AR-15 Build

Talk about ARs, in all their varieties!
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Jim White
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Joined: Mon Nov 03, 2008 2:06 pm
.204 Ruger Guns: CZ-527, Remington 700 VLTHSS, Cooper Model 21, Remington 40x

AR-15 Build

Post by Jim White »

Last fall my youngest joined the Army. He graduated from Ft Jackson SC in February. While there I visited and stayed with a kid that lived in the neighborhood, ran in & out of my house, who grew up and joined the Army. I flew to Raleigh and he and his family picked me up and headed to Ft Bragg. He’s has one of those weapons MOS and he’s put together several AR-10 and AR-15’s.

On our ride down to Ft Jackson, I was telling him about this A3 [flattop] stripped upper that’s been lying in my safe for nearly 20 years and I was thinking about making a varmint rig out of it. He said he had a spare barrel that he couldn’t hit a bull in the butt with a base fiddle [that would be a cello] with it. He didn’t know the twist but he thought it was a 1-8 and IIRC, it was made by EGW. So after we hymned & hawed we decided I’d send my stripped upper with what few parts I had for it to him and he would put it together. After Jacob graduated we drove back to Bragg where I visited again for a few days and then headed back to Washington where I gathered my parts and sent them off.

Look folks, the AR’s have changed a lot since I shot them in service rifle competition. I have to A2’s just for that purpose but just never bothered with getting into any more of them. My varmint LOT was growing and that was taking a mite bit of my spare change.

Anyway, over the next several weeks he helped me decide which options I wanted primarily the rail. The barrel is 20”, unthreaded and fluted. I didn’t know “crap from Rice Krispies” about some of these things; heck they all look the same to me. The only thing I wanted was to have an extended Picatinny Rail for pushing the scope FWD for eye relief purposes.

In April I went back to NC for a vacation. We got together again, and we decided on that rail with key-hole mounting system on the sides and bottom that was 15” long and a low profile gas block. We were going to leave the muzzle unthreaded.

Meanwhile I went looking for the lower items. I decided on a Mag-Pul PSR stock and since I had handled one and really liked the adjustable features of it. I went over to RAINER ARMS on one Saturday, picked up a lower parts kit, a stripped receiver and one of those EBRv2 bolt releases. For the trigger, I just happen to have two of the GEN-1 Armalite adjustable two-stage triggers. They were made for a short while in the mid-90’s before they had to change their design because they infringed in the Krieger-Milazzo design [which by the way are back in production for those who are interested]. I had bought a couple of them but couldn’t use them for high-power competition because to get the right feel they wouldn’t pick up the required 4.5 lbs. In that endeavor the only good replacement at that time were Jewell’s which work fantastic for me, never a problem [and for the $$$ they shouldn’t be].

After I picked the items up I took them home where I assembled the lower. When the upper arrived I pulled it out of the box but them together and they fit just like a glove. I have an extra Leupold 6.5-20x40 EFR VX3 scope sitting on the shelf so I mounted her up using Burris Tactical Signature Rings and inserts, got it zeroe’d pretty close on the bench and took off for the range. The trigger is set at 3 lbs and it breaks as crisp as any icicle I’ve ever broken.

It has been my experience that 1-9 twist barrels do-not shoot the Sierra Match King (SMK) 77 grain bullet to my liking in 1-9 twist barrels and because the barrel twist was unknown I decided to try some through the tube at 200 yards. So, I checked the barrel clean and did the ole’ cleaning-rod barrel twist check. Using that method it came out to 1-7.5 to 1-8.5; so I figured it’s a 1-8.

I loaded up rounds using 20-year old LC-97 many times fired, un-prepped cases that were primed with Remington 7 ½ primers and headed for the range. I used the data from the online Hodgdon reload data and it shot several sub 1/2-inch groups at 200 yards. So, the barrel is good and it will handle the heavy pills if I need to eve use them. The loads were mag length, using H4895 powder.

As far as lowers, there are several outfits around here; Precision Aero, Rainer Arms and Olympic Arms and a few others. I never could reach Aero Precision; Rainer Arms is much closer than Olympic Arms and besides, Mag-Puls and others including the soldier who put it together highly recommended them so to me it was a no-brainer to just go see them and get one. I could have gotten a Rock River lower for $100 more from a local dealer but I couldn’t see where it would be $100 better, IMO.

So in the end, I guess one could say I gathered all the spare parts lying about, put it together and it just happens to shoot pretty darn good thus far. I'll try and post a picture later because I need to resize it to do so but I need to run out for some errands.

Next up is to go out and load test some 55-grain pills and test for the varmint trips.

Jim

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TEXAS222
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.204 Ruger Guns: custom build AR 15-Rem 700 .204 VARMINT- .204 Kimber Pro Var
Location: Southeast Texas

Re: AR-15 Build

Post by TEXAS222 »

Hello Jim,
Nice article write up & nice looking AR. Is that a Seekins key mod hand guard over a standard low profile gas block? I wish I wasn't a computer dummy, I'd love to post some pictures but have no clue how to even begin. Great job again,
Jim D :hail:
Jim White
Moderator
Posts: 1467
Joined: Mon Nov 03, 2008 2:06 pm
.204 Ruger Guns: CZ-527, Remington 700 VLTHSS, Cooper Model 21, Remington 40x

Re: AR-15 Build

Post by Jim White »

It sure is, on both accounts. I like it because when handling the rifle by the front hand guard its a lot more comfortable than QUAD type rails however, I wonder if I loose the ability to use attachments that us a Picitanny type mount. For example the other day I was looking at a brass catcher to mount to the rifle but it used the a QUAD rail type of mount so not so sure if I could use it on mine.

I really like that Phase 5 ENBRv2 bolt release. Its a one piece unit that doesn't attach to the existing bolt release so its solid and doesn't flop around.

To post pictures; This site does-not allow direct uploads from your computer, so;

1. To post pictures the first thing you should do is create a profile. I use www.photobucket.com. Just login and create an account, its free too.

2. The next thing you'll need is a program to resize your pictures. I use the one that comes with Microsoft Office 2010 and it works just fine.

3. When you decide on the picture to upload you'll have to reduce it down to 600 pixels to fit on the site. What I do is copy the picture you want to post onto my desk top and then close the file where the picture was copied from; the original one that way it isn't altered in any way.

4. After its resized to fit I upload it into photobucket.

5. Once uploaded I copy the URL from photobucket and paste it here and where ever you want it [ in the beginning, at the end or throughout a story like those Silverfox does].

Then hit submit and if it was done right, the picture shows up and will alwayd be there in the post "as-long-as" the picture stays in photobucket. Once it removed the picture won't be seen anymore.

Here is a link from the site how to do it with pictures, its pretty straight FWD...Jim

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3805
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