[Carbine]

I'm thinking about building one, either stripped or complete uppers and lowers, not sure yet...

If you have built one, or have thought about building one and put a lot of thought into to, what advice can you give me?

[Chesten_Hesten]

Place this in the Weapons section, not the War Room, and then i'll answer you.

[Dolomite]

I've built 3 of them from kit (M&A, J.T., and an old retro A1).

They're really easy to assemble from a kit (assuming of course the upper is already assembled). Basically, it's a lot of popping in springs and pushing in pins.

My first time, all I did was buy a stripped lower receiver from the local gun shop and then order a kit out of The Shotgun News - the whole thing can be built in your kitchen in under an hour.

Get yourself to AR15.com and check out the "Build it yourself" forums. You'll either curse me or thank me because AR's are not unlike potato chips.

[J-I-GG-A]

uh..you can't collect stamps or somethin?

[Chesten_Hesten]

I'm thinking about building one, either stripped or complete uppers and lowers, not sure yet...

If you have built one, or have thought about building one and put a lot of thought into to, what advice can you give me?

A Couple of Simple Questions, though:

1. what is your goal? Do you want to build one just to build one, or are you building it for cost savings? Do you want Quality, or will anything do?

2. For what is your purpose? Just a hose gun? Do you want something accurate? Do you want it compact, or standard?

If you can tell me that I can be more specific.

[Carbine]

Originally Posted by Dolomite

I've built 3 of them from kit (M&A, J.T., and an old retro A1).

They're really easy to assemble from a kit (assuming of course the upper is already assembled). Basically, it's a lot of popping in springs and pushing in pins.

My first time, all I did was buy a stripped lower receiver from the local gun shop and then order a kit out of The Shotgun News - the whole thing can be built in your kitchen in under an hour.

Get yourself to AR15.com and check out the "Build it yourself" forums. You'll either curse me or thank me because AR's are not unlike potato chips.

Do you know much about Anvil Arms, their complete lowers were relatively cheap, around 250-300. But didn't have much in way of upper receivers. What do you think about mix and matching?

Also how much did you pay for your kits?

you can PM me this info if you want

[Carbine]

Originally Posted by Chesten_Hesten

A Couple of Simple Questions, though:

1. what is your goal? Do you want to build one just to build one, or are you building it for cost savings? Do you want Quality, or will anything do?

2. For what is your purpose? Just a hose gun? Do you want something accurate? Do you want it compact, or standard?

If you can tell me that I can be more specific.

I love the look of the gun, and i have shot a few and just loved the feel. Thought it would be more fun to build then just buy it outright.

I would like a good quality, accurate rifle, but cost is an issue ( not really wanting to spend more than 1-1.2k) size isnt much of an issue, standard or compact is nice, collapsable stock is a must.

[Chesten_Hesten]

That Anvil Arms place looks expensive for the lowers.

Here's some other links for Lowers:

Lone Star Wholesale-AR15 parts & AR15 lowers,1911 parts

Aimpoint Scopes, DPMS AR-15 Rifles, Pro Ears hearing protection, AR-15 Parts - Al's Custom Gunsmithing

Firearms, ar15 parts, ar15 accessories, m16, ar15 kns


Gun Show cost for lowers is around what you see on the Lonestar site.

I have purchased a Rock River Arms Midlength upper. from PK firearms. It is OK as are all 16 inch upper, but its not as accurate as a 20 inch upper, and it is easier to shoot accurately with the 20 inch upper due to the sight radius.

Best Recommended Trigger for an AR15 is: Rock River Arms National Match 2 Stage Trigger - Standard $120.00 at PK Firearms. If you're carefule you can install it yourself. Pin Size is sometimes an issue. For the money you cannot beat it with anything.


OK. Now that's all the lower stuff, but if you want the best, most affordable upper you can get goto:

White Oak Armament POB 74 **Carlock, IL ** *****61725***** (309) 376-2288 ***********************

John Holliger is the guy all the Service Rifle Competitors goto for uppers and barrels.

Look under Complete uppers and get the one with the flash hider, if you want, or not if you don't care.

Getting one of his complete uppers would in my opinion be the smartest thing you could do as an AR15 owner.

[Carbine]

The complete lower from Anvil Arms i was looking at was 375, but came with 2 stage national match trigger assembly.

AnvilArms.com - Lower Receiver with Full LPK, <u>2 Stage National Match Trigger Assembly</u> and 6 Position Stock

Also i was looking at a RRA upper Elite/Tactical CAR A4
-Rock River Arms AR15 Upper Receivers

[Chesten_Hesten]

That lower is probly fine. All that stuff is about the same... Usually when they mention the Ntl Match trigger its probably, hopefully the RRA one, because that one is on the cheap end of those triggers. Call and axe them to be sure.

The RRA upper I had, the carbine had some odd bolt issues. within 25 rounds the gas rings bulged out around the bolt and Gorilla locked up the entire works. I sent it back to the PK guys and that had RRA replace it and sent me another one in 3 days.

Then at a run n gun match I had a bunch of goons start telling me that RRA was getting shitty on Quality.

The Stainless barrel they put on was not as good as the White Oak barrel at all. The RRA match chamber was as loose as any sammi spec, but the match chamber in the Whiteoak upper was to spec, and it shoots like 10 motherfuckers!

The guys at PK are machine gun guys I believe, and they told me that a Carbine will begin to wear parts to the point of breakage at 15000-20000 rnds.. Where a Standard 20 inch job is usually like 35000 to 45000 because the shorter gas tube on the carbine blasts a more abrupt charge and beats the thing around more.

That was the first carbine I've had, and other than its short, I wouldn't bother again.


Get a stainless barrel whatever you do, and put some heavy grease on the Spring in the stock to eliminate that Boing Boing sound....