Lonely and looking for an AR15 friend :)

If you do take your gas block back off you can measure distance from the gas opening to the edge of the gas block on the inside. Measure this distance on the gas port landing on the barrel and mark it. A small piece of wire with a 90 degree bend at the end can help measure. If the dimples don't line up you may have to take it to a gunsmith to dimple the landing. I had to have this done when I changed from pinned factory gas blocks to SA adjustable gas blocks on two of mine.

The SA gas blocks are pretty low profile. Clearance to the hand guard is going to be tight but if it actually is zero you will have issues when the barrel whips during firing. It may be worth asking the barrel manufacturer how much whip to expect. I'm honestly not familiar enough with carbon fiber sleeved barrels to know.

 

I shouldn’t have to worry about the dimple; the SA gas block is a compression fit. I was just using it as a reference for the gas port (which I assumed was 180 opposite.... but I need to disassemble and measure as you suggest.

Here are a few closeups of the clearance. As for whip... I have no reference, though quality cf barrels are supposed to be stiffer than their all steel counterparts.

 

Sorry, didn’t answer this one directly...no. First will be a plug and play. But I do have a gen 3 easy jig on order (back order or long lead depending on perspective).

 

That's closer than I would be comfortable with but it may be worth sending the barrel manufacturer an email.

 

I guess this would end up being something like a drop in guard. Difference being it has a rigid connection at one end.

 

Alrighty guys,

Got my pop up iron sights in. These are mid - mid-high priced and well reviewed. Seems I have a bit of slop in the rear. Its about 2mm if I were to estimate. Maybe 3mm. It’s fore-aft, so shouldn’t affect the windage sighting. But in theory could impact height sighting. Probably pretty minimal based on the angle. What do you guys think? Can’t post a video here, so I can’t show the wobble.

 

Wobble between the base and the rail or wobble between the base and flip up portion? There shouldn't be wobble in either one. If it's between the base and rail make sure everything is torqued properly. If it still has wobble put it on another rail. If it wobbles there then sight is out of tolerance.

 

It’s rotation in the flip up axis. Rail is solid. Sight is pretty solid when down. But when flipped up, I can wiggle it a little in the rotation axis. Solid left to right. The front sight is solid all around.

Trusty google brings up some common complaints about this, but for $180 I’d figure they should be pretty solid.

I may call Troy Industries tomorrow.

 

For that price I would definitely give them a call.

 

For anybody still following, I took the guard and gas block off today and did some measuring. Damn.... should have taken photos while apart. Damn. Anyways, the gas block design is such that it should center on the stainless section on my barrel. So that’s sorted out. However, I guess I’ve made the first purchase mistake, and that was going with a hand guard that’s too short. With the gas block in the right spot, it peeks forward of the guard by ~ 1/8”. So, I’ll be ordering (ordered) another guard. Hmmm, I guess that means I already have a guard now for a carbine build . Can’t waste a guard, right? Better build a full gun to use it. More

 

Once you get the hang of drilling and using the router its pretty easy but takes a good of amount of time and practice so you don't fucked it up, lol.

From Nothing to Something. Took them to get Type III Anodize.

 

So your anodizer didn’t have any issues with chain of custody on a firearm?

 

PS, I have a few 80’s on order.

 

At that time, when the 80 lower building was becoming big, I had each lower serialized, signed some paperwork and they where able to do it. I don't know about now.

 

Update:

Finally took the completed project to a local outdoor range.

• First mistake.... didn't read their policies so couldn't use my FMJ rounds and had to buy 100 rounds at range prices.
• Second mistake.... thought I had the adjustable block set to full pressure. Wrong
• Third mistake... didn't bring my hex tool.
• Fourth mistake.... tried sighting in initially at 100 yards.

Now, with that all out of the way, between my son-in-law's better eyes than mine, and a pair of binoculars I had brought along, we were finally able to get on the paper at least. I had only setup with a straight red dot (Romeo 4T), so the reticle covered a good bit of the target and it was really pretty hard to sight well. So, shooting naked eye at 100 yards out didn't work so well. On top of that, I was having to manually cycle each round because of the gas block setup. I then committed and bought a 4X magnifier; Juliet4. Much better. I considered the 3X micro, but felt I needed a little more mag for the old man eyes. My son-in-law outshot me with his 308 easily.

Round 2: A week later I opened the gas port on the block fully, grabbed some rounds and my tools and headed to an indoor range. I had also done some reading on zeroing distances and decided that zeroing at 50 yards made sense to me. It was a fairly short bench, so I struggled and could only get one elbow on the table. But hey, I think I ended up with a decent zero. Center target was the last group. I ran out of time for the last little rt/lt shift, but it's pretty close at 50 yards now. In theory, 2 clicks on the mag.

It's been a pretty fun project (damn expensive). I have about 60% or so already purchased for the next build. It will be a longer barrel and hopefully setup for a little more accuracy.

 

www.ar15.com has everything you need