Thinking of a New AR

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rlandry6
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Thinking of a New AR

Post by rlandry6 »

I want to ad another AR to the stable. I have two a 300 Blacout, and a 223. Both were built by me and I went with quality components, ignoring price, so I probably spent too much on them, but, Oh Well..
I already have the two lowers, so I'm debating on just building another upper, buying an "off the shelf" upper, or just picking up a lower end complete gun and building on that.
The price of off the rack rifles is all over the map and since I've never bought an AR off the rack I'm not sure what to look for, as far as durability, accuracy, and reliability.
I guess the topic that confuses me the most is barrel materials, barrel linings, contours, lengths, to name a few. Also, does the bolt carrier group usually come as part of the upper assembly, if so, wat di I need to look at. Both of my current uppers are built around DPMS heavy wall receivers. As far as optics, I have Sightron scopes on everything now, so I'm thinking of a carbine with a red dot and tripler.
So, someone help a guy out, please. Where do I start.
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GunFunZS
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Re: Thinking of a New AR

Post by GunFunZS »

You'll get as many opinions as there are people.

My two cents is that keep and bear arms has a smoking sale on the Aero slick side upper that I like and also the faxon gunner 16" barrel I like a little less for a Ballistic Advantage barrel that is also a really nice choice. Both of those together is under $200. Davidson's has had a pretty nice looking remington branded Mlock forend for $29! That sounds fake, but really... It looks like a solid rail at any price.

Then add any decent brand NiBo BCG and you are set. Put the money into a decent optic.
45r
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Re: Thinking of a New AR

Post by 45r »

Seekins makes good stuff.
The 10.5 inch barrel I got is a tack driver.
kilibreaux
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Re: Thinking of a New AR

Post by kilibreaux »

You will indeed get as many opinions as there are word choices in the universe!

Like you I own several AR's in .223 and 300 AAC and was looking for something different. Well, that "different" came in the form of building my very own .458 SOCOM! Talk about SaWHEET! Mind you I chose not to go the gas route, instead I started with a Bear Creek side-charging upper and left off the gas system. I then shortened the bolt carrier to reduce weight and allow the carrier to move fully enclosed inside the upper receiver which allowed me to mount a side-folding stock. All up the completed rifle tips the scales at barely over SIX pounds, and feel lighter!

I fitted the barrel with a 4-chamber brake to reduce shoulder pain, and I modified a 10 round steel ACS magazine follower by grinding away most of the off-set ledge which results in a solid four rounds capacity if inserted under an open bolt, and three rounds if the bolt is forward. The .458 SOCOM uses .458" slugs just like it's bigger brother the .458 Winchester, and has a massive case diameter with a rebated rim in the .308 Winchester size. I won't lie to you....SOCOM brass ain't cheap, and 400 grain bullets ain't cheap either, but the resulting cartridge is about as much fun as you can have with your clothes on! I loaded up some HSM 405 Grain hard cast over 30 grains of AA-1680 which is a "starting" load that still generates nearly 1,600 lb-ft of KE and delivers a pretty stout kick to the shoulder. Granted the SOCOM can go up to 2,500 lb-ft if one feels the need, but for range play I wasn't trying to make it all it could be. I recently loaded up some Speer 350 grain SPFN over 36 grains of AA-1680 which should be good for around 1,700 fps and around 2.200 lb-ft of KE. With the heavy slugs of the SOCOM you can quickly see this is a close-range blaster, but also surprisingly effective out beyond 100 yards with a suppressor attached and 500-600 grain slugs landing. We're talking about a round that generates over 1,100 lb-ft of KE with a 500 grain slug moving SUBSONIC! This is basically double what the 300 Blackout can deliver.

A 30 round Magpul mag in .223 can accept 10 rounds of .458 SOCOM and the center divider needs to be removed since the SOCOM is a single-stack round. The .458 SOCOM will NOT fit into a Magpul 60 round "drum" magazine due to the massive size of the case body.

My manual-action, side-pull is a total hoot to shoot at the range! If the need arose, or the mood struck me I could easily add on a gas system, but I really enjoy not having to chase those expensive cases, and for all practical purposes, a side-action AR is superior to any bolt-action traditional rifle.
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Gman2017
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Re: Thinking of a New AR

Post by Gman2017 »

Any pictures?
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GunFunZS
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Re: Thinking of a New AR

Post by GunFunZS »

Sounds like I know of someone who is going to like the .458 SOCOM molds designed by Full Lead Taco.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiPgtqSEv7U

Here's one more or less at random. You can dig around through his stuff. He makes a lot of really neat loads. Nice guy too.
RWA007
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Re: Thinking of a New AR

Post by RWA007 »

I was in the same boat as you a few years ago. I had one 300blk and one 5.56. The 300blk was/is a 16" barrel with a Sightron scope also (love them!). I bought a 9" AAC upper with the intention of a red dot and tripler and just putting it on an existing lower when I wanted it in that configuration. The 5.56 started life as a pistol, so that would be my go to lower for this upper.

For the Red Dot and Tripler...I hope this will save you a bunch of time and money...I tried the Eotech combo ($1000+) then returned the sight due to the recall and sold the tripler...then bought a cheap red dot, and a cheap tripler...which I did not like. Then finally settled on the Romeo 5 XDR red dot that has the same ring and dot as the Eotech. You can switch it to just the dot, or the ring and dot, which I like. And finally...I bought the BURRIS tripler for $200 (on sale for $159), which in my opinion has better glass than the $500+ Eotech!

Anyway, once I had the upper all done...I liked it in that configuration so much that I went ahead and SBR'd a lower for it. Then bought a suppressor. Downward spiral. Turned into my HD rifle, loaded up with Barnes 110 gr black tips.

I now have:
(2) 5.56 AR15's (Pistol/Rifle)
(2) 300blk AR15's (SBR/Rifle)
(2) .22 AR15's (Pistol/Rifle)
(1) 9mm AR15 (Pistol)

..and one more 9mm rifle AR15 upper, which is bugging the crap out of me with just the upper in the safe. Going to go ahead and get another lower so it can be complete. The concept of multiple uppers and one lower is a good concept, but it just doesn't work for me. I feel compelled to have complete rifles. Sheesh.

Cool that you like the Sightrons! I discovered them a few years ago and I now have two of them. One is on my 300blk (3-9) and one is on my .308 (4.5-14). I was always a Leupold fanboy, but I like the Sightrons better than the Leupolds!

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ozleux
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Re: Thinking of a New AR

Post by ozleux »

rlandry6 wrote:I want to ad another AR to the stable. I have two a 300 Blacout, and a 223. Both were built by me and I went with quality components, ignoring price, so I probably spent too much on them, but, Oh Well..
I already have the two lowers, so I'm debating on just building another upper, buying an "off the shelf" upper, or just picking up a lower end complete gun and building on that.
The price of off the rack rifles is all over the map and since I've never bought an AR off the rack I'm not sure what to look for, as far as durability, accuracy, and reliability.
I guess the topic that confuses me the most is barrel materials, barrel linings, contours, lengths, to name a few. Also, does the bolt carrier group usually come as part of the upper assembly, if so, wat di I need to look at. Both of my current uppers are built around DPMS heavy wall receivers. As far as optics, I have Sightron scopes on everything now, so I'm thinking of a carbine with a red dot and tripler.
So, someone help a guy out, please. Where do I start.
I'm really liking the 224 Valkyrie. I've yet to sit down and really make friends with it, but it's showing enough promise, I'll be building a bolt gun soon.
Malinois, it's French for "Don't get one"
Wanderson
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Re: Thinking of a New AR

Post by Wanderson »

My philosophy is for a budget build, buy complete. Way too many good deals to buy individual parts cheaper.

Now if you want a Faxon barrel, or something specific, build it.

Seems the only way to beat these high volume AR builders is to spend 6-8 months looking for the cheapest prices from multiple sources and hoping you don’t spend too much on multiple shipping.

Not saying it’s not fun to say, snag a nice grade barrel cheap, then slowly accumulate parts. But the last upper I bought was a 20” stainless 6.5 Grendel upper w/BCG for $250 shipped.
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GunFunZS
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Re: Thinking of a New AR

Post by GunFunZS »

Right now Bear Creek Arsenal has some crazy good deals on both barrels and complete uppers. I am probably going to get one of those, as much as I want the faxxon.

One thing I prefer about BCA is they do the feedramps right for 300 BO. I don't know why the other manufacturers seem to not get that this is necessary. even faxxon and ballastic advantage have basically M4 feedramps with kinda sharp corners. It makes tuning the cartridge less about tuning for optimal jump, and more about making it so that the round will feed without being gouged to death. IMO if you get one of the others, you may as well just bite the bullet and fix the feedramps. It's a shame to get a nice nitride finish and grind and polish it away though.
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