14.5" Centurion (mostly)/Mega assembly

[fallenromeo]

I recently assembled this guy in the pics. I wanted a reasonably lightweight and balanced rifle, while it being very soft shooting. This is not a lightweight rifle, but it is far from a pig as well. Soft-shooting and reliable was more my focus than lightweight, thus the A5, middy gas, and warcomp combo. It is a 14.5" pinned and welded, so not a SBR. Here is the parts list:

Upper
Vltor Upper - have had several in the past, love them. High quality uppers for a reasonable price
AXTS Raptor CH - I have one of the Rainier Arms Raptor's and I really liked the way it felt so I wanted to get another when I was looking for an Ambi CH
Magpul PRO buis - best bang for the buck flip up BUIS on the market in my opinion. Have these on other builds and was very happy with them
Eotech EXPS3 - had laying around. Kinda heavy and don't like the battery life. Likely to be replaced with a trijicon MRO or some other smaller red dot
Surefire M300B light - because...surefire
Centurion Arms 14.5" middy CHF barrel - have had several CA barrels over the years and always liked them. Reliable, accurate. I am a big fan of Centurion Arms and love their stuff
Centurion Arms Gen 2 14" CMR rail - I have always wanted to try one of these and never got one until now. I wanted the previous version because I like their proprietary rail covers
Centurion Arms gas tube and gas block - got it all when I bought the rail, barrel, and BCG
Centurion Arms C4 BCG - Got it with the other parts for a great price when I bought the other stuff. Made to spec and considering the quality of all other CA parts, had no reason to suspect this wouldn't be great as well.
Surefire Warcomp - was interested in trying this new muzzle device and I wanted to try the Warden as well. Appeared to do a good job of deflecting blast downrange so I wanted to give it a shot.

Lower
Mega Billet ambi Lower - got a great price on it years ago and had it laying around. Couldn't think of a better time to use it than now
DD LPK - had this years ago as well. Before BCM and Sionics had their enhanced lower parts kits or I would have got one of those.
Magpul K grip - not bad, I like the grip angle. But I think I will be swapping this out for a BCM grip in the near future
Vltor A5 - like you need to ask
Magpul CTR - lightweight, locks up well. Went this way because of all the stocks I have tried, this is my favorite, along with the UBR. But that would defeat the purpose of being on the lighter side.
Geissele SSA - I have several Geissele triggers in other rifles and I love them. Had this one laying around. My personal favorite is the SD-C though, so this will likely be swapped out and find a home in another lower.
Magpul sling - had it around. Not bad, not my favorite though. Considering getting a VTAC though.

I am open to suggestions for the Sling, and feel free to try to talk me out of the grip, optics, or trigger I am considering. Sorry for the crappy pics, I am no stickman

[Col_Crocs]

Is yours still a cut down or are they out with new 14.5s?

[fallenromeo]

Is yours still a cut down or are they out with new 14.5s?

I bought mine directly from CA as a 14.5, I did not have it cut down.

[Col_Crocs]

Just to clarify... Some years back, CA only had 12.5s and 16 middies. There was a demand for other lengths and they cut down some of their existing inventory to 14.5s, 11.5s and 10.5s. Nothing wrong with those barrels. Just curious if the current ones are still cut downs or they've actually started getting them to length from the factory. You can tell it's a cut down by the shortened rollmark.

[fallenromeo]

Ahhhh, I thought my were asking if I had it cut down. You are 100% correct, CA 14.5 mid is a cutdown from a 16" barrel. The CA logo on the barrel is cut by the muzzle

[Col_Crocs]

Thanks man. I thought they stopped offering other lengths until I saw your post. Had to ask. Big fan of their barrels, myself.

[fallenromeo]

Thanks man. I thought they stopped offering other lengths until I saw your post. Had to ask. Big fan of their barrels, myself.

My pleasure! I was pleasantly surprised when I saw they had 14.5 mids in stock. I was under the assumption that when they started doing the 14.7" Carbines a couple years back, that the 14.5s went the way of the buffalo. Not sure if maybe they dried up temporarily because of a supply chain issue or what, but they seem to have all lengths in stock from what I can tell now on their site.

[Col_Crocs]

Ya, glad to see they're back. We don't hear about them often enough but I really feel they're worth the premium for anyone looking for a good, properly gassed barrel.
Really nice build BTW. Eyeing something similar but shorter -- CMR with a 10.5.

[jpmuscle]

I have a 14.5" I bought 3 years ago. It was a cut down 16". I forgot I had the damn thing. She saw maybe 200 rounds.

Looks like it may get cut down again to 12.9" or 11.5" depending on what I do with it.


I'm probably missing the obvious but what's the demand for a 14.7" carbine length barrel?

[Col_Crocs]

14.7 just allows you to pin a sub-2" MD for a 16.1 OAL. 11.5 middy? What size port do you need to make it run?