his bolt action rifle.

Apples & Oranges. The AR in question was built, The bolt action is likely bought as a complete rifle.

However, if we were to make a direct comparison, the AR is easier to build than the average bolt action

 

[Steve CT]

I reached out to an expert (my son) when I wanted an AR built:

 

[justice06rr]

Congrats, rifle looks good.

Although you could've went with an aluminum lower and still be in the $700 range. I'm not knocking yours, just giving an advice for future builds.

Also I don't count any tools I've spent on AR builds. Those are investments and can be used for non-firearm projects as well.


eta: On your video, I noticed your upper is not lined up with your A2 front sight, which is why you had to drift your rear sight all the way over.

 

[1KPerDay]

Although you could've went with an aluminum lower and still be in the $700 range.

Not at the time. there was NOTHING available for quite a few months.

eta: On your video, I noticed your upper is not lined up with your A2 front sight, which is why you had to drift your rear sight all the way over.

The front sight base is pinned properly, and the barrel pin is of course lined up with the notch in the receiver. It doesn't LOOK misaligned in person. I imagine it's a trick of the lens/video. But you could be right.

In any case, it shoots where I point it now... but I need to get out to shoot it at longer range.

 

[1KPerDay]

and people wonder why the man with a goooood bolt action rifle just grins and enjoys his bolt action rifle.

Do they wonder? Really?

 

[1KPerDay]

Time flies... finally got this rifle out to 200 yds, standing. Some other rifle vids included below. feel free to ignore, particularly if crappy shooting annoys you.

Still have had no malfunctions with several different kinds of ammo. One broken part (PSA mag catch).


Obamascare rifle (first AR I built) at 200 yds standing

http://youtu.be/QkvmOOGkOAs?list=UUA96Goq-oV9AnrTWrEVR4Ng

CMP Special Garand, never really sighted in, prone (bad) and standing (okay)

http://youtu.be/yT90ELg0dsI

My BIL shooting his Remington 700 SPS tactical AAC-SD first time at distance

http://youtu.be/Mts5_4VTwGc

 

[taliv]

glad it worked out for you....

curious what you would recommend a year later to people thinking about building

 

[GBExpat]

1KPerDay, thanks for bumping this Thread ... I missed it the first go'round.

Sorry for your troubles, but ... reading that initial post had me laughing out loud.

 

[Onmilo]

M16/AR15s aren't hard to build at all.

Wait until you rebarrel an M1 Garand/ M14/ M1A for the first time or better yet, build a "simple" AKM type rifle from 80% stuff,,,,

 

[expat_alaska]

Looong Time Ago...

I ordered 2 stripped lowers from QPC/Bushmaster via a local FFL shop, a couple of how-to manuals (back in 1992 while the Clinton AWB was looming and there was no World Wide Web) and proceeded to order all the other parts from QPC/Bushmaster (these days I reckon the original folks are Windham Weaponry).

Timely shipping, correct parts, & timely shipping on the spare hammer and trigger parts I experimented with.

It was very much a learning experience assembling and tweaking for both guns, and I am very satisfied that I went to the "do-it-yourself" mindset, in addition to the go/no-go/field gauges I also ordered.

Thinking (wrongly) that Bushmaster knew I was a PFC (Private effing Civilian) with no NFA stamps, I ordered a 14" M4 barrel (1 in 9" twist) WITH an AK-74 type muzzle brake and it came with a few peened-over washers "securing" it to the barrel.

Well, that didn't pass muster and I had the brake welded to the barrel before assembly. (That brake on a 14" barrel was so loud that it sounded like a .308 going off, but NO muzzle rise. It raised eyes at the range due to the decibels using standard PMC 55 gr. ammo.) No longer have it, but wish I did for the compact tele-stock and the barrel length. Vey good handling carbine.

It had the A1 sights and shot decently at 100 yards. It weighed about 8 lbs. loaded with a 30 round mag and a RediMag accessory to hold another loaded mag.

Also ordered a 20" fluted 1 in 9" twist HBAR for the other gun. This one shot MOA at 100 yards at rest with the A2 sights, but it was a heavy rifle (for an AR) at about 10 lbs loaded, with small spare parts in the hideaway grip and a cleaning kit in the fixed buttstock. The accuracy was VERY good but my eyes are no longer good, and my son now owns a very accurate rifle. Way too heavy for me at my age (62) and I'm no longer going to pretend to go to war against tyrannical enemies (unless they come to the door).

That's what 1911 .45's are for...

 

[1KPerDay]

glad it worked out for you....

curious what you would recommend a year later to people thinking about building

Get a quality aluminum lower, good parts and good tools. Pretty much what anyone would advise.

 

[dvdcrr]

After the first mock up with the barrel nut I would have backed off and retorqued a few times just progressively incrementally higher on torque to get it into proper position. Just take a step back and a deep breath.