A full bag of tricks, my OCD build.

[kwrangln]

This build has been a few months in the making due to my deployment schedule, and waiting on parts. I put the upper together some time ago, and have run about 500 rds of .223 and 500 rds of .22 through it so far while it was sitting on my old lower. Along the way some plans changed, I ditched the ACE ARFX stock for a UBR which I dig. but the basic rifle followed my origional plan pretty well. I just finished the lower, so still waiting to test out all the mods I did to the LPK, but I have no worries. Only piece I'm missing is a Magpul RSA for the front attachment point of my sling. This rifle is a far cry from my first AR which was built on a strict budget.

Enough of that crap, on to the build.

Here's the parts so far.

BCM Mid length chrome lined upper
BCM BCG
BCM Gunfighter charging handle Mod4
Troy TRX Extreme 13" full floater tube
Troy HK style folding front sight
Troy Folding rear sight
Stark grip
Boonie packer Redi-Mag
PWS FSC556 muzzle brake/flash hider


First order of buisness was to take things apart. Lots of folks seem to have trouble removing the taper pins from the front sight block. If you've ever tried it, you know they like being where they are and can be a bit stubborn to remove. For some reason folks think that you need to use the proper size punch to remove them, this is what actually leads to problems. Forget using a 1/8" punch, grab a big ole flat tipped punch to get things started. I used a 5/16" punch. There will be at least a nubbin of the taper pin showing on the small side, smack that sucker with at least a 24oz ballpeen hammer to get it started. Here's the punches I used, big one to start it moving, small one to get it outa there.


And here it is all broken down. Keep in mind, this is all brand new stuff, the upper hasn't even been put on a lower yet. Notice the front sight block, that's a future project.


Before we get to the front sight block though, it's time to true up the upper reciever. This is going to make the barrel mounting surface perfectly flat and true to the inner bore of the upper reciever. The jury is still out on taking the time to do this, but I figure it can't hurt, so why not take the time to do it? Supposedly it will help with accuracy, but I see the main benefit as prolonging the life of your bolt. How so you ask? Well, if the bolt is not running true to the barrel extension, then stress is not being applied evenly to the locking lugs. Since locking lug cracks are one downfall of high round count AR's, everything you can do to make life easier for your bolt is a good thing. Having pressure applied evenly to the barrel mounting flange can't hurt either.

Here's the lapping tool inserted in the reciever and loaded up with lapping compound, I used 800 grit.


The tool is a VERY tight fit in the reciever to index it, a thin lube should be doused in there so there is not damage to the interior of the upper reciever. Slide it in place, lube it up, load the flange with lapping compound, and spin that sucker with your drill of choice using light pressure and medium speed.

Here's a pic part way through. I got a bit carried away and should have stopped earlier to take a pic to show the surface partway through better. As it is, you can see that the silver ring is uneven in its width, there was actually annodizing left from 7 oclock to 1 oclock when this pic was taken, it's just hard to get a good pick of the shading.


Here it is upon completion, notice the shiney ring is even all the way around, the barrel mounting surface is now perfectly flat and true to the bore of the upper reciever.


Next up is fixing that front sight block. Since I'm installing a rifle length floater tube on a 16" barrel, the FSB needs to be cut down to fit under it. So here is the new low profile gas block. Remember this was a standard AR front sight when I started, not bad for only using a 4.5" angle grinder if I do say so myself.



No pics of installing the barrel in the upper, not much to take pics of. Used a little moly grease, torqued it to 40 lbs, then tightened it enough to line up the gas tube. It took a lil bit as I made sure the gas tube was perfectly centered in the 4 leaf clover opening in the upper, but I got it. Next was reinstalling the gas block.

Pins in to make sure it was in the right spot.


Then drive em home, dont be scared, give em a goon thrashing with a punch and ballpeen.

[kwrangln]

Next up was installing the Troy full floater tube. Piece of cake to install. Slide it over the barrel nut, rotate it just a touch to line it up with the reciever rail, and tighten two screws. Overall, I dig the feel of the rail, it's light as all git out, has a nice thin profile, and is grippy. I am a bit dissapointed by a couple things though. First is the top rail is just a fuzz taller than the rail on the reciever.


The second is the stop block that is supposed to index the top rail to the reciever. To get the rail perfectly aligned with the reciever, the stop block is not touching the reciever, I had to back off of it just a touch to get perfect alignment.

Next up was throwing the flip up sights on there, complete nobrainer, just put them in place and tighten. I'm looking forward to trying out the HK style front sight, the theory is the curved sides of the sight will act as a circle in a circle sight picture for close up quick shots.

You can also see the PWS FSC556 muzzle brake. This took a bit to time correctly, it comes with a shim pack with 3 different thicknesses of shims. The large will account for approximatly 180* of rotation, the middle is good for 45* of rotation, and the smallest is about 20* of rotation. Mix and match until the top of the brake is where it needs to be, it takes some trial and error.


Rear sight is standard Troy BUIS. While I was tempted to try out a standard Troy front sight and their new diamond rear sight, I just couldn't make that leap, I'll let others be the guinnea pigs for that one.


Since I don't have a new lower reciever or lower parts kit yet, I threw it on my current lower after installing the Redi-mag and Stark grip just to see how it was going to feel. The lower is a DPMS, with a DPMS lower parts kit, ACE ARFX stock, Phase 5 Tactical extended bolt release, and a bit of trigger polishing by your's truely. Add in the Millet DMS-1 scope with throw lever, and a Bobro mount just for shits and grins.





That's about it for the time being, next episode will be a new lower with trigger work, captured detents, and putting that Redi-mag on a serious diet via a drill press and dremmel tool.

[kwrangln]

Finally time to finish this thing up.

Got a CMMG lower from Pete at evilblackrifles.com, told him I wanted a lower, didn't care what brand, but it had to have the deepest darkest black finish to match my BCM upper, and it had to drop 1st gen P-mags free. He went through his stock, picked me out one and sent it on its way.

First step of any project, lay out all your parts to make sure everything is there. Good thing I did, can you spot what is missing in this pic?


Once again, Pete to the rescue, he was gracious enough to throw in the missing parts free of charge with another order I had placed. Now that's service, sending me free replacement parts for a LPK that I didn't even order from him. No I won't be making the mistake of ordering from someone else again, Pete's the man.

On to the install, but first some mods, starting with a little thread tapping.

First the rear take down detent bore.


Then the bore for the grip screw, have to have threads going all the way through for what I'm doing, few if any lowers that I've heard of are tapped all the way through.



After the lower has been tuned, it's time to start messing with some internal parts.

First up is the hammer.

Before.


After.


Why? Lighter hammer will move faster, an object at rest stays at rest... it takes less force to accelerate. Should work perfectly with the JP lightweight springs I'm using.


With a full weight hammer, the light weight springs may not get it to it's max velocity making for light strikes, hopefully this mod will prevent that, I'll report back after a few range trips.

[kwrangln]

Next up is the trigger, have to smooth that sucker out a bit before even giving it a try. Smoothing the trigger is pretty simple and yielded fantastic results on my other AR, so I have no doubt about the value of taking the time to do it on this one.

Before shot of the sear surface of the trigger.


After.


My tool of choice for this, a ceramic knife sharpening stone that I've had for years. It's a very fine cut and nice and flat, perfect for this.


Final polishing and smoothing job, the rear of the bolt carrier. Why the hell would someone polish the rear of the bolt carrier? Simple, to smooth out any rough edges left from when it was machined so it doesn't chew into the aluminum body of the buffer.

Before shot.


After. I could probably go a bit more on this one, it feels pretty smooth, but still has some machining ridges in it. I need a new sharpening stone since my large one isn't flat anymore (it's seen a bit of use), so I had to use a small stone. I'll touch it up later, but so far it's an improvement.


Here's what we're trying to avoid. This buffer is pretty new, so the groove around the perimiter of it isn't that bad, I've seen much worse. The divots in the center are from a .22 conversion, yes I'll be filing that weld before I use it again.


That's about it for the fine tuning, time to start putting all the pieces together. Breaking up the posts due to the pic limits.

[kwrangln]

First up is shortening the spring for the rear take down pin detent. Yes, those threads I tapped in the reciever will allow for a set screw to be installed capturing the detent spring. Next time I take the stock off, I won't have to worry about losing anything.

Spring next to the set screw to gauge how much to remove.


Some snips make quick work of it. As you can tell from the removed bit of spring I went on the conservative side of things, then test fit to make sure it was the way I wanted it to feel.


Took off another half coil, then some locktite.


A 4-40 x 1/8" setscrew holds it all together.


Stop when it's flush with the rear of the reciever.


I'm not going to rehash installing the rest of the lower parts kit, except for showing how I prefer to install the forward takedown pin detent. Single edge razor blade works every time, haven't launched one yet.


Now for those threads in the grip screw bore, yes there is a reason...

[kwrangln]

A huge thanks to Seabass (12voltguy.com), he hooked me up with some small hardware that I was having a hard time finding locally. When I asked him how much I should send him for the screws he said don't worry about it. Awesome guy, can't thank him enough for his generosity.

Here's the first use of the stuff he sent me.


Run the set screw up the bore for the grip screw. Use some blue locktite on the set screw, you do NOT want the set screw to start moving around while you are shooting and mucking up the works.



Hold the trigger to the rear and cock the hammer so that it is captured by the disconnector. Then advance the set screw.


Then back out the set screw till the hammer falls from the disconnector to the sear.


Then you can install your pistol grip, don't forget the safety detent and spring.


Starting to come together.


Yes, that is a zombie skull mag release button, this is the OCD Bling build, so it had to have a little bling in there.

[kwrangln]

Now for some more goodies going into this build.

First is the Spikes ST-T2 buffer. It's a touch heavier than an H2 buffer, but it's filled with tungsten powder instead of individual weights, supposed to be a smoother recoil impulse sort of like a dead blow hammer, have to wait till after a couple range visits for a report on it.



Next up is one of my favorite AR accessories, an extended bolt release lever. I'm waiting on a box from Phase 5 tactical at the moment, he's sending me some new stuff to try out and review.




That about brings this build to a close, all that's left is some testing to make sure everything runs 100% with any ammo I can find to feed it.

What started out as needing a replacement rear sight for my first AR somehow morphed into building a complete new one, as well as getting a new Troy rear sight for the first one. Funny how that works aint it?

The finished pair.


Just for kicks, here's a shot with not one but two 30 round P-mags equipped with Nordic P-mag extensions which add 18 rounds of capacity. Yup, 96 rounds on the gun, who needs a Beta mag?


Fire away with comments, concerns, thoughts, etc, I'll be glad to talk about the choices I made and why I did what I did.

Range report to follow, I just don't know when, I might very well end up responding to that drill platform that exploded, still on standby for now.

[chizuck]

could you tell me what the set screw in the grip bore is for. I don't mean to seem stupid just new.

thanks

[kwrangln]

could you tell me what the set screw in the grip bore is for. I don't mean to seem stupid just new.

thanks

The set screw in the grip takes out trigger pretravel, so when you squeeze the trigger you aren't taking up as much slack before the shot breaks.

Have to wait on a range trip for final opinions, but in dryfiring, this trigger feels fantastic.

In case anyone asks, I did bang everything around trying to get the hammer to drop unintentionally, with no joy. I was smacking the but stock on the ground hard enough that I could feel the buffer bouncing back and forth in the tube, and the hammer never fell.

[chizuck]

thanks that is kinda what I thought.