Firearm BS thread

For those of you who have built up your AR's from scratch (specifically the upper), how common or uncommon is it to have a bolt and barrel that do not provide the proper headspacing? I'm trying to decide if I should buy an assembled upper or build up my own. I would prefer to build my own, I will be using quality, mil spec parts. From what I've read, if you have a headspace problem, it's a trip to the gun smith since it can not be adjusted. Are headspace issues common with quality parts, as in common enough to deter me from trying to build up my own upper?

 

Not common, as in, very uncommon. So uncommon that most home builders don't check headspace. Buy a quality bolt & a quality barrel & don't worry about it.

 

That's what I was hoping. People here directed me to AR15.com and I've been reading through AR15builder.com and it's overwhelming which is why I'm back here asking questions. There are diehards and match shooters over there who seem to think it's blasphemy not to ensure optimal headspace and then there are others of the same opinion as you. My head's spinning but I'm learning a lot over there.

 

Don't worry about it. I've built several hundred AR's and never had an issue. That said, it's really hard to beat PSA on their assembled uppers even if you get distributor pricing on the parts...I don't know how they do it. http://palmettostatearmory.com/inde...ipped-upper-with-bcg-and-charging-handle.html

 

painted the furniture on my 870

 

just putting this out there, but i am a ffl holder and will do transfers for anyone who needs it. to your dealer if you're not in Maine or to you if you are. Cheap Cheap of course.
Cory
County Road Arms
Milford Me.

 

Mmmmmmmm, guns.

Check out my gun blog:

tattooedgunner.blogspot.com

 

Are you a member of www.georgiacarry.org ?? Also read a post in your blog you can get a temp georgia weapons carry license for 1$ while youre waiting on the new license.....

 

A glock fan boi who is also a finger tipper. Go figure. With the boat anchor pull of the standard Glock you need at least a first knuckle hinge pull to get the fockers to go off. I'll bet you a beer your shot groups consistently pattern at the 9 O'clock about two MOA left of your point of aim. Look at your sight adjustment, is the rear sight slid to the right of mechanical center? Lay your finger on the trigger where it naturally falls, and unless you have midget digits that won't be on the tip of the finger. The rest of the blog was interesting, I've just never been a fan of "just the tip".

 

I have zero complaints about dealing with PSA, I bought everything but the lower from them and hasn't given me a single hiccup with around 600-700 rounds through it. Also, by far the best deal I could find for piecing together what I wanted

 

Thanks for the help and the links guys. I'll post up some pictures and I'm sure I'll have other questions as the build progresses.

 

Four hundred press pulls to make a hundred rounds of 45 ACP in about 60 minutes today. I really need a progressive press. I think Santa will have to bring me one.

 

60 min for 100 rounds with a single stage? That is fast!

I must be doing something wrong.....takes me 3 hours to do that many....maybe I need a powder measure

 

Powder measure is a must for high volume reloading. Pistol loading is quicker because there's no lubing needed with carbide dies. Plus I use the Hornady Lock N Load bushings on all my dies so die changes take a couple seconds and there's no resetting needed.

Still sucks when an hour of work gets you 12 mags of ammo. I should be able to get 350 rounds an hour easy out of a good progressive press.

 

I need a powder measure, I have been weighing each load by hand (thank god for a digital scale)

I will alway weigh each load of my hotter .45 colt loads (they approach max loads), but I need a measure for all my target loads

 

I've been researching stripped lowers and uppers and my head is spinning. Some are several times more than others, some rated well, some have a history of tolerance issues, etc. Head is spinning so I just picked one that has a good history of quality control and ran with it.

Hypothetically, if you guys could pick a stripped upper and lower, what brand would you go with and why?

 

Stripped? Just about anything. The differences between stripped receivers (upper or lower) these days is pretty much non-existent. If you've put that much effort into stripped receivers then you've wasted WAY too much time. Hell, most are made by three or four places that just roll different marks on the side. If you're just building an AR then buy whatever is cheapest. Generally this is going to be PSA (already been recommended to you multiple times) or similar. Just buy and start building. Choose decent parts and carefully assemble if it's your first time and then get ready to be broke feeding the thing because if you want to know what really makes a difference it's shooting the damn thing. All this time you're wasting researching parts that are nearly identical isn't going to amount to a hill of beans in the real world. Just build something with parts that are available and shoot the damn thing. A year or so down the road with lots of training you may realize a couple of things here and there you want to tweak or change and you'll know why and what to change and to what. At this time you just need to build a rifle and stop stalling and over analyzing things that are unimportant. You are reading WAY too deep into aspects that aren't important in the long run.

If I were you I would got to PSA and buy a complete midlength rifle, midlength upper half, complete lower, stripped lower & MOE LBK or any combination of the above and build a rifle. Don't forget to locate a case of ammo too because w/o that none of the previous parts mean anything. It's though to find, it's expensive and it will go fast so be prepared.

 

I hear you, I was just asking a hypothetical... I was finding that many lowers are made by a few and re-branded so I just went with one that had a good reputation. It still amazed me to see how many people would spend double or triple on another lower when basically all you get is the brand name, that was why I asked the question what people would buy if they had a choice. Another forum I'm a member of has group buys going on Aero Precision lowers and Quentin Defense lowers and the QD GB is taking off faster and they're over 50% more expensive.

My upper and lower wer already on order before I typed my post. I'm going with Aero Precision. I'm not stalling, I just can't drop $1k+ into this all at once. It's going to be a slow build up so I'm taking my time and researching the parts and tools I'll need to get it done.