Lightweight AR15 options

[sonrider657]

I am looking to buy an AR for my wife for her birthday (shhhh!). I want to get the lightest weight rifle possible for her. What options are out there for minimizing the wieght of the rifle and what is the lowest weight that I can practically and affordably achieve?

(This will be a plinking rifle so I am not concerned about mil-spec performance.)

[markm]

Just don't buy the carbon 15 junk.

Other than that you could do the cav-15 polymer lower. That plus a pencil barreled upper would be pretty light.

[Sry0fcr]

An out of the box 6520 or something similar should do the trick.

[taliv]

what do you have against the carbon 15 junk?

[Soulrack223]

The Bushmaster superlight barrel assembly makes a HUGE difference in overall rifle weight. My dad has a varmint AR that has to be over 20 lbs, so I built him an Colt 653 Clone with a Bushmaster Superlight Barrel that's amazingly light.

http://www.bushmaster.com/catalog_xm...A3F%2016SL.asp

[rob_s]

Remember that as weight decreases, felt recoil and recovery time between shots increases.

With that said, the Colt 6520 is the best compromise of weight vs. quality available.

[sonrider657]

Rob S, Good point regarding recoil. I may buy a .22LR kit so that my wife can chew up ammo cheaply and without recoil.

I've seen specs from several manufacturers that say specific models weigh between 5 and 6 lbs. Is it possible/practical to have an AR weigh less than 5 lbs?

Also, in reference to Bushmaster's Carbon 15, anyone have any experience with these? Does anyone other than Bushmaster make polymer receivers?

Thanks!

[onmilo]

A Bushmaster or Double Star 16" A1 barrel mated to an A1 upper and utilizing a carbon fibre free float forend coupled to a CAV15 lightweight lower should give you a rifle weighing about 5 1/2 pounds.

The CAV15 lower has the A1 stock length and you use a carbine buffer and spring.

This combo should be short enough and light enough that your wife can shoot without problems.

Using a .22 lr dedicated upper will actually weigh more than the centerfire set up.HTH

[nationwide]

Remember that as weight decreases, felt recoil and recovery time between shots increases.

With that said, the Colt 6520 is the best compromise of weight vs. quality available.

I put together a CavArms MkII lower with a flat top upper and a Bushmaster super light barrel. With the Trijicon Reflex optic, it actually weighed less than my Springfield Armory 1911 (actually weighed the two with my RCBS trigger scale).

I disagree with the increase in perceived recoil... it feels the same as my M4 profile barrel did. However, you are spot on regarding recovery time, it did jump quite abit...

I may end up building another CavArms lower / super light upper for my fiancee... it's a good build.

Also, remember, these aren't really super light or lightweight barrels. They're the original contour!

[Max Collins]

The weight is mostly in the upper. Get a lightweight barrel, but don't skimp on the lower. The Cavarms lower is garbage and doesn't save you all that much weight over a standard aluminum lower. Plus, you can't have an adjustable stock to fit her length of pull perfectly with the cavarms plastic lower.