Need advise on LW setup

[RickyK]

I'm trying to setup an AR for my DIL, who is quite petite. Also it will be used by my Granddaughter, shooting off a support for now, and my grandson who in a few more years will be able to start using it some. I searched and found a lot of good information on the subject here but I still have some questions I'm hoping y'all can help with.

In reading several of the post I never got a good fill for how light you can reasonably go. I used a digital fish scale to weigh a couple of my AR's and some of the light weight builds didn't really seem much lighter then my stock 6920MP at 6lbs 9ozs. Accepting that my scale my not be 100% accurate, but going with it anyway, here are my thoughts. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

1, I want to get it as light as I can in the front end, this seems to be the biggest complaint from the DIL as she has trouble holding it up steady.

2, I want to make it as smooth operating as possible, mitigate sharp recoil.

Here is what I have done so far to reach these goals.

1, I ordered a BCM 14.5 LW mid length pinned with BCM's comp. I don't wish to make it a SBR. Should be here tomorrow.

2, I'm going with a MOE handgruard. Already arrived.

3, I've ordered a H and H2 buffer to see which will work best to help smooth out recoil and remain reliable. Already arrived.

I haven't decided on a stock yet. Here's what I'm pondering on the stock. Go light to keep overall weight down, or go heavy to counter the front, making the weapon heavier but giving a feeling of a lighter better balanced fell.

Please comment with your advice on what else I can do, or if I'm going down the wrong road all together.

Thanks for your input.

[DreadPirateMoyer]

I've run into your stock dilemma before in the same exact situation: petite girl who has a hard time holding the weapon because it's "front heavy." In particular, her support arm would get tired from supporting the front end.

We actually found heavier stocks to be better for shooting offhand. It's not the overall weight of the gun that was the problem (she could easily hold 7 pounds in both hands) -- it was the weight at the front creating all that moment (leverage) that she needed to counter with her support hand. The heavier stock helped provide counter-leverage.

That was our experience, at least. Did make her main hand a little more tired than before, but it was a good balance.

[muldoon]

My BCM w/VTAC hand guard is both light weight and balanced. It is 16" w/CTR butt stock. It comes in @ 6.6 lbs w/out mag. I love it and will never go back to a heavy/unbalanced rifle again.

[TehLlama]

A CTR is an obvious option, BUT, on those I prefer to run a sloped stock - the LMT SOPMOD, B5 SOPMOD, VLTOR IMOD, MagPul STR would be the ones I'd advise. Yes, it ups the overall weight slightly, but the weight balance is phenomenal.

[Plumber237]

I know you said that you already ordered it, but between my 14.5 pinned middy and my 14.5 pinned carbine (both BCM) there was a significant difference in the forward weight of the rifle. My carbine has the CTR stock, MOE furniture, M68 aimpoint, and a surefire scout on an MOE mount, and it is very lightweight. My girlfriend is very small (5ft, 120lbs) and prefers it over the midlength which she says is to front-heavy.

Edit: both of those uppers were not lightweight barrels, just standard weight.

[Obscenejesster]

I know you said that you already ordered it, but between my 14.5 pinned middy and my 14.5 pinned carbine (both BCM) there was a significant difference in the forward weight of the rifle. My carbine has the CTR stock, MOE furniture, M68 aimpoint, and a surefire scout on an MOE mount, and it is very lightweight. My girlfriend is very small (5ft, 120lbs) and prefers it over the midlength which she says is to front-heavy.

Edit: both of those uppers were not lightweight barrels, just standard weight.

That's odd considering the the extra inch or two of material (gas tube) probably weighs only a fraction of an ounce.

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[Obscenejesster]

That's odd considering the the extra inch or two of material (gas tube) probably weighs only a fraction of an ounce.

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[Plumber237]

I think the weight difference is just from the shift of the front post the extra 2 inches or so towards the end of the barrel, it doesn't seem like much, but feels like it balance wise.

[RickyK]

Thanks for the replies. I have an ACS laying around already so it may get the call. If more weight is needed for balance I figure I can add something to the storage area.

Plumber 237, I thought about that but decided to go the the mid hoping that the mid length gas would help smooth things out as far as recoil. Not that any AR recoils hard but for some people it seems to matter. I may have erred worrying about recoil pulse over moment, but I already ordered it. One thing that's great, or bad, is that I know I will be building another one and I can put the knowledge learned form these replies, and my own experience form this build, to good use.

Thanks everyone.

[Plumber237]

Good call Ricky, I'm guessing the lighter recoil will easily offset the small weight transfer forward...I was thinking strictly weight, forgot about the lowered felt recoil of the middy.

[ForTehNguyen]

a 12" rail only weighs a few oz over a MOE handguard + FST. If you want to even lighter you can get a CF tube rail and cut off even more weight

[BufordTJustice]

I've run into your stock dilemma before in the same exact situation: petite girl who has a hard time holding the weapon because it's "front heavy." In particular, her support arm would get tired from supporting the front end.

We actually found heavier stocks to be better for shooting offhand. It's not the overall weight of the gun that was the problem (she could easily hold 7 pounds in both hands) -- it was the weight at the front creating all that moment (leverage) that she needed to counter with her support hand. The heavier stock helped provide counter-leverage.

That was our experience, at least. Did make her main hand a little more tired than before, but it was a good balance.

This has been my exp as well.

I built a middy for my wife and she much preferred the STR to a Vltor IMod, for the exact reasons you stated above. Same with a similar build for my buddy's wife. She started with an IMod and ended up with an STR (with some batts, lube, and a bolt cleaning tool inside the stock as well). Both girls said the rifle felt lighter with an STR.

[RickyK]

My BCM upper came in and my son came over and put everything together while I was a work. Going out in a few minutes to shoot it. But here is the tale (tail) of the fish scale. My 6920MP weighs in at 6lbs 9ozs as previously stated, The BCM comes in at 6lbs 6ozs. The BCM as it sits at the moment has a H2 buffer in it and a ACS stock that adds a few ozs. With both stocks collapsed the moment of the BCM is about 1.5 inches further to the rear than the Colt. What I was shooting for, although I didn't know to what extent it would be, was a lighter rifle with a lighter front fill. At least to some degree that has been accomplished. The real test will be how it fills to the DIL.

[muldoon]

I know you will love that rifle...I know I love mine :D

[RickyK]

muldoon your are correct!

I'm am lucky to live in the country and have a few acres of land so I can shoot when I want to. I took the BCM out front and ran a couple of 30 rnd mags through it to check function. To my pleasant surprise it ran the Tula ammo with the H2 buffer, the spring is a standard spring that came with a PSA lower build kit that I had ordered for the lower build. So far I am quite happy with it.

[muldoon]

Good on ya' brother! Enjoy your 2nd amendment rights :D

[Obscenejesster]

muldoon your are correct!

I'm am lucky to live in the country and have a few acres of land so I can shoot when I want to. I took the BCM out front and ran a couple of 30 rnd mags through it to check function. To my pleasant surprise it ran the Tula ammo with the H2 buffer, the spring is a standard spring that came with a PSA lower build kit that I had ordered for the lower build. So far I am quite happy with it.

To my surprise as well, my BCM upper with BCM BCG ran 100 rounds of Tula without malfunction. I too am using a H2 buffer. I normally wouldn't have been surprised but the Tula was the first thing I ran through it. I didn't break it in with 5.56 like I normally do.

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[DJ_Skinny]

Ricky, sounds like you've got a winner there!

For my $.02, I had a lightweight build similar to yours that originally wore a small CAR stock. When I switched to the SOPMOD stock, the rifle felt "lighter" because it ended up being more balanced.

[Dan_93SER]

For my $.02, I had a lightweight build similar to yours that originally wore a small CAR stock. When I switched to the SOPMOD stock, the rifle felt "lighter" because it ended up being more balanced.

Exact same story here. I put together an LW build for my daughter with a Colt N1 stock but found that she was able to handle it much better with the heavier LMT SOPMOD.

[SW CQB 45]

I bought a police trade in Colt A2 16" lightweight for my teen daughter.

I was making her shoot strings to the point where she was complaining of the weight but she never dropped her shots. And I would give her a break every now and then.

A2 flash hider, standard Colt Adjustable stock and A2 rear sight. She was mad because she wanted a red dot. I told her, learn the irons first and I have a spare lightweight Colt M4 upper that just needs a Aimpoint Micro.

17260

[ScatmanCrothers]

Exact same story here. I put together an LW build for my daughter with a Colt N1 stock but found that she was able to handle it much better with the heavier LMT SOPMOD.

And same here. I put a N1 on my LMT lower for the wife and after letting here get a feel for it we put the SOPMOD back on, and bingo. She had better control, got back on target faster, and said she actually preferred the added weight in the rear.

Her having a LW barrel, CMR rail, and no attachments hanging off towards the end of the barrel were the difference makers compared to mine which she struggled with. Only about 10oz lighter than my primary, but most of the savings coming forward of the receivers was the key.

[bullittmcqueen]

I've just completed a lightweight build that comes in at 5 pounds 8 ounces on a bathroom scale (unloaded). I would suggest going as light as possible, including a light stock. Mine seems to be balanced pretty well, but I think the overall weight of the rifle will be the most important as related to fatigue.

My upper includes a BCM 14.5 LW middy barrel with a Troy Alpha 11" rail. If I recall correctly, there are several rail options that are lighter than the MOE hand guards.

If you want a parts rundown, send me a PM. I really enjoy this build and it's incredibly easy to shoot.

[RickyK]

Thanks for all the replies and advice! My DIL shot the rifle and really likes it. Said she could shoot it all day. Several others have also shot it including a small framed niece who has a small amount of shooting experience. The niece was really ripping them off and saying how easy it was to keep on target and how light it felt. So, mission accomplished, at least for the time being. I'm really going to have to do something with the trigger,( over 7 lbs) it's heavy and I know it would increase their shooting pleasure even more if it had a good trigger.

[RickyK]

I've just completed a lightweight build that comes in at 5 pounds 8 ounces on a bathroom scale (unloaded). I would suggest going as light as possible, including a light stock. Mine seems to be balanced pretty well, but I think the overall weight of the rifle will be the most important as related to fatigue.

My upper includes a BCM 14.5 LW middy barrel with a Troy Alpha 11" rail. If I recall correctly, there are several rail options that are lighter than the MOE hand guards.

If you want a parts rundown, send me a PM. I really enjoy this build and it's i credibly easy to shoot.

That is super light! Nice Job!