Noveske Build

[wyld3man]

I wanted to build a 18" AR because I already have a 14.5",16" and am on month 6 waiting for a stamp from the ATF for a 10.5" SBR. I located a Noveske upper, lower and NSR rail. I looked around for about 3 months for a 18" barrel (kind of hard to find). Initially I wanted a Noveske SPR barrel but I was tired of waiting and saw that Rainier Arms had there 18" rifle length ultra match SPR barrel so I went with that, plus it was a good bit cheaper and with the military discount it was hard to pass up. I have not shot it yet, planned on shooting Saturday but it has been raining all weekend and I still have to get optics for it.

Here is the parts list:
Noveske upper, lower, 15" NSR, take down pins and selector lever
Seekins compensator and mag release button
Rainier Arms 18" ultra match barrel, gas block and nickel boron BCG
ALG combat trigger
Ambi mag release and wilson combat oversized bolt stop
KNS anti rotational trigger and hammer pins
VLTOR butt stock and heavy buffer
Tango Down pistol grip

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[Onyx Z]

When did you get that barrel? I've been closely watching Rainier for months now looking for that exact barrel for my SPR-ish clone and had no luck.

[wyld3man]

I placed the order on the 14th. I clicked the notify me on about every 18" barrel they had a while back and received word they were in stock a couple days before that. I thought about it for a day then pulled the trigger.

I have also had times when I received an e-mail about something being in stock and then when I went to the site they were all out. I looked at the time the e-mail was sent and it was within a few hours. I think some people set a special noise on their phone or computer or something when they get an e-mail from them.

[dan.p]

When did you get that barrel? I've been closely watching Rainier for months now looking for that exact barrel for my SPR-ish clone and had no luck.

If you're willing to pay a slight premium (~$100 more than Rainier sells an 18" Noveske), MSTN is selling some custom 18" SPR barrels on GunBroker: http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=367264692

I just completed my SPR-style build with one of those.

[wyld3man]

That's the barrel I wanted to get, but was tired of waiting for them to be available.

[wyld3man]

Finally got a chance to shoot past 300m with this rifle the past week. Since the original post I only zeroed it and shot a mag or 2 at 300m to confirm zero (the range I usually go to only goes to 300m). I was shooting 68gr as that is what was available at the time and was able to consistantly put the target down to 500m. The 600m target I was hitting an average of every 1 in 3. I then started to go for the 800m target and could not get a hit. My rounds where hitting all around it but no hits. The next day I dug into my stash of rounds and brought some 77gr rounds to see if I could get a hit but mother nature decided to bring in the fog and rain the past few days here and could not see anything past 400m.
I zeroed the rifle at 100m and would say that all my shots were within a inch (did not measure only eye balled it). Once I get some time I will put it in a bench rest to take the human factor out.

Only 2 things I noticed about this build that puzzles me.
I have a issue with the bolt not locking to the rear after the last round. I was thinking over gassed, too heavy of a buffer or mag. I first went with the magazine as the culprit. I used steel H and K mags, the scar 16 (MK16) mags, p mags and the regular old army mags. Good thing my first guess was right, this rifle likes the cheap army mags, not sure why yet but I will dig into it as time permits. The other is I put a WMD nickel boron bcg in it and it seems to be getting more and more black. Is this normal? I would think that it would retain the silver color. It was until this past week but I did put a few rounds down range.

Overall I am very happy with the build