Building my own AR???

[actionshooter]

If you are going to build an AR the firs thing you need to do is set your budget.  You can end up with a rifle that you have sunk a small fortune into.

IF you are planning on on using this for hunting, regardless of of cal., accuracy is going to be of upmost concern.

I have built a number of AR's.  Next week I am placing my order for the optics and little bells and whistles for my LMT build.

I have heard DPMS, Rock River, Oly and Bushmaster mentioned.  I am not going to knock any of those but I will say they are "mid range" offerings as far as quality at best.  Sorry if I have offended anyone but thats my opinion.  And you have already mentioned POF, if you can afford that, you can afford anything the below manf. produce.

Your upper reciever is where you want to spend the bulk of your $.  Take a look at:
www.noveskerifleworks.com
www.laruetactical.com (the stealth products)
www.bravocompanyusa.com
www.lewismachine.net

The Noveske rifles use the same material that is used in the M249 SAW barrels and thier barrels are a polygonal rifling like H&K uses.  The "7.5 diplomat barrel in 6.8spc is shooting just over 1moa and the 5.56 is at 1moa.  Keep in mind barrel legth when choosing your cal.  the 6.8 does better on a "16 pipe and the 5.56 is best at about "20.

Larue's stealth products are amazing pieces of gear.  the Larue OSR in .308 is getting SUB-MOA.  With point accuracy out to 900yrds.  You can get the same upper minus all the real hot rod stuff "somewhat" reasonably.

Bravo Co. is more of a combat tool but the longer barrels produce some serious accuracy.

LMT's monolithic rail platfrom is another piece of amazing gear.  One very nice thing is, that it along with the Noveske VIS systems allow you to do fast barrel changes.  2 bolts hold it in place.  You can have multiple barrels and swap what you want out for the desired job.

With all of these co.'s the important things are included in the cost of the rifle and not "options".  Chrome lined barrel, staked gas keys, shot peened bolts, etc etc etc.  Are included in the price where with other manf., they want you to cough up extra cash to make thier rifle "comparable".  The rock river, oly, bushey etc are good "entry" rifles for the new enthusiast.  they however, wont compete with the quality of these above mentioned places.

Now Oly is making some serious wild cat stuff.  A good friend of mine is using one of thier 25wssm's and its a real shooter.  However, something like that requires ALOT of specialty gear just to operate the rifle.  And ammo is not near readily available as other cal.'s.  now if you havea full reloading set up, that isnt so much of a worry.

I took my LMT out for its first zero on monday with Magpul MBUS (irons).  The very first 3 rounds out of it could have been covered with a dime with poop ammo.  I have yet to ever have a RR,oly or dpms do that.

Once you have decided on a good upper, you can save alot of money on lowers.  A lower, is a lower, is a lower.  Some are produced to better tollerances and some are prettier than others but they are essentially the same.  I usually run a MEGA Machine lower.  I have found that for the price the quality is very good.  I have never had mag sticking issues or or alignment problems when installing trigger groups.

If you want to see a work of art of a lower, look at the Larue stealth billet lowers.  Only downside to those is that the only way to get one is to buy a complete upper.

After making those 2 choices, the sky is pretty much the limit as far as options.  Like the old saying goes "The M4 SOPMOD, its like barbie for men".

 I agree with this post, I even have a couple of the brands mentioned here living in my lock-up. But IMO, these are way over-kill for most guys, unless you are using them in your line of work, or in my case, a hobby that got out of hand. The added cost of these is unnecessary. Rock River builds a hell of a rifle for the money, as do many others.

[NataSS]

you'll see alot more Rock River parts at Camp Perry than the names listed above.

The RRA two-stage trigger is considered the one to have-other than Giselle.

And you wont see those Camp Perry rifles out in the field hunting.  The above named rifles are made to be in the field.

I will agree that the RRA 2 stage is the best trigger for the average joe.  A timminey or a giselle should be reserved only for the most serious of match rifles.

[Mookie]

I looked at the 6.5 Grendel also, but since it's based on the .308 would require the extra weight and cost of an AR-10 platform instead of an AR15 platform which is why I settled on the 6.8mm chambering.

http://www.alexanderarms.com/grendel.htm

[atomicjoe23]

I checked out an Olympic Arms heavy barrel AR15 this afternoon. . .it was a LOT lighter than I thought it would be!

I have briefly handled a friends two AR's that were fully decked out with optics, lights, rails, you know. . .basically civilian version of a spec-ops rifle (he's military and they are his personal AR's) and they were quite a bit heavier with all the add-ons. . .the heavy barrel Oly was a LOT lighter than my .22-250 heavy barrel.  That's pretty much sold me on the AR as a deer and brush gun. . .it seemed like it would handle really well.

[atomicjoe23]

I looked at the 6.5 Grendel also, but since it's based on the .308 would require the extra weight and cost of an AR-10 platform instead of an AR15 platform which is why I settled on the 6.8mm chambering.

Thanks for the link to the 6.8 forum!

Hey, my bad. . .I think I got the 6.5 Grendel confused with the 6.5-284 and thought the Grendel required an AR10 platform.

It's seems to be a pretty capable round and very intriguing. . .I'll have to see about availability of both the 6.8 and 6.5 locally. . .I'll end up going with whichever one I can get locally as they seem pretty comparable to each other in what little comparing of the two that I have done.

Thanks again!

[Mookie]

I tell you, and it seems you know what I am talking about, it is a freaking headache trying to figure out all of the different calibers and what they can be fired with, AR15, AR10. I have yet to see a good comprehensive list that tells them all, not ever arf.com has one.

One of these days I plan on making one, but, then I will sit down to do and watch reruns of Seinfeld instead

[atomicjoe23]

Only problem with making a list is that it's constantly getting new calibers added and created. . .

[Fishhunt223]

I wouldnt bother with the billet lowers unless the looks are really that important to you.  However, if you do go with a billet, look at mega's recievers, they are my favorite by far.  

As far as calibers go, the ones you mentioned are good choices but if I were to build a big game upper, I would wait to see what the .300 ossm that olympic arms is going to start producing is like.  It sounds awesome from the information that I have seen.

[demontang]

That 300 ossm is a good shooter. very little recoil and i never saw it jam the how day it was shot

[atomicjoe23]

I'm not entirely sure about the WSSM's. . .it's really cool that you can use them in an AR magazine and it's good to hear that you didn't experience any problems, but I've been doing a lot of reading in preparing for this build and it seems because of the short fat cases (especially if a rebated rim is involved) that there is a pretty big chance of a jam or misfeed. . .not something that I want to have to worry about. . .

. . .I'll have to do some more reading and ballistics checking though. I have a friend with a b/a .300WSSM and he hasn't had any complaints, it's his elk gun. He's gonna be getting something bigger but only because he wants to go after so brown bear in AK and is thinking a .338 or larger.

[Fishhunt223]

I'm not entirely sure about the WSSM's. . .it's really cool that you can use them in an AR magazine and it's good to hear that you didn't experience any problems, but I've been doing a lot of reading in preparing for this build and it seems because of the short fat cases (especially if a rebated rim is involved) that there is a pretty big chance of a jam or misfeed. . .not something that I want to have to worry about. . .

. . .I'll have to do some more reading and ballistics checking though. I have a friend with a b/a .300WSSM and he hasn't had any complaints, it's his elk gun. He's gonna be getting something bigger but only because he wants to go after so brown bear in AK and is thinking a .338 or larger.

Can you give me some more info on the feed problems?  I havent heard anything about that. 

I know this new round can achieve velocities of over 3000fps with a 150 gr bullet and just under 3000fps with a 180 gr bullet.  Olympic arms also guarantees 1moa accuracy, which could be better if these barrels are the same quality as thier others.

[atomicjoe23]

I'll be happy to post up the latest info. . .there have been "some" problems with feeding from both bolt-action and semi-auto actions. . .

. . .I can't say how common they are. . .I will just repeat what has been reported and it makes sense based on the the fat case/rebated rim construction of the rims.

No time now. . .but I'll try to post tomorrow after my bear/coyote/crow hunting session.

[demontang]

i know the bolt guns have had feed problems but havent heard any with the ar platform. oly has had the wssm upper for a while an i didnt come on to any jam problems when ive looked on line. i know u need the right follower for them.  Its your build an the 6.5 and 6.8 are both good rounds too.

[atomicjoe23]

I haven't heard of any feed problems with the AR's either, but it was something that I wanted to double check on.

[atomicjoe23]

Which AR's are piston guns?

I know POF. . .and Stag has one now. I have heard that Colt has a piston version coming out in '10, but I'm not sure what other companies offer a piston action vs. a direct impingement action.

Thanks!