AR-15 BS Thread

I am building my first soon, everything is ordered except for the upper. Waiting on Tax refund


What do you think? Prices include shipping and FFL fees for lower.


$550 Spike’s Tactical Spider 5.56 LE MOE 16” Upper
$137 Spike’s Tactical Spider Lower
$12.99 Spike’s Tactical Spider/USA Flag Ejection Door
$23.89 Spike’s Tactical Spider Billet Trigger Guard
$111 Palmetto State Armory LPK/Stock (stock will be upgraded later)
$24 Command Arms UPG16 Grip ($47 shipped through command, found one on ebay new for $24!)
$15.25 Lancer 10 Round Magazine (legal limit )

Total combination is $859

Was a lot cheaper before I started adding the unnecessary items but I figured I might as well enjoy it!

 

I never checked headspace on my gun and it's accurate as hell, and you can actually use them a lot more than for one build, ie. each time you swap bolts or full bcgs or barrels. So they come in handy, I need to get em because I plan on swapping barrels a bit and building uppers for people.

Sweet build, very nice.

 

Sounds like a nice build.
Not sure on prices but suggest you check jobobsoutfitter for price check.
If you do order from them and amount is greater than $100 be sure to add a t-shirt and state size/color (they are free).

ETA- if ordering from jobob and you plan on conventional scope for optics, I suggest Burris PEPR, I forgot to order one and then ended up paying $20 more from Cabelas.

 

Joe Bobs price is the same as the company I am getting it from worth a shot though!

 

On the subject of acog, here's mine... Ta11f-g

 

All the prices look good, except the lower. I have the exact same lower and it was $109+tax, no transfer fee. Even has the fire/safe markings color filled.

 

The lower was $89, Shipping $12 (will be to me in 2 business days) and FFL fee is a little high at $35 totaling $137. At this rate I am just happy I was able to find an FFL to take them locally instead of driving 3.5 hours to a place that makes NYS compliant ones

 

I started asking similar questions, doing research for my build. The general answer I got was, if everything is high quality and mil-spec, a head space check shouldn't be required.

Since you're local, I joined northeastshooters.com so I would have access to local expertise. Some of those guys have go/no-go gauges and might be willing to let you borrow them to check your build (that's actually what I plan to do just for my own piece of mind since it will be my first build).

 

That makes sense, I neglected to look at your location and I made the assumption you got yours locally

 

I could have gotten a $60 Aero lower but I wanted the entire gun to match with the spider logos. Only thing that won't match is the stock and grip but I think I will like the grip I ordered because like some pistols it comes with 6 interchangeable front and back grips.

Also I am sure I will upgrade the stock to something completely different, so no point in ordering a Spike's stock that is exactly the same as the one coming in the PSA LPK.

 

You're right. AR15s are different than bolt actions. There is no way to change head space except changing through lots of bolts hoping the tolerance stacking drifts one way or the other. An out of spec bolt action can be dangerous. An out of spec ar15 will result in a couple things (this is speaking to a new AR15 without erosion or extreme out of spec cases).

First to small a chamber, the bolt will not close all the way the gun won't fire due to out of battery and it will be very difficult to extract the live round. Possibly needing to mortar the gun.

Second to large a chamber. The gun will fire. Look at the brass the primers will be flattened like a pressure sign. Extremely to large the primers will start to be pushed out the back of the brass.

As for the comment about quality parts they are correct. About make sure it's mil spec. I disagree. At this point in the game with the advancement of these rifles mil spec should be the threshold as the beginning of the quality you want. But very few of these rifles are mil spec any more they are mostly very beyond mil spec.

Take for instance the rifle I built a customer in the pic above. Billet is beyond mil spec, the 223 Wylde chamber is an improved chamber over both NATO and the Remington chamber. It has the ability to shoot all NATO and tactical rounds but has the more inherent accuracy of the Remington chamber. That's beyond mil spec, The barrel is 1:8 with 5R rifling that's not mil spec, it's a heavier contour with mid length gas not carbine again not mil spec. The ambi safety, trigger, stock etc all not mil spec (yes it's a mil diameter tube). Companies throw that term around because the consumer seeks it out. The key really is as long as it's good quality now days.

Also the guy with the spikes stuff sounds like a good price to me. Good job. And I agree you could have gotten an aero lower a little cheaper but hey what's a couple extra bucks to have it exactly how you want it? These things are like tricking out your cars. Get it the way you want. Good on you.

 

Disclaimer. I have t had coffee yet so I hope that made sense. Lol.

 

It made sense and I completely agree with everything you said, most parts these days are beyond mil-spec and made to higher tolerances. That being said, however, the spikes nickel boron BCG I have, while it's within or great her than milspec, the nickel boron coating they used sucks. If like to assume I got one from a bad coating batch though. But IMO it's not worth the money for a spikes bcg.

If you're going to spend the money, get either the rainier arms or ICE arms nickel boron bcg's. And if you want something even more slick, Mike at BlackForgeWeapons.com makes a carrier group that's Nickel Phosphate coated. It will slide right out of your fingers. And carbon wipes off clean with just a paper towel.

 

...don't forget, you'll want a stock and buffer tube kit...

 

$111 for the PSA LPK, Im assuming for that much $$$ its a lower build kit and not just a LPK.

 

oh, ...i see, ...didn't pay attention to the price, ...the perils of skim reading

 

no worries. I've got dyslexia and slightly illiterate

 

That's been my experience with a lot of NiB BCGs. They are hot and people want them so like anyone else people are jumping on selling them. It's an outsourced thing so it's as good as whatever coater is doing them. The Black Rain BCGs are awesome but pricey. I haven't gotten my hands on the Rainier Arms yet but they tend to just rebrand the best stuff so I can't imagine anything being negative with their choice.

Im a firm believer that no matter the material metal on metal requires lube. However the slicker stuff does make it able to run longer cleaner and easier to clean after the fact. I have always run nothing but phosphate carriers with success however I am starting to swap over to use AT LEAST chrome. Especially in my hunting rifles because of the cold areas I hunt and the reaction of cold on lube plus it's easier to clean. The big put off for me was watching everyone spend 200-300 on NiB and watching them fail time and time again when I was teaching a lot. It wasn't the error of the part it was the error of the advertising that it didn't require lube and end users running lots of rounds through guns with no lube as per advertised. I've since changed my mind on that. Provided properly lubed.

 

Yeah I changed my mind on the no lube thing. And just as you said it depends on the coater. Spikes is more of an entry level cheaper more budget type company so when I saw the NiB I was like hm okay I'll try this. $250 and 1000 rounds later I was impressed how it ran with no lube, no malfunctions, very little wear on the receiver. Not impressed how it cleaned and the coating actually started to wear. So I'll probably stay away from them. The black forge NiPhos on the other hand is a night and day difference. No lube 500 rounds cleans off like new no coating wear. With a light coat of 5w-20 motor oil, ran even better.

Hard chrome is also very good, anything hard chrome made by one of the larger GOOD companies such as JP or Young mfg. Those are better than NiB IMO.

And you're right about properly lubing the bcg especially on a standard phosphate carrier. Makes a world of difference especially since you rarely know who does the NiB coating on most items.

 

Picking up two stripped lowers today sequential serial numbers. It will be my first AR build. Im sure I will post back with questions, I'm looking forward to it. I am going to build one and probably hang on two the second stripped to build at a later time.